childhood (Remove filter)
Cuttings [song version]
Cuttings
Here we go 'round the mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush.
Here we go 'round the mulberry bush,
On a cold and frosty morning morning.
They took a sprig from Hatfeild Hall
And planted it in Wakefield Gaol
A Mulberry bush grew on the spot
Its humble origins forgot
And there female prisoners exercised at night
Beneath the pale Yorkshire...
Thursday 3rd October 2024 12:17 pm
The Mound
The Mound
It started way back when I was a child
One cold November night in sixty-four
Old furniture and windfall from the trees
Piled high into a mound of combustibles
Each year new kindling was added to ashes
That had smudged the verdant back garden lawn
Layer upon layer added to the blackened hill
That was gradually growing towards the sky
One year I lo...
Wednesday 2nd September 2020 2:41 pm
Marketplace
Marketplace
This space is like a ghost town
Trestle tables row on row
Echoing with the hustle bustle
Vendors cries of long ago
I held my mother’s hand
And listened to them shout
‘apples sixpence a pound
Come on get your money out!’
Comics stored in cardboard boxes
Toys stacked high on stands
Gleaming in the Friday sun
Just out of reach of sticky h...
Monday 6th July 2020 12:50 pm
Needles & Thread
Needles & Thread
I remember her sat at an old Singer sewing machine
Turning the handle in the half-light of autumn
Making dresses and skirts for herself
So that precious pennies could be invested in children
She made me a Lone Ranger mask
From remnants of black cloth
She had left from one of her creations
I wore it with pride and a whoop and a holler
When ...
Friday 3rd July 2020 1:59 pm
Magyk
Magyk
I had a book all full of spells
Where childhood magic
Weaved its way
Between the yellowed pages
Where dragon’s breath
Set woodland glades alight
And lost children danced
With the frightened and the fey
The teeth of angry wolves
Chewed at the edges
Whilst chattering little demons
Clawed along your spine
Strange apples fell from wizene...
Friday 8th May 2020 2:40 pm
My Mother's Kitchen
My Mother’s Kitchen
I’m in my mother’s kitchen
It’s a Monday afternoon
The oven’s heated up the air
The buns will be out soon
Everywhere there’s an aroma
Of cinnamon and spice
An apple pie sits on the table
I’m waiting for a slice
A black-leaded coal fire
Does it’s best to dominate
The heat and the smells
That the baking permeates
An old fridge hums...
Tuesday 28th April 2020 2:50 pm
Glam Rock Man
Glam Rock Man
A stack heeled stomp in platform boots
Trowelled make-up and glitter suits
Feather cut hair and tinted roots
It’s Glam Rock, man,
it’s Glam Rock
Teenage Rampage, Ballroom Blitz,
Radio One plays all The Hits
Driving your dad out of his wits
It’s Glam Rock, man,
it’s Glam Rock
Jackie, Smash, Disco Forty Five
What a great time to be alive
...Wednesday 15th April 2020 12:42 pm
Overnight Stay
Overnight Stay
“Time for bed” they said,
In a front room warmed by coal fire licks
Where the red and orange and white flames
Danced patterns on the walls of falling dusk
They push, cajole, entice you to the stairs
And do not notice terror tears welling in your eyes
Fourteen steps up the narrow stairwell
Tracing fingers on a pale wallpaper wall
Festooned with or...
Thursday 2nd April 2020 12:36 pm
heatwave
heatwave
it were cracking’t pavements
the sky were chelsea blue
you were sucking cider
from an ice lolly
cos they said it made yer drunk
and we pretended it did
when yer scored a goal
on’t hay coloured pitch
yer mates were hot ‘n sweaty
and their celebrations
trickled down yer back
and salted yer lips
there were standpipes
at end’er sherwood...
Wednesday 10th April 2019 12:36 pm
Sister Magdalena
Sister Magdalena
alabaster skin
cold to the touch
pinched
bloodless
lips
eyes
the colour of duck eggs
piercing
your
soul
wisps
of taut hair
creeping
from
her scalp
cross on chain
hanging from
scrawny
bird
throat
rosa...
Tuesday 4th September 2018 4:26 pm
Sunset Over Lupset (August 1968)
Sunset Over Lupset (August 1968)
Lupset sunsets smelled of bonfires,
undercut with new mown grass,
wild mint by the kitchen window,
treasures in the strawberry patch.
Father sat with pint of shandy,
The mower cooling in the shade,
the rake stowed by the garden shed,
the kids with sparkling lemonade.
Summer sun dips on the estate
dragging shadows from th...
Friday 11th May 2018 5:13 pm
The Last Laugh
The Last Laugh
You got caught out once,
sitting on the top deck of the bus
and gripping the metal bar
that ran across the top
of the seat in front.
He was bragging to his mates
and, although you couldn’t see his face,
you could see the dirty straw hair
and the muck ingrained in his neck
and you imagined him winking.
He turned round slowly,
looked ...
Monday 8th May 2017 6:45 pm
The Making Of A Worker
The Making Of A Worker.
The lorry tips its rubble
On the road outside our house,
the privet hedge engulfed
in a primordial cloud of dust,
it drives away in chugging glee
having spilled its heavy load
and we stand and watch it go
as the carbon mountain settles.
The sergeant-major father
barks his orders at the troops
and our little hands clasp tight
the...
Tuesday 2nd February 2016 8:01 pm
Once Upon A Time
Once Upon A Time
Pop wagons
rattling and clinking
with their gaudy shades
of potions slopping.
Coal lorries
groaning up the hill
breathing their dragons breath
of carbon dust.
The aged magik
of a ramshackle
cobblers hut
and the clanging of the last.
The shout of
“Rag and Bone”
echoing down
a Monday morning.
Tobacconist
selling chocolate cigars
to little mimics
of the...
Wednesday 6th May 2015 7:09 pm
Drowse
Drowse
When there are no mirrors
I am young again
Sitting in the warming glow
of distant years
The aches and pains
will all be gone tomorrow
The days are long
and never seem to grey.
Parents are in another room
just out of hearing
The T.V has three channels
all black and white
Three meals a day
are sitting on the table
The bonfire smoke
creates the evening dusk.
Another time I...
Tuesday 28th April 2015 7:49 pm
Flamborough Head
the flimsy frame rattles
as a doom laden bellow
pierces the smoky milk
shrieking away unwary
sailors straying close
to Yorkshires crumbling coast
like some creature
lost in torment
we cower
beneath dull yellow light
from sweet smelling
gas lamps
their cog wheels
turned up high
and wicks ablaze
to ward off the dark
a jigsaw unattended
its pieces spilling
c...
Wednesday 2nd April 2014 2:13 pm
Any Winter Saturday In Nineteen Seventy
Any Winter Saturday In Nineteen Seventy
multi-coloured, sweet, cloying battenberg
taking away the bitter taste of defeat
it’s yellow and pink uniformity
In sharp contrast to the soft curves of the settee
putting ones and two’s and crosses
next to the selections on the pools
a dirty yellow stain hangs over the chair
where my father coughs and splutters on his tea
blacks and whites and ...
Sunday 2nd February 2014 7:39 pm
GLAM!!!!!!!!
GLAM!!!!!
a bald old man
in glitter suits
gets vertigo
on platform boots
his cigar smoke
hangs in the air
whilst outraged fathers
simply stare
and comment on
the raging poof
who hangs precariously
from the roof
or unnoticed
passes by
in the background
on the sly
his black mascara
and red nails
his pouting preening
never fails
to s...
Tuesday 19th November 2013 7:51 pm
Recent Comments
Larisa Rzhepishevska on Mother Nature Appears To Be A Saint.
17 minutes ago
Larisa Rzhepishevska on Mad Mad World
25 minutes ago
Larisa Rzhepishevska on Prices continue to rise !!!
30 minutes ago
Martin Elder on The tree part 1
7 hours ago
Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh on Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice *
8 hours ago
Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh on Wokeness
8 hours ago
Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh on Democracy's Last Stand!
13 hours ago
TobaniNataiella on It`s Out of Control (They All want Revenge)
13 hours ago
David RL Moore on Holy triptych
13 hours ago
John Coopey on WOKENESS
14 hours ago