As we pause and take stock in present difficulty

There's something that impresses me;

Whoever we are and whatever our role

Happiness is a place called WOL.

Reaching out across land and sea

It's somewhere we're content to be

Whatever we write, whatever our goal

We arrive in hope on WOL

So - let's raise a glass to one another

Sister to sister - brother to brother

In thi...

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As for this virus - I don't dread it,

I dread the idiots who spread it;

Common preservation far from mind

They're out there and you'll find

They think that they know better...

That their "freedom" has its fetter,

To be shaken from the wrists

As they wave protesting fists.

Well, if its freedom you would save

Then avoid an early grave

For your sake and those you see

...

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It seems that these words keep up with the times.  But as long as there is LIFE there is hope; something we should all bear in mind while recalling difficult times in our past.

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How fitting now in deep December

When days are short and life is low,

That in our hearts we will remember

Those we knew who had to g...

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A personal favourite from my batch of seasonal songs - originally written for all those unable to be at  

home for Christmas, but who keep the best of what it means in their imaginations: now - with added

meaning - given a fresh "airing" at a particularly relevant time around the world. 

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At home the Christmas snow is ...

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An annual reminder of the positive message that Christmas brings to us all.  Sing along!

1.

Lift up your voice - let all rejoice

And make a joyful sound

Cast off the care most folk (alt. mankind) must bear

When Christmas comes around

2.

Look to your hearts - that's where love starts

Where Life itself begins...

And you shall know that faith will show

Forgiveness f...

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Poetry can be perfidious,

Invasive or insidious,

Insulting or invideous

And occasionally just plain hideous.

But all are deemed acceptable

As long as the work's fastidious!

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Well, here we are, looking towards an unusual festive season - but let's also look on the bright side. 

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At home, all alone

So sad on my own

I was wondering how things were so wrong

When your face filled my mind

Loving eyes to remind

Me of what I had missed all along

That night before Christm...

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Spare me your ditty of self-pity...

Your ballad of self-obsession;

Be aware this life we share

Is a "sad and glad" procession

That we all join from another's loin

Without a say in the matter

So make the best of all the rest

And leave out the "me...me" chatter!

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Men are the donkeys women hitch a ride on through their lives

Women are the workhorses to keep men stabled as their wives.

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The legal side of love and romance -

 And this is matter of factual......

Is when to the altar you're led a dance

And they become contractual.

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Is belief the thief of rational thinking?

Is it rather an elixir we each choose for drinking?

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From a previous Remembrance Day - 

For Armistice Day 2020 - in memory of 2nd Lieutenant Ernest Valentine Venner, aged 24, The Rifle Brigade, killed during the Battle of Delville Wood, The Somme Campaign - August 18, 1916.

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There's so much gloom about life being spouted

Please excuse me if I choose to digress,

But this much truth should also be touted

Adaptability leads ultimately to success.

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To be sung along to Old Blue Eyes' great hit "New York, New York".  Sing along.  keep smiling!!  

Start spreading the news

It ain't gone away

Show that we want no part of it

Covid Nineteen !

We can't pick and choose

If we do, it'll stay

With us right in the heart of it

Covid Nineteen !

I want to wake up every morning that's for sure

With no wish to add to its greedy s...

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In these dull days of ennui - seeking a task or two

I found myself wondering - and before I knew

It came to me clearly that this much is true

We all have a job of work to do.

We each plough our own furrow, me and you,

And sow seed  and deed our whole life through

Depending on our talents and what we pursue,

Doing our best in life's hullabaloo.

But whatever we're b...

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A lyric from other days that seems appropriate at this time.

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Be grateful for the dark days,

And when they come along

Don't waste your time in worrying

Just how it all went wrong.

Be grateful for the dark days

And when they come in sight

Don't devote time despairing

Whether things wil...

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It's said the power to be alone

Is managed by very few

But I'm content to be on my own

And don't find it hard to do

Very handy when extremis exists

And the sheep instinct kicks in

To contribute to the plague that persists

With its deadly rictus grin

I lean out of my window here

To watch the world go by

And manage a silent heartfelt cheer

As above the bird...

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Watch out for the stupid strangers

And what they have to share;

Take care with their barefaced dangers,

Wherever you go - beware!

They like to get up close unmasked

And give you what they've got - unasked!

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Did Shakespeare go to university

To ensure his place in immortality?

Did Gray possess a PHD

When he sat in Stoke Poges cemetery?

Did Hardy feel the need to blush

At the unqualified talent of "The Darkling Thrush"

Did Kipling require an honours degree

To see his star rise permanently?

Did Masefield boast some intellectual score

To write of the sea and so much more?

In ...

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Wherever we go

Goes the ego,

Admitting we can never bid

Farewell to its companion, the id.

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It's been said that revenge is sweet

But it's neat and often sweeter

Just to press "delete"

And exclude egregious excreta.

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I've just had a visit from pest control

You know - those people who take the role

Of addressing nocturnal visits by mice

(And maybe other things not seen as "nice").

It seems another tenant made a complaint

About an absence of rodent restraint.

I live in a house two centuries old

And frankly would be surprised to be told

That it was free from timorous wee beasties

That s...

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There's a lot of stuff out there about love

And probably more about sex -

With its trendy reliance

On appliance and science

When practice is all that it "teks"!!   

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Do apologists get out of bed each day

To make sure we hear what they say?

Now pursuing perceived crimes...

From distant days and different times.

They raise their supplicant banner high

Beneath its folds they loudly cry

Their endless shame at what was done

That lets them profit from what was won.

One thing seems plain and should be said -

Let the dead say sorry to the de...

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When the fire within me dies

And my spirit flies beyond the skies

To reach that unknown place that lies

Past earthly need of ears and eyes,

This much I know - this much is plain -

That I shall be but born again

To take my place in the timeless train

Of Creation's everlasting chain.

So, save your tears...your sad goodbyes

This breaking of familiar ties;

Be comforted by...

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Much has been made

Of the part love has played

In the course of human existence.

Once lost, one thing's plain -

That to find it again

Requires some personal persistence!

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I was clearing out old papers when I came across the following poem attributed to "Anon" which

had been a part of a late elder sister's funeral ceremony.  It seems very appropriate to share it in

these difficult days.

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Miss me but let me go

But when I come to the end of the road

And the sun has set for me

I want no riles in a gloom filled ro...

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The ready expression of gratitude

May sometimes seem a platitude

But needs must

Before we come to dust

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With a fond nod to a great "standard" from the past.  Play it Boris!  Will it go viral, I wonder??!!

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We must remember this

A kiss can't be a kiss

A sigh can't be a sigh

The government rules apply

Here's why - so we get by

It's now a brand new story

In this land of hope and glory

A case of do or die

So we do...

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There is a letter in the latest edition of a magazine issued to London police pensioners that describes the

experience of the correspondent and a colleague at the time of the Brixton riots when "Two days  after we

had been bombarded with bricks, and anything else the rioters could lay their hands on", they were back on

patrol in Brixton market when they were approached by a young black la...

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Sure to offend some...but hey -

I was at the bar of the Legion minding my own business the other evening when I was groped by a distinctly unappealing member of opposite sex.

"You're cute" she says, "have you got a phone number?"

"Sure.  Have you got a pen?"

"Yep...I've got a pen."

"Then you'd better get back in it before the farmer misses you."

Cost me a knee in the nuts, but he...

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Have you noticed - that right from birth

Human kind is meant for mirth.

Before a baby knows its place

You'll see a smile upon its face,

And when a child is growing fast

A smile's the thing that's sure to last

When life is hard - not being kind

The face will show how folk can find

A refuge from the grief and care

That somehow seems we all must share.

When pressures see...

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Sure to offend some but, hey..........

I was talking to a young woman in the Legion last night. 

She said "If you lost a few pounds, had a hair cut and

cleaned yourself up, you'd look all right."

I said "If I did that, I'd be talking to your friends over there instead of you."

Cost me a fat lip - but, hey...

when you're over seventy.....who cares?

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Where you are born is the passing partner of chance;

Of whom you are born is the invitation to the dance.

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The words come down the centuries - as relevant now as they ever were.

"We have a natural right to make use of our pens, as of our tongue: at our peril, risk and hazard."

"Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers."

"There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times."

"Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues and earthquakes."

"We c...

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The other day i counted the WOL blogs

In total: forty nine;

There was only one you couldn't like

And that was one of mine.

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From the shade provided by tinted glass

It was an opportunity too good to see pass.

Beyond stood two officers of the Law

The perfect target to get what for --- 

According to what the Butler saw..

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Those who demand respect rarely deserve it;

Those who deserve respect rarely demand it.

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The other evening, intent on avoiding the repetition and depression of news reports on the 24/.7 media

"not-so-merry-go-round", I took a trip back in time via the DVD of the last musical that Astaire and Rogers

made and found myself enjoying the additional presence of Oscar Levant.  He appeared, invariably as the

disenchanted, sharp-tongued pal - reflecting much of his own personality.  H...

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You shall,,

I shan't.

You can,

I can't.

You will,

I won't.

You do,

I don.t.

You may,

I might.

No relationship in sight!

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A liberal landscape gardener

Achieved some sort of renown

Designing each plot with displays of pot...

He was called Culpability Brown !

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There was once regard given to "choice"

In life's give and take it had a voice;

But now it suffers a transformation,,

Defined instead as "discrimination"..

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"Procrastinate" = to defer action.

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If procrastination is the thief of time,

Then to aid and abet it must be a crime!

Let this be an admonition

To each pusillanimous politician.

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I quite enjoy wealthy people

Even though I'll never be one.

I see them like a fairy story -

And those are always fun.

They occupy a different world

With various types of wealth;

Some inherited, some from talent,

And some from silent stealth.

I gaze into their goldfish bowl

At what they do - or don't.

Sometimes wishing I would be them

But more often glad I...

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English folk would bend the knee

For a sovereign or a bride to be;

But there are those whom it would please

To see all England on its knees.

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Am I equal to Albert Einstein?

Am I equal to Usain Bolt?

Do these questions (just two samples)

Give your intellect a jolt?

Am I equal to Her Majesty

Or Jeff Bezos and his cash?

Rupert Murdoch with his empire?

Sense says such claims are rash.

Being equal before the law...

With talent given opportunity

These two we shouldn't ignore 

For the reality of social unity

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Moan and groan,

Whine and whinge

Grate on the ear

Like a rusty hinge.

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Signs of virtue however small

Maybe thought good overall

But the selective sort 

With its sanctimonious retort

Doesn't represent virtue at all.

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Spotted in my London street - a van from a well known plumbing outfit bearing the registration mark -

BOG 1

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An evaluation of the wider ramifications of history................................................................................

The advent of the BLM movement and the assaults, physical and verbal, on the visible evidence of the past

history of the British Empire had me considering a hitherto overlooked/ignored aspect of its existence, not

least with regard to its relationship with bl...

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