Saturday 30 June 2018

Over the Garden Wall



There are scurrying’s and scrapings
In our neighbour’s plot beyond
A brick wall shrouded mystery
Builder’s dungarees are donned
Squeaky wheels and gravel grinds
Curious heaving grunts and groans
Planks of wood its understood
Give barrow gangways over stones
My wife stood on my shoulders high
Too understand the build upon
Maybe a shed or swimming pool
Or lines to hang their washing on

Dedicated to Jonathan Duggleby and his mysterious spirit level


Get Up Get Out it's Saturday


Saturday a choosing day
A perky day for what’s on next
Doing recreation things
Dodging states of being vexed
Letting go of tiring manacles
That weigh your UP’s into way downs
Lifting highs to see blue skies
For now forgetting glares and frowns
Invade arcades and market squares
Where smiles attract the shopping habit
On this the day of most things possible
Even if you’re feeling wabbit


Yes! It is a word check out the link below

Oxford Dictionaries Word Link

Four and Free in Fifty-Three



Out there 
in my homeward lane
On the range
of all I see
Faces pass me 
on their way
I  see them 
they don't see me
With nothing much 
to do or say
I stealthy watch
and shadow listen
Waiting for
if only when
To see more clearly 
what I’m missing
How do people
get that way
Too hard to smile 
on pavement walks
Living lives 
in struggle strives
Where lack of money
loudly talks

Wednesday 27 June 2018

Email Order


Oversized undersized
Colour match not quite
It looked so good on Instagram
On me a proper fright
Something broken on the way
I asked for three it came as two
Wide of the mark so nowhere near
In spite of that it just wont do
Always nice receiving stuff
So much fun with each unpack
Everyday it seems a birthday treat
All those returns I’m sending back


Story Source: Financial Times


UK retailers count the cost of returns

Unwanted parcels add £60bn a year squeeze on stores as they cater to changing consumer patterns

Tuesday 26 June 2018

Twig


 A stirring in the undergrowth
Where the seed has found a home
Digging in creating roots
From where so many lives will roam

A fragment of a message sent
But just enough to write a book
To found a library on many shelves
Unencumbered in a nook

Should your flowers pass this way
There is a feast they can partake
To share the best of all good things
Though not at all a piece of cake

Monday 25 June 2018

Fruit Shoe Shuffle



I’m making fruity music
The sweetest heavy melon sound
Rockaberry lemon twist
Peach Melba underground

Mango Groves a groovy tone 
Of compote compositions
A tango treat to trifle with
In pineapple push conditions

Moonlight Sultana opus
In the key of Vitamin C 
Dance marmalade in orangeade 
Calypso Rumtopf melody

Sunday 24 June 2018

Blank Page Game



Blank pages wait to have their say
Describing pictures found in prose
Connecting thoughts collected
Like games of playing ‘I propose’
Fun is found in writing anything
And keeps a pencil flowing free
With much pleasure and good measure
Words can write eternity
Blank pages are a staircase
An unknown house of voices soft
A climbing up direction lane
To its far higher level loft

Saturday 23 June 2018

Disturbance



Turmoil turns a grinding mill
To change the way of things
Nothing may remain the same
Not even emperors and kings
Every story ever told
A passageway to other words
Must find a brand new language
Diced or cubed in thirds preferred
Each lesson will be learned again
Although each outcome rearranged
For what it was we did back then
For other reasons now is changed


Friday 22 June 2018

Frank Le Valet



We’ve used our car beyond its means
Taken liberties with dust
Transporting waste with too much haste
To where a clean out is a must
We’ve called on Frank Le Valet
Gold star spic and span reviver
To give our car the kiss of life
Our spit and polish grime out driver
With magnetic micro fibre mitt
Lifting spots from something rotten
Carpets and upholstery fresh
All smear invaders soon forgotten
Deodorised aromatised 
Returns our driving place to be
To last at least four seasons long
Frank Le Valet’s guarantee

Thursday 21 June 2018

Reef Knots



Days go by at passing pace
In a thrown together clutch
Filled with notes that slip and side
When first thoughts mattered much
Looking back and some amending
Making changes brand new starts
Each gaze returns another phrase
A total sum of missing parts
The search goes on relentlessly 
For other ways that one might speak
Avoiding padding out monotony
With a trite reduction tweak
Until the message clarifies
Leaving readers eyes to gauge
That time spent in this open book
Invites the turning of a page

Wednesday 20 June 2018

Too Much To Ask


Pouring quarts in pint pots
Overfilling carry bags
Talking nineteen to the dozen
As the weight of meaning sags
Decanting water in the wine
Will cause flagging in the flagons
Lifting bulky swinging things
Ends up fulfilling rigid wagons
When all we need is just enough
To leave more time for hanging loose
Riding rough shod over rocky roads
Puts worn down strains on out of use

Thursday 14 June 2018

Rambling Rove


Wandering is wonderful 
Around the foreign climes
Enjoying sun simplicity
Clearly in the best of times
Visiting the other worlds
When toil is far behind
A visitor just passing through
No one paying any mind
Going there is very pleasant
But coming back is being free
Keep in mind a heart desiring
Needs to have a homestead key

To our good neighbour Marylin (Tammy Cline)

Wednesday 13 June 2018

Time Untied

Is that the time already? Oh well.
We have a garden sundial
In shadow-tracing local time
Whenever here on garden leave
Our drifting clock needs never chime
Moments filled with mindfulness
Colours draped on placid plants
Trees and birds sing harmonies
To the multitude who dance
Sitting neatly in alignment
Where the sunshine peaks each day
Barely minding our position
With its hide and seek display
Sunrays in their timely turn
Leave us free in restful while
Accepting how we come and go
Around our guiding light sundial

After many years in oour garden we decided that it was time to move on without it due to size and plcement required. Of course there are many great sundial poems and one of my favourites is "The sundial at Wells College". Nevertheless, I couldn't resist my little farewell ditty to this old friend in our midst.

Tuesday 12 June 2018

Clean Sheets

 

Larry Loophole he’s your man
When you find you’re stuck in mud
He’s got ways that will amaze
The lawyers and m'lud
He’ll work your ticket for you
If your card is marked and skanky
He’ll sort the scene fresh bright and clean
Brush out signs of hanky-panky
Larry Loophole reads between the lines
A telling way with wayward flaws
With legal ease undoes with legal keys
Setting free the get out clause
Many times you’ll find apparently
Upsets right angles in the square
For a total sum he’ll overcome
With grace and favour savoir faire
So if your plea is "wasn't me"
Your real intention never meant
With loophole wax restating facts
He finds that way out precedent



Monday 11 June 2018

CLOSED DOWN



All the shops are closing
As we imagine what we buy
No need for blister packaging
No longer need Security Guy
Light fingers have nowhere to lift
Around the empty market square
Empty shelves replaced by tablet screens
Only time is going spare
Marketing remains a visual thing
Shopping centres lose their spot
Real estate to circumnavigate
Dead cash machines no parking lot
All the deals you’ll ever need
Entice you at a lower cost
Apart from storing all this stuff
All other overheads are lost
Silent streets as people plasticise
Sit in gardens catching sun
Watching others doing nothing much
Now that all the doing’s done

Sunday 10 June 2018

Very Moving


Funny how the space we need
Reduces more and more to less
Our home hotel needs fewer rooms
Much less of household stress

Although there are exciting aspects
One can’t help feeling quite uneasy
Too much new can seem like much ado
In a travelling state of queasy

I’ve checked our local pharmacist
Who couldn’t cure our transit ills
Apart from head or backache pain
Cannot prescribe us Moving Pills

So off we go to elsewhere doors
On the new street where we live
To often walk with brand new talk
Overcoming our misgive 

Friday 8 June 2018

Ultimately Me Maybe


Depending on my viewpoint
Where all my fragments aim to be
Temporarily a state of mine
That for the moment I call me
In my mass of matters forming
Vibrating day and night
I conduct myself a symphony
In my orchestra of light
If I focus on each moment set
For this while I will agree
That circumstantial evidence
Cannot prove the whole of me
Right now I’m certain I exist
But how I got here bugs me most
In good faith accepting who I am

Thursday 7 June 2018

Shoddy Goods



Oh look at that a viscious weed
Such a pest persistent
They grow in gangs immortal
Taking over unrepentant
Tough as nails embedded 
Living arrow tips high flown
Bowling greens or football fields
Garden bullies overgrown
Nothing weedy about the weed
No matter what abuse we throw
Nasty nips or demon drips
Before we know it back they grow
Racketeers of tennis courts
They are the top one hundred seeds
Fairway travellers to the greens
The hole in one goes to the weeds
We love our playhouse shrubbery
Our garden green room suits our needs
Front row seats in royal boxes
Spot backstage chorus lines of weeds
Is human hatred of unwanted plants
A most unnatural stance to take
For standing guard in graveyards everywhere
Stand finest weeds all wide-awake



Out There


Night crowds writhing
move the dark
Incandescent in the gloom
Warble muffled 
in a heavy glow
Where the lonely have no room
Talking has
no sound in there
Rhythmic beats
are felt not heard
Eyes not looking anywhere
Touch the hot
unspoken word
In this palace of disparities
Atmosphere 
is taking charge
Creating vibrant
brand new rules
For those absorbed 
in those at large

Tuesday 5 June 2018

The Very Idea


 A head case full of fragile husks
That float around my inner eye
Packed with many possibilities
Some of which I’m prone to try
These pearls may stay until I see
Or disappear just when I do
A fluky meet of something sweet
Leaving me in wistful rue
If I could make a thoughtful net
To capture these impressions
To keep for when I need them most
Welcome groups in neat processions
But like a flavoured dish enjoyed
Not a morsel left to waste
When served up old no longer bold
I like to wrap them ice-encased 

Sunday 3 June 2018

Early Hours


I’m writing for the empty page
In early hours of any type
Until a nudge of something comes
A likely inspiration ripe

Whilst waiting for a perfect line
My aimless listlessness creeps in
Spreading doubts that lack of content
Maybe committing writing sin

I write it all down anyway
Then read it back for just in case
Pausing while I wait for something else
Maybe some steps I might retrace

But then the eyelid droop malaise
Puts paid to any hope of plot
Perhaps this rhyme another time
Will be much more than what it’s not 

Saturday 2 June 2018

Calamical


You could call it a disaster
A tragic mishap combination
As a builder shuffled up the plank
A concrete setting situation

Wheelbarrow finely centred
Right angled geometrical
One foot behind each taken step
Calculating mathematical

But taking calls and sending text
Can cause a teeter in one’s trek
Sparking off the unexpected trip
A sinking dip up to the neck

Grabbing quick the plank and handlebar
Stepping slowly from the mire
Laced with rubble-covered splattering
And matching concrete grey attire

Emergent scary from “The Dark Lagoon”
As best-laid plans became a trough
Scattered chunks from hard stuck lumps
That water force could not wash off

Alas the Medic couldn't bring around
The hardened figure stiffened quick
Now a headstone buried standing proud 
This builder now a concrete brick