Last shift done
On the home run
Nice iced bun
an' a cuppa tea
Merry Christmas to me! ?

Aw, go on then:
And to you 
The WOL crew xx ❤️

A strange year indeed

But, poetry took the lead

To conjure smiles & debate

And relieve a little weight 

All the best, time to rest ?

Steve xx

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It takes me back to a boy;

the falling of snow

To a fluffy, white street

under a streetlight's dull glow:

Where an old man trudges through

Each foot now a plough

Eyes squinting to see

The here and the now

I watch from a window

My youthful eyes wide

Thinking: move to the road

Then you can slide!

But he carries on trudging

As I shake my youn...

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On cold winter nights like these

When silhouetted flames of orange and red 

flicker and sway upon the walls 

of a darkened room

The past can find its way back

Seeping out of cracks, long-since filled

Through floorboards, long-since replaced

Soft and hushed, 

ingrained in the periphery

The flames luring memories from shadows 

to join in perfect ambience

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Granda's slouched 

In his fave comfy chair

A Christmas cracker party hat

Hides his four strands of hair

His wife always said:

'Get the buggers cut!'

But he wasn't quite ready

To be a total baldy nut! 

He wishes she was here now

Nagging at full pelt:

'If ye eat or drink one more thing,

yer gonna burst your belt!'

And Sophie's eyes sparkle

L...

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The nasty little snowman

Wasn't made of all things nice

They'd patted him together

With, mostly, dirty ice

He had rusty bolts for eyes

And a beer bottle nose

A frozen dog turd mouth

And a piece of garden hose

shoved up his frozen arse.

The kids found this so funny

But, when he opened his dogshit mouth

They all ran home to mummy!

Such expletives he...

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Thank you to talented local musician Stuart Bell for turning it into a lovely Christmas ditty! 

(a re-post, but it seems more appropriate now! ⛄)

Like comets we slid through the crisp, white grass

In our wake billowed a powder-puff mass

It floated and swirled and twinkled with light

Like low-hanging stars broke free of the night

And in snow-laden fields angels were...

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Nestled upon a pillow of cloud

The moon sat, big and fat

As I watched it from my garden

In a cul-de-sac

It didn't really do much

Just illuminate the sky

But, then I thought: that alone

Makes it a greater thing than I ! 

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On a cold winter's night

They sat, hand in hand

Ravaged by time

Old in design

Two dinosaurs

In a digital age

Still in analogue love

Upon a wireless hub

Sitting on a park bench

Beneath a full moon

At the end of their time

Bodies poised to resign 

In a gathering frost 

They glisten as one

Hands intertwined

Old parchment defined

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Sometimes

Life is like the smallest flower

Stretching for some sun

When all the bigger ones devour

All it could become

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A WWI remembrance poem

(First published online for Northern Life magazine 2018)

It creaked as he left:

The old garden gate

He’d promised to fix it

But now it was too late

Tearful in the doorway

His mother cries out,

‘Do it when you’re back, Billy!’

And of this she has no doubt

He waves,

And off to glory are the swathes

Of boys, and men in their pr...

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I struggle without hands

Have no mouth, to speak of

And my eyes avert.

I itch and blotch, 

And the radiance of the sky

Illuminates my sheer loneliness.

Darkness can't come soon enough

'Though I fear my blanket will

one day

become the soil of my grave.

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(Happy Halloween everyone!)

She rides upon a crimson horse

Its eyes as black as tar

Pray not to hear her whispered name

For she'll come to where you are

Her skin: as white as fresh-laid snow 

And twice as cold to touch

Her hair: as black as night itself

Hold your breath now, hush!

For if you hear the galloping hooves

Coming to your door

Run with all ...

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From the windswept clifftop

She could see below

Far below into the cove

Where lay, a body upon the sand

And, dragged by tide,

A waving hand

It swayed like the branch

Of a wind-laden tree

Come to me

Oh come to me!

A breath of chill

Now, caressed her skin

Whilst staring down at the cove

And the figure within

And upon her grasped

Su...

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Dreams are such strange creatures

Presenting vivid or

amorphic features

They steep your mind

in make-believe

Where past & present

Interweave 

I'm in the woods

'neath a gnarly tree

Where friends of old 

run wild & free 

Friends who now rest

as soil or ash

Or who simply faded

into time's elapse

But, I'm standing there

Fully gro...

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Come look inside my cooking pot

It's full of children you forgot

Upon the streets, so cold & wet

I steal away their rancid breath

Then grind them down to fit my pot

And heat it up so very hot

Then feed them to the homeless ones

Who gobble them up with such aplomb!

My good deed done, I crawl back home

And slither upon my thorny throne

And there I wait wi...

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One day I looked 

inside my head

And there I found

words left unsaid:

Make haste
No time
Forbid
Hate love
Always shout
Never listen

So, I put haste in the waste
Told No to go!
Put a lid on bid
Locked hate in a crate 
Gave shout a clout (until it ran out)
And
Got rid of never, forever

I'd like to think
That what remained
In all of us 
Is preordained:

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I

and I alone

upon my bed of cobbled stone

Ponder

   As my flesh weeps into gravel sheets

I ponder what it must be like

to be whole again

   To feel I had a soul again

This dessicated shell

crumbles like mountain scree

down, down to the hungry, black sea

lapping and licking at the feet of my bed

dragging out, with the tide, 

such meagre light from my hea...

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Come sit atop my bed of bones

With crimson hue

And darkened tones

Discard your flesh

Come join the rabble

For ecstasy waits

For those who dabble

I've cleared a space

Atop my bed

To lay your bones

When you are dead

I'll pick them clean

And hold them dear

Just so you know

'Tis only I to fear! 

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(wrote back in March, which now seems an age ago)

The reluctant tears of morning dew 

hang from foliage of vivid green.

A global pandemic is mentioned. 

Ears barely prick 

Minds drift like snow: 

Mmm what's for tea?

The dew becomes gas and floats 

Ribbons of wispy white melt into the blue high above.

Lockdown

Feet burn upon newly laid decking under an early summer sun...

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Seven little girls went too deep

Into the forest where shadows creep.

They found a path, which was never there

And wandered down without a care

In a clearing they heard a song;

A haunting tune to sing-along

It got right in their flesh & bones

A lullaby of dulcet tones 

Within their minds, there grew a cyst

Where danced the oldest, darkest witch

Who humm...

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Your hand unfurled

Revealing stars 

You'd captured while out dreaming 

They drifted skyward:

Little wisps of hope

Reaching out like ethereal streaming

I breathed them in 

As dawn brightened 

The stirring sea

And downloaded all the wonders

Of what you and I

Could, one day, grow to be.

NB.

(Ethereal Streaming is not available via Netflix)

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(for the little girl who haunts my dreams still) 

Dear Daddy,

Not that you'd care, but

All that I wanted was to make you proud

But, I was too stupid

Too fat

Too loud

All you ever did was bring me down

I was your scar

Your permanent frown

I was your verbal punchbag

In your whiskey fuelled state

Never felt I was your child 

Just a vessel for...

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How free, flows the raging river

How free, float the clouds

How free, sways the luscious grass

How free, stand trees so proud

How free, swirls the playful wind

How free, tides ebb and flow

How free, the sunlight bathes the earth

How free, wild flowers grow

How free, the stars prick night with gold

How free, the moon that shimmers

How free, roam creatures of ...

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(Wrote during the post Brexit
 vote debacle)

Ahh democracy!
What a wonderful thing!
The freedom of a vote that counts
Makes my lickle heart sing!

The Magna Carta, the 2nd Reform
The start of our foundations
The principles of all free worlds
The lifeblood of our nation 

The Suffragettes - great heroines
Spilled blood to earn the right
They would not bow or break or bend
Or fade...

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The fading embers of her mind

Drift away to a long-ago time
To shrouded visions of some young girl
A time of wonder, a world to unfurl

Through fields she would dance humming a tune
Losing herself amidst the sweet scent of bloom
A fragrant-filled-feast for her lungs to consume
Within the wonderful freedom of nature's playroom

And as the shimmering Sun went down
She would dance throug...

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She'd been told with much conviction

How the window was a shield.

For outside there lurked a wicked thief

And her breath this thief would steal

But, her family stood beyond the pane 

A daughter, granddaughter & son 

Who'd send out smiles like rays of light

And through the glass they'd come

She blows them kisses, and shakes her fist

In case this thief's about

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