ageing (Remove filter)
Sashaying to Byzantium
That is no session for old men. The young
With lithe legs and arms stretch like sapling trees
We, flailing generation whose Latin songs
Fail inflamed and arthritic joints to ease
We began at eight, it’s now ten, how long
Before one amongst us succumbs, and dies?
Caught in that sensual music all wrecked
Monuments of years of bad neglect
An agèd man is but a tragic ...
Wednesday 20th November 2024 5:19 pm
How Did It Get So Late So Soon? [song version]
How Did It Get So Late So Soon?
The man who scared the ghosts away,
The woman who healed wounds with a kiss,
I think of them more nowadays
In sad and troubled times like this.
No longer there to hug the pain
From tired bones and broken hearts,
To shield you from the winter rain
That permeates where old age starts.
Another day of fleeting tasks
From rising su...
Tuesday 5th November 2024 2:36 pm
Bungalow Dreaming
I’ve got my eye on a bungalow
now I’m ageing fast and living slow
not much to do, nowhere to go
A remote-controlled garage door
An en-suite on the ground floor
These are the things I’m looking for
My rosy afterglow
I’ve got my eye on a bungalow
Where I can unwind, go with the flow
Touch the roof it’s only low
A resin drive that’s easy to clean
No moss, no weed...
Sunday 28th April 2024 9:49 am
Low Winter Son
I kick away the leaves
uncover the carved stones
And reading your names again
I let those feelings flood in
The two of you rest together
laid deep beneath the earth
There’s a tree that grows above you
and here’s me, treading my own winter
Life was in wealth, awhile
but I’ve been chasing that warmth
for three decades now
I’m tired and my body aches
There will be fireworks tonight
...
Thursday 23rd November 2023 3:23 pm
All Part of the Art of Falling Apart
My gouty foot
shouts doubt at night,
turns up the pain
if I don’t eat right.
Warming comfort
isn’t enough, to amuse
my grumbling
two-bit hoof.
My broken big toe
won’t let go.
Keeps telling me off
for its creaky woes.
It’s my fault
for this sorry state,
should’ve skipped the tackle,
pulled out too late.
My gallbladder
was a c...
Thursday 7th September 2023 2:35 pm
Indiana Jones and the Denial of Decrepitude
Yes I did see the latest Indiana Jones...
Indiana Jones and the never-ending franchise train,
Indiana Jones and the nazis have come back again.
Indiana Jones and the new de-ageing technologies,
Indiana Jones and the glowing commercial opportunities.
Indiana Jones and the implausible car chase scenes,
Indiana Jones and the guns that never do anything.
...
Friday 7th July 2023 9:25 am
The Burden of Sight
I see it in your eyes!
You have fallen into the trap of age
Your eyes are becoming deem
The sparkle I used to admire has faded
You've seen too much
That you have internalized it all
You let it play everytime you close your eyes
You've let the burden of vision
Fast-forward your days
Didn't we say we will stay the same?
You promised that we wouldn't get old
We would always turn misfort...
Thursday 23rd June 2022 10:30 am
Girls In Care
dust on her heart
cob-webbed her soul
weak eyes a toll of the hearts she stole
is she happy
counting the scalps?
yet mostly she scaled molehills, not Alps
easy meat, she
saw me coming
smile so sweet that chic chatter numbing
beauty's cool but
not forever
her sheen soon broke free of its tether
snug in wrinkles
a crown of wigs
her neck's...
Wednesday 20th October 2021 11:00 am
Carrion
aghast, I'd not seen her for ages
a ghost of love my mind engages
but fate had turned cruel pages
beauty once soared from these features
hottest among human creatures
Nefertiti of love's teachers
still young, my experience rare
she'd flown me gently to her lair
the first woman I witnessed bare
two hawks preen on a pyramid
pecking morsels of new killed k...
Friday 1st October 2021 11:24 am
Gaga
I feel just like a chimney pot
that's been hit by lightning,
after overhearing her on the
phone, for it was frightening
having a fling with a woman
doesn't talk like that to me
why she's been off it lately
promised her she'd be free
things are now making sense
no more those tickling toes
saying I needed to be firmer
bedside drawer full of dildos
d...
Saturday 3rd July 2021 11:09 am
How Did It Get So Late So Soon?
How Did It Get So Late So Soon?
The man who scared the ghosts away,
The woman who healed wounds with a kiss,
I think of them more nowadays
In sad and troubled times like this.
No longer there to hug the pain
From tired bones and broken hearts,
To shield you from the winter rain
That permeates where old age starts.
The back garden is over-grown,
The kitchen i...
Tuesday 29th June 2021 2:39 pm
Wraith
Wraith
We all reach that point in life
Where Halloween holds no magic
The ragged clothes and haggard looks
The pale of face and wrinkled mask
The wild unkempt hair of cobwebs
The brittle touch of ancient hand
The racing heartbeat
Pounding out its horror rhythm
The nervous look into dark corners
Death waiting across the grey veil
A cold sweat and night chi...
Friday 6th November 2020 2:08 pm
Aching All Over
Aching All Over
My back aches and my head aches
And my eyes ache in bright light
My arms ache and my hands ache
When I go to bed at night
But when anybody asks me
I just say that ‘I’m alright’
Aching All Over
My ears ache when I listen
To those heavy metal hits
My stomach aches after a curry
My arse aches after the shits
My toes and fingers ache
As ...
Sunday 6th September 2020 5:25 pm
The Last Breath Of Evening
The Last Breath Of Evening
The sky is bruised purple at the last breath of evening
The air stilled from violent storms before the last breath of evening
From the new sunrise and the slow burn of a waking day
Stretching ahead in unknown pleasures to the last breath of evening
A day of honest work and muscles that ache
With the strain of reaching the last breath of e...
Saturday 13th June 2020 2:42 pm
The Loop At The Edge Of Reason
The Loop At The Edge Of Reason
Christmas eve seventy-seven
Snowflakes prickle on exposed skin
I pull the duffle coat tight around my neck
As I weave my weary way up Westgate
Glancing in the Black Horse windows
As the amber light spills out
Onto the crystal streets of Wakefield
Paving them in wuffle-dust
My mind wanders and gears click
As I think of all the H...
Saturday 4th April 2020 3:10 pm
Menopause
The menopause arrives with out warning
Childbearing days over as day is dawning
Hot flushes, tears sheer unease
HRT patches work for me please
Irritable angry one moment, next so sad
Feel good as you wake up Go to bed sad
From teenage years nothing helps you prepare
For the menopause years its not bloody fare
No more pregnancies the body a barren room
The menopause came with no warning to...
Tuesday 21st January 2020 2:51 pm
FOREST STORIES
I last wrote about our five quite some time back,
a time when, for each of them, you and I (and mostly you)
still weighed in and sparred, day on day, in any cause,
on standby should they slip or fall – though close at hand is, perhaps,
the better way to say it, the gentle way to convey a sense of
our being technically unseen, absent, yet able to be found
by one or two, no more th...
Sunday 1st December 2019 1:26 pm
A Belabored Gardening Metaphor
Fertility varies from place to place.
In my hometown, cilantro would take over
The yard if you weren’t careful. Some
People don’t like the smell, but I loved
The fragrant flood of mulch and pollen
Whenever I mowed. (It was the only joy
I found in mowing.) A cilantro haze
Always encircled by volunteer chilis
Standing as spicy sentinels guarding
The perimeter of the lawn with indifference.
Wednesday 15th May 2019 6:58 am
On her mother's step
On her mother’s stone step, she sits and dreams
The same step she cleaned and crossed so often
Her dress, crisp and clean in the sunshine gleams
This backstreet beauty, rare rose in blossom
What whims flicker through her wandering mind
Perchance what prospect does life hold in store
Will her journey be gentle not unkind?
Shall her story be one of less not more?
In...
Wednesday 8th May 2019 10:36 pm
New show looking for venues from June 2019
Looking for venues or assistance with this to perform/tour my new show/performance coming in 2019.. Already have first venue booked for July in Manchester.
'70' A New Decade Of Fun. Is a new performance of spoken word/poetry with comedy which shows that ageing doesn't have to mean that you stop enjoying life and exploring new ideas. That ageing is not for wimps and lets put back humour in ...
Tuesday 11th December 2018 1:10 pm
Still 23
Still 23
I’m 46 next week, but I’m 23 inside,
It’s not just old age denied.
I know my body’s knackered
‘cos daily I’m reminded:
the mirror’s getting scary,
I’m sure my face is puffy.
I used to feel so fit and strong,
stand up in the pub and sing a song,
Give me a coffee, I don’t want a pint,
I’ve no time for fools or picking a fight.
I think I’m pretty cool,
my daughter’s face sa...
Wednesday 6th June 2018 6:56 am
Cooling Towers
Parking the car
out by the cooling towers
breathe the quiet in
lit by the moon
not going anywhere
Thinking on
all those sad miles behind me...
Remember when we were nineteen
kissing in the back seat
tucked into the kerb
lit by our lust
not going anywhere
Thinking on
all those mad miles behind me...
When we were nineteen
everything was a fire
everything was flame
but everyt...
Wednesday 18th October 2017 9:56 am
No one hears
Though they are mine
I have no wisdom
Though they know me
They are deaf
In their mind
I am a man apart
I am all that is left
I am the helix of their birth and death and being
Knowing one, I know all
I am a voice
I seek nothing I seek peace
I hear all and I reflect
I see words and I grieve
I sense pain and I weep
I feel ...
Sunday 24th September 2017 12:40 pm
A Lifetime Of Nights In A Welsh Town
Asleep beneath a sodium tongue,
Damp synthetic fire-licked stone,
Fake stone,
Hand made stone,
Carpeting ugly and commodious city streets,
Voices of young men,
Smoke filled lungs and wide wild eyes,
Sanguine chatter-boxes,
Impatiently idea making,
Dreaming, cold-air-breathing, nights on end without closed eyes,
Hearts open,
Some happy numbness in the fingers and toes,
All may rest ...
Wednesday 6th January 2016 11:56 pm
ANOTHER GREY DAY
My eyesight’s going
My nasal hair is growing
And my hair now looks so grey
My knees are creaking
My elbow joints are squeaking
And my voice won’t work today
As I sit down on the tiles
It’s not good for my piles
And I start to really feel my age today
My back it sometimes aches
My favourite meal is now Corn Flakes
No one cares about what I might have ...
Saturday 11th October 2014 2:04 pm
Between The Hats
I have outgrown both the years
and the clothes
which had my name sewn into them
this doesn’t mean I no longer need help
to figure out who I am
my gloves are no longer twinned
by umbilical wool
but I appreciate you holding my hand
while leading me through this cold weight
I am living in those times
between hats
though if god were bothered to look
h...
Wednesday 16th October 2013 11:00 pm
A Step Towards Summer
A Step Towards Summer
I look into the mirror’s depthless space,
at what is standing in the shadows cast
by light dimming swift with each day amassed
and passing by me, at a startling pace.
I sprint to catch the future in a chase
that takes me on a journey to the past
and makes me wish each moment used will last
until the day they put me in my case.
...
Sunday 26th May 2013 1:22 pm
Each Branch I Snap
Thursday 31st January 2013 7:42 am
poem on my ex and a decade on when we passed 1 another
CONCRETE PIGLET
You don’t see me; you ignore me totally cos I mean nowt to you. ...
Tuesday 19th July 2011 1:16 pm
I Aim
I Aim
I aim to be as true to all
As I have learnt from being small
Tell it like I see it when I'm clear
Zip my mouth if I'm not my dear
Now as time rolls on I find I still
Have a very strong unbending will
None too shy to state my case
Toe to toe, face to face
Tempering the above with concern
For others views where I may learn
More about this world ...
Tuesday 28th July 2009 12:02 pm
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