The light, so fierce and bright,

The glow like warm embers of a fire.

Attracting, magnetic, drawing you in,

Even more obvious from the shadows,

Looking in from the cold darkness

Where the fire once burned

And the warm hand of comfort used to rest.

It's cold out here away from the fireplace,

On the wrong side of the lighthouse,

With a perfectly illuminated view of th...

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Bedtime

Do you ever lie there at night,

With memories running through your mind

of times gone by, to come, to never be?

I heard meditation lets you slow these down,

See all of them at once or not at all,

To just be there - thoughts floating through your mind

like tiny boats sailing the wind in a breeze,

Peacefully gliding through your consciousness

Like a kite rippl...

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You only get 1 chance at first times,

First kiss, first love, first beer, first rhyme.

A new first day, every day you wake up,

A million first impressions, a hundred new haircuts.

One hundred and one won and lost bets,

A thousand people unmet, still strangers, yet –

Why do we walk around with eyes on the ground,

Perpetual frowns casting furtive glances around?

Afraid to mee...

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You deserve this break, having been up since even the early-bird was still in bed,

Even awake while the stars were still high in the sky

And the moon bathed the grass with its pale white eye.

Moving these animals from their sleeping state,

Off of their beds doubling as dinner plates, doubling as dinner-

Their begrudging moans loud as they leave this place of rest to go to work,

T...

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White beaches and bent Palm trees,

Bath warm water and hot sand,

Ice cold beer, the scent of blossom,

The sound of fire lit live bands.

Humidity and waterfalls,

A Milkworm eaten from a leaf,

The mud, the rain, the cramp, the sweat,

The view from at the peak.

18 hour coach journeys,

The illness and the sick,

Your shuttle bus is a dump truck, and

Your camer...

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Shhh!  Sit quietly and you will hear,

That little voice inside your head.

Whispering advice into your inner ear,

Giving voice to things you should have said.

And patiently this master of hindsight works,

The perfect retort 10 minutes too late,

Or another perspective to someone you’ve hurt.

A decisive point to put to bed the debate.

And yet he holds back, preferrin...

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I ride the rollercoaster – up so high before plummeting low,

All panic and joy and vertigo,

Before making the climb back to the sky,

Why not try to fly,

Before freefalling to the depths again I go.

And so repeats this loop of life – this joyful ride,

The intensity inside,

A pressure built, ready to blow,

Beautiful crescendo!

A waterfall of living flows back int...

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A cathartic release to bring myself peace,

As the ink flows from the tip of my pen.

Thoughts jumble; confused,

Feelings, emotions, sad or amused,

But I never know how it will end.

I don’t plan or plot the things that I jot,

They just drip from the nib of my pen.

As the structure takes shape

with my mental escape,

And my thoughts down on paper again.

It’s qui...

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I wrote this for my now fiance not long after we first started seeing each other after her love for cats (and her tongue in cheek insistance she was one) inspired me to start writing again, after maybe 5 years of not picking up a pen.  I recently proposed to her through a series of short poems taking us on a treasure hunt around Edinburgh looking for J K Rowling inspired landmarks, but that's anot...

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Another one from the archives, this one written some time after the death of my grandfather which would put me at about 16 at the time i think.  

When the sky is dark, and the wind is cold,

And the rain comes down, fold on fold,

Remember us.  The silent ones

In the numbness of the Earths tight hold.

You cannot see us, or hear us talk,

But right beside you we will walk.

We...

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Another one from the past, circa 2000.  Definatly a bit teenage angst-y, and funnily i can't remeber who this was written about now.  They must have been important at the time though!

The feeling in my chest,

Is one I’ve felt before.

All so easy to notice,

Not so easy to ignore.

It tightens up your breathing,

Chills the veins into your heart,

Was that my soul just leaving?

...

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This one comes from some older stuff of mine, written whilst dealing with what i didnt realise was a depression / anxiety disorder at the time.  Thankfully now its under control, but reading this back makes me remeber just how black things were back then.

Darkness; continuous, deep, perpetual darkness.

Constant.  Soulless.  Empty dark space.

It laps at the edges, frayed edges of my c...

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There is so much pain and suffering,

For a land that should be free,

So much death and anguish,

For a place that many won’t see.

Yet of they march, they sail, they fly,

To fight for what is true.

Some to return, and some to die,

These brave men we never knew.

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Quickly the ink spreads, running across the pages.

Making sense within their lines, keeping records through the ages.

Each dotted line and scratched out cross as important as the other,

To fill the tomes with thoughts and dreams, from cover through to cover.

Entire lives and moments can be caught and stored within these bindings,

Academics throughout time had a way to save their fin...

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Boredom slowly creeps upon me,

Like a fog on top a hill.

My eyes start glazing over,

My brain is standing still.

I’m trying to take notice,

Of the message being said,

But it all just sounds like noise to me,

Facts won’t stay in my head.

If only I could listen,

For just a minute more,

Yet concentration eludes me,

I’m thinking of the door.

I can see the mouth is m...

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