So...it's out with the Old

And in with the New,

But please remember

Whatever you do -

Let the Old serve its purpose

And be a reminder

To make sure the New

Finds us better and kinder!

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Christmas is a time for younger folk to look forward to what the future may hold - and for older folk to 

look back and remember.  Now that I fall into the latter category, I make no apology for this revised post.

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See them rushing...making haste,

No time to lose - no time to waste;

No sign of pausing,

No thought of stopping,

All in thrall to Christmas shopping.

Faces with their fixed expressions,

Trying to fend off deep depressions;

Searching for that urgent prize,

To satisfy another's eyes.

Hordes of shoppers - pushing, shoving,

Far removed from scenes of loving;

...

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Christmas can be many things to many people & its most feared aspect is probably the way

it can emphasise loneliness or want.  My message is "be positive" & grateful for what you

have, whether it be the company of family, friends or just your own.    God Bless Us All!

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I'm meeting the brother this Saturday

When he arrives at Water...

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Let's bid farewell to Peter O'Toole,

The epitome of sixties' cool.

In tribute I watched "Lawrence of Arabia",

No mention there of clits and labia - 

And hardly likely to be seen

In a film directed by David Lean! 

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In sad November, we are told, when watching poppies fall

Each represents a life surrendered answering duty's call;

And when in deep December the snow flakes fill the sky,

I'm filled with thoughts of all the souls whose time had come to fly

Each born with the chance to live a life and manifest its worth

Until the hour when each would fall and fade back in the earth.

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A re-post (slightly altered)...inspired by- and dedicated to - all who cannot be at home for a precious time of the year but who are always there in heart and mind.

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CHRISTMAS SNOW

At home the Christmas snow is falling

I see it clear so far away

I hear the happy voices calling

See the children at their pla...

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The day they murdered JFK

They took our hopes and dreams away

Ideology, power, greed,

Sowed the all-American seed.

Hating that world-famous face

Planning another in its place

Uncaring of the status quo

They muttered "He deserved to go".

Ruthless to ensure completion

Witnesses doomed to death's deletion

Those who plan a coup d'etat

Will carefully make sure...

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They stood beneath the Menin Gate

All gathered to commemorate

The engraved names and all their ghosts

Countless lines of long-gone hosts.

The sacks of sacrificial soil

Collected by young children's toil

Were held out to be carried home

To where the dead could never roam.

Carefully placed upon the bier

A gun carriage offered waiting near,

Its horses quiet as ...

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Re-posted and revised, with a nod to more recent martial matters.

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Young man - mark them marching by,

Their medals catch the light;

Look - and hold your head up high,

You'll see no finer sight.

Old men passing in their pride

Were once as young as you,

And sometimes watched as ...

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I was the one who knew everything

Had a Bachelor of Loving Degree

But love taught me and now I know nothing

That matters a nickel to me.

I was the one who lost everything

Got a Loser in Loving Degree

Love taught me and now I've got nothing

That matters a nickel to me.

So - listen up...don't be a know-all

Don't think that you've got it made

Be wise and beware...

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To those who play the "Equality" game

And like to act as scorer,

You cannot make the poorer rich

By making the rich poorer.

What is equal?  A relative thing

When considering our existence.

Is it the gift of brain or bling

Or intransigent persistence?

Is it measured in material wealth

Or mental gifts applying

Or is it judged by physical health

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You can imprison the body - that's for sure,

But tyrants always find

However hard they try 

The fates will defy

Their attempts to shackle the mind.

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Thanks are due to Peter Dymond and Diamond Studios (Bristol) for putting this song on disc.

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Darlin', now I'm miles away from where I long to be

Now there's too much distance keeping you from me

I lie awake most e...

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If you abuse - and delete the views

Of  those with whom you disagree,

You're merely playing pick and choose;

You're saying "You MUST agree with me".

See the open hand reach out;

A closed hand is a fist.

The open mind makes room for doubt,

A closed mind will resist.

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On any march:  benefits to burka -

Behold, the banner  "SOCIALIST WORKER".

Ubiquitous, where any mob is...

I often wonder what their JOB is?

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Let me give you the political poet -

If your comment's resented, you'll know it;

Abuse - then deletion (assuming completion),

There's no chance that poet will show it!

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I don't mind stuff that is serious...

Mysterious or even deleterious,

But spare me the gripe

From the self-righteous type

Who seems to set out to weary us.

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Godfrey Bloom

Too quick to quip

To a waiting room

Upset UKIP

But much worse -

And infinitely seedier,

Is the "outraged" curse

Of a modern media.

Manipulating words like 'sluts'

Removing proper context,

Minus any 'ifs' and 'buts'...

Who knows whatever's on next? 

You cannot hope

To bribe or twist - (they say!)

The British ...

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Are you shaken or stirred..

About Richard the Third -

And the unseemly spat

Over where he's interred?

Leicester has claims

Being by Bosworth Field

Where a monarch's aims

Were obliged to yield.

But now we have York

(Yorkists - of course!)

Demanding to bury

The king with no horse.

He met transport galore

(My - what a lark!)

...

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Did you see the Last Night of the Proms...?

Marin Alsop and Joyce DiDonato -

Exuberant tiddly-om-pom-poms,

In harmony - and legato!

Little and Large - they seemed to me,

Conductor and soprano;

Arms and voice worked gleefully

With little performed "piano"!

No Sea Shanties - some were sad

And thought this left a void -

But I liked "HMS Trinidad"...

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Poems posted on WOL indicate a depth of feeling on the subject of Syria.

To all those who think they should make some contribution towards resolving the situation in

Syria but remain filled with a frustrating impotence - may I suggest you go to the site run by

the Avaaz organisation (I'm a member so I'm declaring that interest) - and log on to

http://avaaz.org/en/solution_for_sy...

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Mad and bad rhyme with Al Assad,

Who'd want that peasant for their dad?

Driven by power and brutal need

To oppress all those who would be freed.

Trapped in tribal loyalty

They must suffer - as did we.

For every land must go through fire

If freedom is their real desire.

We sent our people into war

Until no one could keep the score

Of dead and maimed - the ...

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Prince Philip is a navy man -

Navy through and through;

His eyes some far horizons scan

And his humour's salty too.

A scion of the restless sea

Who found himself ashore,

Away from his naval family

And the distant ocean's roar.

Never one to talk of self,

Of things he's done and seen,

He put his charts upon the shelf

And pledged to serve hi...

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There are wonders that I prize

Like the everchanging skies

Like the restless ocean whispering to the shore

But when your eyes said look at me

You were all that I could see...

And you're all I want to see

For evermore

There are loves that I have known

Like the days how they have flown

But I love what the future has in store

Now there's only you and m...

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When what you're faced with

Brings you dudgeon -

Take heed and take heart...

Become a curmudgeon!

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For you country music fans and all who like a platform sort of performance, I have uploaded a new

version of my tribute to the Man In Black as the "audio sample" on my profile page.  Pete Dymond,

the vocalist, does a grand job bringing back memories of those old style recitations.  Remember

"What Is Truth" and "A Boy Named Sue" from Cash himself - and "greats" like Tex Ritter with "...

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Mea Culpa is my middle name

How I love to play the blame game.

I've no need to roam

It's all here at home

Where I wallow in self-defined shame.

There's a saying we've all heard before,

I beg you: Don't mention the war!

Don't offend the offender

Or abuse they may render

For the facts they prefer to ignore..

So - join me and the Muse Terpsichore...

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To all those obsessing over white racism mania

Here's something shocking you ought to know

In the African country they call Mauretania

Slavery was legal just six years ago.

In August it was when they decided to act

To criminalise the enslavement of black folk by black 

A presidential decree made their government enact

The overdue law that gave some freedom back...

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Do you dance the racism one-step?

It's a jig that some seem to learn -

Its steps go one-way...hip-hop-hep,

But somehow there's no room to turn.

I suppose it can seem quite appealing

To cavort to a one-step refrain, 

But stepping on toes without feeling

As you dance can only bring pain.

Give me the give and take two-step,

And the desire to dance to...

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Anyone taking their holiday in beautiful South Devon might care to know that the road to the lower

ferry at Kingswear has a left turning to "Higher Brownstone"...where there is a small car park marked

by a solitary tree at the start of a metalled track to the River Dart estuary and the ruins of World War

Two gun emplacements - a salutary reminder of dangerous days.  My late sister w...

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Our extinction on this planet - our eventual elimination...

Seems dangerously linked to over-population,

Yet those here least able are encouraged to afford

Cash for unseen legions multiplying abroad.

Is it just me?  Am I heartless or worse

To wonder why strangers seek to empty my purse?

Nature takes no prisoners, her lessons are plain,

Too many mouths are a sui...

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When we consider Man and Beast

And condemn what we see done,

How much easier if that we loathe

Can be vilified "for fun".

Let us examine the predatory fox

In the English countryside,

Pursued by mounted Man and hound,

Using instincts to run or hide.

The fox will do what foxes do,

No less the chasing hound,

Obeying the laws of nature

With ev...

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It is tempting to think them feckless and forsaken,

But there is something valuable to be taken

From the lives of beggars, I believe:

The reward got in giving what they receive.

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Following the loss of her husband of many years, my sister received the following poem by Robert Browning

Hamiliton in a message of condolence from a friend.  I post this with acknowledgements to its author as a

prime example of how "less can be more".

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I walked a mile with Pleasure.

She chatted all...

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They sought to convince us it was because of widespread sin

When it was just an incentive to indulge the beast within;

Who made them wield those weapons to dice a stranger's skin?

No one - it was what they offered to oblige the beast within.

The ranting versus the reason that sees the civilised win

Was just an opportunity to indulge the beast within.

The boasts of coming...

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I still see that newspaper hoarding

And the letters that lodged in my head;

The pausing and disbelieving

At the words: SINATRA DEAD!

Minstrel of so many years

And many a haunting track;

The Voice now lost to that vale of tears

But eternal in each playback.

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Today, May 16, marks the 70th anniversary of Operation Chastise - the famous "Dambusters"

raid on the great dams of industrial wartime Germany.  I am re-posting this poem - dedicated

to Sqdn. Ldr. G.L. "Johnny" Johnson DFC, sergeant-bomb-aimer on AJ-T for Tommy - who

took his crew around the Sorpe dam ten times before being ready to drop their bomb on its

intended target.  He j...

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They've put me down for a cardiac ablation,

If nothing else - a new sensation.

With advancing years such things are found

On the magical medical merry-go-round.

There was even a choice for a dicky ticker

But they said that this was new - and quicker

Than the other two they offered for free,

So I said that'll do for me.

If such occasions have to pass

...

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I was not impressed by the LIKES of that masked thug seen running at a police horse and

punching it in the face - and who was later reported to be receiving "disability" benefit!

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Spare us your song of self-pity

The world's had enough of that ditty!

The refrain stays the same -

...

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A flag-draped coffin passes by,

As a muffled bell tolls in the sky;

Some cheer (few jeer), some clap. some sigh...

Liittle old lady passing by

A sovereign and her consort wait

For a coffin carried through the gate,

Acknowledged with a sideways eye,..

Little old lady passing by.

The service done, the guests and kin

Emerge to let new life begin;

...

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The Lady wasn't always right,

Not all would take her side,

But as we headed into the sight

Of war, we found our pride.

The fifty pound travel allowance we knew

That brought us ridicule

Was forgotten when we claimed the due

Of new found North Sea fuel. 

But our once great motor car concerns

Were lost to union attacks;

Red Robbo and others takin...

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What is it with those who profess to care

That they'd take away our right to share

The sight of a life of courage and risk,

What price Red Rum or Mr Frisk?

A racehorse lives to race and run,

Some love the mud, and some the sun.

The folk who keep them love them too,

Without that what would racehorses do?.

There is no finer sight around

Than a high ...

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Just who are these oppressors

They keep banging on about?

Using words - if words could talk,

That would stamp their feet and shout!

Just who are they oppressing

And what do they hope to gain?

Do they oppress like tyrants -

Or is it necessary pain? 

Do we invent our demons

For each imagined slight?

Do we need an enemy

To put us in the right...

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My father's generation was lost to give freedom to the world

Into the maelstrom of World War One he and his kind were hurled.

When the carnage was over and the survivors staggered back

There was little here left for any brave man-jack.

And when World War Two was declared over twenty years on

That generation was called upon and once more to war had gone...

To free the peo...

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We live in a world full of isms

Life seen through distorting prisms

Common sense gets no deference

Equality can mean preference

And society's a sequence of schisms!

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As Spring does its best to break through, here's a reminder of life renewed.

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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 with glee,

The First Rose is my name, you see;

W...

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Why do "they" knock the Daily Mail?

It enjoys a truly enviable sale.

Comedians at the BBC

Deride its name incessantly.

An expected way to get a laugh

When The Guardian provides the BBC staff.

Why do "they" make such a fuss

About its stance of "them and us"?

And its worry about a jobless nation

Facing uncontrolled immigration?

Is its stance to be abhorred

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Is there something about mid-February...

Some mysterious shut-down day -

That sees a poem disappear

From the WOL light of day?

Is there something about mid-February

Like a black hole beyond the sun,

While poems that come afterwards,

Are shining "two for one"?

Some poems are worth reading twice

Like a letter in the post,

But here is this month...

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These lines were inspired by a press photo from New York some years ago.   The wording

quoted and the image referred to are 100% correct.   I love its unintentional black humour. 

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The funniest photo I can recall

Was taken after a gangster's fall;

A Mafia Don got HIS one-liner

When shot to death in an Italia...

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