Poetry Blog by M.C. Newberry

A refugee is a migrant

But a migrant is not necessarily a refugee;

Vigilance seems relevant

And correct use of words important to see.

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Is it goodbye to the Conservative Party?

Could it be that its day is done?

What used to be hale and hearty....

Going down like the late setting sun.

For too long it lost its direction

And lost trust it couldn't afford,

With no mandate and much genuflexion

It sent Parliament's power abroad.

Ever since it has paid for that action

And the trust is not yet regained...

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Life is a gratuity

An annual annuity

Not designed for perpetuity;

There's no incongruity

So avoid any vacuity...

Employ some acuity

And relish its fortuity! 

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Just read an online report of a teen sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for participating in street protests 

when he was a pre-teen.  Apparently Islamic Sharia Law allows that sort of thing there.  What price 

progress in the sandpits of the world?! 

If you want to get ahead

Don't go to to Saudi;

You'd probably lose it

If you were seen as rowdy

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When I read of all this travel

My patience soon starts to unravel;

People going here and there

(How do they come up with the fare?)

Taking with them their personal woe

That accompanies them wherever they go.

What is the cause of this endless procession

Of people transported by some obsession

To head to somewhere else beyond

The place they know and have a bond

Of famil...

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Seventy five years ago today, the Free World held its breath

While the forces of liberation headed into the jaws of death.

Many lost their lives that day, friends and strangers alike,

But what they achieved saw the fall of the "thousand year" Reich;

And written into history, what was done will always be told,

Never to fade in memory and never to grow old.

(6th June 2019)

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Phobia is just a fancy word for an often well-founded fear.

Arachnophobia comes to mind - self-protection very clear

But when phobia's applied to religion let's refer to its defenders

Mindful that it can be used to deflect from some agendas.

The latest demands we proscribe behaviour that questions a belief

That resents and resists in combative style and offers no relief

To the co...

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With another Day in mind

Those remaining said a tearful farewell to Doris;

And moving on along life's highway,

Remainers would bid a cheerful 'go to hell' to Boris!

(But Donald Trump has had his say

And would welcome BJ to the US of A)

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I blinked at the sight of her goodbye tears

As she turned her back on the watching eyes

And I readily recalled the dismissive sneers

Employed for another audience during her rise;

A great public service that questioned austerity

Fearful of the cost to what had to be done

Disdainfully dismissed with arrogant asperity;

No tears then...when she thought she had won;

But kept in...

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So - at last we've reached the day

When we know May is on her way;

She might complain of a poisoned chalice

But what chance of sympathy at the Palace -

Playing politics with the public fate

Of a much respected Head of State?

Repeatedly trotting to and fro

Doing her best to make a show

Of getting the EU to agree

To what they'd never intend to be...

The loss of UK membe...

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(Noting missing comments from blogs)

Well now, what is there to say

About observations that have gone away?

Comments on a blog to add to the content

Disappear from sight - whatever that act meant!

As if a magic wand has waved in rejection

Of what is remarked via some censored selection.

Abracadabra - vanished from view,

It wasn't by me...

So - was it by you?

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Lordy - how I resent religionists -

Brainwashed to believe

From kiddies with no understanding

To adults practising to deceive.;

They even murder for myth and stories!

From centuries past to present day,

With made-up stuff and imagined glories.

Their Once Upon A Time holds sway -

And religionists still kill - and pray!

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Hour by hour my eyes become blearier

At all the hyperbole and hysteria;

Frantic forecasts of harm

Arousing endless alarm

Sees me wishing to kick some posterior!

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So now we all know the royal baby's name,

But looking ahead I can anticipate blame

From the recipient of the moniker that's been selected

When he's that bit older and cruelly affected

By inheriting the hair loss of his uncle and dad

And jibes from his chums (and enemies) make him mad.

What hapless young man would relish being called

What seems very likely:  Archie the Bald!

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Day by day I grow wearier

Of hyperbole and hysteria,

Promoted in a media

That seems needier and greedier.

Every aggravation and alarm

That promises us harm

Is promoted with force

For our conviction of course.

Tell something often enough

And it becomes very tough

To know what is fact

Upon which we can act.

Real or rumour?

Each requires humour

To avoid going...

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I grew as a boy in an England still in sight

Of days when it could readily boast of its might,

But brought low in a desperate fight to be free

Bankrupt and in debt to our friends across the sea.

Nonetheless, the baby-boomers, as they became known

Took up the gauntlet that post-war world had thrown,

Rationing and the rest were accepted and endured

And slowly the disease of...

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We live with sickness despite moving on

Beyond the ignorance our ancestors looked upon

And accepted as being a part of the life

They lived - praying that they might evade the knife.

But even today with human knowledge increasing

By the hour...by the day - via research unceasing,

It makes me wonder if illness is like a sin

Caused by our folly - from without and within.

...

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How I loathe the fake familiarity

That infests the modern media,

The habit of using diminutives....

Appalling applications of acedia.

Next time a senior police officer is seen

Being interviewed about whatever,.....

Check his first name on the TV screen

It's a fair bet that it's never

The name that he was given at birth

But a baby name excursion -

As if they ...

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I am today's protester

Complying with the latest plan;

I use a spray to make my day

Spreading graffiti with aerosol can

And when I can't do it in their halls

I console myself with stuff on walls.

I block the free passage of the road

So workers can't get by

And push the police to "overload"

So that they barely try

To enforce the laws that have been made

To keep...

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The Remainer said to the Leaver:

"Why do you deal in lies?"

The Leaver said to the Remainer:

"It may come as a surprise - 

But as long as we stay in the EU

We're bound to pay what they say is due."

The Remainer said to the Leaver

"Why would we dismantle what's been done...

Travelling easy - so much fun!"

The Leaver said to the Remainer:

"And what of trouble crossing b...

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I'm struggling with this conundrum

As Parliament flexes its muscles:

How MPs swear allegiance to The Queen

Then bend the knee to Brussels?

Just how do they see our Sovereign's role

With Her Majesty subjected to foreign control?  

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I guess we can all recall the anxiety

Of being young and the need to "depend",

When each day could be a misery -

Like being thrown in life's deep end.

When lesson breaks meant a playground

Where bullies glowered and lurked.....

School toilets where you didn't hang around

If your self-preservation worked.

It could seem as if threat was everywhere

(The teachers r...

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Is it goodbye to the Tories in Parliament...

Are we seeing the end of their day

When the behaviour being witnessed by voters

Seems to signal being wlling to betray?

Is the Conservative and Unionist Party over...

Has December come with May?

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Many who grew up with the "EU" seem unaware of how it has become established - hence this little essay

of enlightenment to remind them that convenience and ease of whatever sort has its price..

Advancing years bring the benefit of a long memory and the current parliamentary farce over Brexit brings 

memories of the Referendum Party and its determined opposition to the growing (and increas...

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Peeping from beneath the tree,

The lemon primrose spoke to me.

Winter's done, I heard it say,

Warmer days are on the way.

Mother Nature waits on me

(The "First Rose" is my name you see) 

While other flowers stay in bed

I welcome spring and show my head.

Then, with the golden daffodil,

I gild the countryside until

In turn, the other blooms appear,

Assured ...

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Why would the English consider playing the fool

and bend the knee to Brussels' "lords of misrule"  -

whose distant orders and decisions come from those

they can never elect - let alone ever depose?

Why would the English, with their freedom-framed history,

Vote for rule from abroad - THAT is the mystery!

But I take the position (and I'm not being skittish)

that the answer is in...

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Do you become desperate to find something to write about...

Over-anxious that your whisper becomes a shout

That's heeded by those of the passing age

And joins deep thoughts placed upon the page?

Do you take up the pen or press keyboard key

For producing stuff the world will see,

Never minding what you actually write about

As long as you can get it out?

Is the need within mo...

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There's a saying about trouble

That leaves me somewhat troubled:

'A trouble shared is a trouble halved';

Oh no, it's not - it's doubled!

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Adopting an agnostic avian attitude towards the flight of religion,

Islam appears like a hawk, Christianity - a tame pigeon.

It's for sure there'd be hands raised in something like hysteria

At any suggestion of building churches in distant Syria,

Whilst there's no doubt there also exists an excluding ban

On any subject similar in the ayatollahs' Iran;

And there's no sign whatever...

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Better to live in hope

And die with a chuckle

Than live in despair

And silently buckle.

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What is this this life,

So full of care,

If love we find -

And do not share?

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It's Tommy this, an' Tommy that..,.

An' Tommy in harm's way;

You may know the score

When sent into war

But politicians know how to betray.

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There are some who say it's more than rumour

That women have no sense of humour,

But consider just how often when

It emerges at the expense of men!

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Looking ahead to the approach of another flat racing season.  Roll on!

Sunrise creeping, daylight peeping,

All is silent, all are sleeping.

Alarm clocks whirring, staff start stirring,

Farm dogs scratching, farm cats purring.

Voices muffled, sneezes snuffled,

Stairways creaking, footsteps shuffled.

Harness jingling, senses tingling,

Eggs and bacon and co...

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A re-post on a theme that deserves open-minded considerations of the circumstances of bravery and its existence - or otherwise.

Hero and coward,

Two sides of a coin;

How close you may look

You won't see the join,

A flick of the fingers -

The hero's in place;

Another flick brings up

The opposite face.

Hero and coward,

What's in a name?

One deed gains the l...

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Spare us the pretentious pap

Close cousin to contentious crap;

They both abound when it's a free go,

Bilious bastards of the ego.

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Near Kingswear town there stands a tree

That stand alone and waits for me

To take the track back to the sea

The way down by The Mewstone

Past the beacon in the corn

Built for every seaman born

To the works of war forlorn

At bay down by The Mewstone

Above the rocks - beneath the pine

Look-outs lost in leaf and vine

Still staring out in dark design

Decay do...

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Capturing a memorable moment in time,

Or the act performed in premeditated crime;

Mapping our lives like immortal cartography -

This imaging miracle they call photography.

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One of the most famous photographs caught an enthusiastic young US sailor grabbing a bent-over kiss  

from a young girl in New York City as Victory Over Japan was celebrated in 1945 and WW2 ended.

His death has just been announced - not long after that of his partner in that memorable picture.

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So the young sailor in tha...

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If you try to be profound

Sods' law will see your words rebound;

It's folly to parade pretension -

Best instead to choose abstention.

So keep it simple,

Make it clear,

While grateful hearts and minds draw near

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If I suggested you jog down a motorway

A finger you would wag;

Yet you're ready to shorten life's own highway

Dying for a fag!

If I suggested you dip your hand

In a jar full of dangerous bugs

You'd get the needle - and I'd understand,

So why do it with dangerous drugs?

If I suggested daily you fill the sink

With the sort of booze that rots your guts

And drain it - wou...

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Blessed are those who are born of this land

Happy are those who can hold fast its hand

Who can pull up a chair

And bid goodbye to care

We won't ask what you're thinking

When we ask what you're drinking

Lucky are those who share this old bond

Eager are they who come from beyond

To this land full of history

Magic and mystery

We won't ask why you smile

Or why you...

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They sent me for an MRI scan,

A fact of life for the older man

Whose blood amounts of PSA (*)

Sees him doing what the medics say;

Obliged to wear a tied-behind gown

That makes him look (and feel) a clown,

Before being put in a wheel chair

And trundled in to where

The MRI scanner waits its turn

To probe the body and noisily learn

Its hidden secrets under the skin

Th...

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I've always been of the mind

That says "take as you as you find",

Believing in one-to-one reactions

That help in easing warring factions

And ask how can it make much sense

If folk are so ready to take offence

At every perceived remark or slight

To anyone they think aren't right.

People found most everywhere

Share the trait to point and stare.

At those they see as not ...

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With some justification it could be said

That the easily led are...easily led;

That birds of a feather flock together,

Especially in inclement weather.

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The following is part of a lyric in preparation.  The tune has been recorded already,

:

Blessed are those who are born of this land

Happy are they who can hold fast its hand -

Who can pull up a chair

And bid goodbye to care

We won't ask what you're thinking

When we ask what you're drinking!

Lucky are those who share this old bond

Eager are they who come from beyond

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It occurs with some desire to employ objectivity,

That when Einstein put forward his theory of relativity

He'd had the original come to mind some time before -

That a married man rarely pleases his mother-in-law,

But kept it quiet for the sake of domestic sensitivity..

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I saw him emerge from the door of the shop:

"Excuse me", he murmured, believing I'd stop;

But I knew what was coming and ignored what he said,

Hurrying on past him and ducking my head.

"Excuse me..." he called, vainly trying again

While I entered the shop...safe out of the rain.

 But stepping inside I felt I had sinned

As his final "excuse me" was lost on the wind.

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It intrigues me greatly - truth to tell...

Some attitudes to "Comments" on WOL.

Where opinions of blogs are allowed a forum -

Not just whether you dislike or adore 'em -

So observations of various sorts

Can earn some interesting retorts,

But if someone throws a spanner in your work

Resist the temptation to react like a jerk;

Let's bear in mind the word "comment"

Should n...

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In my lifetime I've seen self-possession

Become unhealthy self-obsession,

Where the awareness of what it is to be

Has become the mantra "me, me, me".

And this trait is getting worse...

A modern Narcissistic curse,

The needful are become needier

Encouraged by the social media,

Funded by big business ads

That serve to promote fatuous fads

That pander to the self-obsesse...

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