Childhood memories (Remove filter)
Marketplace [Song Version]
Marketplace
This space is like a ghost town
Trestle tables row on row
Echoing with the hustle bustle
Vendors cries of long ago
I hold my mother’s hand
And listen to them shout
‘apples sixpence a pound
Come on get your money out!’
I went back there when I was home
All that was left were wooden frames
And rotting boards of each seller’s plot
The faint le...
Tuesday 1st October 2024 10:34 am
My Step-Mum Has Passed Out Again
My Step-Mum Has Passed out Again.
She is passed out drunk on the settee again.
Another night another boyfriend.
I tried to help her to bed up the crooked stairs.
Don't know why I'm bothering; she doesn't …….. care.
Hearing things that should not be heard by a nine-year-old boy.
She will be in bed all day until this evening where again any man she will be willingly receiving.
...Wednesday 25th September 2024 8:05 pm
Devils Hand
Devil`s Hand.
I have seen what no child should ever see
Welcome into my world, my reality
Gripped tight by the clasp of the devils hold
Having to do whatever and anything I am told
Every night I cry out loud for the angels to come
Somehow, they never hear me and always leave me here on my own
To be forever captured by the devil's son
Please can anybody come and just Ta...
Tuesday 17th September 2024 6:41 pm
Another Bully
Another Bully.
Go on hit me, call me names do what you can, outlook here comes the angry clenched up hand.
You need to understand you cannot hurt me anymore, whatever you do to me I have seen it all before.
Picking on what you perceive to be the weakest children, thinking they are knew round here and there is no one to defend them.
I have never understood by hitting people what y...
Tuesday 17th September 2024 6:31 pm
FOXY
FOXY
_____
You never forget your first
Infatuation.
Mine was the big thing
Decades before
Other honeys
Entered the picture.
Soul Cinema action queen
Did her own stunts,
Did her own Afro,
Wasted no time
Kicking ass on the big screen.
First of her kind.
The baddest one-chick hit squad that ever hit town!
Mine had no is...
Friday 17th May 2024 4:02 pm
The Prefab Garden at St Paul's
We said goodbye to my sister yesterday, a teacher for 34 years at St Paul's C of E Primary School in Manchester. She was a brilliant actor as well as being a great teacher, bringing every story to life. Her classroom, outside the main Victorian school building was simply known as "The Prefab". She also loved her garden and Spring was her favourite time of year. Writing this poem has helped bring s...
Saturday 13th January 2024 2:46 pm
Childhood
25.03.20
A warm wired cage
Flickering with heat
And the promose of a future filled with family
An empty room of an empty man waiting for life
And a question from a little girl,
"Where is all the furniture?"
A backyard and a garden
A family of merry
A birthday party torn asunder by a virus
And a little girl crying in her bed alone
A Christmas filled with trampolines
Box...
Thursday 13th May 2021 10:16 am
Under the Sun , I Was a Good Boy
Under the sun I was a good boy
I never did wrong.
The trees were very giving
As I climbed
The highest branch
Under the sun , I was a good boy
Who never did wrong
The light would stay
Till I was too tired
To kick a ball
But at home, I was bad boy
Who always did wrong.
The dark spelt
Foreboding
Trembling
Till...
The light broke way
Friday 7th May 2021 12:16 pm
My Isle of Wight School Trip, 1987
Tendrils of sight swim
memories from my child mind
vast Graveyards flash past
the coach windows
as I sat alone,
my split-self bristling
against the fabric seats
My school friends chatter
then later they climb
into sleeping bags, safe
I brought my heart out
into the moonlight, breathless
learning how not to wake
others with my grief
whilst you took your half
of my heart
high up int...
Thursday 29th April 2021 1:01 pm
Wild Child
a wild little elf
with wide-eyed wonderment
I was magically alive and frolicked
owner of a child's idyllic home
named Cherrybrook
all by himself,
dad constructed a house
in the late 1950s
from a dilapidated 1800s barn
our spread was situated on
eight acres of untamed sugarbush forests
with old wagon trails crisscrossing the woods
hung with grapevines
dad also made a lake wit...
Monday 29th March 2021 8:24 am
They Did Not Ask
At first, they did not ask,
Because they thought
I could not speak.
I had birthday parties
Just like you, but
Something was missing.
I continued to chant
That I was not an orphan,
But it was no use.
Again, they did not ask,
Because they felt guilty
And it was too late.
I kept switching trains.
I felt half-blind,
Sometimes half-deaf.
I learned to smile
...Wednesday 17th February 2021 12:04 am
CONUNDRUM
CONUNDRUM
As a twiggy little boy of 9,
I was so curious
About the bumblebees hovering
Over blood-red roses, flesh-pink roses,
Bushes filled with pale-yellow honeysuckles
That grew in my Grandmother's yard.
So curious, when I reached out to touch one,
That bumblebee stung me with its
Needlelike tail, leaving behind a mark,
Swollen red, painful,
On the caramel ...
Monday 19th October 2020 5:48 pm
You Could Own An Upright Piano
You Could Own An Upright Piano
You could own an upright piano
The newspaper advert said
And although I can’t play one
The words got messing with my head
We had one when I was a young boy
It stood in the front room, unused
Because no one in our house could play it
So it left all our visitors bemused
Well – actually – I could play ‘Chopsticks’
And my gran...
Wednesday 1st July 2020 2:38 pm
Bluebell Woods
Bluebell Woods
In the enchanted forest, far, far away
Rabbits dress in waistcoats and chat about their day
Fairies live in toadstools, deep in the wooded dell
They sing and dance to the chimes of the quivering bluebell
An Enid Blyton story, a fairy tale or dream
Or closer to the truth, than at first it would seem
Down in Bluebell Woods, which is not so far ...
Thursday 14th May 2020 1:00 pm
Doors
And all the doors looked all the same again
He stopped at number one to sneak a look
Here he heard the clearing of ash and soot
And all the doors looked all the same, again
He stopped, at number four he stood once more
To inhale the smell of Vim on tiled floor
And, all the doors looked all the same, again
He stopped at number nine, to check the time
The cuckoo clo...
Friday 26th April 2019 10:36 am
The Close
Grey bin days
Ash spilling
Sparking
From beneath
Buckled
Loose-fitting metal lids
Carried back- breakingly
To the monstrous wagon
Limping it’s way
Around the close
Like a club-footed relic
Behind the chipped
Leaded glass of number thirteen
A terrible gargoylian face
Pressed up close
Stares out
Mrs Ashall has seen a football fly over her neat ...
Tuesday 23rd January 2018 8:00 pm
The Dresser
From the front at least
A beautiful victorian dresser
From behind
The ugly truth
Assembled from wooden orange crates
The company name stamped
Telling of a former
More humble existence
Two little drawers
One at each side
Gunmetal latch handles
Age worn
From opening and closing
Hold family secrets
Make up
Lipstick stumps
Snaps from Blackpool ...
Sunday 19th November 2017 8:23 pm
Sunday Mass
The strands of us all
lived in a tassled green pouch,
bound by thread and bloodline.
The house that held it
still holds my softest days
in dream sequence;
of them all, slow Sunday afternoons
out back, in the care of hands
that performed miracles -
a table for my dolls to dine,
a wardrobe for their clothes,
a seesaw solid enough
for every one ...
Sunday 11th June 2017 9:16 pm
Hitting the Wrong Note
Hitting the Wrong Note
Rooted next to his upright piano,
close in the tiny room,
I couldn't breathe.
He held one hand
to the small of my back,
the other across my
taut diaphragm:
(I can believe he loved
the music, but he craved
only angels, expected them -
and, by God, he was
going to have them,
even if he clipped
their wings along the way).
...
Wednesday 26th April 2017 10:55 am
My Ninth Birthday
For the people of Aberfan, 50 years on.
October 21 1966. A day I will never forget.
MY NINTH BIRTHDAY
I’m sure it won’t surprise you to learn
I was a proper little show-off.
‘Too clever by half’
said my Victorian grandmother
who lived in the flat downstairs.
‘You spoil him, Muriel.
Children should be seen
and not heard.
Be quiet, John!
When you begin to PAY a littl...
Tuesday 18th October 2016 4:07 pm
Sweaty Little Fingers
Sweaty Little Fingers
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 once I caught a fish alive.
"That's not a fish! It's a tadpole!"
1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a tadpole alive
I loved the little fella and I wanted him to thrive
but he was too small for me so I made him dive
back into the water.
1 little frog hopping around. I bend and lift him from the ground. I wrap him up all safe and s...
Sunday 27th March 2016 4:09 pm
In your memory
I no longer recall the time we spent together,
yet my heart pines for your presence,
I wish I told you how much I love you and miss you.
I no longer can feel the warmth of your hand ruffel my hair,
yet the flashes of our play still warm my heart,
I wish I told you how much I love you and miss you.
I no longer fear crosssing a road on my own,
yet insecurities of daily life trouble me wit...
Sunday 10th January 2016 7:51 am
RAGAMUFFIN
snotful, brimming with adventure
ragamuffin
got down in the ditch
burrowed, knees scratched
contemptible
ignoring social resonsibilities
dining correctly
shaking hands
being precise
instead
grovelling under a footpath
where rain had been like a friend
real, natural
breath dank with small echoes.
Looked back i...
Sunday 18th October 2015 8:40 pm
brahms
When I was younger
Not so very long ago
The best thing I owned was a radio and
A pair of headphones
The ability to block out noise was crucial to my survival
I used to tune the station just out
So that there was always white noise
Static safety
Blocking out the screams
The smashing of plates
The threats
The actions
Classical music was my choice
As the songs w...
Friday 26th June 2015 9:36 am
That Place
In that place
The summers were always hot and the skies completely blue.
And in that place
Where nothing ever hurt me
A lie was never spoken; it was all completely true
In that place
When the morning sun spilled into my room and woke me
Then I’d be up and out and riding my bike
And in that place
The place where I’d be the fastest biker ever
...Wednesday 2nd January 2013 7:11 am
In the End
At night we sealed the light in, to be safe.
There was music, and the sewing machine whirred.
We played on the rug with a painted wooden car,
Like the one Daddy used to drive, when there was petrol.
Now every night the warden was on his bike,
In the pitch black streets, checking the dark houses
In case the careless light was spilling out;
The rain on his rubber...
Tuesday 13th December 2011 8:49 pm
Childhood Recollection
Dusk in Northumberland
I cannot throw away this faulty photograph
wonder if mother peeled off that oval sticker,
the one I remember:
Boots pronouncement of defects
on red eyes, on the ghosts of double exposures,
Now half forgotten
Framed by the stone walls scaling hills
I didn’t know that my great grandfather built or
the skill that made them stan...
Wednesday 26th January 2011 6:18 pm
The Child I Used to Be
Like the child I used to be
In a timeframe, that hadn’t altered.
Monday 19th July 2010 5:52 pm
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