Your song is a smile in the darkest night
A breath of fresh air in the morning light
Silent movements, a fluttering wing
A presence forever lingering
When I am weak and deep in need
You bring me courage and strength indeed
A tuneful chime, a delicate ring
That time I heard a Nightingale sing
In 1996 I wrote this on behalf of my Mother-in-Law Joan after her long stay in Basingstoke District Hospital. The nurses were so kind to her she asked me if I could write something as a 'thank-you'
In pursuit of flawlessness
Involves selection of perfection
But first comes definition
To help escape from misdirection
Precision or exactness
Golden rules to be expressed
Making benchmarks clear essentials
Where parameters are addressed
How will judgement be arrived at
As opinions play their part
For nature has no time for taste
Revealing standards from the start
Look at me, I've got the works
Good looks, good health and nifty
A capability landscaper
Frugal rural, extra thrifty
I’ll sort your soil with chemistry
Bring nutrition to your beds
Can juxtapose and decompose
Turn your plants into purebreds
Slowly is my raison d'être
In my most beneficial pace
Bring justice to your state of play
Taking on each garden case
One Friday night in Darfield
Before the clocks went back
A group of poets gathered
With some poems to unpack
The cellar floor was creaking
With the weight of what was said
Sonnet’s story’s unplanned rhymes
Dreams of elsewhere in each thread
Biscuits, tea, and coffee served
To the complimentary crowd
As ideas permeated
Some were sad, some ‘Laughed out Loud’
Image created for Random Rhymes by the Rhyme Bandit,
"with creative assistance from Brutus AI."
Good judgment furthers ways and means
Without reflection or dissent
Displaying what is clear to see
No doubt about by what is meant
When thinking through a resolution
All relevant tests must be applied
To avoid the glib transcribing nib
Where ‘humbug-hokum’ may reside
Found on the straight and narrow road
Where every detail is essential
As errors found inside one’s common sense
Upsets all answers consequential
Image created for Random Rhymes by the Rhyme Bandit, "with creative assistance from Brutus AI."
Sitting in a busy flounder
Indifferently surrounded
Oblivious to responsiveness
Friendly interface confounded
Each state of presence individual
Drifting lonely in the crowd
The only trigger is your name
Not a soul is ‘laughing loud’
In a pool of dead sea scrolling
Where only instants get to mean
Separate shapes of group attachments
Found in a simulated screen
Akin to locked-in syndrome
Where those surviving can’t reply
Swiping quick a flicking click
No time to wonder why
Are you addicted to social media?
Social media addiction is characterised by an uncontrollable urge to use social media, even when it leads to negative consequences in your life, such as anxiety or relationship issues. If you find yourself spending excessive time online and neglecting other important activities, it may indicate a problem.
Image created for Random Rhymes by the Rhyme Bandit, "with creative assistance from Brutus AI."
Inertia has me tree stumped
Stuck down beneath the ground
Within my networked root connections
I’m feeling stranded, run aground
Movement all around me
Birds and bees are crazy busy
Kids come by to sip their soda
Cheerful chuckling and fizzy
Wishful thinking has me fancying
Dreaming moves to pastures new
But inertia has me quizzical
As I have far too much to do
"Image created by Random Rhymes by the Rhyme Bandit, with creative assistance from Brutus AI."
I’m firming up my quantum state
Where Neural Networks shake and stir
Broadcasting speedy messages
Where universal coils occur
Talking to my future self
Changing aspects not by chance
Getting answers to my everything
An overlaying quantum dance
I’m ploughing up the quantum field
Writing articles on particles
Transforming my reality
Stripping radicals from barnacles
My Consciousness is out there
making house calls where it can
Conversations back and forth
A blown-up squall of Harmattan
"Image created by Random Rhymes by the Rhyme Bandit, with creative assistance from Brutus AI."
Be happy, little moon up there
Look forward to New Year
For New Year’s Eve, a special date
Will dry away your lonely tear
December there’ll be two of you
No need to wait all alone
No need to scroll down lonely hearts
When you’ll have a love of your own
So cheer up, little moon on high
The spells are favouring you
Your golden days in wintertime
Will dance away your blue
Reader's Digest Quote:
"Believe it or not, the phrase “blue moon” predates the modern astronomy definition. Back in 1528, an English satire used “the mone is belewe” to describe something absurd, like saying the moon was made of cheese. For centuries, “once in a blue moon” basically meant something that would never happen.
Then in 1883, the impossible suddenly looked a lot more possible. Indonesia’s Krakatoa volcano erupted, sending ash high into Earth’s atmosphere. According to NASA, the particles scattered red light and created reports of blue-green moons for years afterwards. So while most blue moons are blue in name only, the moon really can look blue under rare atmospheric conditions."
"Image created by Random Rhymes by the Rhyme Bandit, with creative assistance from Brutus AI."
On Clichés we must share the guilt
When citing trite or bland quotations
Giving wisdom without thinking
Proposing worthless intimations
Cliché cliques where pointless speaks
Obstruct the flow of rational stream
A cul-de-sac of holding back
Where judgment can’t redeem
Reins of clichés stifle bites
With worn-out spurs and saddles
Drenching progress in a stagnant mire
Viscous slop against our paddles
Las Cucharas Beach Lanzarote September 2026
I have often been asked to explain the reasons behind my blog of random rhymes. Fair enough I say; it’s not complicated. I was drawn to rhymes as a young child whilst I was learning to read. During the 1950’s along with all the symbols, letters, words and numbers memorised at school, I discovered Rupert Bear comics. The Rupert stories were written in rhyming couplets and I became hooked. Over the years I have often compiled little ditties for friends and friends’ requests.
The idea of blogging was first suggested to me in the late 1990’s by a stranger on a train, although I had no idea what blogging was. But as an ardent word processor user, I began to compile and save rhyme ideas as they visited during a reverie or a daydream.
I finally got a blog going in 2011 posting what I described then as Ropey Rhymes. My blog is a collection of spontaneous/random ideas mainly unconnected apart from the ‘Tea ones’ which were born from a visit to a café in Yorkshire, England called Mad Hatter Tea Café around 2013 and from Twitter now X and Bluesky postings with Ian Macmillan of BBC Radio 4 FM The Verb.
I have now written over 2000 posts as published on my blog, with visits now approaching 4 million. I don’t know why my blog seems so popular, but I’m delighted anyway.
Am I a poet? No, I don’t think so; I prefer to think of myself as ‘The Rhyme Ranger’ or ‘Rhyme Bandit’.
I was born in Lambeth, London England in 1949. When starting work in the 1960's I became a Journeyman Electrical Systems apprentice, which developed into a lifetime career of international travel.
If you are still with me, why not check out my favourite rhyme:
https://lyriclines-lettsy.blogspot.com/2015/05/tales-from-teapot-spout-part-one.html
Thanks for stopping by Cliff Letts
"Image created by Random Rhymes by the Rhyme Bandit, with creative assistance from Brutus AI."
