Her Dark Green Eyes.
Her dark green eyes till now unseen,
expressively they shine pristine
like shamrocks from the Emerald Isle,
and never fail to make me smile,
her dark green eyes.
She greets me with a gentle mien
and eyes so clear and ever keen,
so pure that nothing could defile
her dark green eyes.
Sometimes they’re clouded, then serene,
or smoulder with a certain sheen
t...
Tuesday 10th December 2024 4:04 pm
I Will Not Wear The Baggy Trousers Of Old Age.
I will not wear the baggy trousers of old age.
I refuse to accept the rumpled seat and saggy knees.
Nor will I adopt the windcheater jacket
with its collar-rolled hood
to mask the slouch of advancing years.
And the mirror-shined lace-up shoes
will remain on the High Street shelf.
For me, it will be jeans,
tee shirts and trainers,
even at the withering onset of winte...
Friday 6th December 2024 4:36 pm
Plunge
Wavelets slither over a wet shore
warmed in the heat of day, the faint
popping of bursting effervescence
barely heard. Toes squidge in it, sinking
with the flow of successive swirls of tide.
Stepping forward releases a schlurp, leaves
puddled footprints that wash away
in moments, leaving no trace of my passing.
Water ripples round my ankles, tickling,
enticing me fu...
Tuesday 3rd December 2024 2:25 pm
Seasons Lost
The summer’s almost gone, already missed,
and waking in her place the autumn grieves
her sister, though they cannot coexist
where russet and burnt ochre bleed the leaves.
Yet in their rigid, regimented ranks,
a growing hesitation brings unease;
whose turn is next they ask, as nature’s pranks
reveal the winter sun and summer freeze.
The seasons’ schedule raises suc...
Saturday 30th November 2024 6:24 pm
The Bean Sí Cry
At midnight clear I hear the bean sí cry
then echoed as the tocsin tolls its knell,
and know her weary spirit's set to fly.
At midnight clear I hear the bean sí cry,
already mourning one whose time is nigh
and bound for heaven, leaving me in hell.
At midnight clear I hear the bean sí cry
then echoed as the tocsin tolls its knell.
Wednesday 27th November 2024 9:47 am
Extra Time
Football after school became
a game within a game. Wait
until the man goes for his tea
then invade his hockey pitch.
No jackets for goalposts here,
real wood, sometimes even nets,
limed markings, tonsured grass
without bare patches.
Teams chosen, slowcoach Steve
picked last, and off we go.
Refereed by consensus. Corners,
free kicks, won by loudest shout.
...Saturday 16th November 2024 7:34 pm
Favourite Author
Have you ever found an author that you really, really get,
who can tell a story like it should be told,
with such convoluted plots that drive you round the bend, and yet
you’re on tenterhooks to see the tale unfold.
There are times you think you know exactly what will happen next,
but then suddenly it takes another twist,
when events take a direction that can leave you quite...
Tuesday 12th November 2024 5:59 pm
That Summer
When I awoke, my face was wet with tears.
It was a dream I dreamt, a reverie,
a memory that lingers through the years,
some distant echo of a younger me.
That summer when you came and took my hand
to hold through sunlit days and ceilidh nights,
with moonlit walks across the rippled sand
that stirred our blood to reach such starry heights.
A simpler time of youth a...
Thursday 7th November 2024 6:44 pm
Lost In The Blues
When melancholy takes me I take refuge in the blues,
to soothe the aches that break me when I hear some heavy news,
‘cause when my heart is hurting I can find no better cure
than music for diverting me until I feel secure.
I sublimate my weeping to the sound of a guitar,
whose wailing tones are keeping my emotions where they are,
with the volume past eleven so it echoes thro...
Monday 4th November 2024 12:34 am
Samhain’s Night
With harvest safely gathered in
this Hallows Eve, the dead will rise
to haunt the homes of kith and kin
with echoes of the bean sí’s cries.
Then fearful folk will all withdraw,
and leave outside their sacred gift,
remaining safe from tooth and claw
of spectral shades who cross the rift.
Deep in the throes of Samhain’s night,
when terror pounds the panicked brea...
Wednesday 30th October 2024 4:03 pm
Fabrication
The words you wove woke something inside me,
and in the wakening I found a thread of hope
that had me weaving yarns of aspiration.
But the weft turned out to be warped
and the fabric wrapped in a web of lies.
Sunday 20th October 2024 4:11 pm
Approaching Autumn
Soft summer dusk now gently fades;
as evenings wither and decay,
and nights grow longer every day.
As starlings leave their golden glades,
to fly and find a warmer clime
and through the winter bide their time.
No more we’ll hear their serenades,
for they will not return to sing
until the heady days of spring.
And curling leaves in autumn shades
of yello...
Friday 18th October 2024 12:44 pm
Solstice
Ring out those solstice bells to mark the fading
of autumn’s dying embers into darkness,
where barren branches cease their masquerading,
to file forsaken in their silent starkness.
Where once were saplings, now tall trees stand sentry
to guard the wooded vale’s majestic fastness.
And so they spend their days, these forest gentry,
enduring winter’s cheerless months of...
Saturday 12th October 2024 3:45 pm
Seconds to Midnight
With war machines unleashed the lands run red,
awash with all the blood of innocents,
while we quail at the counting of the dead,
a toll that from far off makes little sense.
So which is right, and which is wrong? Who knows.
The winner’s he who wields the bigger guns,
and while it lasts the body count just grows,
computed not in numbers but in tonnes.
As open-mouthed we wat...
Thursday 3rd October 2024 6:19 pm
Approaching Autumn
Lingering light of summer gently fades.
Evenings wither into deepening dusk
and lengthening nights grow chill.
Swallows start to leave the gossiping glades
for warmer climes, to winter as they must,
and birdsong begins to still.
Then all too soon the summer’s green cascades
begin to turn to shades of brown and rust,
gently down from trees to spill.
So once...
Tuesday 1st October 2024 12:18 pm
Storm
The rollers roll and the breakers break
as the storm sweeps unforeseen,
and the waters boil and the clouds roil
but the moon looks down serene.
All the ships that creep across the deep
and even the submarine
take closer haul through savage squall
but the moon looks down serene.
Though winds may blow and waves may grow
as the tempest supervenes,
sailors hold ...
Saturday 28th September 2024 10:17 pm
Summer’s End
These trees that throughout summer gave us shade,
protecting us from global warming’s sun,
begin to lose their leaves, and every glade
is carpeted in ochre, red and dun.
Then scrunching down once-sheltered forest trails
amidst the foetid fragrance of decay,
a chill autumnal flurry soon assails
our senses with its sibyllic display.
And so, with season’s ending now ...
Saturday 21st September 2024 1:10 am
Sands of Time
Beyond the mountain pass, past scattered rocks
the sea appears; a familiar shimmer of blue
flecked with transient wisps of white.
Along squigglous roads anticipation builds,
and my destination plays peekaboo between
wind-warped trees and sheep-shorn fields.
I park at the sea wall, disembark into the ozone
aroma of Atlantic waves mingled with turf smoke;
ageless ye...
Friday 13th September 2024 12:24 pm
Midges
The menace of midges, no-see-ums or gnats,
designed just to drive you distractedly bats;
they swarm by the lake for their airborne attacks
on humans provided as portable snacks
A cloud on the water both morning and night,
evolved into something that surely ain’t right.
I think Mother Nature has made a mistake;
why can’t she admit it and give us a break?
What good ...
Monday 2nd September 2024 2:23 pm
Mizzle
Silver grey swirls soak us, blind us,
with false hopes of brightness barely
breaking through. The tantalising
threat of sun seduces, then forsakes,
as the mist’s morning fingers extend
tendrils, strangle the glimmer of day.
Ethereal voices murmur through the hush
in muted exchange too faint to decipher,
muffled by the stifled swoosh of wavelets
whispering across an ...
Saturday 24th August 2024 5:01 pm
Lagan
The lazy Lagan lingers through the fields of County Down,
where it slithers through Dromara and Dromore;
from the foothills of Slieve Croob through the countryside and towns,
and meandering through Belfast to the shore.
It’s not like the Niagara with its thunderous waterfalls,
nor the Nile that flows for many thousand miles.
It’s a sleepy little river, and yet to me it calls...
Friday 16th August 2024 7:39 pm
Breakfast!
How do you like your egg she said;
beside another one I cried.
With bread that’s sliced and nicely fried,
and some baked beans, take that as read.
Some bacon then, I thought aloud,
a crispy rasher, maybe two,
and mushrooms? Possibly a few,
just sautéed lightly, I avowed.
To wash it down? Some English tea,
nectar of the breakfast table;
I’ll drink as much as ...
Saturday 10th August 2024 10:49 pm
Seasons’ Change
I feel a coolness in the air.
Bright sun still greets the dawn,
birds will trill their greeting to the day,
and yet I sense a change of mood;
the restless vacillation of a verdict
not quite agreed, but scales begin to tip.
Blackberries cluster, purple knots
of succulence, awaiting harvest.
Conkers fall from laden chestnut trees.
Breezes flutter branches d...
Sunday 4th August 2024 12:13 am
Embers
Dreams are in the embers,
in shimmering red heat;
the subtle settling of ashes
reinforces the illusion of movement.
Unfocussed eyes
fix on flickering flames,
the acrid tang of burning turf
warms my weariness,
wraps around me
like a comfort blanket,
faded memories safely swaddled
in the reassuring glow.
Wednesday 31st July 2024 6:38 pm
Beware the Ides of March
The ides of March and Julius Caesar
turned out to be a luckless geezer.
His pals had planned a sneak attack
and smiling, stabbed him in the back.
Sunday 21st July 2024 4:36 pm
The Anangu Of Uluru
A face of creased hickory
and black hair, like a wire-wool afro,
he waited in the clearing
where Uluru cast its ancient shadow.
As we sat down, he began to talk.
He spoke of his tribe, the Anangu,
and how they’d lived in the area and beyond
for countless years;
not recorded in books,
but by verbal tradition.
He spoke of the hardships
of daily survival,
...Thursday 11th July 2024 7:32 pm
Malice
Some days you’re just not ready for the fray,
and when you wake, you’re out of sorts and grumpy.
You know the kind, when everything seems grey,
and only serves to leave you feeling jumpy.
You’d stay in bed, but it feels kinda lumpy
and amplifies the growing rotten mood
to kick you out despite your lassitude.
Then when you’re up, it goes from bad to worse,
‘cause curdle...
Friday 5th July 2024 11:36 pm
Tides
Ebb Tide
The sound of seabirds carries on brine-tanged breeze, as they gather in anticipation of the bounty about to be revealed by receding waves. Strands of seaweed swirl at the water’s edge, struggle in vain to avoid becoming beached. Waves surge and retreat, surge and retreat, slowly ebb across the shore. Sunlight twinkles off perfectly sculpted wormcasts revealed by the departing ocean, gl...
Sunday 30th June 2024 1:12 pm
Delusions
Words
flood out
on my page;
pentameter,
in elegant style.
Expressive sentiments,
pouring forth profound meaning,
in carefully crafted stanzas
to delight the casual reader.
Each perfectly projected syllable
showing imperious erudition,
I perform this latest masterpiece
to waiting contemporaries.
With fleeting introspection,
I wonder to myself;
when had I...
Wednesday 26th June 2024 10:10 pm
Banished
A sleepless night of torrid, twisted sheets
and formless dreams that will not coalesce
nor yet survive to see the light of morn,
condemning me to my uneasy thoughts
and aimless morning spent meandering.
Beyond the path, I find a shining mere
so still it shows the echo of the trees;
no human sound disturbs this woodland scene.
A breath of breeze now ripples through the leave...
Friday 21st June 2024 8:59 pm
Librarian
When I come to a place of books,
my heart craves silence;
the reverence of readers
in search of knowledge, entertainment,
a spark to send thoughts
places they’d never considered.
How many dreams have been conceived
in the company of such inspiration.
Simple ideas given hesitant birth,
formed at this font of learning.
And whence comes this respect?
My fath...
Friday 14th June 2024 1:37 pm
Scythe
He stands at the field’s edge, astraddle
the scythe handle that rests between his feet.
The metronomic schoof schoof sounds
as sharpening stone scours blade.
Back and forth in relentless rhythm,
forehand to backhand along its length,
edge brightening with each stroke
till his shrewd eye is satisfied.
Chine flips to sward with a tweak of the snath,
his practiced...
Thursday 6th June 2024 12:41 pm
Realisation
It has come to my attention that I’m old. I don’t
know when first I realised this fact; it has sneaked
up on me, below the radar as it were. And realisation,
when it came, was coupled with another realisation,
that this was not a sudden thing.
I suppose it was when the settings on my hearing aids
needed to be tweaked for the third or fourth time,
that the spectre of deafn...
Sunday 2nd June 2024 6:42 pm
Bard Work
I’ll tell you of a writer, Bill the Bard as he was known,
a bloke that wrote a load of plays and verse.
He started out when good old Liz the First was on the throne,
and gave his actors plenty to rehearse.
He wasn’t all that famous but he got some well-earnt praise,
and coined some phrases never used before,
like green-eyed monster, elbow room, and also salad days,
so wel...
Friday 31st May 2024 2:39 pm
The Game
It was a game we played on sunny Irish afternoons
when we had nothing planned but adventure,
taking us to magical, unknown places,
places we’d never seen, probably never heard of,
but were just there, in the unseen corner of nature’s eye.
It was a simple game. Just point the car down the road
and go. That’s it. But then came the decisions. Next left,
second turn to the ri...
Monday 27th May 2024 8:41 pm
Red Brick Boxes
A glimpse of red brick boxes lined along the railway track,
where the people stop and watch us scurry by;
an excerpt from a scene in some suburban paperback
like a stroboscopic snapshot of their lives.
A transient impression of their washing on a line,
hanging frozen in that instant that we pass,
reflected in the rhythm of the high hypnotic whine
through the carriage wind...
Sunday 19th May 2024 6:25 pm
Loss
Darkened streets lit only by the stars
lie silent as a corpse’s endless sleep.
Adrift upon the air, the subtle scent
of daffodils among the shadowed trees.
There in the night I stand with shuttered eyes,
Imagining their glory in the dawn.
And in this dream, a sudden spectral shade
near stops my heart, for I have recognised
that severed soul whose loss I still will mourn
...
Wednesday 8th May 2024 7:42 pm
Who Cares
What happened in the Middle East?
They argue but no one agrees.
Yet steadily the deaths increased,
and you think that’s ok? Oh please!
People dying in their tents,
a country crying, on its knees,
yet we supply the armaments,
and you think that’s ok? Oh please!
A war by any other name,
it still means killing and disease.
For some it seems like just a game,
...Thursday 2nd May 2024 5:00 pm
A Sense Of You
Through yawning tangles of unsleeping night
in snatches of unbidden sight
I catch a glimpse of you.
Against the shadowed curtain’s gloom, I swear
that almost certain swish of hair
a whispered hint of you.
That shudder yesterday at my front door
when shower’s sudden petrichor
evoked a walk with you.
A sound of laughter on the evening air
that speared me ...
Saturday 27th April 2024 4:32 pm
St George’s Day
These days George is a binge drinker,
wears his red cross tabard down the pub;
not much of a religious thinker,
worships footy with his Sunday grub.
Pawned his knightly armour long ago,
gave the lance to pay his bookie’s bill.
Golden Dragon, Saturday he’ll go
with his wayward mates and drink his fill.
Monday morning finds him back at work,
hiding from the gaffe...
Tuesday 23rd April 2024 2:14 pm
Wish You Were Here
We went abroad to guarantee the sun
and all this week we’ve revelled in the heat.
I have to say, we’re having so much fun,
with sights so stunning, home just can’t compete.
And oh, the food’s almost too good to eat;
I’ve put on so much weight, it’s pitiful.
We’ve stopped at this café to rest our feet,
to have a drink and text you something cool;
the weather’s here, wish you...
Saturday 20th April 2024 7:24 pm
River Of Tears
All through this night your words have had me reeling;
I thought I felt the growth of a connection,
but now I’ve had to second-guess that feeling.
The glut of tears reflect on my dejection;
No matter what I do, I can’t stop crying,
for what you said can only mean rejection.
Was any of it real, or were you lying?
Why would you stoop to toy with my affections,
to le...
Tuesday 16th April 2024 8:24 pm
Villanelle
This form has got a fearsome reputation;
I don’t know why, it seems ok to me.
I guess it’s ‘cause there’s lots of repetition.
Come now and let’s review my definition;
five tercets and a quatrain, I agree
this form has got a fearsome reputation.
I thought it was a simple composition,
but straight away the problem’s there to see;
I guess it’s ‘cause there’s lots of ...
Saturday 6th April 2024 12:07 am
Uncomplicated
Can someone say what is the rationale
that says we cannot be platonic mates?
Simply because you’ve now become a pal,
we’re not obliged to have romantic dates.
We’ll still go out and chat and have a laugh,
no pressure to start jumping into bed;
and just ignore the sceptical riff-raff
who will not leave scurrilousness unsaid.
We two can be content in our rapport,
...Thursday 4th April 2024 2:41 pm
Favourite
I think of all the loves that there have been,
and there have been a number, it is true,
there’s one I hold so dear, and has to mean
the most to me. No matter when a new
infatuation comes along, I still
return to my old favourite in time,
to prove that I can never have my fill
of one who leaves me feeling so sublime.
The taste of some brings pleasure to my lips,
...Monday 1st April 2024 10:18 pm
The Price
What is it with those weathermen that now
they want to give a name to every storm?
Do they believe that this will humanise
the winds and floods left trailing in their wake?
And will a cutesy designation serve
to moderate the mindless potency
that rips the very rooftop from our home?
Shall we just smile when rivers burst their banks
to fill the house with all that endless oo...
Friday 29th March 2024 12:06 pm
Recent Comments
Graham Sherwood on Back To Nature
10 minutes ago
Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh on Payback Time
1 hour ago
Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh on Mowing the Lawn with Larkin
1 hour ago
John Coopey on I FEAR IT WON’T END WELL
1 hour ago
Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh on Back To Nature
1 hour ago
Tom Doolan on Christmas Makes Me Cry
2 hours ago
Stephen Atkinson on Gaia's Lament
10 hours ago
Stephen Atkinson on I FEAR IT WON’T END WELL
10 hours ago
Stephen Atkinson on Payback Time
10 hours ago
Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh on where is home?
12 hours ago