One can truly never be ready

Years of self work and reflection boiling down to a singular moment

One can prepare for war

But to be in war are completely different

The same resides in relationships

For there are infinite realms to refine oneself

As you must always be ready for the unknown

Until that day comes... be prepared to be unprepared

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In every mouthful of food
In every look of love
In every chiding and every making up:
This sometimes bay of tranquillity,
This harbour to which we hope to return,
This shelter from the storms and squalls of life,
This goddess of the trailing moon,
Sails with us
as we traverse the wild seas of experience.

The ultimate nature of the fully enlightened mind
is a union of pure love and empt...

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Heading over to Leeds
on a cloudy grey Autumn day drive
Hope it’s fifth time lucky
we get to see Ricky Astley live

A cancelled Take That gig
and a moment of parental pride
Two pandemic postponements
we took them all in our stride 

We never gave up hope
and now the day is finally here
We are not going to be let down 
of that there’s no fear 

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Once a few million years ago, in thrones were the giants  
Herbivorous, carnivorous with razor sharp teeth
They wore no precious jewels nor clothes of silk
They hunt their fellows for food, oh the roaches seen it all

The world metamorphosed,  puny organisms born
Rid of feathers and  razor sharp teeth- 'harmless' they thought 
Even roaches pitied the new guests 

Among lions and tigers, they surviv...

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Traffic is like

a game of Tetris.

Every vehicle just

a part of a puzzle

trying to fit in.

Moving forward 

they navigate 

through a straight path.

Glitching as they waver.

Red lights sound an omen

and Green just noise.

To keep the game going

one must move on

to the next point 

A sharp sound rings

Signalling the end 

of a game well ...

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We are reduced to WhatsApp now you’ve left

the ting tells me your specks of thought, no touch

I think you may be synaptically challenged, cheat

your triad of expectations; you, me and her!

If you are trying to separate us, send me messages,

unfurl your inner petals of speech so you can serve me

and I’ll dissolve them into cadences of text history;

a nexus of hope deleted and u...

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When heart's happy

And soul at peace

Mind's all cool

Life is at ease

It's fun to live

Create new stories

Write a history

Beautifully true

I'm that present

A gift to myself

Wrapped in love

Romancing My moves

Into a future

Lovely as dew

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War is Lovely

It´s a hell of a war, soldiers running between burning buildings.

It is a great war good for sex feel the strength running through veins

blood oozing out of bullet holes and onto the sand that is the other guy´s

the person called an enemy.

Was this their finest hour defending whatever they have told to defend

Wonderful war brilliantly red, and women dream of jo...

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Tossing stones into shallow pools
Putting on these blue socks & walking away,
but these blues keep stalking down my neck
Dropping from my lash, from cheek stained red
Shame and bitter contempt
Sorrow and chewed Nicorette headaches
Dead breaks of trees waiting to burn,
on a match to turn things sideways
Wide days spent dreaming
Long night spent grieving
Childhood spent teething for truth
...

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Becky returned.

My friends told me not to take her back

but I wanted her too much to back off

so I dropped by her house

on my way back to work.

We're back together again now.

Back in each other's arms.

Back seat at The Roxy.

Back of the net.

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So much to do

If we only had time

To halt the decline;

This means me and you

This issue is shared

Yours and mine.

So much to do

If we only had time

To halt the decline;

This means me and you

This issue is shared

Yours and mine.

So much to do

If we only had time

To halt the decline;

This means me and you

This issue is shared

You...

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Emily Dickinson 

Dried roses and loneliness 

Damp musk, juniper gin

A sweet secret kept well

E. E. Cummings

Modern buildings made of his words 

Falling oak leaf, smoker’s cough

A feeling of getting away with murder

Henry David Thoreau 

Wading boot lifting from the muck

Abandoned shed, rotten wood chopped

A longing for sapiosexual chemistry 

A...

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Pray tell me who here is the victim....

The one who is heard shouting out - .

Or the one who is said to have kicked him

Unable to abide the corrosive uttered doubt?

..........................................................................

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Billy the Kid was an outlaw,

in laws are more subtle in their approach,

so be sure to make checks.

They may have interesting features

like gothic architectural interiors,

but when familiarity takes hold

there is no knowing what may happen. 

The only known cure is isolation

and banishment from the arena.

If none of this is possible

go vigilante, pack six guns

c...

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I'd been married to Beryl for 30 years,

But bad news on her phone Beryl hears !

"Your husband has been involved in a fatal crash !"

To the scene of the accident Beryl did dash.

It was a motorway pile up ,three others had died,

Distraught,Beryl holding my cold hand cried.

It came to her mind the thought of my funeral ahead,

"I don't want to be cremated,I want to be buried ...

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Am I understating? 

The difference between the sky

and the cosmos inside of my head

When the silence is loud,

is there a difference?

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I found it in the loft

In a dusty old chest

It whispered, come closer

Come get some rest

I made it to the bedroom

As slumber took my eyes

The blanket in a corner dark

Stifling long lost cries

I heard them in my dreams

A young girl's shallow wailing

I felt his hands around her throat

Under twilight slowly fading

I awoke to it upon my bed

He...

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Your heart, my piece of clay

he whispers.

A vessel of love and light

that he walks right alongside. 

Dance with me on the waves

he whispers.

Your feet leave the ground to meet the surface of stillness.

There he listens.

Open your hands

he asks so gently.

Your fingers unfurl and your palms lay open to the sun.

Reflecting ripples of light off the water bene...

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I walk in wonderment,

Through these Winter streets,

Stalks of sodium glare.

I will walk forever if needed,

To be with Heather and her hyacinth hair.

If I walk these distances,

Will the past recede?

A year for every yard perhaps,

Until we are forever young,

In a Vampire’s lair.

Bloody kissing Heather and her hyacinth hair.

We are every bird in flight,

W...

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Let us show

Tuesday,26th Oct 2021

Let us show

and grow

with the patience

and seize the chance

the world needs to change

and manage

with the tolerance

and love's stance

let us make it appear

sans fear

that it has no other go

but love has to glow

the world needs healing

a good dealing

regarding humanity

and treatment of one famil...

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Woodsmoke fires, season matted earth, 

hoary silvered tensile webs, drip,

reddened nostrils sting keening north

sated summer loses her grip

kaleidoscopic colours blush then fade

vigour mellows, nights draw short

jams, curds, cheeses and marmalade

carefully bottled by the quart,

for autumn equinox has passed

another year thus closes fast.

*

© Graham Sherwood 10/2019

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Climb the lattice of vices

To look above the parapet,

Towards hope-laced vistas,

Daring to learn the alphabet

Anew, neutralizing the venom

That one tends to catapult

Against their mirrored

Counterpart, murmuring 

Instead, a rare canticle

Of conciliation, 

Not retaliation. 

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The stars I hold as electric beams run through me

Vibrating I'm moving a zillion miles an hour the moons just let on like he knew me
Present
Blow back the kisses the sun has just blew me
Love
from the planets so truly
Recharge put celestial through me
Give
I share out what you have given to me
Times ten it returns right back to me

To enable one to keep it..one must give it away
It's sim...

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The day's drudgery should be done by now
still he shambles. Dimmed Wandering skies
match hard concrete ground as on he shambles.
His feet are aching but his head aches more:
he could just as well be that disintegrating
plastic bag buffetted along, his torturous journey
has no point. The love of his life has left
their love-nest. She just needs some space.
He has heard that phrase before an...

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The middle class are ruled by hate;

They bully and manipulate.

They deal in lies and twist the truth,

Corrupt the innocence of youth

And cheat on friends to keep what’s theirs:

A place above the creaking stairs.

Ambition will keep them ahead

In bank and castle and in bed,

But it is cunning, raw and low,

Which helps their favoured winds to blow

To worlds of ...

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Ascending

Following a time of quiet

Sweet music was heard

Filling the air

So that once heavy hearts

Were lifted again

Ready to rise up, leaving

The old world behind

Turning away from the past

Sailing through the air

Meeting the moon and the stars

To then become part of a new world

For completion

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Stories tell me stories
Lay them on top of me

Pile them high as I sleep
They become memories

Pounded into me 
Oh the bloody ink

I see a life ahead of me 
A life behind outlined

In words and thoughts
That are maybe mine

They follow a line 
Weaved together
 
With the hard work
Of discerning meaning

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in my cupboards

skeletons hang

still mouths strangers to the songs they sang

I take them out

bone-dry and hoar

wan skulls shorn of the locks they wore

pelvic sculptures

sharp as a blade

silent shrines to hectic love they made

bereft of flesh

that lit my fire

no lithe joints but threads of thin wire

hot tears drop on

memories clean,

pick...

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Goodbye, dear friend

As adults we adventured in to the sea

Clumsy

Intimidated

Determined

And having so much fun

No one else was bothered

To learn such a difficult skill

To take the long drive from our town

Just to be in the water for—a day

But you did

And so

Our journey together moved forward

We started in the shallows

And with ti...

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It's going well,

Been running miles and miles 

On this treadmill 

Never getting anywhere 

But I'm sure I'm making progress, 

I'm sure I am.

It's going well, 

I've been drowning 

Out the noise, people ask me questions 

Pertinent questions 

Sometimes, when I hear them,

I will even respond 

Four minutes later. 

It's going well, 

I have no issues wit...

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Holding a fingertip softly
on a battered pencil
this is your last memory of him
counting what stock they had left
before helping them to pack up 
knowing they would return without him

smiling faintly 
as the book stall said 
he was welcome to any book there
and Jenny at the cafe 
who wouldn’t let him go
without promising to come back,

standing there lost in thoughts
until they wer...

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When I look at you all, I don’t see

I don’t see the barriers others may see

Others may see what they want to see

What they want to see, I don’t

I see people for who they are

For who they are, I see them

I see them as the same you see

You see, everyone is equal

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Poem 97 of 230:  COLLECTING THE CARDS

Some folks are plant diehards,
    Others keep foreign coins;
Twitchers collect sightings,
    And golfers their scorecards.

My hobby’s the latter,
    And, in many places,
I’ve managed just one round...
    Scores?  Another matter!

(C) David Franks 2003 - https://walkaboutsverse.blogspot.com

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She could not see the flowers

as an act of kindness,

as a thank you for sharing

some of her time with me

The expensive bouquet

was still there on the counter

Monday morning when she left

The roses, azaleas, and carnations,

even the inanimate vase,

seemed saddened and troubled

at having been seen as an apology

for a crime where no charges

had yet...

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Waiting avidly for unwary prey

Terrifyingly huge, dark and shiny with squat body,

thin sprinter's legs enabling rapid pounces

grabbing his chosen victims.

(he likes them plumpish.)      

Met face to face provoked a shriek,

though he, luckily, was voiceless.

Such an apparition petrifying,

but probably the fright was mutual,

causing him to retreat into his sinister lair

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eyelids and earlids

beauty from color

shapes

scenery

glimmer from a lake

all lost with eyelids closed

birds songs in the forest,

symphony of city car horns

beeping to a crescendo

cooing of a morning dove

breathing of a lover

all lost with ear lids shut

is one better

to lose than the other

one would have to ask Helen Kel...

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10/22/21

Happiness is fleeting. Joy Is solid. Let me open my brown eyes and believe in something better than lies. Don't wanna have to be looken round for a landing when I'm falling. 

Solid is safe and solid is sure, solid is sound, solid should be my ground.

On the surface I am seen but if you move my hair and touch my face you'll find me underneath begging to be found.

I'm just ...

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69/77

Music sounds like heaven,

Discovering the unknown

Limited access

To musical axes,

Bob to help me get right down

Once a week, whispered sounds

Introducing some new act

Embryonic monsters waiting to hatch.

Walk to to the local site

Bunch of mates high as kites

Touring hero’s,to get a glance

Van def Graaf bored my pants

Latest albums taped i...

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Through my bedroom window, this my view.
I see the grand 'Old Lady' all dressed in blue.
A row of houses, side by side, cosy and tight.
Redundant chimney stacks, deflect the light.
Then I move into the new living room of mine.
I hear creaky shutters rise... shops open at 9.
County Road below is already very busy I see.
The 'Garden Cafe' serving their morning tea.
Beneath my window, 5 small...

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Commander Cheval is a crime-solving horse,

He's better than Marlowe or Marple or Morse;

He's wise as an owl, as strong as Achilles,

And when he's off work has an eye for the fillies.

He helps out the coppers when ever he's able

And lives in a top-secret underground stable,

He'll solve any crime in a thoroughbred way

And all for the price of a bundle of hay.

When m...

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You lay in bed at night with thoughts that bring you down

You thought that you were strong, but you were wrong

You relieve the moment when you lost it and went into the dark

You lay there awake wondering if you could have done anything different

Could you have made her stay?

Could you have shown her that you lost your way?

You lay awake because you haven't forgiven yourself

Be...

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Night lingers just before

the Sun smiles

Dark hugging every scar

within my soul

Peacefully patting my innocence

on the head

Like an unsuspecting child

being hushed off to bed

Snickering as I close my eyes

knowing dreams will bring 

no peace of mind

"Don't worry dear one,"

from a crooked smile

"Peace will come with my brother."

As he twirled a lock of my ha...

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I’ve been sitting on the precipice of this

For a while

Unsure how to express my feelings

When I don’t know what I feel

You see 

I’m hysterically nonreactive 

I’m worryingly unworried 

A switch 

From nothing to everything 

Because - like Whitman -

I contain multitudes

Many great thrashing waves

Like creatures 

They slip through nets

Can’t be caught 

They...

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after Philip Larkin

Never again such crowds

shouldering such exultation,

no more the sea lion choir

hauled up on the stands.

The stadia and arenas

silent like grief,

the sun quenched in remembrance 

of a million flowering hands.

And shutters on the High Street

tight against the abyss,

the weekend staff furloughed,

the checkout bleepers schtum.

The h...

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Remember when you used write so much? 
Your words upon paper was like oxygen to your lungs, you couldn't get enough. 
It was all that you wanted, all that you were...
But that made you happy
It made you glow inside 
Where did that light go? 
What made it disappear? 
I saw it fade, I'm watching it now
As painful as it is 
There's nothing to feel 
Just emptiness 
Is this what it's like to...

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They say am on me way up

but way do i feel so down 

lost and confussed, 

they blame my mood on the moon 

i aint no wolve but tonight am singing meself to sleep

does life go fast or am i just slow to catch up 

been too am ocd,

i cant sit still am sure does i name on that too

bit i just want to be free 

why dont people understand me 

why is so hard to believe 

so har...

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April-bloomed skies blushing

Over obsidian complex housing

Banks of analogue souls encased

In the amber of eternal sentience

Reliving lives millennia old, walks

Around crisp September parks

In select suburbs hugging cities

Now submarine ruins immersed

Fathoms deep in future waters.

Aspens tremble after vernal rain

In spruce corporate gardens

Maintained by ti...

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Come Down from the Hill

Come down from the hill and speak to us

you will find us in a queue waiting for a bus

We see you from afar with money to spend

when we don't even have enough to lend

We voted you into power to speak for us

but the whole process seems quite useless

Once in power you enjoy expenses and wealth

often this is obtained through corruption and stealth

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I'm glad that you walked out of that house

That House of Love,

I had believed you would never forsake

Must have felt liberating, leaving me shaken 

Abandoning my warm grip to hold your own

The emotional tides that came as you left were overpowering

Left me stranded and weeping 

Could reach you anytime

Had believed in our love that would stitch us close

Closer than b...

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