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NO BONHOMIE FROM ME

There's a breed that won't get New Year bonhomie from me

The culpable controlling Chinese Government Commie!

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CHRISTMAS EVE

So...here we are on Christmas Eve

Another year almost done

Time to reflect on what we believe....

That affects us --everyone.

 

A hush will come as this day wanes

And our lives are sent to rest

Time to weigh up loss and gains

The worst against the best.

 

But one thing shines out above all

And enables us to cope -

When times seem set to see us fall

And that, ...

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GENTLEMAN'S RELISH

There's something about Christmas few men will be knocking - 

That young eye-opening discovery of a well filled silk stocking!   :

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WHEN CHRISTMAS COMES AROUND - a seasonal hymn

Lift up your voice, let all rejoice

And make a joyful sound

Cast off the care that we must bear

When Christmas comes around

 

Look to your hearts, that's where love starts,

Where life itself begins

And you shall know that faith will show

Forgiveness for your sins.

 

Look to His Truth, in age and youth

Salvation shall be found

As One they stand before His Hand

...

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THOUGHTS AT CHRISTMAS - an annual re-post

Perhaps even more relevant now, with Covid meeting Christmas again.

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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 go.

 

Christmas hours are briefly bright

Their spark is spent i...

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THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS - a song lyric returns

The recorded song version can be heard under "audio" on my profile page.

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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

...

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BEATING HEART

The beating heart of Christmas is its spirit of give and take

When goodwill and generosity come together to make

The effort to see the thoughts behind another point of view

And refrain from condemnation before thinking that act through.

The greeting "Merry Christmas" resonates in so many ways

Somehow warmer and more comforting than "Happy Holidays".

So let us all remember what th...

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CHRISTMAS SNOW - a re-post for those away from home at a precious family time.

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 play.

 

Every Yuletide brings its reason

To celebrate old ways before

Family gathered for the Season

Friends and neighbours at the door.

 

Whatever in my life forsakes me

Wherever in the world I go

I bless this heart that always takes me

...

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NO FOOLING

Fool yourself if you must

By calling it love

When it's really lust

It may be filling while it lasts

Like a banquet

To a hungry soul who fasts

But here's a thought -

No...make that a question:.

Why do both bring acid indigestion?

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LAZY WORK

Quoting other folk's stuff may be termed "lazy work" but here's one example - a "for sale" ad. - offered with its welcome miitigation of wry humour..

"Complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica, 45 volumes.  Excellent condition, £200 or best offer.

No longer needed, got married, wife knows everything.".

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CAB TO A JAB

I had the invitation to a booster injection

As one of those oldies who warrant selection.

To my delight it was listed to be given close by

Albeit a shade too far to walk (or even try!)

So I decided to invest in a business which

Would see me arrive there without a hitch

To hell with the expense - I booked a cab

To take me in style to my booster jab.

And it certainly did that...

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POLICING LONDON - BACK IN THE DAY

Policing London was never a job for the remotely faint hearted

Certainly not in those swinging sixties days when yours truly started.

Posted to the docklands and the Limehouse of old Chinatown

Where staff would swarm like howling bees to bring a welshing diner down,

And known villains slid by in their favoured MarkTwo shiny Jags

Never visibly short of a bob or two but never generous...

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NOVEMBER DAWN

There's something about a November morning

A struggle twixt darkness and the dawning,

And when the Eleventh Day comes around

That feeling seems even more profound.

 

We lucky souls can lie warm in bed

While others before us lie cold and dead

In distant foreign plots of earth

Far from the soil that saw their birth.

 

Deprived of the future their hopes reserved,

Deni...

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WHO IS IT?

Greta Thunberg: is that "Gretta" or "Greeter" ?

Such a shame she couldn't seem sweeter.

It would surely add to her media power

If she could look a little less sour!.

As for me I wonder about other things...

Like the cost of her travels and who pulls her strings?

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LIVING A LIFE

I find myself living in an infantile age,

With its petulant posturing and childish rage,

That rational reasoning seems pressed to assuage,

And common sense unable to engage.

In today's hothouse of hyperbole and hoke

It's just as well logic can take a joke.

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WHO?

Pray tell me who here is the victim....

The one who is heard shouting out - .

Or the one who is said to have kicked him

Unable to abide the corrosive uttered doubt?

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GONE

O England, my England, where have you gone?

Where is that land I once looked upon

When I was a laughing lad living the dream

Born of a time and a people who seem

Sad spectres calling vainly but their voices are lost

In a England so different and gone now at such cost.

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NEVER AGAIN - an old style ballad lyric

(With feeling)

I shan't fall in love again

You won't find me like other men....

Foolish fancies from the start

Careless with this caring heart

 

I'll never smile again and say

I'm yours forever come what may

A stronger man is what I'll be

There'll be a wiser change in me

 

Love may lead other men on a merry dance

But I'll tell you now that there's just no chance

...

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SUNNY?

When did  you last see reports about the effects of the sun?

Ot its proclivity for uncontrollable activity (so far I've seen none!);

When did you last see reports about far-off solar flares

That might impart knowledge about closer climate cares?

When did you last see reports about the existence of sun spots -

Far away formidable influences that tend to transmit lots

Of violent up...

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WHERE WAS THIS?

The tragedy of Sarah Everard's death obtained huge MSM coverage and comment, much of it critical

and aimed at the police.  But where was this post-sentence observation attributed to the presiding  

judge, Lord Justice Fulford?  .

"This has been the most impressive police investigation that I have witnessed in the 30 years I have 

been sitting as a part-time and full-time judge.  The sp...

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WELL?

Briitain today seems like a well,

Its content corrupted and polluted,

Marked by a rancid criminal smell -

In greed and weakness foully rooted.

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JUSTICE AND THE LAW - A DIVERGENCE?

NOTE:  Thr following was written prior to the report that Sarah Everard's murderer received a whole-life

term.  My idea of proper retribution/justice...IF it stands.

Some thoughts on a social aberration that continues to haunt society.

Every generation faces the same old conumdrum: how to control the human predators that seek to prey

upon the innocent and vulnerable.  Today, we like to...

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RAGE

"Comments are disabled for this page"

Can put all poets in a rage.

I adapted this from a long-ago day

Since it matches what I want to say.

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LAST POST - a re-post!

There's this to say for getting old:

You take more care against the cold

And value each new day.

 

And this to say for getting old:

You want to keep and not to scold

The children at their play.

 

And this to say for getting old:

It's always welcome to be told

To take a seat and stay.

 

And this to say for getting old:

You may not be so brash and bold,

But ...

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SICK

Does morbidity drag you down? :.

Does hypochondria make you sick?

Health is mainly a DIY thing -

Starting young can do the trick.

Lay the groundwork early

Foundations of fitness set

Withstand the sresses of later years

So...on your marks...get set!!

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IN THE WIND

An election commitment has been binned,

With higher tax the Tories are twinned;

Financially we've just been chinned,- 

A Boris promise just a fart in the wind!

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"A" PLUS AND "A" MINUS

The subject matter seemed beyond a poem but rather more suited to prose...hence the following.

The situation in Afghanistan engenders a certain sense of irony in yours truly, for the process and the recent outcome.

Both America and the UK were prime participants and somehow the lessons of history seems to have passed

them by in their dealings with that country and its inhabitants.

Cent...

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MAUDLIN DAWDLING

I sometimes wonder on Double U-O-L

If happiness is shot to hell!

So much dispiriting doom and gloom,

Finding its way into the room

That offers a welcome open door

To join a party hard to ignore.

Bring your bottle of bubbly stuff -

Of good things we can't get enough;

Vintage or new, come...spread the cheer,

Smiling, you'll find us waiting here!

When maudlin dawdling is...

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EXERCISE

I admit I speak from a certain age

In an era when exercise is all the rage -

But having had my share in the past

I seem to have done enough to last;.

Keen to lay the foundation provided

When youth and energy coincided,

Working to keep the body healthy

Without seeing multi-gyms get wealthy.

Now the years have accumulated

I view exercise as over-rated,

Preferring instea...

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FREEDOM TODAY

It seems today's meaning of freedom

Now equates with selfish "me...me-dom".

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TWITS

The twits that are witnessed on Twitter

Are so often twisted and bitter.

Such a pity those eejits

Masquerading as half-wits

Aren't just a mite mentally fitter!

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THAT WAS THEN

In modern times, again and again,

Different days and different men

Are brought to life to answer crimes

That were not crimes in other times;

Egregious though they're seen today,

Back then that view did not hold sway.

Widely practiced, this evil knavery

Now justly reviled worldwide as slavery

Was commerce created in human form....

Trafficking humanity was the "norm"

Th...

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UNTITLED

Just when I think I'm getting somwhere,

Getting somewhere with you;.

Just when I feel I'm floating on air

Up in the shiny blue -

Suddenly you let me have what-for:

Baby, you slam my door!

 

Just when I think I'm getting real close,

Getting real close to you;

Just when I think I'm there and you're here

In a sweet meeting place for two -

Suddenly I find I'm flat on t...

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VOLTAIRE LIVES!

A few words from an incisive intellect from the past to put the recent Euro Cup Final failure to bed.

"The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us."

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RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM

The ongoing situation of Covid-19 and its much-discussed effect on our freedom has me referring to a record

I kept of political restrictions on our lives in the recent past.  How about these as a reminder of how they can

appear and mount up over time - for reasons that are often worryingly spurious and populist in origin.

Firearm certificate holders banned.

Fox hunting traditions outla...

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BELIEVING THAT I LIED - a repost from a decade ago

I know that it always hurts

When I think of you;

And I know for sure it always will

Every time I do.

 

The memory of what we had

Just won't go away,

And knowing that it turned out bad

Darkens each new day.

 

I see that when we said goodbye

Something in me died.

You seemed to be so very sure

When you said I lied.

 

It wasn't just the words you used

To...

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THE SIMPLEST KICK IN SOCCER

Whilst acknowledging and applauding the team effort that saw England reach the final of the Euro Cup,

the repeated failure of penalty takers to capitalise on success deserves comment, not least when

considering the following backstory in the beautiful game here in England..

Seventy years ago, Charlie Mitten of Manchester United was famous for his ability to score these spot kicks.

And ...

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GROWING OLD ALONE

Growing old alone 

Has benefits to own.

No need for reassuring

(The very idea is boring!);

Company is at best

An interruption of rest

No need for noisy chatter

From mouths that do not matter;

No reminders in another's face

That time is moving on apace.

And when time makes its concession

To the Reaper taking possession

Better a detached but caring voice

Would ...

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HALF-WIT

Calling someone a half-wit can seem misguided at best;

To understand the reason there is this simple test:

Consider the reality that stares you in the face -

That applying the appellation presumes WIT to be in place!.

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GONE TO POT

So many seem to go to pot

(Do I mean drugs?  No, I do not!)

Too much of a bad thing comes to mind

Just look around and you'll soon find

The evidence is all around

Ounce for ounce...pound for pound.

Leviathans loom large in life today

Sashaying their substantial way

The visible proof that a junk food diet

Is only OK if you DON'T try it.

A little of what you fancy may b...

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BE COMFORTED

When the fire within me dies

And my spirit soars beyond the skies

I shall need neither ears nor eyes

To meet and greet the waiting prize.

 

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 own eternal chain.

 

So save your tears - your sad goodbyes

For this severing of familiar ties

Be comf...

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SLAVERY KNAVERY

Slavery equates with knavery -

Who today would argue with that?

Evil is as evil does...

And wears its evil hat.

 

But every buyer needs a seller...

Market forces in the murk;...

About who was buying and who was selling

Sees one-way forces at work.

 

Across the world and throughout time

The two have conspired as one,

Without their cruel complicity

The deed cou...

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FLIGHT

Fancy a flight that sees your hair

Stand on end - try Ryanair!

You take a chance on getting where

You bought a ticket to get there.

Wherever that place "there" might be

You may get an extra flight for free

To some dire place you did not choose -

Fancy a stop at benighted Belarus?

Where they drag opponents from a plane

In defiance of diplomacy and don't refrain

From wa...

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ROBUST

Carp and criticise if you must

But I'd prefer you to be robust'

Fight your corner, stand your ground,

In for a penny, in for a pound.

Raise your sights and take your aim

At this modern myth of "We're all to blame".

Pull the trigger and fire your shots

At those who have lots and ignore the have-nots.

Let your righteous bullets kick up the dust

And remind them of the word ...

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RICHARD

For my brother 30.01.1937 - 13.05.2021

No one lives forever - today that's been brought home to me,

And never send to know for whom the bell tolls - it tolls for thee, you see.

No recent answer to the telephone and emails that were ignored...

The mind conjured up its reasons - perhaps he just got bored

With the expectations that went with the thought.: Reply you idle man!

You're ...

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TERSE

I note the frequent mention of  "diverse"

But I'll keep my misgivings terse;

On its divergence from unity

Imparted with impunity

With no regard to the term "reimburse".

 

 

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BARBARY COAST

While reading about Gilbert & Sullivan's comic opera "The Pirates of Penzance" I was intrigued to find 

information about the subject of piracy in general, not least the slave-taking activities of the infamous 

Barbary Coast pirate mob from North Africa, essentially based in the ports of Tunis, Algiers andTripoli. 

Throughout the 17th century and beyond, they marauded around the seas. Sai...

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EMOTIVISM

You learn something every day, it seems, and a word previously unknown to me - coined by an American

philosopher - entered my existence the other day, chiming with much of what I note around me these days.

That word is "emotivism".  It describes a state of mind that views things when a need or wish to see them a

certain way takes precedence of fact.  The personal moral choice of what an i...

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BEDDED BLISS

I've long been in love with my bed!

You might say I'm easily led,

But it's a lifelong affair

That both of us share,

And we remain happily wed.

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GENERATIONAL

After World War Two in a ration-ridden rubble strewn land

The baby-boomers arppeared and quickly made their stand..

With a parental generation that had shown the world the best,

They in turn showed their intention to be up to the crucial  test

To drag this nation up by its bootstraps to prosper once again

And see a land that was on its knees stand on its feet and obtain

A future ...

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