The Sycamore Gap

Is just 'The gap'

Its body tumbled, bleeding sap

For 200 years its leafy hair

Ruffled to whispers in swirling air

O! What it heard in ages past!

Now, sadly lost

It's heard its last…

Read and leave comments (5)

Written for the Parisella family who ran the cafe for decades, and where, as a teenager,  i would often be found. It's now been rebuilt with the original 1950's interior at Beamish open air museum. 

(The heartbeat of a village 

Is the people who help

Shape it)

It was a decade or so

After the war

Shackles were breaking

Thrown to the floor 

There were places to go

Read and leave comments (7)

The sky shed tears, on that day

The day the wind took you away

The thunder of time, rumbled on

Playing a melancholic song

The lightning splitting my heart in two

A piece for me, 

                           a piece for you

One day we'll stitch it back together 

And then, my love, 

                                 we have forever 

Read and leave comments (7)

There were brush strokes of cloud

Against a watercolour of blue

And, the sun gilded wisps

With a honey drizzle hue

There was wonder in that canvas

Painted by Nature's hand

But, on occasion, tears would fall 

Reminiscing a green & pleasant land 

Read and leave comments (4)

The European champions 

Hold the world in their hands

Bring it home

Bring it home

Comes the chant from the stands

The breath of England 

Heaves shallow in wait

But, these Lionesses 

Are the key to our fate 

They have passion & strength

And a will to achieve 

Each heart & each soul 

Worn firmly on sleeve

For 57 years 

We've huffed & we've puf...

Read and leave comments (2)

I walked down a country lane 

Where sunlight drizzled flowers 

And found a quiet little nook

To wile away the hours

A bumblebee bumbled by

Choosing the brightest flower

It buzzed the flower's cheery face

To create a pollen shower

The bumblebee buzzed away

Withs its sticky little treasure

And there I snoozed in idle bliss

Regarding life's most simple pleas...

Read and leave comments (4)

I lost my Brother, and my poetry went with him

Words replaced by a bottomless hollow

Knowing he has not one more tomorrow 

The words I needed drifted away

Hiding from the light of day

Wallowing in a sea of grey 

The sea, which drowns us all

When someone dear passes away

He liked a drink, and liked a fag

But was the best brother I could have had

'A good looki...

Read and leave comments (11)

There was such a tenderness 

In the beating of her heart

But, such a terrible wailing 

To go unheard 

Her hand lay open & empty 

Her eyes

Mostly closed

A smile could occasionally flicker

Like the flame of a candle 

Dancing before it becomes smoke.

On that last night 

When the rain poured

And the moon hid

Her hand slowly closed

Her cheeks dimpled with ...

Read and leave comments (2)

His desolate thoughts

Were taken by the wind

A husk, sat fiddling with thread

Picked from halcyon times

He looked out to the sea

It was raging

He wished himself that rage

But, instead, calmly sat fiddling with…

The thread had gone

He took a sip of tea turned cold

And itched

Always the same itch 

The wind was gathering a storm

His old jacket eagerly billowing

Read and leave comments (7)

There's a certain snobbery to rhyming 

I think it's all about timing 

This modern lot say it's not their scene

It diminishes the artistic dream

No competitions are won by rhyme!

You've got to toe the trending line!

Wordsworth & Co would now be snubbed

His daffodils, critically, left unloved.

O Captain! My Captain! 

O give it a rest!

Drop the rhyming! It's for the best...

Read and leave comments (8)

My daughter brought me chocolates & wine.

I said:

you alone would have been fine

She gave me such a loving hug

The type you'd bottle, if only you could

My girl, I said

My Dad, she smiled

And then we just sat for a little while

Nestled in the comfort of reminisce 

Of laughter & holidays & family bliss… 

But, then a beep came from her phone

And I was dropped just lik...

Read and leave comments (6)

These words that I speak

These words I now write

These flat voweled phrases

These poems I indite 

This love of things dark

This love of things light

This fondness for nature 

This ease with the night 

These moments of joy

These moments of fear

These hands clenched in fists

These thoughts holding clear

This taste for fine wine

This taste for che...

Read and leave comments (11)

What?

I don't need glasses

My eyes are just fine

They're maturing nicely

Just like fine wine!

So, everything's…feathered!

Not blurry at all…

Honestly!

You walk into ONE wall!

OK I'll try 'em

But, it'll change nowt!

Don't know what

All the fuss is about!

Holy, bloody Nora!

I can see the wrinkles in ye face!

Hold on! What dya mean?

These...

Read and leave comments (3)

There was a pretty, little flower girl

Many moons ago

She always found the brightest blooms

And sold them down The Row

The Row was full of scurrilous knaves 

Who thought her smile so priceless 

One day they took that smile away 

And left her cold & lifeless 

No man nor beast was ever caught

And flowers bloomed no-more

The Row fell grey with dank decay 

An...

Read and leave comments (9)

For all the Sunderland fans out there... Aw, just me then! 😆

(one last push)

Hold on! 

Passing 

Movement 

Wanting the ball?

This definitely 

Isn't Sunderland at all!

Youth and vigour 

Playing as a TEAM!

Where's the journeymen 

And the greedy has-beens?

These are just younguns 

They can't do owt

Especially now that 

Ross ain't about!

Hold on

What's...

Read and leave comments (6)

She had gemstones 

masquerading as eyes

And tears of diamonds 

upon her porcelain face

Her ruby lips whispered 

pearls of infinite possibilities 

      And there stood I:

Cubic zirconia, nickel, and clay

But somehow 

she made me her equal.

Read and leave comments (6)

Let me peek into your mind

I wonder what delights I'll find?

All manner of things, both sweet & sour

Such tasty morsels to devour! 

Love & Grief in all their sorrow 

I'll gobble 'em down, like there's no tomorrow!

Your secrets, kept so close to chest

I'll hang to cure 'till at their best!

I cross my heart, I'll never tell

Even at the toll of your death knell!

I'l...

Read and leave comments (7)

I wish upon 

A Shooting Star 

Then, turn around

And there you are

Wrapped up in shimmering 

Cloaks of moonlight 

Your starlit smile

A celestial delight

And in my arms 

I feel you there

The warmth of you 

Through cold night air

Your lingering scent

Warms my heart

So cold, since yours

Refused to start

I want this moment

For ever more

But soon it ...

Read and leave comments (9)

On Prebends bridge I caught the evolution of twilight into dawn.

Watched shifting hues of shadow and light brightening into colour.

And, for a moment, I thought I saw her 

looking up through the morning mist.

Her pallid, frail frame accentuated by the glistening blue ocean of her eyes. 

But, she faded. Like the mist itself

And all that I was left with, once again, 

was the sh...

Read and leave comments (4)

On waking,

she shivered a rainbow 

upon the knoll where bodies lay.

Yawning flowers took note,

flaunting their colours as a veil.

Her fingers dug deep into the fertile soil

until she could feel the root.

The old oak swaying its gnarly arms.

The moss, so moist and sweet, sang.

She could hear the breeze whistling  the grass.

A lullaby of morning dew.

From the forest ...

Read and leave comments (5)

Happy World Poetry Day!

"I don't like poetry, " she said, slouched against

the gnarly skin of a grand old oak tree

"Really?" I said

And gifted her some Dickinson, Angelou

and a dark sprinkling of Poe 

"Hmmm." She pondered. 

Below, in the valley, the last drizzles of honey

slowly trickled away from lazy fields

The sunset preferring to brush them with a dusky pink ici...

Read and leave comments (4)

Do not forget who I was -

Who I am!

I awoke in the womb

Then moved to a pram!

I learned how to toddle

Then stumble 

Then walk

Then, as my parents found out

I learned how to talk…

And talk!

I laughed in the sunshine 

Made daisy chains too

Does anyone recognise 

This person in you?

In teenage years 

There came the drama

As my parents tried to...

Read and leave comments (5)

Savour this warmth

Within me you see

For, what shall return 

May no longer be me

That which these eyes

Have still yet to see

May make a small shell

Of all I could be

Though, I fear I may not

Come back at all

Lying still and alone

Wherever I fall

Show my daughter a photo 

When her world feels small

The one where we're laughing 

At nothing ...

Read and leave comments (7)

I remember running 

To the corner shop

A 10p mix-up 

Is what I got!

Exotic pineapple

In sugary cubes

Mixed in with 1p

and ½ penny chews!

There were Hearts of love

With messages wrote 

To give to those

Who floated your boat

Liquorice laces!

Hubba Bubba too

So you could blow pink bubbles

As big as me and you!

(OK, so that might be 

a ...

Read and leave comments (7)

The village thought her

Such a sight!

Needle thin

And lacking height 

Her face was wrong

Not right at all!

With one eye big

And one eye small

Her nose was bent

Her ears misplaced

She was what you call

An acquired taste!

But, an artist came

Called Picasso they say

And painted her

In such a way

Her inner colours

Shone bright & fr...

Read and leave comments (3)

The sky looked weary 

Pale and colourless 

As were we

I laid down my rifle

and thought of what I'd told her

I'd left it in the hollow of her mind

In the place where dreams ascend 

So, when the day came 

they could carry 

all that grief & sorrow away

and feed it to the clouds

for when they felt like crying

And on that day

Laden with the burden of

a thousand...

Read and leave comments (2)

Into the office 

someone's brought cake!

Don't they know

I'm a little snowflake!

I have no willpower 

Can't think for myself

Then in strolls this cocky

little cake elf!

Spreading obesity

Like covid 19

Don't they know cake

should never be seen! 

It's total carnage

There's cream round me gob

And, now, someone's brandishing 

a chocolate hob-...

Read and leave comments (6)

I watched the ship break

under the biblical rage of the sea

The mast creaking into splinters

The greedy waves taking bites of bow & stern 

I listened 

as the wind, howling like a wolf,

carried the wailing away 

under a sky of trauma 

But then, 

her hand broke through a swell

Alabaster against grey

I cried out

Tried to crawl

but too soon 

I would be ca...

Read and leave comments (1)

Through a gape in the curtains 

A shard of morning light 

slices my bloated belly in two

How ironic, I think

A body divided 

The inner, unwanted

The outer, a pathetic addict

And they tell me

MY baby will be born a junkie 

Assuming it doesn't O.D. 

inside its little toxic den first…

There's dust motes twinkling 

in the shard's overflow:

Dead skin can...

Read and leave comments (6)

Luxuriously Tranquil 

lay on the bed

with a yawn full of dreams

and a cumulus head 

It didn't care much

for the midday rush

It much preferred calm

and the lull of a hush

With purpose, it idled 

Into sweet, silent bliss

But, at 2 in the morning 

It, still, had to get up to piss 🙄

Read and leave comments (4)