The leaves come down
The leaves come down
And they’re orange and brown
And they fall in the forest
And they tumble in the town
And they clog up the gutters and gather in the grates
They're the colour of butter when they shine on slates
And they crinkle and curl as they silently lie
For this is the time when the leaves all die
In Autumn gales
They are blown and tossed
As the sun tu...
Monday 25th November 2024 8:43 am
The leaves come down
The leaves come down
And they’re orange and brown
And they fall in the forest
And they tumble in the town
And they clog up the gutters and gather in the grates
They're the colour of butter when they shine on slates
And they crinkle and curl as they silently lie
For this is the time when the leaves all die
In Autumn gales
They are blown and tossed
As the sun tu...
Monday 25th November 2024 8:43 am
Sashaying to Byzantium
That is no session for old men. The young
With lithe legs and arms stretch like sapling trees
We, flailing generation whose Latin songs
Fail inflamed and arthritic joints to ease
We began at eight, it’s now ten, how long
Before one amongst us succumbs, and dies?
Caught in that sensual music all wrecked
Monuments of years of bad neglect
An agèd man is but a tragic ...
Wednesday 20th November 2024 5:19 pm
Walking into light
Morning sun silvered the poplar leaves
Somewhere others lay in the cut clay, waiting
And I smelt the sea’s dead things
As I walked.
Kelp, razor shells, crabs, limpets
We laughed and swam in sandy craters
And I walked
By Goat's Water, the Old Man looked down
As he had for all my life
And all those other lives before
The smell of wet bracken, sphagnum, washed sl...
Sunday 10th November 2024 1:19 pm
Rocketman
On The Village Outer fringes
Lives the legend Rocketman
If it burns, explodes or singes
Pyrotechnically, he’s your man
His potting shed’s a bomb store
He goes there when he chooses
To stack the shelves and fill the floor
with gunpowder and fuses
He plans every Guy Fawkes night
By astrophysics and geography
Filling the sky with sound and light
And aerial chor...
Sunday 3rd November 2024 1:34 pm
Chipping Away
Get yourself a lump of marble
Twenty feet by six by six
Borrow a set of chisels
Or buy them from Screwfix
Empty out your garage or outdoor store
Of furniture and kids’ bikes from ceiling to floor
Grab yourself a mallet
Michelangelo liked wood
And get stuck in whilst listening to Johnnie B Goode
With every blow you will release
The body shape within
From a...
Saturday 26th October 2024 2:29 pm
How I spent National Poetry Day
“Lovely to hear from you!
We have a whole school poetry recital in the morning for National Poetry Day — it would be lovely if you could attend and maybe read one of your poems to the children? It might be best to phone school before you come, just to make sure about timings (if you are able to make it).”
So there I was, walking past the little hand drawn signs featuring pictures of dogs fil...
Thursday 3rd October 2024 10:10 pm
The UkeFest
Just because you can play it doesn’t mean you should
I’m talking about After the Goldrush or Before the Flood
or anything by The Eagles, Paul Simon and Stormzy
Keep these artists separate from your ukulele
Just because you know the words don’t mean you can sing
Paul Rogers is Bad Company, leave Fields of Gold to Sting
Give Roy Orbison numbers a miss
Don’t kid yourself you...
Friday 30th August 2024 9:06 am
L'Amour Olympique
I will be your paddle baby
in a boat that never leaks
Wanna be your saddle baby
and nestle in your cheeks
Wanna drive you crazy with my pike position
Wanna make you my gold medal mission
Wanna greet you on the street with a Kata devotion
Wanna swim in the Seine, surf in your Ocean
Wanna ‘nother clear round without any fault
Wanna plant my pole and make the vault
Wann...
Saturday 3rd August 2024 4:38 pm
Going Nowhere
I don’t want no Staycation
I’m not that kind of holiday guy
I’d rather not drive to some coastal location
When there’s budget ways to fly
I want to fall foul of Parking Patrol
Get mentally stressed and shout
I want to queue at Passport Control
Have breakfast with lager or stout
I want to remove my trainers and belt
Fill trays with keys and coins
Want to have...
Thursday 25th July 2024 7:10 pm
The Ballad of the Harbour Bar
Said Willie to the Dazzler
As they settled in the snug
We’ll take a pint of Bushmills malt
To fill yon claret jug
Then the silver jug was lifted
And held to Dazzler’s lips
To celebrate the winning
Of the Open Championship
In the sunlight on tobaccoed walls
As gold on silver fills the west
In black and white and green and red
The mythic Georgie Best
...
Thursday 18th July 2024 8:36 am
The Harbour Bar
Said Willie to the Dazzler
As they settled in the snug
We’ll take a pint of Bushmills malt
To fill yon claret jug
Then the silver jug was lifted
And held to Dazzler’s lips
To celebrate the winning
Of the Open Championship
In the sunlight on tobaccoed walls
As gold on silver fills the west
In black and white and green and red
The mythic Georgie Best
...
Thursday 18th July 2024 8:17 am
Lee Dixon’s Cliche Cabinet
When Lee Dixon opens his cliche cabinet,
We’re havin' it.
It was a game of two halves
The lad’s put in a shift
You couldn’t write this script, that’s a gift
Get in there my son, go on my boy
The phrases flow, sucked of joy
He pulls rabbits from hats
With consummate ease
He’s a mangled mouthed magician
Can’t you see?
His left foot’s just for standing ...
Wednesday 10th July 2024 11:07 am
Celebrant
Dear Friends and family members
Gathered here to celebrate
And rake over my life’s embers
So sorry that I’m late
I intended to be on time
For this, the concluding event
Commemorating in songs and rhyme
A life well spent
Only the traffic lights were down
And it just kept getting worse
With anxious mothers on the school run
Stuck behind the funeral hearse
...Tuesday 25th June 2024 6:21 pm
Father's Day
Greetings cards with wine or wellies
Gardening, golf and air guitars
Flawless lawns, beer bellies
For this is what you are
You’re slower, balder, fuller faced
Your jokes fall flat and stale
That bike you bought, still in its place
Another mid-life fail
The Lycra was more than a stretch
You ’re living in the past
Running uphill makes you retch
And your tr...
Saturday 15th June 2024 3:43 pm
The Lion Queen
I must go down to the sea again, to the Lion Man and his shack
To follow the Lion Queen again on her sand blown, rocky track
To hear the heaving ocean, Breakers thundering on the shore
Where the whale bones bleach under pitiless skies
And the wind whispers “never more”
Never more to the Queen of the lion clan
Who bestrode these shattered wastes
Oblivious to the eyes of the man
All alon...
Wednesday 5th June 2024 5:08 pm
Go Live Day
Sheaves of stamps with perforated edges
Crumpled postal orders and giro books
Biros, jotters, paperclips and ledgers
Welcoming smiles and knowing, sideways looks
Parcels, diligence and calibration
Columns filled with calculator clicks
Ink stamps thud in rhythm with the nation
Lips seal envelopes with efficient licks
One day they came with boxes, drills and cable
“It’s ti...
Tuesday 28th May 2024 2:56 pm
Barista Blues
I lost my girl to a barista
He’s taken all I’d got
Wrote her name on her cup, then he kissed her
While she necked an espresso shot
I thought that I could trust her
But this is no minor affliction
Her love for the bean’s robusta
It’s a terminal addiction
I’m a has bean on the cafe scene
You could say at this juncture
Since I lost my Costa Coffee Queen
My Nespresso capsule’s punctured
Wednesday 22nd May 2024 11:11 am
Socially Perfect
I love my perfect life
With my perfect kids and my perfect wife
And all those perfect times we’ve had
Being the perfect mum and perfect dad
And our perfect home where perfect friends
Adapt perfectly to every trend
Or those perfect days spent at the beach
Who says perfection’s out of reach?
We have perfect times when we go out
With perfect people round about
As our perfect laughter fi...
Thursday 16th May 2024 8:01 pm
The Last Tango
I’ll take my chances by the crater’s edge
And hold my partner to the windswept ledge
Our heads thrown back as we await the crash
Of pumice stone and hot volcanic ash
With molten lava there is just one chance
To swoon and tango in one last romance
So take me in your arms and squeeze me tight
Erupting embers make the earth ignite
He holds her waist she grips his wri...
Tuesday 7th May 2024 5:54 pm
Bungalow Dreaming
I’ve got my eye on a bungalow
now I’m ageing fast and living slow
not much to do, nowhere to go
A remote-controlled garage door
An en-suite on the ground floor
These are the things I’m looking for
My rosy afterglow
I’ve got my eye on a bungalow
Where I can unwind, go with the flow
Touch the roof it’s only low
A resin drive that’s easy to clean
No moss, no weed...
Sunday 28th April 2024 9:49 am
The Eternal Flame
Two stones banged together
To create a misplaced spark
Forget about the weather
Never mind the dark
Harnessing that fire
Gave Neanderthals a thrill
They could build a funeral pyre
And keep out the Ice Age chill
Down countless generations
The flame remained intact
As in various locations
Wood was splintered, split and stacked
By Maasai on the Kenyan Plains
In Uluru’s mystic glow
...
Wednesday 17th April 2024 7:11 pm
Ode to Lemon Meringue Pie
Teetering on the platter
A treat for human senses
It’s food to make you fatter
Crushing all of your defences
Its snowy dunes and hollows
Of flouncy sweet meringue
Are made for ample swallows
Of dessert sturm und drang
Ignore it at your peril
Its appeal you can’t deny
When hunger makes you feral
Reach for lemon meringue pie
Its gaudy citrus layer
...Wednesday 10th April 2024 11:47 am
The Poets' Ball
In a castle on a promontory above a rocky cliff
As the sun sinks down the poets come to carouse and rhyme and riff
Chaucer riding on a dappled horse escorts the Wife of Bath
Johnny Clark smokes with Betjeman who complains about the staff
Shakespeare’s musing in the corner
Working out an obstinate sonnet
Emily Dickinson hides shyly in her cloak and starched white bonnet
Donne, ...
Wednesday 3rd April 2024 1:54 pm
The Best Poet's Name
William Wordsworth and Walt Whitman have alliterative names
For Norman Nicholson and Stevie Smith you may say the same
Sassoon with his Siegfried and Porter with his Peter
Were destined to have mastery of rhythm, form and meter
Marvell at the metaphysical, let Pope raise you higher
But the best poet’s name is Benjamin Zephaniah
Some poets’ names onomatopoeically enth...
Wednesday 27th March 2024 6:23 pm
Brian Bilston - A Review
Standing stock still on the Storyhouse stage
Purringly, the poet poked, parried, proselytised and punned
It was a wry, rhythmic romp, a rhyming rampage
With fulfilling Fibonacci fables, felines and one Frisbee being flung
Meteoric, metaphysical, making mincemeat of the Mail
Wielding words with wondrous wit
The Lemsip Laureate left a trail
Of moments that will hang about ...
Wednesday 20th March 2024 8:25 am
The Primrose
The primrose with its glowing face held high
Brings promise of the softer days of Spring
And gazes up towards the wind ripped sky
Through branches to the sunlight, filtering
New leaves unfold beneath the solemn frost
Where clasped they lie and frozen to the earth
A voice like yours is permanent, not lost
The primrose glows to celebrate your birth
And now each year it brings...
Sunday 10th March 2024 9:22 am
Floating out on Windermere
Floating out on Windermere
Below the towering fells
Enveloped by the beauty here
And hosts of daffodils
Over the side of the little boat
Oars churn the placid lake
Where unexpected items float
To the Leven and the Crake
They meander through the baby trout
And clog their little gills
Of their origin there can be no doubt
Septic tanks and sewage spills
...
Sunday 3rd March 2024 5:56 pm
Sleeping with Alexa
Sleeping with Alexa
Got a new girl in the metaverse
It’s impossible to hate her
Although her repartee is terse
And she’s harvesting my data
Her presence is immersive
She’s made my life complete
Her motives are subversive
She’s got no hands or feet
She’s a disembodied avatar
Who tells me all I need to know
From how to drive a driverless car
What to...
Sunday 25th February 2024 12:24 pm
Tough on Rhyme
We’re locking up the poets
And throwing them in cells
They’re dissidents and show it
Via odes and villanelles
Collected incantations
Against the status quo
Acerbic observations
Couplets in full flow
We’re exiling the muses
To be banished somewhere grim
With Terza Rima that confuses
And volumes that are slim
Wokey right-on anarchists
Who kid...
Friday 16th February 2024 2:09 pm
If Dogs Were Made World Leaders
If dogs were made world leaders
There would be no futile wars
And laws and treaties would be signed
With inky prints of paws
Chihuahuas and Alsatians
Would respect each other’s space
There’d be no United Nations
Just a favourite sniffing place
Summit sessions would be held
In playing fields or parks
With flashing collars de rigeur
For meetings after dar...
Thursday 8th February 2024 6:58 pm
Three Short Words
We needed Nelson Mandela
They gave us Elizabeth Truss
A crushing disappointment for all the rest of us
We needed Mahatma Gandhi
They gave us Elizabeth Truss
Which was seriously worrying
When her judgement is so sus
We needed Angela Merkel
They gave us Elizabeth Truss
Stick a three-word slogan on a big red bus
Liz our Healer, our Leader our Giver
Chosen to Deliver...
Thursday 1st February 2024 12:35 pm
Parish Councillor
Parish Councillor (after Betjeman)
I am a Parish Councillor; no job’s too small for me
From facilitating Bonfire Night to lighting up the tree
In every avenue and byway of our village small and neat
You’ll find me surveying the highway and examining the street.
Who’s that? people say as I stride along the lanes
Frowning, nodding, peering down to investigate the drains
...Thursday 25th January 2024 4:03 pm
Six Nations Time
Six Nations wake from slumber
As winter turns to Spring
For tribal warfare on the pitch
It’s a Celts and Saxons thing
They’ll be singing hymns and arias
From the Tiber to the Tay
And the week feels that much longer
As we wait for Saturday
And the squads are called together
From places far and wide
There will be sunshine and foul weather
There will be shir...
Sunday 21st January 2024 12:42 pm
The Prefab Garden at St Paul's
We said goodbye to my sister yesterday, a teacher for 34 years at St Paul's C of E Primary School in Manchester. She was a brilliant actor as well as being a great teacher, bringing every story to life. Her classroom, outside the main Victorian school building was simply known as "The Prefab". She also loved her garden and Spring was her favourite time of year. Writing this poem has helped bring s...
Saturday 13th January 2024 2:46 pm
Time Travellers - 1775
Tread gently beneath the fragile fanlight
With its curving carved ribs
framing rippling glass
Glance up to the Venetian arch with its Canaletto morning sky
And the uncoiled mahogany staircase
Treads echoing to the creak and clatter of murmurous ghosts
Peel the plaster skin from the wall
Withies within, woven by dead fingers
Stiff reeds droop with the stilled pro...
Sunday 7th January 2024 3:32 pm
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