No. 24

Picture by: Mariana Elves @unsplash.com

If in London looking at the sights

Where to start a simple tour

Of places worth a second glance

Simply take the ‘Twenty-Four’

London’s Oldest unchanged bus route

A quiet history all its own

Film locations machinations

Will take you by much more well known

Along the Thames the Power of Battersea

From Pimlico to Hampstead Heath

Pomp displayed Horseguards Parade

Parliament Square Big Ben’s relief

Nelson’s perch Trafalgar Square

Hectic Tottenham Court Road

Take refreshment break at Camden

Where much of everything has flowed

Then nip along to Mornington

A major pleasant crescent

At Chalk Farm chase the Holy Grail

To Hampstead Heath’s fame iridescent

That was a challenge but got there in the end. A good route to start for those wishing to delve the obvious along with the not so obvious sights to see. 

Wikipedia Links below

Battersea Power Station

Mornington Crescent 

Camden

Hampstead Heath

The Fourth Season

The peak of summer

The autumn low

Winter stops 

and starts the show

Each year passes

Each farewell sigh

how many years

before our last goodbye

In loving memory of Chas Hodges

X Marks the Spot

They are nothing in particular

Never standout in a crowd

Never seen in focus at the scene

Gently there and not too loud

How they got here how they left

inconspicuous without vying

Turning up to swell the mass

Being there but hardly trying

All about in every state of play

Without them is no famous game

Yet they set the atmosphere alight

And make a difference all the same

I Have Seen The Light

This is not a scene in a good light

If a light invades vicinity 

Penetrating peaceful grace

Drilling shards through quietude

Glaring fiercely into space

There always is another way

To rearrange the local view

Not streaming beams on sleeping dreams

Using angle bias skew

It's not a complicated task

When light-display is raining hard

Reflecting on what others see

Prevents invasion of their yard

Necessity may be a driving force

Illuminating one's surround

Consider others being blinded by

The light not shining on your ground

Link Here if the light is taking sides

Think of others, have a light heart.💛

Picture by Lighting London Design Consultants 

I’m With You and Them

Once upon a European time

The people voted stay or leave

A test of how opinion thought

Not how a nation did believe

It was not electing government

Nor a statute bill or act

It was a wishful list for hopeful things

None of which were based on fact

At best a crystal ball event

A Doctor Feelgood flimflam fraud

To be first place in a one-horse race

A self-presented sham award

Ask yourself why you would choose

Eventual maybe’s steeped in doubt

Against security enjoyed so far

All for one not one without

Green grass growing in the other field

Seems much greener from afar

In truth we need much more than grass

Let’s keep our marbles in the jar

Succour Time

Making lunchtime sandwiches

Foiling hunger down the way

Needing fillings to be filling

Keeping hunger pangs at bay

Travelling wrap companions

Allow me choice of diner stop

Secluded wayside interlude 

Backpack corner personal shop

Sunshine seat or shelter shield

Partake in peckish intermission

My personalised ingredients

Remove my wanting disposition

Caught by a Thought

They arrive 

like gusts of wind

Startling sudden 

power force

This moment now

Your decision or not

To move aside 

or change a course

Inborn questions 

quietly posed

Do not ignore 

this pearl they ask

We are your new faces

Ready to unmask

Fleeting in a new light

shadows in a queue

Like a train departing

To who knows where

Leaving you standing

slightly puzzled

Pulling invisible curtains

On fading light

you cannot share

Gawping

In the early afternoon

With nothing curious in mind

Staring blankly at the open air

I let my friction springs unwind

Flashes fleeting on my palette 

Above a canvas full of deep

Waiting patiently for aspects

That I discovered during sleep

Tugging on my memory loops

Where a new idea implied

Reminding me to be amazed

At all the simple things I spied 

Ginsin

STORY LINK

Spirits in ascendancy

Have got the measure on relief

Permeating favourite places

Where light hearts need no brief

Natural fruits and flower pods

Tasteful talks around the table

Hailing piquancy with frequency

Each ritual raising will enable

When daylight dreams have scattered

Casting put-on smiles behind

The empty face seeks out a busy place

Where moonshine parlour smiles remind 

A small concession to transgression 

One little pick-me-up’s no sin

Among a range of all-around agreed

Not too much tonic with that gin

Music Man

There’s a fingerpicking troubadour

Singing heartfelt city bound

From a songbook full of more than words

To spin the world’s sweet simple sound

A guy you passed and maybe dropped a dime

Touching chords the way he can

He’s a pleading to bring children dreams

He is the gentle Music Man

Why not stop a while and hear a tune

There’s much more pitch in that refrain

You’re not giving to a begging bowl

But to a Music Man that’s plain.

Notta Lotta People Know That

He didn't get the conversation

It didn't make much sense 

It wasn't then or yesterday

And lacked the present tense

They spoke of much variety

Keeping distance from dissent

Acknowledging discrepancies

Good-naturedly well-meant

He had a liking for the last word
When with his dying breath
Quietly he closed his eyes
And said "I've talked myself to death"

Sugar Stealer

 

Call me Sweet-Feet Tootsy

Tiptoe-Fairy  Touch and Roll

Your gliding dancing wishing belle

Stealing by the sugar bowl

Taking pains to lift the crystal grains

Then slink away the sugar gift

No footsteps left to give away

My fleeting wing-swept coasting lift

I will return at eventide

To trespass on your sweetest dreams

Play the silver spoons in candy light 

The sugar gem that sweetly gleams

Written after speaking with Sam at Screwfix-Hull
The Dandelion airborne seeds are prolific and carried on the wind. in what are termed "wind dispersal" Wikipedia Link To the imaginative eye they may resemble a fairy-like creature and give the lie to the myth of sugar stealer that may randomly land on a bowl of sugar (or not). Personally, I have never heard of this myth but the idea is a great idea for an equally fanciful rhyme.

I Solemnly Promise

Potentially the promise is

Assumed to be the utmost rite

Though all too often delicate

Reduced to merely might

Much confusion on-condition-of

When a promise made to pander

Ignores the legal ultimate

In breach of 'pacta sunt servanda'

Binding in good faith and truth

Where solemn promise rarely fails

Unless the trickster using confidence

Can pledge a string of Fairy Tales

A promise is an honest guarantee

Based on confidence and trust

Where the civilised are honour bound 

To meet the outcome as discussed

Wish Me Luck as I Wave You Goodbye

Democracy, democracy 

they voted leave tis true

A referendum of opinion

Not quite the same 

tween me and you

Blaming Jonny foreigner

We gain a lesser share

Spending pennies

On few services

Spending much more on our fayre

Democracy, democracy

Means we cannot

Change our mind

Even though

A lame duck government

Should a while back have resigned

Autocracy, autocracy

There’s been a coup d'état

No second chance

No second thought

No time for dallying let’s dance

Time to traipse and go without

Hardship drives

The blinded fold

All or nothing leaves them nothing left

The winning few grabs all the gold

Aristocracy, aristocracy

Bow lowly

Doff your cap

Sing out Rule Britannia

receding waves re-drew your map

Brave New World for Little Britain

STORY LINK

Like the best of Nonsense stories

Where the turns are convoluted

And the twisted spins bewildering

Leaves the Common-Sense polluted

Power games are played in secret

In pudding lanes, they slice up cakes

Stocking up in piles of just-in-case

Too many sinkholes steal the breaks

Super spaces on the market shelf

A sudden blush of one last chance

Cap in hand to beg for any deals

And while we’re at it have a dance

Britain desperate for olden days

The empire state when life was great

When all abroad was full of foreigners

Those lovely wars that sealed our fate

For we are us and have no other needs

We bar our independent gate

All the world will look admiringly

To be best pals with Super-Mate

We’ll dump the club that dug us out

Discarding once best friends as dross

Irrespective of our lack of cash

We’ll show the other lot who’s boss