Lighten Up

Light Bulb Lamp Link

Incandescent or fluorescent

Halogen or LED

Too many heavy choices

Can make a lightmare dream to me

Maybe SES or ES, 

SBC or just BC

Pins in pots or locking slots

Then there’s the voltage lottery

Twelve volts or two-thirty

Soft-white daylight bright-white might

Bi-pin wedge festoon or loop

Not near the last word choosing light

Your range of possibilities

Is vast indeed beyond your scene 

And the last time that I went to buy

Around one hundred and fourteen

Starter For Ten

Absolutes and answers sought

Checks and balances undertaken

Reading through each new review

Outward looking to reawaken 

Sensing meanings not quite obvious

Sorting out the ideas sound

Taking liberties with licensing

In case of copying is found

Causing all to look again inside

Knowing value is the ground

Blue Murder

Blue murder they brought it on

Mouths and machines devoured

Consuming anything that lived

Even themselves they overpowered

Below the surface little beings wait

In their air-conditioned cells

Well stocked with everything

Listening for the knells

It won’t be long they sense

Things have changed for good

Fires raging everywhere

Keep our distance from the wood

There will be plenty all round

We’ll be above the water mark

They will not survive but we will

Insects don’t depend on light or dark

Forager

Living in a time mangle

That wrings out every hour

Wishing we could hold on

Not let the past turn sour

Every day can be just any day

If it wears like an old coat

Just like the smiles we discard

Haunting messages we once wrote

Life invites us to dare to strive

Seeking quiet by a stream

Only when the raging storm subsides

To sleep unbroken in a dream 

Ringing Bells and Parallels

I’m told there is a universe

In mirror image of our own

Where rights and lefts

Are lefts and rights

All underarms are overthrown

Should we ever get to go there

Would they be on their way to us

In which case never meet ourselves

With nothing converse to discuss

On the one hand or the other

Taking sides we can’t agree

Therefore never come together

No chance of meeting me with me

Whistler's Art

Along the way the whistling once

A tuneful solo rover’s friend

With open air-filled human flute

Less than a penny whistle spend

Way back then on quiet streets

By any window whistlers passed

A lonely croon a simple tune

Like coming or going couldn’t last

It sadly seems the whistle’s had its day

Roadside tunes we used to share

‘Whistling pucker’s’ kids would drill

Now rarely hear them anywhere

Pink Moon Dews

I’m feeling in the pink today

On this four-day weekend break

Officially the Spring has sprung

With the Egg Moon in its wake

Time to sew our moonlight seeds

Enjoy the sprouting grass

Or Plaice a fish a springtime dish

Before the Pink Moon makes a pass 

The April full moon tells the time

From here on in no winter woes

We’ll take a drink at midnight pink

As our in between us flows

At around midnight tonight you can see the April Full Moon The Pink Moon

NASA Story Link

I Just Don't Know Do You?

I am delighted whenever Waldemar Januszczak is on the telly educating me on my woeful lack of art knowledge. His style is informative, entertaining and pleasantly humourous. So I couldn't resist pinching his style and writing this a non-academic superficial tongue in cheek glance at “Britishness

The argument to leave EU goes something like this: “We prefer to make our own rules. We don’t want a bunch of senile European mandarins telling us what to do. 

Too many foreigners coming over here getting benefits, stealing jobs and working for less money.”

So! We want out of Europe even though very few if any can tell you the real benefits as to why.  

We might first reflect a little on what is British and what is European. Let us then begin with the dirty word “language”. In Britain the Queen speaks English, “The Queens English” although it wasn’t always that way was it? For those English speaking 'dyed in the wool' xenophobes you can look for yourselves on Wikipedia using the search heading “Lists of English words by country or language of origin” and there you can see a chart with Latin and French at 29% each, Germanic 26%, Greek 6% and finally others unknown 10%. This fine language we call English is and always has been in a continual state of flux. 

Now consider what British ancestral roots tell us about “Britishness”. Let’s start with “We’re not British are we?”  Today, we are Welsh (Britons), Scottish, Irish and something we loosely call English all under the auspices of a once Great Britain. Since the loss of the largest empire the world has ever known our nation is now referred to by other nations as United Kingdom. But we are not really that united are we? Ireland wants its country back. Scotland has a penchant for independence, Wales is a welsh country full of proud welsh people and England has a North-South divide. Then there are all the invasions from the Romans onward who moved the original Britons into Scotland and Wales. Which leaves “Britishness” a combination of Celtic, Norse, Anglo Saxon and Norman. Let us not ever forget those Plantagenets from the French house of Anjou who gave the English three lions to wear on their football shirts. 

At this point I must put our illustrious Oxford English Dictionary to the question, what is a foreigner?  Look at this: 1. A person born in or coming from a country other than one's own. 1.1    (informal) A person not belonging to a particular place or group; a stranger or outsider.

As for remain or leave I cannot offer a decent answer as to which will be better in the long run. Approaching Seventy years old it won’t affect me in the long-term scheme of things. Uncertainty has diminished spending power of the British pound on certain foods and holidays. Who knows things may restore themselves in the future.

May Mr Januszczak forgive me

As Soon As

Something ‘when’ about a Wednesday

A day for mending wending ways

Caught between whenever endings

That once were early closing days

When middle days stuck in between

Arrive in either neither settings

One wonders when we are ‘til then

Between the comings and go getting’s

Take care when meddling middling’s

Remember half way’s far from done

Approach with care and breath to spare

For other halves are tough to run

Netted

According to ‘Gee-Pee-Dee-Are’

Which came out in twenty eighteen

To protect a browsers data

On the information scene

One cannot help but notice

Anytime one’s pressed to click

The article that caught your eye

Has a catchy little trick

Firstly it will cram your view

With a vision blocking ‘Ad’

Coercing you to give consent

It’s enough to make one sad

Then a maze of ad-shots cross your eyes

As you wonder where it is

The reason why you clicked is gone

You’re in a ‘search and seek -out’ quiz

Consent is all about your rights

You need not give them up for nowt

Beware when strangers offer cookies

They’re up to no good there’s no doubt

My advice is keep your focus tight

Don’t be fooled by ‘Ad’-temptations

They’re just a bunch of trivia magnets

That crave control and exploitation

Evolutionary Rant

In the beginning was a bang

So loud but no one heard

For at that time there was no life

And therefore not a word

It must have been extremely big

For there are traces still around

Although it was some way back when

It makes a constant crackling sound

Then evolution being changeable

Changing everything thing that was

Adding gimmicks bits and pieces 

That proved potentially good cause

But living things like eating things

Producing multi-flavoured waste

To be devoured by bottom feeders

Who themselves are tracked and chased

For those demanding what’s the point

It’s clear that hunger is the key

How well you eat with who you meet

And then how fast you still can flee

All that heat and gaseous chemicals

Combine entwine until by chance

Will make a creature riddled stew

Letting living stuff advance

Every now and then we get another bang

Or a scream down some black hole

Where calamity brings equanimity 

As life pursues its mashed-up goal

Braindio Waives

I think we think up many things

But do we really think at all

So often we don’t recognise

When alien nudges come to call

They say the cosmos is intelligent

How on earth do they know that

Apparently transmitting stuff

A sort of awesome burst of chat

If you’re trying hard to listen in

Laidback and powered down

You  might happen on a great idea

Become a mind of world renown

If like me yours hasn’t happened yet

I often wonder if mine will

I won’t give up but try to recognise 

That when it comes it might not thrill

Any time a thought comes knocking

Perhaps a startling cosmic gift

A rocket powered countdown tool

That gives my 'missile missives' lift

Would You

A plank of wood is begging me

To save it from the fence

Where many planks of wood reside

As strutting guard impediments

Something special seems to radiate

Not too easy to explain

How a plank of wood has understood

To not be used against the grain

I’ve removed it from the timber pile

Placed with care for better use

Where I can freely walk around the plank

Discussing what we’ll now produce

Do You Know

Oh that well yes I know

How do I know

I heard it from those who know

Up until then I didn’t know

What do you think you know

Only some of what I need to know

What do you know for sure you know

That when I am on my own I know

Reading stuff I need not know

Then reading stuff I need to know

Soon I learnt to slowly know

No story taught me how to know

Though reading is the finest way I know

A Few Lines

Once upon a written rhyme

A story fought to find its place

Lines that always wrote themselves

Which betrayed an awkward face

The key was using usual words

To be read with simple ease

Like an acrobatic tumbler

A summersault revolved to please

The reading seemed straightforward

If when taken as it read

The simple lines were flowing fluently

Though hid the truth of what was said

I Sight

Eyeballs waiting in the sand

Not near enough the sea

Soon the sun will set the scene

Where there’s nothing left to see

Eyeballs hunker down below

It will be hours before again

Unless of course the heavy rain

Allows the river gush to gain

Eyeballs note the changes made

Every sinew rigid taut

Pulled along the rapid channel caught

By built in lessons never taught

Holy Garnish

Is vegetarianism a religion?

 Story Link

With belief in daily deities

Our sacred herbs and plants

Whether fruit or vegetables

They are the lords of dinner dance

Every Sunday garden centres

We congregate in joyous groups

Enjoying super natural floras

A root and branch of top-notch soups

We will be well rewarded soon

For our faith in what we eat

Laid to rest on vegetation grounds

We will ascend ‘burnt offering’ meat

Red Herring

Smoke around the mirror hung

Giving not too much away

Confusing those who felt they saw

Peculiar movement in the grey

Best not stray too far away

From all the clues we think we’ve seen

As we grapple with the evidence

Expecting proof will intervene

Reports though scant and minimal

Let smoking mirrors point elsewhere

Embroidering the hidden truths

Too unbelievable to share

All Around The Millstone

In my state of contradiction

Where I challenge either side

In opposition or in favour

I need to verify my guide

Taking soundings in surroundings

Where by and large we congregate

Hear the one who loudly has a view

Then leave the room to contemplate

No need to force my hand just yet

Incur preventable expense

On the one hand or the other foot

I can tightrope walk the fence

Roller Toaster

A detail full of Devils sat

Around the midnight plot

In hope that inspiration would

Provide a clue to what is what

The detachment somehow dutiful

Carried remnants of their flag

Rescued from once better days

Out of that fickle bag

Each one proclaimed a right of way

To reignite and fan the flames

Allied beside the fireside

A pandemonium of games

But no matter how they spelt the spell

Magic mottos came and went

For each kept back ingredients

Where snap encounters circumvent

Volition

Hiding things denying things

Moving swiftly in the dark

Pledged to find the unlocked door

Well above the watermark

No more swimming with the crowd

High time those feet were dry

The game plan looking favourable

Hit the runway fast and fly

Puzzle pieces tightly slotted in

Let them think it’s their idea

Our Trojan horse is well on course

As we emerge and commandeer

Oh You!!!

It is the one the ‘April One’

Sitting there serenely cool

Who appreciates when daft come by

To grab the gullible fool

Being caught out by the strangely fake

When simple madness stumbles by

To be surprised and hypnotised

To know it’s odd but not ask why

Somehow sitting by a quiet pond

The film of life will spool

You’ll find considering all too slowly

When you became that April’s fool