You almost bleed your smiles these days,

Like acting out a tiny death;

Though your pinched faces still resist,

You have to measure every breath.

 

I notice, each time that you cry,

Your tears no longer flow, they spill.

Do those inflicting this foul mess

Consider what they really kill?

 

I see you trying to join in fun,

Whenever someone makes a joke,

But laughte...

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Branches curl their gnarled fingers
Sprouting leaves as thick as hair
I’m older, but drifting alone again
Through the botanic gardens
Roaming the hot houses
I taste that chewable air
Holy loneliness
I hold you dear to me…

The roughness of weathered bark
contrasts the delicacy of fresh stems
Poking from fractured seeds
I feel the world breathe
I’m taking part, I made my peace
I don’t...

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At the recent meeting with the German chancellor, dumb Donny Trump didn't know what D-Day was and is. Perhaps someone will inform him about history outside the USA, especially if the USA once played a decisive role in the victory over Nazi Germany.

One day past eighty years, the beaches breathe The grit of those who stormed the world awake. Steel met the tide; beneath the cliff and heat...

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The ongoing conflicts in Palestine and the Gaza Strip reflect a tragic cycle of violence fuelled by deep-rooted injustices and external political interference. Faith, often exploited and weaponised, becomes a source of division rather than unity, amplifying wounds rather than healing them. Powerful nations backing one side or the other frequently escalate tensions, prolonging suffering and...

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Bury me in the sand

Of my favorite beach

Let the ocean breeze

Carry me to a place

Where I feel at peace

 

I don't know

The exact point

Where things went South

But it was not my intention

To hurt you

I love you

I wish you could see that

 

One day

We will meet again

And we will be happy

And there will be no end

 

My dad asked me

To come hom...

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N.B. I suppose I should make allowances for the Tommy Ten Names of this world, and admit that in the white heat of fascistic fervour, it is possible to confuse hamas with hummus…and gooodness knows what horrors might be inflicted by a beardy, muesli- eating sandal-wearing, Guardian-reading pacifist waving a bread stick around!

The Arabic يُكافِح means to struggle, and حُمُّص means hummus - not ...

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Floating on my back
weightless in the turquoise water
off the shores of Koh Phi Phi
Been living hard, too long
All these years without a break
Now, I watch the crust of duty
gently peeled from damp eyelashes
Invisible hands, unburdening me
O, never let me go…

The water’s warm against my wrists
joyous tears kissing the brine
caught upon the tide of living
gratefully tangled in this un...

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talking is protecting
talking is defining,talking is to protect
the protector is a defining moment
talking is a defining moment
talk a talk is a tooth for a tooth
walk a walk is a nail for a nail
a battle for a tooth is a battle for a nail

talk is talking a tooth
battle is battling a nail
the enemy is a battle of the enemy
the enemy is a battle of a tooth
the protector is the battle o...

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Sandstorm churning in my mind tonight,

driven by the wind of change.

And I know… it’s not that easy.

Drove a million miles and it is all the same,

spinning through the circles of my mind.

And it’s cold… it’s not that easy.

 

But there’s a feeling unlike any other thing I know -

on the deserts of New Mexico,

I see forever but it’s not… not as far as I can see.

Yeah, th...

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There’s a corner of eternity

where I’ve built a simple home.

A place that I can go to

when I want to be alone.

 

A place where winds of

time and space glide gently

through the air.

 

A place each time I leave,

I’m longing,

wishing I were there.

 

We deal with many things in life,

so much that brings us down.

We swim through burdens, paddling,

hop...

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A time will come when we forgive,

Though that time is not yet;

But even when forgiveness comes,

None of us will forget.

 

We won’t forget the agony,

The sadness and the waste;

We won’t forget the insults hurled

With puerile lack of taste.

 

We won’t forget our cities wrecked,

Our soldiers blown to bits;

We won’t forget the fearful nights,

The lethal missile h...

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Seek truth and justice.

Absence of war’s mere pretence!

True peace, not pieces.

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If you sell your soul

Can you ever get it back?

Have you ever felt something

Slipping slowly from your grasp?

When that something lost is so vast

Can you just go on?

When you're in the fight of your life

And loose, can you forgive yourself?

When life's parade passes you by

Do you bother to wave?

Can you keep asking the questions

With answers too hard to face?

Ca...

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Still, as sounds flow through me like ripples,

Her metronome voice glows as she talks, leaving a euphoric feeling.

Melancholy breathing hones focus to my heart beating,

Dissipating my worldly ruminations.

Lucid is how I felt after her rhythmic voice receded,

The ripples still imbued in me lingered.

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I want the days of peace and silence,

The days of kind and good looks.

The days of supportive reliance,

The Days Without War hooks.

 

 

I don't want to see the people's fears,

I don't want to speak about money.

In the world of bloody ideas

You won't hear the word "honey".

 

 

I just want to keep silent.

I don't expect the answer,

I want to live on a ...

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Quick behind a keyboard a screen to protect him

Without a thought my reply did affect him

 

Why are you offended by my opinion he asked 

He knew that I knew his words just a mask

 

Scars from llifetimes of many a broken promise 

Plated served. . in the same breath taken from us 

 

I feel you invisible brother faceless friend Pattern changes now resolving healing on the m...

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At every corner of the world I turn,

I come across the stink and shape of death

And dodge the battered buildings to keep safe.

Yet still I hear the noisy men of war

Talk euphemistically of grades and gain,

Assuring us that all they want is peace.

Sad to relate, that treasured bird has flown;

From this time on, our God is on his own.

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The cooing of the dove grows fierce
Upon hearing that its land is no longer safe
Many have died without a trace
Many hearts have turned to ashes

The wind speaks to the dove,
"Do you not know, there is something that can wound without a cut?"
"Do you not know, there is something that can set hearts ablaze?"
"It has no form, yet it feels sharp.”
"It has no form, yet hearts struck by it fee...

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…and did those boots in World War time,

Stamp around England’s pleasant land:

And were those Blackshirt fascist sods,

From Cable Street off-seen!

 

Never did we countenance a time,

When journalists would see th’ Old Bill!

At dawn, a-knocking on their doors,

For telling truth, with fear instilled!

 

We must not cease Evil to Fight,,

Nor must my pen sleep in my hand...

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This just in
The faulty firing pin — from a fire arm
had become dislodged
effectively,
causing it to misfire

very briefly …
in acceptance of all responsibility
the city-state committee
has sent a representative
that will be answering questions

now… back to you

in other news
we have a sunny forecast

there’s a color shader
right there, on
this heat map
that has an infrared si...

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‘Look at the big picture,’

Cried the man in the suit.

So I took his advice

And ignored the sniper,

The stiff, the nightly raid,

The trivia of grief.

I turned to the summit,

Its polished chandeliers,

Its underarm hygiene,

Its on-tap refreshment,

(‘Still or sparkling, Madam?),

While, in the dregs of war,

The uninvited crouch

And hope the shells will miss.

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On the train this morning
I sat alone, by the window
Where normally there’d be coffee, warm
and all the world’s news in my ear

Instead, I chose dry silence
I chose the undulating wildness
strobing past my view way
I chose high green hills
and glinting mirrored rivers 
I chose lone trees, centuries old
strong against the elements
I chose lambs and sheep
moving in pairs or herds
I cho...

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People are cheaper, things are more expensive,

With a lack of spirituality, men are more offensive.

Ducky lips and selfie, a bare ass,

They forgot the beautiful word “lass”.

 

Passing by the poor people, watching mangy cats

Their faces remind me of dangerous rats.

His dad is a deputy, he studied in the States,

Now he is responsible for others' fates.

 

Someone is fi...

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Don’t shoot!

Stop the violence,

Stop the killing.

Don’t waste your time with gods,

Or clerics on the greasy pole,

Or warped ideology

Which tells you what to think,

Or the cult of the madmen,

The travelling circus,

The usual suspects,

The old men in suits,

The gap –

Between the theory and the practice.

Be yourself;

Lay down your arms,

Reach out your hand...

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There's a phone at my work

And you might think me a berk

But it calls me from a mindful zone

A place I like to visit alone

 

Ear to the top

As sounds fizzle and hop

It is a direct line

To feeling fine

 

I hear wind, birds, hussle and bustle

A universe unexplored in the rustle

Even in short bursts, it quenches my thirst

Distorting my mind toward what's first

...

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Granite grandeur draped in snow,

soft whisper falls, clear water flows.

 

No hand extends to measure time,

no cares ascend, no worries find.

 

For purpose fades into the still,

a tranquil peace here in the chill

 

What part of time and space am I?

So small beneath the endless sky,

 

a spec of dust, a grain of sand…

yet cradled in the Master’s hand.

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A viper slides its way beneath the grass;

The animals of prey are on the prowl.

The innocent and helpless stand no chance

Against the savage tastes of hawk and owl.

 

Upstairs, forbidden lovers take the plunge;

Their beads of sticky sweat adorn the bed.

She’s fast asleep while he boosts up his pack;

Outside waits a procession of the dead.

 

The hunters beat the heavin...

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Each time that I observe the world,

I should spy beauty, peace and love.

Each time I listen, I should hear

The soft song of birds, or at most

The low hum of conversation.

But when I crane my neck,

Look up, down or sideways,

In front or behind me,

Or at some frantic screen,

Or catch imagined exploits,

Mouthed off on a train, or neighbours,

Hyped up in angry gatepos...

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Gaza: a father beats the floor in grief

As he feels his son’s last desperate breath.

It seems indecent to say any more,

As when, that evil Saturday morning,

A Holocaust survivor was cut down

During a crimson-coloured bout of rage.

I tell myself: this cannot be the best

That humankind has to offer. One day,

The innocent will inherit the Earth,

The puffball types in unifor...

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Dawn the rising glint of light

The background whoosh of an electric float 

The cheery clink of bottles 

Returning from where darkness rules

Empty of energy but full of joy

Stop now and find that view

View from a hill I know so well

Then nature’s volume slowly turned up

My breath easing into peace

Many such dawns to open my days

Find the spot, find the view, find the p...

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They weep in Israel;

They weep in Palestine.

They weep in Ukraine.

The whole world should weep.

 

Time drifts by, faster than we think;

Death queues for its daily spoils.

Someone always cleans up afterwards.

The stubbornly alive cling on to love.

Condolences rain down;

Groups huddle, trying to empathise

And multiply excuses,

While a few, buoyed up by the circus ...

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If only we could get along

As neighbours, lovers and as friends;

To learn to sing each other’s songs,

And join hands as the world intends.

 

Some obstacle stands in the way

Of life in harmony and peace;

The children of all nations play,

But come adulthood this will cease.

 

For once toy guns and catapults

Are swapped for a more strong-armed state,

There seems to...

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In the darkest hours,
Of your longest nights,
Someone will come,
In some form,
Definitely,
To push you towards Light,
You will know,
They are here for you,
And eveything,
Will feel Right,
So, when this does happen,
Learn from them,
To be Strong,
And,
Promise yourself,
To Never Let Them Go!

-N

 

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conquer is conquering the mind
conquer is conquering the soul
conquer is conquering the energy
energy conquer energy
energy conquer the mind,body,and soul
a active soul is a active body
a active soul is a active energy

active is actively a body
active is actively a energy
the mind,body,and soul is actively a energy
energy honor energy
peace honor peace
peace conquer peace
peace is a...

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Let the melodious song

of the numerous creatures

that reside here with us along,

in the lands and the skies

guide our light feet.

 

Step forward,

and bathe in the light of the sun.

As she blesses our love

and ignites our skins and soul.

In this bittersweet moment, 

tinged sour by all that could have been,

should have been ours,

let us surrender our hearts

...

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Memory is elastic
and I can’t help but stretch it
thinking back to chasing sunsets
Atop my motorbike in Thailand
enthralled and awed
complete abandon
I never believed 
that moment could be bettered
I never thought
life could be more generous

The air is hot today
frogs skitter on the pond
flowers all in bloom
A cat curled on the deck
the outstretched arms of summertime
Gentle, ease...

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I pay high prices to learn my lessons 

That others manage to grasp in seconds

I always choose others before myself 

Putting them on the very top shelf 

 

I question the lack of a smile on my face 

Is it lost? Did I misplace?

When will I protect my peace?

I want to own it, not lease 

 

I sold my tranquility to the first in line 

Can't grow a backbone, not even a spi...

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It’s only anonymity

Which makes us go to war;

When soldiers meet up face to face

They wonder what it’s for.

 

They talk of friends and relatives,

About whom they all care;

Discuss the beauty of the world,

Which they delight to share.

 

They do not bow to nation states

Or military types,

Whose mission is to keep them down

By tapping on their stripes.

 

T...

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I see the flag
Bright colors
Swaying tall and proud and
Remember that it is smeared
With the blood
Of the hundreds of thousands
Who bought the Freedom
At a heavy cost
Their selfless sacrifice
To make India a sovereign

Is this all what Freedom is about?
Isn't Freedom Subjective
And a lot more than
Stop bowing to a foreign rule?

Freedom to come out
Of the shackles of Bondage
Of P...

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The sky looked weary 

Pale and colourless 

As were we

I laid down my rifle

and thought of what I'd told her

I'd left it in the hollow of her mind

In the place where dreams ascend 

So, when the day came 

they could carry 

all that grief & sorrow away

and feed it to the clouds

for when they felt like crying

And on that day

Laden with the burden of

a thousand...

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in the end everything seemed

to be superfluous,

our whims, our worries,

our everyday words

whirling in between

the four corners of any statutory affairs

 

in the end everything was

so predictable like the unfolding

of any well rehearsed drama

that our words became silent

like the tired desert

after the longest day of the year

 

in the end everything pushed

...

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Looked in the mirror shortly after i rose
Not quite sure i like what i see
A little bit of this, a touch of that and
Maybe i'll start to feel like me
Maybe i'll start to feel a little bit of glee
or maybe that's just me taking a leap
I need to get out from under this heap
I need to free myself before tears start to seep
Then they'll all start to say, girl please!
Get a grip 
or you are b...

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In my entire life,
the worst things to come
upon me,
has come at the,
hands of respectable
people, who call themselves
good.

It has not been,
scary men, in dark shadows.
It has not been,
those people, across the sea.
It has not been,
the conman, stealing my soul.

It has been,
men and their wives,
who own businesses,
and lands,
and courts,
and governments,
and religions,
too...

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Justice is always achieved through violence.

When a nation wants justice they carpet bomb the enemy, and drop nukes on their head.

When a government wants justice, they drag you from your car or home, lock you in a cage, put you before a joke of a court, and lock you in a bigger cage.

When an employer wants justice, they fire you and destroy the lives of you and your children.

Justice ...

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If you cry out loud that you favour peace,

A lot of people look at you and smile

And mark you as naïve and pat your head.

Yet surely peace should be the normal way;

Backers of war should justify their stance,

The four-star pundits, dealing arms of death,

Indoctrinating young (and mostly) men

To jump to commands and to kill each other

And all who block their path. The road t...

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Merseyside poets, singers and musicians are getting together to perform a handful of events inspired by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

 

Organised by Wirral poets Michelle Wright and Barry Woods, the events highlight current conflicts around the world and feature work from their new community anthology ‘Poets for Peace’, which is available to read for free on Facebook.

 

‘We are u...

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In the hammock

 

On days of tomatoes

Cheese and bread

When light breezes

Make the orchard leaves

Chuckle and quiver

With gossip from the mountains

 

When a head of dead wine

Falls in step

With the mood

Rather than being a weight

On your ankle

 

There is time to marvel

At the power of stillness

And the way that calm

Can be the raison d'êtr...

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Merseyside poets, singers and musicians have come together to perform a gig for Peace at the Williamson Art Gallery in Birkenhead.

 

Organised by Wirral poets Michelle Wright and Barry Woods, the event highlighted current conflicts around the world and featured work from their new community anthology ‘Poets for Peace’, which is available to read for free on Facebook.

 

‘We are uni...

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