Cherry Tree.

Me and the dog, the dog and me,

The leaves still cling to the Cherry tree,

Me and the dog we weaken with age,

The Cherry tree writes on a different page.

The dog and the Cherry tree age much the same,

While one gets much stronger the other grows lame,

I for myself am the foil for them both,

Being no longer fruitful and given to sloth.

Were the...

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Crocodile

A Crocodile has many teeth,

While I myself have few,

He’s also blessed with thickened skin,

Of me that’s just not true.

I’m hurt by trivia, hurt by slights,

No value in the pain,

But still and still I feel the bite,

As so called friends complain.

We do our best, we try and try,

But in the end just fail,

When wanting cake with every meal,

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Some Small Whisper

I bumbled through life,

And I had no real aim,

I set myself one goal,

To not play the game.

I never took prisoners,

I counted no score,

I ended with plenty,

And want for no more.

I’ve food and I’ve transport,

Two dogs and a chair,

A home in the country,

A fox needs his lair.

With nothing resplendent,

I dress as I plea...

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TRUST

There’s mellowness in growing older,

Like sweet wine that lustres and glows,

Like a breath of warm air in the winter,

Like the petals that fall from a rose.

So you can’t run and stairs are a problem,

And to ease from your chair causes pain,

But the glory of life sings around you,

And you revel in every refrain.

Twenty-five thousand odd sunsets,

Ju...

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Lent, Lending, Fear and Favour

I am what I am and I’m living,

I do what I want when I can,

I’m here as the son of this nation,

I’m wholly the whole son of man.

I’ll wear what I want, nothing formal,

No tie and no iron in sight,

Odd socks and always with trainers,

And jeans that are really too tight. 

Bright fluffy dice in my windscreen,

An air horn to s...

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My Noble Valentine

Oh Valentine, my Valentine,

Oh where oh where are you,

The children need their breakfast,

And there’s ironing still to do.

The washing up can wait an hour,

But where’s my purple sock,

The kitchen floor won’t clean itself,

You should be taking stock..

I don’t want oven chips again,

Potatoes there to peel,

And all this blessed p...

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New Years Eve

At night I stood in the winter chill in the moonshadow stark and deep,

And looked at the village soft and warm safely and soundly asleep,

The last year has ended its pleasure and pride and gone is the glory and pain,

And the wind that chills my heart and my soul has settled its ice on my brain.

For I wonder what will the new-year bring as we stride through it...

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Resolution

Aware as I am that the swallows have gone,

Something of winter had burdened the sky,

A thorn apple grows in the closed wasted land,

But unlike the swallows it’s fruitless to fly.

This realisation is gentle and kind,

Like the comfort of clothing full fitted and worn,

Like the sweetness of wine that’s full bodied and ripe,

Like the scent of a hay barn wit...

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DONKEYS

The genie is still in his bottle,

The dragon is still in his lair,

The kraken is still safely sleeping,

The basilisk shading his stare.

The New Year is here for the taking,

But who will be holding the power,

Will the statesmen be sharing their secrets?

Will the government rent by the hour.

Of course this New-Year will be different,

The tales tha...

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Bordering On The Ridiculous.

We’re leading up to Christmas,

The season of goodwill,

The bombings and the shootings,

There’s someone there to kill.

The global situation,

The terror is the street.

And half a million refugees,

Are voting with their feet.

You can’t equate our village life,

With Syria or worse,

Our lives must seem like heaven,

And thei...

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A Song For Autumn.

There’s a wildness abounding in Autumn,

Not found in the burgeoning spring,

The colours are richer and rounded,

The wind has a new song to sing.

It’s as though life was seeking redemption,

For the pleasures enjoyed in the past,

Coming home from the longest of journeys,

To some rest and contentment at last.

I suppose life’s reflected by s...

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Wheels

I’m going to write a psycho-list,

A peloton that’s better missed

Those Lycra clad with ugly shapes

Untrained unwanted jackanapes.

At two abreast and six ranks deep,

It’s up the hills they weave and creep.

They think they are the public good,

But only serve to boil the blood.

Of course they have a right to be,

But so again has little me.

They p...

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BEASTS

I know I’ve been the slave of Lust,

It‘s pleasures lifted me on high,

It gave me joys beyond compare,

Denial just the pointless lie.

Of Gluttony I had my fill,

Expense accounts first saw to that,

I raped the menus, drank the wine,

And misted mellow chewed the fat.

And what of Greed, amassing wealth,

Was that so bad to want for more,

So in old ...

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There will be a time for the silence,

To be heard again after the call,

To be heard with the final trumpet,

To be sanctified after the fall.

When the gates of the chantry are opened,

As the souls of the faithful gain grace,

What then will be left but the silence,

Or what should be left in its place.

When the tolling of bells ends the...

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Net Worth.

I used to skip, I used to run,

I sought all pleasures neath the sun,

I walked on water, slew the beast,

Was first and foremost at the feast.

The coins I spent each bore my crown,

I stormed the walls and broke them down,

I raised my army for the fight,

And everything I did was right.

The wine I drank was mellow sweet,

Proud virgins falling at ...

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Robbing Dylan

Come gather round people wherever you roam,

And admit that your hips and your buttocks have grown,

And accept we could lose at least two or three stone

Just think of the money we’re saving,

So we’d better start slimming not stand there and moan,

For the times they are a changing.

Come restaurant critics who prophesy with your pen,

Your mouths are wid...

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Swallows on Whitestone Hills

I was high on the hills over Settle,

The day that the swallows returned,

            The haze on the whitestone shimmered,

            And the sun in the heavens burned.

            The bleating of lambs was a chorus,

            To the new summer song on the air,

             For god was at ease in his glory,

            And I was a s...

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Traffic Lights

At sixteen years I bought myself the finest birthday prize,

I bought a motorcycle and despite my mothers cries,

I set out to the open roads spurred on by youth and zest,

Through summers never ending it was better than the best.

God knows I took my chances though the roads were traffic free,

In nineteen sixty life was rich the world was just for me,

Pet...

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 OFF

Its New Years Day, I’m resolute,

This year I’ll give my greed the boot,

This year I’ll be a better man,

At least I’m thinking that’s the plan.

All worldly pleasure I’ll abjure,

And morally I'll be so pure,

I’ll pay my taxes with a smile,

I’ll even go that extra mile.

Then what-ho neighbour how are you,

And is there something I can do,

In need o...

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Dear Santa,

I want a suit by Hugo Boss,

Mohair with a silken gloss,

A Maserati painted blue,

Perhaps a Jaguar would do.

A Rolex Oyster gold and bright,

With tickets for an opening night,

Underwear by Calvin Klein,

Vintage Brandy, Grand Cru wine.

A Lear Jet with a private strip,

To pamper me on every trip,

Caviar on Melba toast,

Summer on a sun d...

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OPUS

You can’t walk away from all that you are,

No matter how hard you may try,

You can lock away truth in an iron clad box,

But you must not admit to the lie.

Whatever you are and whatever the pain,

What is given is that you are bound,

And in truth we are melodies lost on the wind,

In the torture of discordant sound.

It’s better to face it ...

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Shattered Saturday.

I was shattered before I had started,

With yesterday bearing me down,

Just living my life in a circus,

And cast as the unhappy clown.

Of course we have days to remember,

And days that are better forgot,

There are days that are studies of rapture,

And days that are certainly not.

Yesterday started with promise,

A shini...

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Teddybear

At first I only saw the flowers,

Like rich brocade, a wayside alter,

The bright of nature, sweet in air,

That caused my onward step to falter.

But then my gaze fell to the toys,

The string and tape that held them there,

Festooning all to a crash scarred tree.

And crying out for the world to care.

I did not stop to read the notes,

...

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The Wedding Feast

I held the true cross in my paw,

A trinket then and little more,

My hands and those of Constantine,

A first resistance hold the line.

St Mark’s stone coffin at my feet,

The round from baptism complete,

His hand in Christ’s this hand of mine,

Yet I resist and hold the line.

I read the book, I found it wise,

A thing of tr...

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To walk the streets of Marrakech, the flaming deserts dune,

To see the domes of Istanbul beneath the Asian moon,

The dark creeks of the Amazon where hidden orchids grow,

To cross the green Sargasso where the sailors shouldn’t go.

The pyramids at Giza by the ever-fertile Nile,

To sit beside the Tiber and to contemplate a while,

Then in the stree...

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Can we live in a world full of prophets,

Where the soothsayers smooth us with lies,

When lovers regale us with treasure,

Or beguile us with come to bed eyes.

When the dictionary empties is meanings,

To the voices we hear in our head,

And the fire is the pit of extinction,

When the wise and the worthy are dead.

Can we fly on the wings o...

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When summer mists are burdening the air,

When blossom trees are stunned by hidden flowers,

And childhood bliss can banish every care.

I saw her mind as clearly as my own,

This woman both enigma and my wife,

Where in her joy and passion both atone,

Her clarity and wisdom fill my life.

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GRATITUDE

I suppose I should be grateful,

Be happy and be bright,

Think best of my surroundings,

Rejoicing in the light.

But as I look around me,

I find no cause for glee,

It seems the whole damned universe,

Is bearing down on me.

I can’t avoid the taxman,

My Council is a pain,

And now our whole society,

Is singing that refrain.

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Scraps

Answer me spirit I said to the shade,

Tell me of things that are waiting to be,

What now awaits in the years that will come,

And what from the shadows is following me.

What of this world that my heart holds so dear,

What of my hopes of my dreams and my fears,

Will I have joy that will pleasure my soul,

And will I know pain in the valley of tear...

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A July Evening

As quiet steals upon the hill,

And daily clamours from you fly,

Of gentle twilight seek your fill,

And round you wrap a warm July.

Where in the meadows hares at sport,

Snatch at a sound and then are gone,

When all your troubles come to naught,

As natures many blend to one.

Where streams reflect the evening star,

And hold i...

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Brightening Rings

My seventieth year, and my new second spring,

Life’s closed endless circle and natures bright ring,

Its here I have written and here I have wrought,

Have built up and rendered and salvaged and sought.

I have reached to the age when my late father died,

I’m recalling his passing, the tears that I cried,

The unspoken words that are stream...

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Buttercup

We pluck the blossom from the lawn,

Gold doubloons from an emerald sward,

And in this labour I can see,

No great release and no reward.

This flush of colour bright and strong,

A weed set down in ordered space,

A lock upon the gate of heaven,

A jewel in a common place.

And yet this complex complete form,

Holds all the truth that...

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Dreaming

We live like deer or shy gazelle,

Our resting place the sun filled glade,

But waiting at the forest edge,

The yellowed fang the sharpened blade.

But dream we will as dream we must,

Imaginations feed our mind,

And be they passions lust or love,

They teach our souls to loose and bind.

If we ourselves could mirror god,

What t...

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Commonality 

I had this conversation with the mother of my spouse,

And viewed the garden that she tends to gentrify the house,

We came to the conclusion that we never would agree,

About the brave and various forms that nature gives for free.  

There’s glory in the chaos of the wild and wanton things,

The greenfinch in the hedgerow the buzzing wasp that stin...

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RAUCOUS

Two Crows try to mate in the Churchyard,

Crying raucous of life midst the dead,

Bright flowers thrust up from corruption,

Some sign that the winter has fled.

I like it, this turn of the season,

Some season of hope to renew,

My winters despair has its ending,

The promise life made me comes true.

I suppose I am old, I should know it,

...

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Marching

The year is marching into spring,

As bright soft shoots caress the earth,

The nettles green as catkins burst.

Some gilding for a greater worth.

Go count your money, grasp a coin,

Buy now your place in space and time,

Rise up your monument of stone,

Or walk among the sweet sublime.

Today I saw some ewes with lambs,

The raw wind c...

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It

It comes to wound; it rides the storm,

It turns you round; it points the way,

It folds your mind; it makes you still,

It binds the hours; it holds the day.

It teaches nothing you would learn,

It ends beginnings with a sigh,

It makes the truth a poet's tale,

It sanctifies the oldest lie.

It winds confusion round your soul,

It lifts you up on...

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Dark Knights

Quite worthless yet called victory,

Our battles never won,

Small pavings on a well trod path,

Our moments in the sun.

What conflicts wait the silver knight,

What sword to brave his hand,

What steed for his companionship,

What pride in precious land.

When all is done we come to rest,

Cold graven in our alms,

Our intellec...

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Eyes On A Winter Page

Your eyes are on my winter page,

Each word like breath and fallen flowers,

While I have rhymes for many needs,

And treasures for the passing hours.

And did you read Gerontius,

Where Newman spoke of raging dreams,

Where hands offend to common prayer,

And Cranmer penned the precious reams.

I ponder and I quicken wit,

...

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A New Year ?

I cannot sing the lords song,

Not now in this strange land,

Where laws are just for changing,

And traditions cannot stand.

I grew with certain values,

Those values now so changed,

The sacred brought to nothingness,

Our morals rearranged.

We spare the rod incessantly,

We give the feckless space,

We can’t promote religion,

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December Musings

The Santa was fat and lugubrious, his beard was nylon spun,

He stood beside the grotto gate his duties nearly done,

The light had faded from the sky and dappled it into night,

And icy drops of chilling rain were putting the crowds to flight.

The credit cards had done their worst and the shelves were nearly bare,

The rich had loaded the four b...

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WINTER GIVING

It’s a funny old world,

In the way that it’s turned,

With the truths that we own,

And the lies that we learned

We believed in creation,

That story just fine,

Then along came Charles Darwin,

Just spinning his line?

There’s god in his heaven,

That’s somewhere above,

And we’re showered with mercy

Unparalleled love.

...

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Old Pathways

I went one last time into Venice,

I rode there on mystical dreams,

By the deepest lagoon of my aging,

I was ripping my life at its seams.

It’s not now that things really matter,

What matter I’ll see this no more,

What matter one last crimson sunset,

What matter this hard bolted door.

I looked without envy or malice,

I held n...

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PILGRIMAGE

We need to walk a pilgrims way,

Hard firing for we men of clay,

A palmers cross and scallop shell,

To close and clasp the gates of hell.

Celestial towers beyond each cloud,

The trumpets sounding clear and loud,

The golden footpath leading on,

Bright dreams eternal, all doubts gone.

But pilgrims roads have chasms deep,

Th...

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AUTOCRACY

I liked tobacco far too much,

The coffin nail, the weak mans crutch,

I gave it up I’m pleased to say,

And chased those Passing Clouds away.

Cream cakes were once another vice,

A single one would not suffice,

I guzzled pastries by the score ,

But now would want for not one more.

I tried barbiturates in the day,

They chased the ...

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The Substance of Angels

I have surely walked with angels,

Through my deepest darkest night,

Called to comfort they have held me,

Brought me safely to the light.

At my heels the prince of devils,

Demon herds like screaming swine,

All they promised was my glory,

Sweet contentment, heady wine.

See within this pale reflection,

Mirrored by the blac...

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For My Brothers.

There are days in your life when you need to be still,

No need for excitement you don’t need that thrill,

When the quiet is everything, silence and calm,

No want for disruption, no want for alarm.

There are days in your life when that need is profound,

When your feet are both seeking the sanctified ground,

Where lips full and rounded are ...

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No Coin For The Ferryman

It should have been a flaming June,
But the deluge was never still,
The days were waiting the summer sun,
The hours for a way to kill.

We carried no coin for the ferryman,
As we went to visit her there,
She was lost and we were losing,
In a world that didn't care.

She asked us "am I dying",
We told her a needless lie,
She bade us love e...

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WASP

Do you ever wake up thinking why am I here,

Those seconds of doubt with that tingle of fear,

That realisation that for all that your worth,

You’re simply a drain on this wondrous earth.

A wasp you might say has no purpose at all,

Annoying and stripy, pathetically small,

But always our reasons and rationings fail,

For life like the wasp ha...

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UNCTION

You live your life, you take the blows,
Its deepest wound the blackened bruise
Where sometime roads would trail desire,
And lead down ways we would not choose.

God knows I’ve sought the sheltered glade,
Where summer breezes always blow,
But oft I walked the rock strewn path,
And found that place we should not go.

I find with age some restful cal...

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