This here, the idle death march;

One arm holding onto us,

The other dangling off the side of the earth.

In this waiting room where we watch over you.

Observing the strange state of consciousness you're residing in

Your soul loosening grip between each breath,

And every rattle that brings you closer to death.

I try to talk to you but the words aren't coming through,

On this ...

Read and leave comments (0)

I did as well as I could.

Most of the time

I felt I might have done better.

But this well-known feeling,

my constant companion,

has always kept me

on the welcoming edge

of trying to grow

in an inward way.

Maybe with more practice I'll get there.

The journey, as they say,

is the important part.

So, like many I call family,

I'll continue to...

Read and leave comments (0)

(music: "One side of me" - Sebastian Zawadzki)

Do you get sold on others

trying to pitch liberation

in a moment of ecstasy

portrayed

as bliss

when knowing not

what choice is

do you get sold on yourself

trying to pitch serfhood

in a moment of ecstasy

forgotten too soon

when remembering is

what loss can not express

an emptiness

constructing meaning

Read and leave comments (0)

Walking

Keep it light,

keep it bright,

the end in sight

shines warmly.

Your love wraps me

in sunshine,

nothing but beauty abounds

in the land of our ascending dreams. 

Come, take a walk with me.

Loving, Praying, Seeing

Can I love you back

to wholeness?

I tap my heart

& sing you a silent melody.

Can I pray you back to yourself?

You are ...

Read and leave comments (2)

Out loud we write: “Let women speak!”

Out loud we say: “Enough’s enough,

Our mental health’s future is ever so bleak,

It isn’t the cough that’ll carry us off,

And it’s not being fat, ‘cos woke's banned that,

It’s the bloody claptrap in those re-written Puffins,

The truth we must speak: that bloke’s a bloke,

The Emperor’s in the bollocky buff,

He’s bollocky buff, w...

Read and leave comments (0)

It's a while now since she passed away,

And Time has hurried on,

But still I hear her softly say 

"You'll miss me when I'm gone".

With each and every passing year

I sadly think upon

Those quiet words I still hear:

"You'll miss me when I'm gone".

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

Read and leave comments (0)

Butterflies in the sky, roses in the yard, this day the birds fly high, cause you turn another turn to the sun, let’s get some cake and merlot just in case.

You gave me the world and more to see a smile on my face, you don’t put a price, you are satisfied with a hug and an "I love you", the pure act of love, what can I do for you? Just be who you are, and make me proud, you said.

You’re kind...

Read and leave comments (0)

If you look down and see me cry.
Please Mum, don't worry why.
Today is special, it belongs to you.
'Staying strong'...it just won't do.
I will leave you flowers on your plot.
With all the strength that I have got.
And my tears will fall as I walk away.
A strong person...I cannot be today.

Read and leave comments (2)

Why leap out of bed at midnight
to save a line from dissolving before dawn
when the heartland of poetry is oblivion?

Millions of invisible poets
are leaping out of warm beds,
they pass like a cloud's shadow.

Leaping for the distilled mood of a season
not this occasion or that
not expecting to stop a tank.

But how many must be the ways:
unbottling  the moonshine
laid down by a po...

Read and leave comments (2)

We've lost track

For the record stores are closed

Overdosed on porn

Freelegal online

Let's define this SHIT

It's 2000 and 21

And somewhere between age & ages

I think I lost our favorite track

And here's the big deal: 

My thrills become cheaper and cheaper

BUT YOU WILL NEVER COME BACK

Read and leave comments (0)

 
Jan folded the letter
running a finger
along its crease.
 
She looked up-
 
somebody was explaining
functionality:
 
She stared
at the new argument
written on the white board
 
then returned to the letter
 
the fold:
another plane
pressing and creasing
vertices missing
corners peaking...
 
She sighing.
 
His orientation with her
disengaged;
they were now misplaced.
 
...

Read and leave comments (2)

I’ve learnt that it comes and goes in waves.

But what's important is to survive the tide,

Stay on deck and keep on sailing until the end. 

It starts and ends with us, or either of us, 

But it’s the innumerable memories

And unfulfilled dreams that feel betrayed.

Life goes on, and people move on quick.

But honestly, it’s the warm-hearted who stays, 

Like a bonfire ...

Read and leave comments (2)

Follow the signs to the trail, I'll be right there because I know no one showed you the way last time, as we take heavy steps in our merrel boots I am elated for our journey to commence, the air filled with tree bark aroma, and the wind tickles the Devine grass, I am grateful to be in nature, naturally I spend time around 4 walls, climbing this tall mountain I'm in search of resolution, it's time ...

Read and leave comments (0)

The dream-woven scape

effervesces, exhorting

you to make

an elegant escape,

to forsake

the uncompromising chaos

of the quotidian, 

to consecrate

a new meridian, 

cast cornerstones

into a game of dice, 

dance to the resonance

of a renaissance

that will suffer 

no ultimatum 

with the redolence 

of a temporal stratum...

Read and leave comments (0)

Oh if only you loved me the way I loved you

If only you had read those paragraphs I sent you when you didn't text me back 

If only you knew whos blood was on my hands to ensure you stayed safe

I did it for you 

All for you

What does it matter if a few people had to die in order for me to keep you?

Id burn this world and everyone in it to make sure you were mine

I need you

I...

Read and leave comments (0)

A Canopy of Darkness

A canopy of darkness descends over all

an uneasy peace replaces the light of day.

We can barely see, only vague images are grasped

another feeling arrives clothed in concealment.

Other forces are at play as souls begin to fear

we stumble and touch to find our way.

Another darkness more foreboding is present

it instills disquiet and our souls trembl...

Read and leave comments (0)

Poem 215 of 230:  MOODS MORE NICE

As haggling
    Tends to cause
Some wrangling,
    Seeing price
Tends to cause
    Moods more nice.

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

Read and leave comments (0)

as spirit shadows of the past wait children of the sunlight remember - - -but there was this one time.

Forgot the card

Forgot to visit

Forgot to say

just how much

I love you Mum.

Facing Mother's wrath

Spirit wind blows

Icy cold blast

shivering fever strikes

giving me intolerable flu.

Coughing and spluttering

Mum's ghostly voice

whispers in delight

Read and leave comments (2)

A trickle of sweat, runs down your face, and won't allow your emotions to embrace,  you are left bereft, while the sun shines all around you.

Voices of fear, blacken your days, keeping you in those rat-infested alleys of your ways, as your habits usurper the days.

Yourself taught mechanisms, fixate the hate, hurts your mind, and the culture kills off any hope, that I will ever find you.

...

Read and leave comments (2)

No point in crying, you know why we’re here.

Saw the league tables, smelled blood, descended.

You’re on our list; we can wreck your career.

Don’t try to fool us; we’ve been heads, too.

Educating the underclass? A thankless task.

We got out in time, saw which way the wind blew.

Up all night, checking figures? No matter.

We make facts fit, the one thing we’re good at.

Read and leave comments (5)

We called them the seagulls

Graduate Entrants from HQ

Average age twenty two

Incorporated in the corporate loop

They would arrive in a flock

circle around for a while, then swoop

Having never worked at the sharp end

they were nevertheless fully qualified

to peck at everything

highlighting non-compliances

where they could find them

then fly off again

leaving...

Read and leave comments (3)

For me, Galton and Simpson were up there

With Pinter, Stoppard, and all the others.

‘The Reunion Party’ was their peak.

Nineteen sixty-five, when Tony Hancock

Struggled on through his final, fading depths.

Not seen for twenty years, his army mates,

Grown old, have changed, and not for the better.

Oh, disappointment, exasperation!

(‘Oh God, man. You’re not a squirrel; have a...

Read and leave comments (3)

a mixed bag of clouds shape-shift

south-west across a busy sky,

a tumbling slow-motion hand-cranked

feature film backdrop, worn-out

threadbare with hotchpotch

skimpy patches of sailor blue,

they glide lazily over the cityscape,

bored day trippers on a mystery tour

impatient for afternoon tea,

it’s Friday 3pm, and five

skeletal giraffe ‘meccano’ cran...

Read and leave comments (2)

first act was hastily written 

lot of characters quickly forgotten 

technical problems with lighting and sets 

second added complications 

it was not without distractions 

it was dark but held my interest 

in the third they made it all work 

energy and music came together 

unexpected themes and twists

tied up in patterns that made 

the whole experience ...

Read and leave comments (2)

we are one

chained communication

not manacled, locked

in meditative mantra

linked    

submitting to a

deliquescing lexicon

how does my heartbeat replicate

this song? how do my limbs know

how to sing along?

fingers mimic intricate design

i am triangle, ribbonesque

wrapped within a miracle

of sun spots, ink blots, euphoric drops

and k...

Read and leave comments (5)

https://youtu.be/EMo_XMNAL00

I wait, dear friend, in line to collect you

you my rejected painting in this year’s competition

Unselected entry, now out of the race,

But when it’s my turn in the queue to be reacquainted with you,

I am caught between a rock and a very hard place

At the front of the queue is you waiting there

Wrapped up in paper and protective layer

I...

Read and leave comments (1)

I used to be the victim.

The result of an unfair life 

A chip on my shoulder that explained why I never went any further. 

I used to self validate my hardships 

Because no one else could possibly understand. 

A strangers disinterest pulled me further into my reclusiveness. 

I used to know that no one would ever know me. 

That with all these friends of mine no one had ever met ...

Read and leave comments (1)

The quest

The fail

The tried 

The untrue

And Rewind

The heartaches

The abuse

The misuse

………….Misery loves company 

It was all a blur

One day true love ❤️ erased You

Finally.

Read and leave comments (0)

Hither and come in my silver boat earrings and wild hair

Reading Tristan and iseult in the border worlds

The painted little gypsy wagon by these periwinkle seas

Our long journey back to where we came from 

The woodcuts are framed of sirens and alknost

I too am replete with birdsong that will make you forget yourself

Time too will be a map from where we are standing to a dreamed o...

Read and leave comments (3)

It is not the cruelty of children that angers me
But that my hesitation to commit the word to air
And, aye, maybe, to the ear, the heart, was treated as an affliction
By those with the polished shoes and starched aprons;
Sometimes I was not even there when they mocked me but I knew
What they did and ‘never-a-bother-it-was-to-me’.
But it was. I was brought up to be brave but inside I was brui...

Read and leave comments (5)

Read and leave comments (2)

TINDERBOX

Firewalker faith must be required

to hop this white-hot sand

and now all zones are tinged with fear

of sunburn or combustion.

We stretch naked in the dunes

until guards arrive on decency patrol,

ice-cream sellers melt away,

persistent surfers finally desist.

The sea's an aquarium of coke cans

anyway, and plastic in the throats of birds.

Interpid...

Read and leave comments (4)

Kindness touches hearts in a special way,

Like a warm fire on a cold day.

A powerful quality that comes from the heart,

Creating a communal feeling when we all take part.

Being kind strengthens one's satisfaction in life,

Spreads an ointment of calm on turmoil and strife.

Being friendly and considerate,means much more,

A kind word,a smile or even opening a door,

T...

Read and leave comments (6)

I’ve been reading Michael Simpkins’s “Fatty Batter”, charting his love affair with cricket from an early age.  In it he makes the point that sport seems to bring out primeval instincts in otherwise placid men.  The shyest and most mildly mannered of men (and I do here mean “men”) can transmogrify into Mr Hyde by playing and spectating sport.

Take Gunny for example (not his real name but close e...

Read and leave comments (0)

Reminiscing about The Beano

Regretting its demise

I mentioned Dennis the Menace and Walter the Softie.

My mate said he liked his dog G'nasher.

I said "what do you mean G'nasher...it's Gnasher

The G is silent as in gnat"

But he insisted it was G'nasher.

We argued about it but couldn't agree

So I asked a passing boy the name of Dennis the Menace's dog.

He said G'nash...

Read and leave comments (4)

The Retreat

He sits in the same chair

with his drab voice and dead eyes.

Cobwebs grow on him.

He’s there in the morning

when I bring him breakfast.

He’s there in the evening

when I bring him dinner.

......

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

A young man walked along a sea front 

his hair had colour, his face taut 

forearms smoothed brown by the su...

Read and leave comments (2)

I once was so high I thought about what was in the sky 

What was so funny about that 3 year experience was I didn't think about flying till I come down 

My  problem was unmeasurable pain mix with just the right about if delusion 

I was just right for picking and I was sold on addiction. My choice where never good

To be fair this when you could buy pills over the counter 

Oh god I st...

Read and leave comments (0)

The frozen river you can’t see,

It flows through your eyes,

How delicate it may be you won’t feel it,

You shan’t see the feeling it becomes,

Those noises it squeals,

That may turn through strong desires,

You can’t touch in such approach,

From the lightest touch it feels,

The atmosphere it absorbs,

Surrounds the area with great pain ambience,

You see this for...

Read and leave comments (0)

It has occured to me

Several times now

That I've never written 

Of my dad

Somewhere between the moment

He saved me from the chaos

And the moment he stopped being my hero

I seemed to have lost access

To the prerequsites

I need to write about any individual

You see?

My dad is four things

A Dragon, A Wolf, A Eagle, A Elk

A Dragon

Speaks from experie...

Read and leave comments (4)

The month of Ramadan is approaching

Our brain could do with a little coaching

Praying and fasting, pleasing the lord

Doing our best to obtain the maximum reward

Samosas and dates on one plate

The call to prayer is on the wait

Feeding the poor and giving to charity

Having a soul full of peace and purity!

Read and leave comments (2)

Do not forget who I was -

Who I am!

I awoke in the womb

Then moved to a pram!

I learned how to toddle

Then stumble 

Then walk

Then, as my parents found out

I learned how to talk…

And talk!

I laughed in the sunshine 

Made daisy chains too

Does anyone recognise 

This person in you?

In teenage years 

There came the drama

As my parents tried to...

Read and leave comments (5)

midnight disease :: a journey with hypergraphia

life arrived with a birthmark
burnt by the touch of a daemon shaped flame
  leading the artist down a lifelong maze
only guided by the scorching Promethean torch 
along the anointed namesake road
    which delves into & through shadows
to dwell in that ethereal realm
    vaporous as floating smoke from the cigarette tip
blown in a cloud be...

Read and leave comments (1)

Money, money, isn’t funny

in a poor man’s world.

When your boric acid and lint, ‘skint’

You’ve not got any to compare to the many

who have a lot, yea the have’s and have nots

It’s always been this way they say

So deal with it in any which way, but how

Learn to say “how now brown cow”

Start to posh up, sip from your cup

or glass, don’t slurp, that’s crass

Tak...

Read and leave comments (1)

When Faith is bestowed upon one's soul 

Life shall never be the same 

With a name meaning Gift of God

Then one must live up to his name

We walked through holy grounds 

We had a chat a healing chat 

Young spiritual Brother 

Troubled oh brother of mine 

Gentle natured of course knowledge ahead of his time

Archangel first name and middle beloved 

Longing to pro...

Read and leave comments (0)

Dance and literature are two art forms that have captivated the imaginations of artists, writers, and observers alike. From the ancient Greek tragedies to the romantic ballets of the 19th century, the interplay between these two forms of artistic expression has enriched our culture and inspired countless wo...

Read and leave comments (0)

if i could love you in a good way

i would do so; the best i could 

but the sun doesn’t even set at the same time for us 

so i’ll continue to rot in this room 

until my last summer here turns to fall 

i would love you so dearly 

but i love you from afar 

and yet you still find a way to overwhelm my mind 

-

i apologize for the way i treat you

i warn you for the things i...

Read and leave comments (0)

We have put on the costumes of old people

adapted so well to them

squirmed and squeezed into shapes

become disproportionate with waists bulging

shoulders hunched,

worst of all the tight masks that say grin and bear it

and the misery so great we need to share it. 

The young in their fresh skin

do not get a look in, nor would they wish to

except in rare moments of cur...

Read and leave comments (8)

The sea has not been still 

and the fishermen

nearly losing

the nets they cast,

the seaweed entangled 

like sequins sown badly

onto the fish nets 

for a final haul where 

backs bent and burnt  

from an unforgiving sun

will pull frantically to 

catch, if only briefly,

the songs of the silent sea

M Martinez 2022

Read and leave comments (0)

These Jeans Do Well

My grandmother's expression

Shown through her hands

My father's habit

Of fitting in too many plans

My sister’s sass

My brother’s mystery

Scars and strength

Filtered down

From a refugee history

My mother's eyes

And ability to connect

My cousins' approach

To love and live without regret

Our pagan leaves

And celtic vines

Read and leave comments (6)

But hard to confide in bad ones,

(Beauty tells us the jovial story

But often it throws the dark rays

Into our smiling face.)

We know if the flowers

Bloom, they must give sweet fragrance

To the air, but we often forget

Some are odorless. Some flowers which

Bloom beyond our vision are full

Of sweet nectar but we don't care of them.

Read and leave comments (2)