I thought tonight 

When my daughter came to me 

And she’d woken up

Crying 

The first thing I said 

Was

It’s ok 

And I hugged her

Not are you ok

Or it will be ok 

or

what's the matter?

Just and simply 

It is ok

And I wonder 

Why we don’t say that 

To grown up children 

Instinctively 

Before 

We say or do

Anything else

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These trees have no source of income
beyond the earth 
and the sun.

They are the living sculptures
of this world:
now they are being felled, felled
as in Binsey, long ago,
by all those busy builders -

builders of roads to nowhere
roads to ruin
despoilers of the shadows, times, places.

'Candelabrum' April 1997.

https://youtu.be/No5FkAmTaJY

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Tom was a taxi driver on his way to pick up a nun,

He"d always wanted to kiss one thought it would be fun.

So he picked her up and looked  her in the eye,

Asked her if she wouldn't mind giving it a try.

She asked him whether he was married or a Catholic.

He said,"No neither,"this did the trick.

He pulled over to the side and embraced her in a snog,

But suddenly he burst i...

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By the Sea

     I have come to dream again,

I have come to hear and sense the waves,

     I am ghosting ‘the free’ again as my naked body rests.

     A canvas dwelling has the salt close -

while a single malt is savoured, finely hoped,

     and here as wild as can be the lore relaxes a hunt,

          says that all will one day ‘still’ be fine.

     I ha...

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They dance in the fields full of light
Their faces shine bright
Swaying to the unheard rhythm only they hear
They stand majestic 
A spectacular sight
They inspire even the most sullen..
You can't help but smile
 in their magic befallen
Even on days that are grey...
They seek their light from each other
Smiling away...
these fields of Sunflower
Helps me aspire, inspire, and transcend...
...

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Big men- - big guns

warriers with steely hearts

NO

Ordinary men

extraordinary men

who carry within their breasts

a pounding fear

a fear for the life of their loved ones

a fear for their land

a fear of their deaths

ordinary men

extraordinary men

they fight

with courage beyond our understanding

we salute them for their bravery

emb...

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I saw the color yellow that day

In the sky

Through the light of the peephole

On your face

You were my yellow

A light that brought warmth to the cold stillness of life

Perhaps that's why I couldn't see it

I was blinded by everything I saw in you

All of the good things

Memories I cherish so much I can’t bear to write in words

That day I last saw you 

You tr...

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In the mirror I saw my own fragility 

Sagging contours weighed heavy by age

An arid landscape of fissures and brushland 

Time had eaten away its lustre 

Leaving a fallow space

The eyes, once sparkled crystal blue

Now faded pale & weary

I studied this ageing fossil 

This reflection of reality 

Scratching at the brushland

Wondering what time had done

with the young m...

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When the heart finds it's food 

And hunger is satiated 

There's just another level achieved 

Of contentment and peace 

When the soul receives it's drink 

And thirst is completely quenched 

That's when the soul rises to another realm 

Of tranquility and serenity 

When the Mind gets it's oxygen 

And Breathe it's fullest 

That's another layer reached 

Of Ent...

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                                                       ~ imPRESSions ~

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Morning walks by the local pond
are always something to behold 
The busy birds chatter away 
so many stories to be told

In a multitude of blended tones 
they sing their songs loud and proud
A choir of tweeting voices 
a cheerful harmonious crowd 

Ducks line up on the waters edge 
set to take their morning paddle 
Sights and sounds from the local pond
so simple, yet quite beautiful 

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she stops in line

stops feeling time

memories triggered

by banal associations

decades crash

into each other

staring at moments

embers of a fire

just like A.I.

it’s all simulation

everything said

scripted autopilot

while the music haunts

her pretty little head

nine, nineteen, or ninety

she can’t feel the difference

it has a weight

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Reykjavik, where Reagan

and Gorbachev almost agreed

to ban all nuclear weapons.

Gorbachev, an old man now,

maintains that this dream 

is humanity’s only hope.

The shelling of civilians

is indiscriminate. The situation

has gone far beyond insults,

invective, rhetoric.

Forty years on

I’ll concede that avuncular

rightwinger Ronnie Reagan,

bete noire of...

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Evil Rulers

How easily the criminally insane seize power

How they inveigle their nefarious way through the

                                              corridors of the corrupt

How they take the richest pickings and deprive

                                               the poor and  weak

How they pocket the wealth of the tax payer and

                                   ...

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Crawl out of your underground well.
Give yourself up, your account to tell.
One day, you'll be trapped and snared.
Stand up now, let your plea be heard.
You'll run out corners in which to hide.
The search for you will go far and wide
Wary of strangers, of whispers and all.
And too afraid to make or receive a call.
A life in hiding, eyes cast to the floor.
That's the kind of 'life' for you...

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One wills

into the American experience

a narrative that we probably

won’t agree with.

My Granddaddy fell asleep

in a patio chair. I was playing

with crickets and cicada husks

by the Oak tree. When I tried

to wake him, he didn’t stir. 

I thought he was dead. 

The mind of a child wills 

into the American experience

a narrative that reality probably

wo...

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The rain sticks to my window

Falling slowly in perfect transparent lines

And I am a perfect example of irony as I stare blankly into oblivion

Thunder is sweet chaos in the background of my melancholy daydream

That my friend is the sound of golden imagery. 

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How do I not drown in my thoughts 

How do I known what's real, when my mind makes no sense

Is this just make believe??

A part of me died once what if I my soul went with it

And am left play around in limbo

Stuck between this world and the next

What if its just all make believe

And the world just keeps trun at ease well my head suffered with no peace

All the bottled up emoti...

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Heaven, full of shooting stars, watched

while we lay close together on a sandy beach.

Wishes made that day may be cast away.

When no longer close, when we're out of reach

We'll surely blame one another.

For the closeness of our smother,

Then we may part.

Bittersweet tears may fall.

From our eyes to the floor

Promises sworn may be torn.

from hearts, and yet o...

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Pierrepoint, solid reliable

sense of humour

essential for the job.

Made light of pulling pints

and the death lever

carried out the law at the blunt end

humane but resolute

a Yorkshireman after all,

after all is said and done

before the drop the fall from grace

when death wears someone else's face. 

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A quiet little man,

Lurking in the corner;

Keeps all his powder dry,

Looks no one in the eye.

A quiet little man,

Is pacing up and down,

Dying to go public

On the next big subject.

A quiet little man,

Projects his tiny voice;

Points his jabbing finger

At victims of his choice.

A quiet little man

Deals from his wily pack.

He smiles upon his f...

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 I wish it wasn't you that hurt me.

Because you were the one

that helped heal the hurt

from the rest. 

But now I must heal from you. 

There's nothing more exciting and terrifying than that. 

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Later that night, interrupting the quiet of our thoughts,
I asked her "What will you do if you outlive me?",
expecting her to say something endearing
like she would miss me terribly…

She replied, with all the love she has found
and would want to hold onto after I’m gone,
"I'll keep your ashes under my bed."

But the real reason I love her
was her reply to my next query
"Aww, that's swe...

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Beguiled by the sundial, 

The simplicity of a presence

Dependable and worthwhile, 

While certain demigods,

Serpentine and embittered by

Their lesser status, 

Gleefully dispense destinies

Divine or demonic, 

With little warning

To the human chaff

Residing on that

Still lower rung, 

As a species that

Struggles so often

To even locate the sun. 

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It's in the air, there's a bonfire nearby
the man who knows how to keep his wife happy
will bring the washing in
for a stone's throw around
animals that can move will move
but incriminating evidence takes longest to burn
and animals must live on their nerves
I know from experience
having cleared a jungle for an envisioned garden
painstakingly hand-copied musical notation 
combusts q...

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ABSENT FATHER

_____________

The father of

Seven children

Is absent from home.

Seven children are

Missing a playmate,

Missing a teacher,

Missing a provider.

He was lured

Away from his

Personal kingdom, beyond

The wildlife sanctuary.

A rifle,

A crossbow

Hastened his subtraction

From the dense 

Equation of life.

Now the royal

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When I’m around you

I feel turned up

Ripened

Safe and so at home

Like an egg

In a nest

Halfway up a mountain.

There’s a lot

To be nervous about

But flying

Is still a possibility.

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I saw people in love and I gagged

I congratulate myself for not throwing up

Though the realization saddened me

It signalled the beginning of an end

I was becoming tolerant to love again

What a tragedy for a heart not yet healed!

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𝘽𝘼𝙉𝘿𝘼 𝙎𝙃𝘼𝙔𝘼𝙍 𝙃𝘼𝙄

Writer

इस फ़कीर का खुदा मालिक🕉️☪️
𝙋𝙊𝙀𝙏𝙍𝙔 📝📝
𝙎𝙃𝘼𝙔𝘼𝙍𝙄🖋️🖋️
𝙎𝘼𝙃𝘼𝘽 𝙅𝘼𝙐𝙉 𝙀𝙇𝙄𝘼🖤

https://www.instagram.com/p/ChsHa6vJDFq/

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Trying to fix a small door...

I have to get away and point at the moon
Bump into strangers
Let go a balloon
...
I have to get away
wander - get lost
recover my bearings
whatever the cost...

I have to return
Looking backwards and smile
Because i'm returning,
for only a while... 😎

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So many warm afternoons
spent in my Grandad’s endless garden
Home to my first and only treehouse
when air-raid siren tests
still filled those Northern streets 

And most magical of all
the rough lumber shed he’d built
A place of wooden-handed tools
you had to carefully maintain with oil
tools that would have been his grandad’s

A place where big furry bees
chose to die with dignity
b...

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The rain has started falling,

The nights are drawing back in.

Dreary uniforms adorn our shops,

A new school year is about to begin.

A bead of sweat runs down my brow,

I wake up early from a troubled sleep.

The beat of that drum is distant now,

But Back to School is still a trauma,

A river which runs so dark and deep.

In nightmares when, by chance I rove,

Around e...

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We've just bought a holiday home near Beverley and it's been our misfortune to have to travel the Goole Bridge on the M62 while it is being (invisibly, it seems) repaired.

I’m looking down upon it

But the waters barely move

The tide has turned

The river’s barely flowing

I’m waiting in a line of cars

I’m 60 feet above

The Ouse is moving quicker

Than I’m going.

There’...

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Whatever happened -  happened no going back.

Ambition management position

Qualifications multiplies opportunity

Night school learner

Concentration desperate determination

Applying after passing

Behind eager graduates

Job interview success

Could never forgive

He can't remember

Inner self can.

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There is nothing left to say

No gentle words to whisper

At the end of the long day

Silence is a blessing

A time for me to wrap myself

In loneliness

And find a place to pray

I will not beg forgiveness

My prayer will be for you

I pray that you find happiness

In everything you do

Time seems to have absorbed us

Who we were has disappeared

Leaving o...

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my shadow

my shadow is annoying

follows me everywhere I go

that is if the sun is shining

late evening my shadow gets elongated

and makes me look thin

at noon, my shadow becomes portly

the only shadow that delights me

is when I see your shadow enter my room

and float across my bed until the sun goes down.

I hold it until morning

...

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On Man

Like tiny ants we scurry

Between skyscrapers of grass,

Peeping about - a human worker class.

Watching ourselves surpassing all limits,

Creators of structures, cultures, unimaginable wonders.

Finding God thriving within us.

Do we think the ant knows of it’s impending mortality?

Knows it’s destined to a life of sheer ephemerality?

Or knows it’s intricate c...

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Non violent teachings
To get in touch with oneself
Higher consciousness 

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I wish I could hate you,

But I can't.

I wish I could forget you,

But I can't.

If I have a choice between love and death,

I would have chosen death for sure.

But I can't.

Love is so stupid,

That it hurts

Making me so frustrated,

That it hurts

Amplifying the feeling of loneliness,

That it hurts

Can't even express all this in your face

It hurts.

...

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Dumpster diving,

Seagulls beck and calling,

Not the heavy whistle once blown,

The crowds in eyes,

Feeling free,

The empty shadow of my life,

Betrayed not forgotten,

The bestowed upon the rocky thing,

Don't hold your breath,

In dust or daisey,

For the light is nor not thee.

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So I've thought out this letter for so long as the times have changed my words have too everything changes but my mind this windowless prison permanent guard oh shadowed screw

Understand ..This was carefully planned 

I  did consider all options fooling myself..knowing other options weren't an option 

Constantly fighting and am tired I'm  locked away double pad locked and it's co...

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The audio file in this post is of SAMPLES 1-7 in my profile-apologies for repeats cockup.

This  below, was my first and only attempt (so far) at a Sestina, from about ten years ago?

I think it reflects:

1. the trepidation I felt at the thought of one of my 3 months-long walking trips and

2. the effort expended in the journey of trying to write this bloody thing!

PILGRIM P...

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Time after Time

The mornings waking up to not a single dime 

Time after time

Your face is lingering on my mind

Time after time

Is this you whispers I hear on my rhymes 

Time after time

The glasses are emptied of all the wine

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A Dream Come True

I loved writing

I really did

I guess I’ve stayed somewhat creative

And driven since being a kid

As an adult I took a cross road

I wanted to be a writer

But the field of journalism seemed to be faced with

Dicey ethics and uncertainty

A career of nursing seemed brighter

And then I became a:

Nurse— writer

Surfer— fighter

I realis...

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Calm me as the breeze

Calms my heart before it seizes

Wait for my steps

To catch up with  your dance

That drifts as violins

On silken moonbeams

Caressing sands of time

Calm as the seas

Reflecting all

On earths mirror

Deceiving the turmoil beneath

Undercurrents that tear at the mud

Revealing 

Ancient shipwrecks of emotion.

Hauled to the surface fo...

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Humble humidity 

fills the air

as a song drifts in

from

your

neighbor’s

garden

Crickets

create

a cadence

for the breeze

to flirt with

Spanish moss 

and oak leaves 

A tiny spider 

tickles

your skin

as your lover 

across the lawn

shoots you

a wink

A crossbow

rests

in her hand

and you

hear familiar

thund...

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When you are broken,

you shine from inside.

You realize it was and is all you,

and your potential.

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When he’s tired

Freaked out

Anxious

My dog Tito steps into his crate, draped in green and gold fabric

To look less like a cage, or a prison.

He stretches, turns around in a perfect circle,

Sighing in comfort

In safety

A sigh of a protected soul,

Dozing off on a velvety black cushion that he himself chose

When he sat on it at the pet store.

A year ago, Ti...

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School started yesterday another year to watch
children entering the schoolyard on a journey
to new worlds, new friends, new knowledge,
on the path to the future to adulthood.

Blessings to the children whatever their progress,
talents, acquired skills.

The age-old progress from infancy to adulthood
is poignant with memories of the road followed
I remember bad events easily, etched deep...

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Silence after midnight

Who’s lurking in the dark

The wind is blowing in the trees

As I’m walking through the park

The gasping heavy breathing

My heart is beating fast

Lost in my surroundings

Reflecting on the past

Am I being followed

Why am I here alone

Is it all just in my head

Is it me that’s making sound

I’m sure I heard faint footsteps

I quicken up my pac...

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