DESERT(ED) LANDS
Oil-rich Arab neighbours
Are close by troubled lands,
Yet where are the labouring saviours -
Where are their helping hands?
A much-vaunted religious teaching
Seems common to them all
Yet where is its charity reaching
When conflict comes to call?
It sees its disciples fleeing
Far off alien lands to roam
Does it see what we're not seeing
As its millions see...
Tuesday 29th December 2015 4:15 pm
Bah! Humbug
Forgive this passing Christmas parley,
Remembering forgotten Jacob Marley.
Cruelly chained, it was he who schemed
To see Ebenezer Scrooge redeemed.
In deep pockets the newborn miser dug,
Leaving others to their "Bah! Humbug".
..............................................................
Sunday 27th December 2015 5:55 pm
THOUGHTS AT CHRISTMAS - a Seasonal re-post
How fitting now in deep December
When days are short and spirits low,
That in our hearts we will remember
Those we knew who had to go.
Christmas hours are briefly bright,
Their spark is spent in winter's pay
And soon surrrenders to the night
When light retreats and fades away.
But O how wonderful this living...
How magical this life we own,
That we are given...
Wednesday 23rd December 2015 10:40 pm
MOVING ON - for my sister
How it seems like a dim distant dream now
When we were kids in those Wiltshire lanes,
You with your horses and boyfriends,
Me with my cycling and trains.
There's Box - and there's Bill Peters' stable...
And sometimes I'm sure to believe
I hear Mum call "Tea's on the table",
And the brother is due home on leave.
Now the years have passed in their own ways
And we...
Saturday 19th December 2015 7:12 pm
QUESTION
If honest refuge is what salvation orders,
Why then, cross so many borders?
..........................................................
Friday 18th December 2015 12:52 am
OPERATION OVERLOAD (or D<FOR DEMISE>-DAY!)
We're told that we face our demise through this world over-heating,
That we're even in danger of departing this life because of over-eating.
And the faceless hoodie with the scythe will certainly come creeping
If we are ever tempted to indulge ourselves in over-sleeping.
We're told...and fair is fair - this can't have involved much thinking
That we will surely find oblivion if we go...
Monday 14th December 2015 7:54 pm
WAR AND PEACE
Idealism is always fine
But needs reality to define
The difference, so those like me and you
Make no mistake between the two.
It's easier by far to barely stir
And write of how we wished things were.
............................................................
Friday 4th December 2015 5:40 pm
DEREK HATTON
With a nod to Edward Thomas.
............................................
Yes - I remember Derek Hatton...the name
Because one political summer of heat
The media drew up there interestedly.
The Party hissed. Many votes left and few votes came
To that bare platform
What I recall is Hatton...just the name.
........................................................................
Thursday 26th November 2015 5:52 pm
DO YOU BELIEVE?
Do you believe what you want to believe,
Encouraged by others who do?
Could you consider...can you even conceive
A differing point of view?
Once "they" said the World was flat,
And folk must have imagined a ledge
When thinking to themselves, if that was that,
They'd better not fall off the edge.
But then "they" said the World was round,
And folk must have tried to keep p...
Thursday 19th November 2015 6:12 pm
PARIS - FRIDAY 13 NOV. 2015
May the caring human heart always shun
The deeds of hatred it saw done
By those who boast that "God Is Great",
When, in truth, their creed is "God Can Wait".
The sound of a proudly sung Marsellaise
Reminded the foe that Time's hand will erase
And eventually consign to a well deserved fate
These bloodstained barbarians at the gate.
.........................................
Saturday 14th November 2015 4:25 pm
UNCHARITABLE THOUGHTS (1)
When it comes to the topic of charity
There seems a considerable disparity
In the number of generous donations
From the UK compared to other nations.
No doubt some will consider it treason
To even question any well meaning reason
That sees so many substantial amounts
Find their way towards funding sundry foreign accounts.
That in the fullness of time's cruel attrition
Wi...
Wednesday 11th November 2015 10:23 pm
UNCLE NICK
I was never to know my Uncle Nick
Lost to war long before I was born,
But I pray to God that it was quick
When death snatched away a young life's new dawn.
They read out his name from a swathe of blood red
One rain-sodden night at the Tower,
From a glistening garden of Glorious Dead
Cut down before they could flower.
It falls to the living come every November
T...
Sunday 8th November 2015 12:42 am
BEST INFORMED
The best informed have learnt to find
The value of an open mind.
The most aware are keen to share
The questions: who, how, when and where?
................................................................
Saturday 7th November 2015 4:38 pm
FOR JENNY
The publication of "Sisters in Spitfires" - a collection of poems by Alison Hill celebrating
the women of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) - encouraged me to fondly plagiarise a
famous poem by John Pudney, whose spirit, I'm sure, will forgive me in a good cause.
................................................................................................................
FOR JENNY
...Wednesday 4th November 2015 11:42 pm
THE LAST OF THE PAST
It's true when viewing a famous past
Comes the knowledge it won't last;
No use dwelling on what was done,
On what was paid in blood and won.
Do those who face an uncertain future
Get a stitch in time - or infected suture?
...............................................................
Monday 2nd November 2015 4:57 pm
HAND OVER
A pre-Referendum blog - to the tune of "Land of Hope and Glory".
.............................................................................................
They hand over Hope and Glory
They give our Freedoms away
Adding insult to our old Story
Insisting that we should pay.
Whiter still and whiter
The plotters' visages get
God...may these high and mighty
Be rumbl...
Sunday 1st November 2015 3:16 pm
MAUREEN O'HARA
Goodbye, you flame haired colleen,
Pure gold on the silver screen
From those marvellous days
Of the long-ago haze
In those old picture houses we've been.
Beauty and fire combined,
A brave spirit unconfined.
Your favoured film swain
Was always "Duke" Wayne,
And no fan (or man) seemed to mind.
God bless for the memories, Maureen,
And the hours of pleasure w...
Monday 26th October 2015 4:02 pm
HANDS OFF CLOCKS!
The hands of the jocks
Are on our clocks
And that's bang out of order.
It's "behind you!" pantomime
So let's call time
On this wind-up from north of the border.
If English laws allow it to be
I'll quickly agree to B.S.T.
...............................................................
Saturday 24th October 2015 10:32 pm
CLIMATE CHANGE (a peep into the past)
In January sixteen sixty one, assiduous Samuel Pepys
Made an entry in his diary of weather giving him the creeps.
"It is strange what weather we have had..."
Pepys wrote with his usual precision,,,
"all this winter, no cold at all..."
Of Mother Nature's contrary decision.
"the ways are all dusty, flies fly up and down..."
The man was clearly confounded
"and the rose bushes ...
Monday 19th October 2015 5:30 pm
MAKING HAY FOR TODAY
"Laureate" by Graham Sherwood had me chuckling but I also saw a more serious side in passing.
..............................................................................
If you produce pretentious pap
Both addled and obscure
Ensnaring readers in a trap
Of literary manure,
Best get a job within the trade
Of poetry that holds sway,
To show that you have got it made...
T...
Saturday 17th October 2015 2:17 pm
LUST
All human lust
Must end in dust!
Be hot - like toast
To get the most,
And like the toaster
Shooting forth
Perform and eject
For what it's worth.
The grave is dug
The juice abates
Death pulls the plug
The earth awaits.
.................................
Monday 12th October 2015 4:03 pm
YESTERDAY ONCE MORE - a re-post
(A gentle riposte to the modern obsession with "paedos")
................................................
Pausing high above the beach,
I watch the children out of reach,
Racing down the golden sand,
Leaping...laughing...hand-in-hand.
Children dancing in the sea
Remind me how I used to be,
Free from care and full of fun,
A happy boy beneath the sun.
Tim...
Thursday 8th October 2015 4:07 pm
CONTENT AND FORM
The following is a personal view.
To my mind, producing poetry can be like the art of cuisine.
Content of poetry (like food) can be varied - to be entertaining, pleasing, able to stimulate
interest and debate beyond the reach of safe and sacrosanct expectations. Sassoon and
Owen used content powerfully and it survived the forms they used to reach the public
palate. Not always easy...
Sunday 4th October 2015 4:08 pm
JULIE ANDREWS IS EIGHTY TODAY
Julie Andrews is eighty today
The ageless voice that sang "Doe ray"
A child talent they called precocious
And that other word ending in "docious".
She's given people so much pleasure
Not just a national...a GLOBAL treasure
Bright as the sun - nothing need persuade me
To say "Happy birthday - My Fair Lady"!
.......................................................................
Thursday 1st October 2015 5:01 pm
GONE - BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
For the living grief is such relief
The dead don't care cos they're not there.
But they might ask in retrospect,
To be excused from cruel neglect.
Saturday 26th September 2015 2:26 pm
FOLLOWING ON
I have to admit I was pleased as hell
To read of the descendant of I.K. Brunel
Who had followed in the tracks of his great forebear
To rediscover what he'd done - and where.
And to crown it all, came the news from afar
That First Western is renamed G.W.R.
HURRAH!
..............................................................................
Sunday 20th September 2015 3:35 pm
COR - LABOUR'S FOR THE BYN!
In biblical times JC and his band
Sought to lead folk to a Promised Land
Despite the words and reported miracle
The people rejected his religious empiracal
Disbelieving, disappointed and at a loss
They saw him put upon a cross
Now full two millenia later
Our own JC (establishment hater)
Preaches his old/new style religion
(Common sense? - perhaps a smidgen).
I suspec...
Monday 14th September 2015 3:41 pm
WHY?
As migrants make momentous decisions and from far-off lands set forth
I consider the role of the global news media that sees them head west and north.
Why don't the common religious beliefs, shared histories and word of mouth
Instead see them making the decision to point their feet east and south?
............................................................................................
Wednesday 2nd September 2015 2:54 pm
HEADLINES
You'll have to have been where the mail doesn't drop
Or where the papers and TV don't find you
To be unware of "black man shot by white cop"
Ad infinitum - just to remind you.
But the absence of the following has my mind in a whirl
"Black man shoots white TV news girl".
.....................................................................................
Thursday 27th August 2015 12:51 pm
WEB
Spiders spin a silken web
in pursuit of passing prey;
Women weave a perfumed web
to catch men while they may.
Monday 17th August 2015 11:41 pm
YOU BET'CHA
Right from the first time that I met'cha
I told myself I'd never let'cha
Slip away from me.
Each day I'd find a way to get'cha
Close to me so I could pet'cha
With you on my knee.
Any place you go I'd come to fet'cha
There's just no way I'd ever let'cha
Forget my lovin' plea.
Here's my promise, girl - I bet'cha
Up or down - my love will ket'cha
Hey ki...
Friday 7th August 2015 5:33 pm
MEASURES
When I of solitude's measure drink
And of your precious person think,
I wish my lonely loving cup
Was with your own sweet self filled up.
But hearts' desires with passion sought
Are always better won than bought
So I consent to be content
With consolations I am sent.
I live this life with you in mind
And from your treasured image find
Sweet solace for an emp...
Monday 3rd August 2015 2:19 am
TWO SIDES TO THE COIN
How is it ethnics can proudly boast
of the rights of their community,
Whilst if the English do it they're burnt toast -
Scorned as racist with impunity?
Thursday 30th July 2015 3:57 pm
LOVE SONG
My love told me you took my song
And made the words your own
That time you tried to capture her
When you two were alone.
But I won't talk of any blame
For what you tried to do
In your place playing your game
I may have been like you.
But here is something you should know:
She loves the melody.
As for the words (she told me so)
She prefers them mouthed by ...
Monday 27th July 2015 4:09 pm
WITH YOU
With you...
With you...now and each tomorrow
With you - in your grief and sorrow
With you - when you're bowed with care
With you - when the words aren't there
With you - hoping that you stay
With you - when you go away
With you - when you're on your own
With you - when I'm left alone
With you - when you close your door
With you - now and evermore
With you...
Monday 20th July 2015 3:50 pm
HISTORY TO SUIT
In Oxford, home of the gleaming spire,
A wish to rewrite history abodes
The subject of this outraged ire:
An ancient statue of Cecil Rhodes.
"Take him down...remove the oppressor
He has no place in my view of things!"
We're told in this land of Edward the Confessor
And the shades of far more murderous kings.
The demand comes from a history student
Annie Teriba ...
Sunday 12th July 2015 4:52 pm
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Images of obesity appear to define the age we live in. Despite knowledge of nutrition easily obtained about
cheap healthy food (sardines, eggs, beans, bread, salad, soup, fruit et al) to be found everywhere, there's
this perversity of purchasing food in modern life that sees it becoming a deadly lottery of "weight and C" for
those unmindful of self-care. Today's NHS is overburdened with...
Saturday 4th July 2015 1:41 am
COPYBOOK WRITING
No pal at school ever called it exciting
Crouched over a desk - doing Copybook writing.
With dip-pen in hand slowly following each letter
Teacher over your shoulder - willing it better.
The scratch of the nib across a notebook
Juvenile attempts at a tidy "by rote" look,
With occasional splatterings of wayward ink
To cause a kid to stop and blink -
And hastily blot...
Tuesday 30th June 2015 5:00 pm
EMPTY VESSELS - SOME FATHERS' DAY THOUGHTS
There's a female conceit found in girlfriend and wife
That they are the shakers - the makers of life.
Not meant to be funny but there's diversionary sense...
Taking minds off the money - daddy's massive expense.
And let all remember there's no procreation -
Empty vessels - unless some male makes a donation.
Sunday 21st June 2015 4:45 pm
DOWN BY THE MEWSTONE
Now that the evenings are lengthening and the beauty of the coastal South Devon countryside returns
to fill my mind, come with me along the old metalled path from the end of the lonely road high above
Kingswear - marked by a solitary tree - to pass the watchtower looking out over the land as it drops
down to the beautiful River Dart estuary and the ruins of the WW2 coastal battery that st...
Thursday 18th June 2015 8:06 pm
HONOURS UNEVEN
There's this thing about each "honours" list -
It's more about the names "they" missed.
True talent, service...gone to their grave
Left out in life to which they gave
Great gifts that time alone will know
And stay when their owners have to go.
Perhaps these things need no applause
Their legacy sufficient cause
For delight in generations yet to come
No medal or title need...
Saturday 13th June 2015 4:37 pm
FAREWELL BRIAN CARTER
There's many a heavy heart down in Devon now that a singular voice has been stilled by the march
of time. Brian Carter was a one-off: a gifted artist, writer and poet whose talents were to serve the
cause nearest to his heart - the care of the countryside and its content. He wrote a column -
"Carter's Country" - for the local Torquay Herald Express and it became a "must" for its readers...
Wednesday 3rd June 2015 4:05 pm
THE SOCIALIST SHIRKERS PARTY
You'll find them among most types of mob
With shuttered mind and open gob.
You'd be forgiven for wondering what they do for a living
When they prefer to be taking rather than giving.
They'll shout you down in your own small protest
And you think they might actually be seeking arrest
From the ranks of police that wearily try
To make sure the peace doesn't go too awry.
Having...
Thursday 28th May 2015 11:11 pm
GOODBYE TO A LITTLE LIFETIME
I took it for a paper scrap
Upon the carpet's dull brown nap,
But bending forward I could see
It meant more than a scrap to me.
Diminished in death it was the mouse
That shared with me this ancient house
And which had often passed my way
An early morning blur of grey.
Then I recalled a recent night
When I had seen a slower flight...
Much slower than the previous run
...Thursday 21st May 2015 4:17 pm
QUESTION
To the ranters and daubers in their Pools of Red
Let these enquiring words be said:
Is the unexpected Sea Of Blue
Middle England saying "F... You Too"?
Saturday 16th May 2015 4:45 pm
PUBLIC RECORD
In the Public Record Office down in Kew
Is a report to interest me and you.
Scottish nationalists back in World War Two
Made an approach to you-know-who;
To gain advantage of their choosing
In case the Allies looked like losing.
Scots nationalists sought a Nazi deal
To protect their interests (this was real !)
Just in case the English lost
And Hadrian's Wall was there to...
Monday 11th May 2015 4:00 pm
SEA OF RED
I stood in the shadow of that historic Tower
Before a rain-drenched sea of red
The glistening ceramic poppies like a shower
Washing clean wrongs and lives long since dead.
From out of the gloom marched a Warder
(With a young guardsman bugler in tow)
Who soon called the living to order
And read out the names we would know.
We were witnesses to the sort of weather
...Sunday 3rd May 2015 4:08 pm
PASSING FEET
Have you ever stood on a city street
And watched the pace of passing feet?
How quick they go as if they dare
Not to be seen to linger there.
Their owners trapped in headlong rush
That takes them to another crush
Of hurrying humanity in its need
To avoid attention by its speed.
How different from the village street
When people pause and actually greet
A passe...
Tuesday 21st April 2015 11:27 am
TICK TOCK
The second hand goes flicking by,
Hurrying us on to the time we die.
The minute hand follows close behind,
Without a care if we should mind.
Till sixty minutes defines the hour
To remind us of time's passing power
And adding four hours to a score -
Each day tots up to twenty four;
Multiply one day by three six five
To mark each year you are alive.
In life there's so m...
Friday 17th April 2015 3:58 pm
THE VOICE OF SUMMER
One of the more fondly recalled aspects of my working life was occasional employment
at Lords when test matches were played back in the 70s and 80s. Great days. Richie
Benaud was as much a part of the scene as that world-famous famous venue and, just
like Sir Peter O'Sullevan in racing, his voice was synonymous with his chosen sport.
....................................................
Friday 10th April 2015 5:46 pm
THE PRIMROSE - a re-post for the renewal of Spring!
Peeping from beneath the tree,
I heard the primrose speak to me.
Winter's done, I heard it say,
Warmer days are on their way.
Mother Nature waits on me
(The "First Rose" is my name, you see)
While other flowers lie abed,
I welcome Spring and show my head.
Then, with the golden daffodil,
I gild the countryside until
In turn the other blooms appear,
Assured...
Friday 3rd April 2015 3:16 pm
LOVE TAUGHT HIM
A country vocal recording by the excellent Marcie Summers from Bristol is on the Hotdisc April issue. Watch out, Dolly Parton!
......................................................................
1. My sweetheart...so sure he knew everything
Bragged a Bachelor of Loving Degree
But love taught him and now he knows nothing
That matters a nickel to me.
2. My...
Thursday 2nd April 2015 4:01 pm
WHO KNOWS?
The terrible air crash tragedy in the French Alps was a salutary reminder of the fragility of the human
mind and the catastrophic effects on others that it can inflict it undetected, untreated and out of
(self) control.
.................................................................
Who knows what filled that pilot's mind
So high in Earth's bright air
Or if he even sought to fi...
Saturday 28th March 2015 1:09 pm
TREES - a re-post to welcome Spring
Springtime trees are newly born,
Their buds soon bursting through;
They wake at nature's New Year morn
To bid the Old adieu.
Summer trees are tall and green
Like children growing with love;
Responding to a force unseen
They praise the skies above.
Autumn trees are red and gold:
In majesty they stand;
And wear their colours - bright and bold
To decorate th...
Monday 9th March 2015 1:08 pm
DO YOU REMEMBER MY ENGLAND? - a re-post
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...
I do.
Do you remember my England?
When people seemed to care and share
And it was just not done to stare,
And barbers used to cut your hair...
I do.
Do you remember my England?
When "addict" meant a pinball fan
And workmen ...
Wednesday 25th February 2015 3:42 pm
TAXING MATTERS!
Tax avoidance...tax evasion
Moral choice...self-persuasion.
One is legal, one is not,
For keeping money you have got.
It's common sense to use the law
To keep the wolf outside the door
Protecting precious hard earned dosh
From heavy hits by the taxman's cosh.
So - here's the gist of my personal plan
To keep as much as I possibly can;
Tho' I know for sure the...
Friday 13th February 2015 3:13 pm
HOSTAGES TO CHARITY
The bells of hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling
For you but not for me
O death where is thy sting-a-ling-a-ling
Be off your guard and see!
The likes of IS and their kind
Serve corrupt ideology
Money or murder - they don't mind
To them - it's charity!
(And funds FOR GUNS, you see).
Sunday 8th February 2015 7:33 pm
CHURCHILL'S FUNERAL
I was there that bitter cold day
When Winston Churchill passed my way;
Keeping watch beneath Admiralty Arch,
I breathed to the beat of the funeral march.
About the man no more need be said
Long since called to arms by The Glorious Dead;
But I was there that memorable day
When Winston Churchill passed my way.
................................................................
Friday 30th January 2015 3:28 pm
TAKING OFFENCE
Too often it seems there is this sense
Of those too keen to take offence;
Indulged with ill-informed applause
Rude champions of an absent cause.
Wednesday 28th January 2015 2:35 pm
BURNS NIGHT
Do the Scots celebrate William Wordsworth
Who lived not far from their border?
Do they eulogise John Keats or Lord Byron?
If not, then let's call them to order!
Why should we bother with Burns Night
Who are as Scottish as spaghetti bolognese?
Spare us the haggis and the drone of those pipes
And hangovers that linger for days!
..............................................
Saturday 24th January 2015 11:57 am
MIXED BLESSING
We live in the world of the global media
The contest now is who is speedier
To bring to the insatiable TV screen
Much that once was left unseen
In days of wireless and bakelite phones
When news was read in sepulchral tones
And private grief was left alone
For those within the family zone
Now criminals parade their grief
With crocodile tears that stretch belief
And the...
Saturday 17th January 2015 7:49 pm
WHERE ARE THE MODERATE MUSLIMS?
Where are the moderate Muslims...
Why don't they protest with their feet?
With "Moderate Muslims Against Barbarism"
Banners to wave in the street.
The countries that offer them freedom
Are owed a duty of care
By all those who seek the privilege
Of planning their futures there.
Let them turn their backs on the killers
Who attack freedom from within their ranks.....
Saturday 10th January 2015 1:11 pm
NEW YEAR THOUGHTS
Despite the incitement towards "cheer"
And forced bonhomie that mirrors fear
From hordes of humanity pressing near,
I have my doubts about each new year.
Sometimes it seems that they suggest
A challenge amounting to a test.
Now - looking back at all the rest,
I take the view that each LIVED is best!
.................................................................
Wednesday 7th January 2015 2:30 pm
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