OLD YEAR - NEW YEAR
As Father Time now wipes an eye and takes a long look ahead
Past a moment when half the world celebrates...with the other snug in bed,
Let us take stock and ponder whether we really did the best we could
In the days of the year that now fade away - like dusty bluebells in a wood.
Did we fail when called upon to act or say the things we ought?
Did we shrink from giving.when the most...
Tuesday 31st December 2019 6:41 pm
WHEN CHRISTMAS COMES AROUND
With Christmas almost upon us again, here's a gospel-style blog to welcome it back.
..............................................................................................................................................................
Lift up your voice - let all rejoice
And make a joyful sound
Cast off the care most folk must bear
When Christmas comes around
Look to...
Friday 20th December 2019 1:51 pm
CHARITY AND CHARITIES
As we approach the Festive Season with its public communications beseeching us to part with our money, it's reported that this country has 168,000 registered charities -we're talking £77 billion here,- with £16 billion p.a. received from government out of taxed income. I don't think Dickens would have got away with writing about
Ebenezer Scrooge like he did if his own age known such widespread...
Thursday 5th December 2019 9:02 pm
ANIMAL FARM 2019
If Brexiteers are Britain's lions
Then Remainers are her sheep;
Hoping against hope they won't get fleeced
As back to the Brussels farm they creep.
Self-deluding wool covering supplicant eyes
Over-eager certainly - but hardly over-wise.
Convenience their self-serving rock -
But one thing should be feared
In their desperate desire to run with the flock
They are certain t...
Wednesday 27th November 2019 1:39 pm
"ISM" = I See Me
"!SM" = the default position of the disappointed, the disgruntled, the disaffected, the disillusioned, the disadvantaged, the dissimilar and the disputatious.
Sunday 24th November 2019 5:40 pm
NHS STRESS KILLS
A recent study of electoral promises about the current NHS caused unwanted raised blood pressure.
I have been enduring some of the unwanted and unsought inadequacies possessed by those who are so
efficient being inefficient..
In early October i had a blood check for continued use of a medication - together with a flu jab. The former
was analysed and I received a text to say the result...
Saturday 23rd November 2019 6:52 pm
ARE YOU HAPPY? A departing shot!
Are you happy now I'm dead?
And all the things you left unsaid
Are swirling around inside your head -
Shrapnel slicing through a brain
Leaving little chance to heal again,
And sees you in remorseless pain.
Are you happy now I'm dead?
But remember - I've just gone ahead
To where you''ll find the patient dead.
Time takes its toll on all, you ejit,
Once met - soon vanis...
Wednesday 20th November 2019 10:33 pm
TWO PRESIDENTS
Getting away from poetry per se for a moment, here are some fascinating reminders of the links between
the murders of Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy as we approach the 56th anniversary of the latter's death.
Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846; Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
Lincoln was elected president in 1860; Kennedy was elected president in 1960.
Both wives lost chi...
Monday 18th November 2019 12:32 pm
GOODBYE TO MARINA AND PEARL
Goodbye to Marina and Pearl.....
Farewell to those late summer days
Made happy by the skill of the acting
That made real their make-believe plays.
They join Compo, Clegg, Foggy and Truly
And so many others that brought us sunshine;
Recorded for us to remember and smile -
"The Last of the Summer Wine"
........................................................................
Friday 15th November 2019 5:06 pm
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
There's one glaring all-important difference between Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson as the election
campaign gets under way..
The former is using his Party to protect and preserve Brexit whereas the latter is using Brexit to protect
and preserve his Party.
Those familair with the actions of a previous Tory prime minister who is often to be heard spouting pro-EU
stuff might call it a...
Tuesday 12th November 2019 8:24 pm
CRIME PAYS
Save us from those scientists and lawyers
Who take up more and more of our time
With make believe/once upon a time stories
That border on being a crime!
They make a very good living
By raising doubts foisted upon us
More geared to taking than giving -
Po-faced and plausible as they con us.
..................................................................
Monday 11th November 2019 4:32 pm
LIKE A TEAR
(With a nod to a poem by Keith Jeffries as Armistice Day approaches)
...................................................................
In silence I watched the falling leaf
Like a tear that summoned up the grief
For all the lads and mature men
Who saw war but never saw home again.
............................................................................
Tuesday 5th November 2019 5:30 pm
TAKE COURAGE
There are things in life that come and go
Like birds that stop and sing
Then rise up soon to take the air,
Leaving on the wing.
Take courage - now that's a sometime thing
That can come and just as quickly go,
Like the summer wind to warm the heart
Or chill it like the snow.
According to capricious circumstance
It makes its presence felt,
To shout defiance an...
Sunday 3rd November 2019 3:50 pm
PARTNERS IN TIME
Humanity has three partners in "L"
Which it foolishly tries to boss,
When the trick is to treat each wisely and well:
Living - and Loving - and Loss.
..............................................................................
Tuesday 29th October 2019 2:19 pm
WHY? - A BIG QUESTION FROM A SMALL ISLAND
With a history both bloody and baronial
And foreign ventures condemned as colonial,
Excuse me if I seem somewhat dumb here
But WHY do so many want to come here?
(and do!)
.............................................................................
Monday 28th October 2019 10:30 am
IT CAN BE RIGHT IF YOU'RE LEFT
London's mayor tells the Labour leader
To tell "leave" supporters they're wrong;
I wonder how well his words went down
When an election could be coming along?
It might not seem right if you're left
Wondering why things aren't making your day
Perplexed, put out and bereft
That the future isn't going your way.
But if you're in a political bubble
Believing city people know ...
Saturday 26th October 2019 3:34 pm
TRAVEL PLANS - ALSO RANS?
Ironic perhaps that this world unravels
In line with humanity's extended travels.
Better perhaps to stay at home
And resist the urge to "up and roam".
The television - now twenty four hours global
Brings the world to us and it seems ignoble...
Ungrateful even to pack up and go
To places our TV screens will show;
Why add a carbon footprint to all the rest
For distant plac...
Tuesday 22nd October 2019 2:40 pm
LOVE SLIP-SLIDIN' AWAY = theme for a song lyric
That day you said you couldn't stay
You told me love would make me pay
Now I remember every day
With love slip-slidin' away
I did my best - the best I could
Without much rest - you knew I would
But nothing worked - nothing came good
And love went slip-slidin' away
Together I thought we had it made
But day turns to night and all things fade
Just like the sun ...
Monday 14th October 2019 3:03 pm
POOR OLD LONDON
Poor old London...sad old place
Condemned to suffer a soiled face
From environmental egos come to visit,
Hardly a cause for welcome, is it?
Like infants squealing for attention,
Desperate for a media mention,
Never mind if it's hardly unknown news...
Any excuse to virtuously abuse
The hopes of those in dire need
Of getting to hospital to be freed
Of pain an...
Thursday 10th October 2019 9:57 pm
IF YOU MUST
If you must call yourself a poet
Then hadn't you better show it
By avoiding the trap of pretentious pap -
Or get "sussed" before you know it!.
..................................................................
Tuesday 8th October 2019 2:21 pm
MIND THE GENERATION GAP
I remember Blighty before the EU;
Whatever the hardships we always pulled through.
Now I have this question (long overdue!)...
What happened to the country that those like me knew?
....................................................................................
Monday 7th October 2019 1:08 pm
VISION
An engineer named John Logie Baird
Had a vision and was duly prepared
Among Sassenachs and Jocks
To put pictures in a box,
And in time the whole world sat and stared.
........................................................................
Friday 4th October 2019 4:29 pm
NATIONAL POETRY DAY
Strewth, they've chosen "Truth" as the subject for a poem
A challenge then, forsooth, and the chance to gaily show 'em.
But truth itself is malleable...a frequent victim of attrition
And if you don't believe me - just look up "politician".
One person's fact is another's fiction, so frequently the case,
And so many people practise both - and manage a straight face.
Perhaps when t...
Thursday 3rd October 2019 2:54 pm
NO OTHER WAY
I'm writing this on a cold dark day,
With the sound of thunder out to play,
Reverberating around the nearby roofs
Like the stampede of ten thousand hoofs;
While its weeping relative - the rain...
Streams across the window pane
Washing away the city grime
Cleansing in its own good time
But this much I feel inclined to say:
I wouldn't have it any other way.
...............
Tuesday 1st October 2019 4:03 pm
LOOK UP YOUR THWARTERS!
In years to come they'll probably talk about when
Some MPs got together, led by someone called Benn,
To put into play a wheeze they had planned,
Designed to make the government go cap in hand =
To plead for more time from the supranational EU
So the latter could keep telling us what to do!
.......................................................................................
...Sunday 29th September 2019 7:33 pm
IT'S A HEARTACHE THING - Country Lament
Thanks, Julia, for the vocal
IT'S A HEARTACHE THING (C)M.C. Newberry 2018/2019.
I thought that you'd come back to me when I saw you at the door
I thought that life was looking to be kind
But you told me you'd returned to take what I flung on the floor
You smiled your smile and hoped I didn't mind
It's a heartache thing to understand that you have gone for good
To realise ...
Sunday 22nd September 2019 10:27 pm
DECEIT AIN'T NEAT!
Those who sought election into that famous place
Failed and still fail to see the positions that they embrace
In the rich repository of a nation's right and clear intent
To rule itself and not be deceived by what was never meant.
Temporary custodians of Parliament - nothing more or less,
They take their power from the people, but you'd never guess
From the way they presume ...
Saturday 21st September 2019 6:37 pm
OLD POETS
Have you ever seen an advert to bring you up short:
An invitation in plain English: " Old poets sought"?
If you have, I'll say bravo (and not be satirical)
To salute what is surely a literary miracle.
For no matter where you might be found
Scribbling at sea or with feet on the ground
Whether you be close by or maybe far-flung,
Poetry offers preference to those who are young.
...Friday 13th September 2019 12:42 am
PASSING THROUGH
The occupants of Parliament now think it's a place they own,
Not understanding they're temporary custodians of what has slowly grown
Into the rich repository of a trusting nation's history,
That governs in the people's name (that's never been a mystery!).
Instead, without a mandate (that's permission!) from the nation,
They signed away what wasn't theirs to foreign domination,
...Monday 9th September 2019 4:45 pm
AUGEAN STABLES
Witnessing "we know best" in action
Brings the whiff of putrefaction,
Rotting in the rank rejection
Of the offer of a clean election;
With humble begging bowl in hand -
("We know best", you understand).
All of which (for me) enables
The need to cleanse those Augean stables.
......................................................................
Thursday 5th September 2019 7:43 pm
WEEPERS
Jeepers Creepers - bless my peepers!
We're now a land of wimpy weepers...
Full of me-me and self-pity,
Everywhere you hear their ditty.
On song but often out of tune
It's painful when you hear them croon
Full of worry and concern:
Life's not fair, what about my turn?
I'm worth as much as anyone
So why do others have more fun
And cash to buy stuff I've not got...
Wh...
Wednesday 4th September 2019 4:46 pm
GIVING A HAND
Artistry and craft can take many forms,
But I can readily understand
The sheer skill and expertise required
To re-attach a man's severed hand.
....................................................................
Friday 30th August 2019 4:19 pm
CHANCE?
Is it really just chance that the description "needy"
Happens to chime with that other word "greedy"?
.........................................................................................
Wednesday 28th August 2019 2:28 pm
OPTIMUM OPTIMISM
If, armed with our forebears' fortitude, we steer
Our watchful way past Project Fear
Towards the light beyond the exit
Of the delayed departure point called Brexit,
With them in spirit, once more we'll fly
Across the welcoming world-wrapped sky.
.........................................................................
Tuesday 20th August 2019 2:27 pm
THE SHRINE OF WHINE
Come all you groaners - get in line...
To take your turn at the Shrine of Whine.
And take comfort that you're not alone
In your urgent need to have a moan.
Never before in the human story
(now a sort of Jackanory!)
Have people known the opportunity
To whinge and cuss with such impunity,
With the righteous feeling of self-pity
That assumes this life is sad and shitty,
...
Saturday 17th August 2019 4:16 pm
CREDO
Is it really such a mysterious and incomprehensible credo
That we gravitate to those who look and think the same as we do?
And is it beyond rational thinking to pause and wonder whether
There's a reason for the old adage: birds of a feather flock together?
Maybe it's steeped in history when the appearances of strangers
Could herald a threat that saw the onset of devastating dangers...
Tuesday 13th August 2019 1:27 pm
BRING ME SUNSHINE
Did you see that recent report from NASA?
My golly-gosh, it's certainly a gasser!
Plasma eruptions the size of Texas
Seem like a blow to the Earth's solar plexus!
Mind you, there are those who ignore the sun
And its massive effects on what's seen and done
On this planet of ours that relies on its presence,
Not least for its warmth and illuminescence.
For aeons it's existed ...
Saturday 10th August 2019 2:45 pm
REPEAT AFTER ME
There's one thing about poetry that's for sure,
Whatever the theme, it's been done before;
Except for stuff about modern inventions
(I''ll allow that these provide new mentions),
The stuff of love, hate and the rest
That poets like to get off their chest,
Have featured in poems of the past
Some of which will always last,
Because they skilfully touch the heart
In timeless...
Friday 9th August 2019 2:53 pm
THE GLOBAL MEDIA
Be wary of the global media
It's run by power-seeking men
Who see themselves as king-makers
With a reach far beyond a mere pen.
The home of hysteria and hyperbole,
Banging drums of alarm and despair -
The source of maintaining confusion
In search of the very latest scare.
There''s a love of being game-changers...
Of keeping us all on our toes,
With alerts an...
Friday 2nd August 2019 5:54 pm
A LOOK AT LIFE
In my seventy sixth year I've seen a lot
And I've endured a lot for what I've got.
So did my parent's generation before,
And they taught me to grin when life was raw.
Loss and less were facts of life
For those who survived grievous strife;
But always hardy...always humble...
Captured in words like "musn't grumble".
No social security in existence...
They got by with graf...
Wednesday 31st July 2019 1:59 pm
DIRECTIVE
No place for any directive...
All poetry is subjective;
From varied sorts of pen and brain,
It changes form again and again,
And allows us to be selective.
..........................................................
Saturday 27th July 2019 3:23 pm
THE APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE
Personally, I find there's something strange
About the proponents of climate change -
Their outlook seems far from sunny;
Among their meteorological cares and scares
No 'hots' for sun spots or solar flares
And i think that's odd - stroke - funny!
In the winter of 1661, Samuel Pepys of diary fame
Wrote about weather conditions that came -
"Never was there such weather a...
Thursday 25th July 2019 3:17 pm
POLITICAL FUTURITY
Civil servants exist in obscurity
Politicians are keen on security
And when embarrassment attends
To strain relations with friends
It tends to reveal immaturity!
(and for some an uncertain futurity!)
...............................................................
................................................................
Sunday 21st July 2019 3:08 pm
DIVERSE
Is it me just being perverse
But when I see or hear the word diverse
It brings on feelings of ennui
Where and when I happen to be
And the suspicion things'll get worse.
...................................................................
Saturday 20th July 2019 5:42 pm
THE QUESTION NEVER ASKED
An essay of the imagination.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdsom addresses the nation.
Good evening,
It is my decision, supported by my ministers and those of a similar mind within Parliament notwithstanding
our oaths of allegiance to The Queen, her heirs and successors, to subordinate Her Majesty's role of Head of
State, together with Parliament itself to the unfluence and c...
Tuesday 16th July 2019 1:33 am
BIG MAC
Farewell John McCririck - known to one and all as Big Mac,
A staple of TV's horse-racing until the moderns gave you the sack.
Your larger than life persona...the clown you pretended to be
Weren't thought to be what people wanted in this 21st PC century.
But your act gave racing a profile that it hadn't established before
And you were the punter's champion...giving the bookies what-...
Saturday 6th July 2019 6:08 pm
YESTERDAY ONCE MORE - a re-post for Summer
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.
Time goes by, yet time stands still,
And moment follows moment till
What is now once went before
And what is pa...
Thursday 4th July 2019 6:15 pm
SIMPLY COMPLEX
Moving through life one thing features,
Simply that we're complex creatures.
What we are can be confusing
And subject to continual musing.
You'll hear it said again and again
That we are all things to all men.
Our lives are assorted books on their shelves..
If not true to each other, let's be true to ourselves.
..................................................................
Saturday 29th June 2019 1:04 pm
NOT NECESSARILY
A refugee is a migrant
But a migrant is not necessarily a refugee;
Vigilance seems relevant
And correct use of words important to see.
......................................................................
Friday 21st June 2019 1:06 pm
IS IT GOODBYE?
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...
Thursday 20th June 2019 1:08 pm
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