Poetry Blog by M.C. Newberry

Those who have been on WOL for a while may recall this poem but it seemed to fit the Saturday Rhymer's theme for today.  I'll let readers draw their own conclusions about the literary inspiration.

I like a handsome hound for sport,

But a pretty pup's my treasure;

The hound will stretch and not be caught,

My pup will stretch with pleasure.

The hound may bare his teeth at me

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Self-satisfied scientists will tell you that since the world began

We've always been accompanied by the life that lives on man.

Unseen and uninvited these companions do their work

Helping to keep us healthy so we need never shirk

From doing what we need to and facing each new day

With our silent little helpers keeping unwanted bugs at bay.

And whilst the use of soap and water ser...

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"Vanity...vanity...all is vanity!"

A statement so questionable,

It's close to profanity.

But then I suppose

We each have a weakness:

One might admire strength

Whilst another loves meekness.

But it saps at our sanity

To say ALL is vanity

Though its author might resent

Accusations of inanity.

So why not amend it

To assuage sensitivities

And be thought as genero...

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There are times when I question this age in which we live

With its ceaseless entreaties to give...give...give...

 When a quiet voice within makes my heart yearn

For eager encouragement to earn...earn...earn!

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Should tempests torment far-off Japan

Until they agree to a whaling ban?

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Fake news...fake religion...fake science - take your pick.  It usually has "money" in there somewhere!

In this world that we all share

We must be sure to be aware

Of our responsibility to mind

For each Earthly thing of any kind..

And we must also recognise

Those who see with other eyes

Whose views are not the same as ours

With values prey to other powers.

...

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I have this nagging notion

That if you're pro-emotion

Then logic is out the door

And sense will follow for sure.

And if you disagree

You plainly do not see

The purpose of the brain...

Is to decide on what's to gain!

It really couldn't be plainer

Simply a no-brainer!

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You are the music in my heart

And with each note I feel a part

Of some eternal symphony

Written just for you and me

You are the melody in my mind

And with its tune I always find

New meaning in this life I live

New ways to love, new ways to give

You are the song I've come to know

Wherever in this world I go

As sweet as any sung by birds

But they will never...

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There is a planning application from a Japanese owned company to build a test/race track for driverless cars on part of the site of the Battle of Bosworth Field.  This is a personal response.

A hearse, a hearse, my kingdom for a hearse!

For carting off our history - and what, pray, could be worse?

Richard Crookback was brought to book at famous Bosworth Field

And the Plantagenets ...

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How many times I seem to have spent

Controlling that ephemeral environment,

A duty placed on those like me

To safely secure frivolity

That seemed to last from morn till night

Till the final clear-up came in sight;

With protective boarding taken down

By those on their return to town

Praying for homes and - inter-alia -

Gardens unsoiled by drug paraphernalia;

While hosp...

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The shock result in TV's top foodie show

Surprised many fans but they weren't to know

That the winner came from a long line of crooks

Whose skills weren't confined to cooking the books!

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Some recent blogs brought the following to mind as many lives benefit from enlightened attitudes..

Homo...lezzie...fairy...queer -

Accuse, abuse and bruise the ear,

And feed on  fear.

Fragile girl and frightened boy

That hate and self-hate would destroy

Just seeking joy.

Younger soul and older friend

Fighting pressure to pretend

And not offend.

Hum...

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The knocks came loud at half-past four,

The wife groaned from her rest.

"You give that waste of space what for,

I loathe the little pest!"

Her hubby squinted at the clock,

With still no sign of dawn;

He'd give that youth a nasty shock,

He'd wish he'd not been born.

They'd suffered since he came to stay

With all his useless kin;

Up all night (he slept all day...

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In Switzerland, strange to say, they don't find it a wrench

That one side of the place speaks Deutsch while the other side speaks French.

The people have long been accepting and it doesn't seem to jar -

That Teutonic tongue that says "I'm boss!" and the laid-back "Oo-la-la".

The centuries have surely played their part to see them get along

In those cantons where commerce is king and...

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The former Labout big-wheel John Denham - now in academia - gave a speech recently about "English

identity" - rather timely when so many others are given so much publicity.  And I wonder how many on

WOL have memories that go back as far as mine?

Do you remember my England?

When people said "How do you do?"

And most of them were folk you knew,

And everybody joined a queue...

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A true story and probably ongoing....

I tned to be forgiving - you could also add forebearing,

About the ants who perchance have chosen my flat for sharing.

They march in line, or scurry about as if with no sense of direction,

Heading aimlessly this way or that under my patient inspection.

But that personal patience ended today when I picked up the telephone

And found to my ...

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Alone into this world I came

And doubtless will I go;

Spare me tales of pain and blame

And tears of grief and woe.

Like a river my life slips past,

Sometimes slow and clear,

And other times it races fast

Like water over a weir.

But when I walk a windswept moor

Or forests and fields of green,

I feel as if I've been before

To places that I've seen.

...

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Apropos the invitation from the land of good sports

For a Saturday poem on the subject of shorts

I'll be brief - avoiding any risk of retort

By going no further - and keeping this short!

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The British sense of humour is famously robust

And that's just as well - truth to tell

Or we might have long since bitten the dust!

Remember the Brit on holiday basking by the sea

With a knotted hanky on his head -

And trousers rolled to the knee?

Or the bowler-hatted business gent parading through the City,

So consumed with commercial intent

Mocked with many a di...

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OK - who knows that today - Wednesday 8th August 2018 - is World Yodel Day?

It's amazing what news can be found online and I thought this was worth noting!

Those famous hills may be alive

If Julie Andrews ain't on the skive,

So, let's celebrate in a personal way

And give voice to World Yodel Day!

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We'd known each other for forty years

Meeting in a local pub,

With so many familiar faces

At times it was like a club.

A Scot who'd emigrated

From Aberdeen to far B.C.

And become an English professor

At a top university.

But still drawn back to Blighty

To rent a central flat

In time for yearly Wimbledon

And evenings of cheerful chat.

He said he'd ...

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Some think it's neat

To be on heat,

But if you're always hot

Perhaps it's not.

Moderation in all things,

(Remember roundabouts and swings?!),

So when experiencing unbridled passion,

It may be pleasing after a fashion - 

But too much of something termed forbidden

Can be forbidding and best kept hidden.

So - when you feel something stirring,

Accompanied by an inner p...

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A re-post, encouraged by this amazing spell of proper summer weather.

Why do I look to autumn

When summer sun is here?

For autumn mist cannot resist

The call to Christmas cheer.

Yet Yuletide's far from over

When fancy finds the spring;

Then how I sigh for sapphire sky

And songbirds on the wing....

When days are beckoning brightly,

With evening...

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If, as you come to the time to depart,

You find yourself alone,

Rest assured by the thought that it marks the start

Of a journey - but not on your own.

The friends and relations of years long past

Will appear to show you the way;

To be there beside you, to lift you and guide you

Away from your brief mortal stay.

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Funny - but not ha-ha - how time slips away,

Dismissing each second, each hour, each day.

All we can do is make sure we play

The game life allows

For as long as we stay.

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The following arose from a "flyer" put through the door recently.

"LOST in the area - a black cat".

Well, that says it all about that!

When it comes to moggy motion

Has anyone a foggy notion

Where just such a cat might be at?!

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Michel Barnier is like night and fog -

Thank heavens for Jacob Rees-Mogg!

Decisive...incisive,

He may be divisive,

But he's a sovereign UK's best watchdog!

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If I like the work of a poet

That's a personal point of view.

It's not a presumption of mine to show it

Means others must admire it too.

In the business world, in geographical terms,

Publishers know where north and south is,

And the every day their work affirms

That they put their cash where their mouth is.

The world of commerce of any sort

Is subject to much t...

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Those in the throes

Of permanent prose

Do not, I find,

Linger long in the mind,

But often get stuck up my nose.

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I was still upset when I woke this morning;

How did Croatia win?

How did they snatch those touches

That saw their goals go in?

England had the chances

To put the game to bed,

And the memory of them dances

Forlornly in my head.

There's no advantage in "fast forward"

If mis-laying or mis-playing the ball;

Golden opportunities

Gone beyond recall.

Was...

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Woe betide if you dare to infringe

On the rights of others to grizzle and whinge;

Woe betide if you criticise

Lines designed to bring tears to the eyes;

Woe betide if you try to make

Out of them what's true or fake;

Woe betide if you seem unkind

When so many seem ready to say they mind;

Woe betide because sooner or later

You might upset a moderator!    

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I see politicians of blue,

Politicians of red,

Forget me and you -

By dogma they're led,

And I say to myself:

What a whiney fool world.

I hear moans of complaint,

Envy and spite,

Demanding...demanding...

 Anything seen as a "right",

And I say to myself:

What a whiney fool world.

I read and I hear

Of strangers on the shore,

Seeking new lives

Bu...

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Suddenly this morning

I was without care

When without warning

We passed on the stair.

Daylight was dawning

And my mind was elsewhere

Busily yawning

When I saw you there.

Now sadness I'm scorning

And I long to share

The heart that's adorning

This love-stricken stare.

So - every morning

I dash down the stair

Hoping the dawning

Will see you ...

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If you take to a London street

And strut with other marching feet

Besieging Parliament to insist

That its occupants keep a tryst 

With the demands from a foreign source

That keep control of this nation's course....

Waving banner and close clenched fist

Aren't you a Fifth Columnist? 

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Marking time should be a crime,

Only Man invents the ways

To remind ourselves of how it goes -

Each ticking off the days!

But when our spirits are in the dock

Of the Court of Vanished Time

We might regret we lived by the clock

And consider our obsession a crime

Which saw us slaves to a merciless master

As remorseless as the tide

That served to see unfulfilled lives go...

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Those on WOL for a while will know of my liking for combining verse/lyric and finding a song in the process.  The attached title is based on the predicament of an unlucky soul who realises by the way 

the loved one's gaze seems preoccupied, attention elsewhere as if "seeing" another, that the relationship is in trouble.  My thanks to Bob Evans for the recording.

MC 

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How to express the excitement, the way the morning feels,

Loading up the car with growing feelings of elation.

The allure of the distant open road waiting for your wheels,

All the exotic names on the map - each unknown destination.

The satisfying clunk of the driver's door, ready for the off;

The key in the ignition your passport to romantic places

The memory of those doubte...

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Have you had any thoughts about driverless cars -

And what progress proposes for our beloved jam-jars?

Tootling down the highway with your hands on the wheel

Is something to treasure...something to FEEL!

Look in the mirror - which would you want banished -

The aggressive boot bumper - or a driver that's VANISHED?

Personally, I'd prefer them both out of sight

So I can enjoy my ...

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How can you be

A real refugee

If you leapfrog a free Europe to get here?

This misuse of the word

Is an abuse of the word

When considering many instances met here.

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Praise the Lord that I'm not a copper

With this present lot parading in power,

And before you think that's improper,

I'm including the opposite shower.

Incessantly interfering

In a once great public service,

With stuff that have crims cheering

While the law-abiding get nervous.

Cut-backs on costs with severity

Because of political failing...

In the dubious n...

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Does assuming the moral high ground...

Projecting humanity and piety

Place that position as beyond profound -

And awkward "asks" from imperfect society?

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There are times when blogs on WOL resemble a procession

Of  those who might be better suited going to confession!

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Loris Karius - the young Liverpool ''keeper

Finished in Kiev a woebegone weeper,

Paying the price for some momentary mistakes

That probably see him suffering the shakes

With PTS flashbacks that won't set him free... 

Memories to haunt him and not let him be.

The abuse online from rude Scouser fans

Should sentence those morons to suffer life bans

But Liverpool supporters are...

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Some who've suffered grief and strife

May see Time as the thief of life,

Every minute of every hour

Proving Time's remorseless power.

But Time's account is the sum of our days

Offering credit in so many ways,

And we owe it to ourselves- and it

To make best use of every bit.

Let 'waste not - want not' be your creed

For Time - the healer and true friend in need.

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Can anyone explain what love is?

Is it merely tarted-up lust?

And valuing it "beyond and above" is

Just disguising when need becomes must.

What is this weird dependency

Of one human being on another,

With hope in eternal ascendancy

As some soul seeks a like-minded "other"?

How many lines of poetry get written

Explaining how love is or ain't?

And how easy it ...

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Seventy five years ago this day saw one of the great morale-boosting events of World War Two - the

famous "Dambusters" raid on the industrial heartland of Nazi Germany.  Some years ago, I was

present in a small upstairs room of a Torbay pub to listen to the talk given by George "Johnny" Johnson,

the bomb-aimer of the Lancaster flown by American pilot Pat MacCarthy to attack the Sorpe Dam.

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Excuse me barely suppressing a groan

At yet another report of a "Me..Me..Me" moan;

And feeling the pangs of compassion fatigue

From these carping "isms" - as if in some league

Of who scores most points from achieving a mention

To move on ahead in the fight for attention.

With each utterance I recall that political gem:

"A period of silence would be very welcome" from them.

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During the night I woke up with some poetry lines in mind,

Then fell asleep again and on waking later, what then did I find?

That I remembered having the words my mind was set upon,

But blow me down, it brassed me off to find that they'd all gone!

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The ego argues

Wisdom discusses.

The first has minuses

The second -  pluses.

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The breath of an early dawn in Spring

Is like a choir eager to sing

To remind us of all that life can bring

The renewal of hopes and dreams that cling

From the early times when life was young

And we found ourselves adrift among

Fellow beings like flotsam flung

On some strange shore to which we clung,

Each with an unspoken fate to face

Engaged in some unspoken r...

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