Mary goes out to see her neighbour wearing some leggings

Where are you going this morning, Mary? enquired her best friend Annie.

I’m going to take “The mathematical l experience” to Jane’s house.

How can you take an experience round someone’s house?

Well all your experiences have made you into the person that you are and so they’re always with you wherever you may go. But this one is actually a book. I think Jane’s daughter will enjoy it.

Well it would be no good to me, said Annie unless someone like E Nesbitt rewrote it for children the way she did Shakespeare’s Plays.

I think  E Nesbit  is dead but it would be wonderful if someone could do that.

Now what shall I wear ? 

Mary donned a pair of six trousers but there seemed very tight .

Have I put weight on, she murmured?

No those are leggings, they must be winter leggings. You can’t go outside in those.

Why not?

They show that your knee has collapsed which is not a British site and also there may be too clinging around your female organs.

I whar the difference is between being clinging and too clinging?

It needs the expert eye  of a woman who loves clothes.

Suppose I wear a very long jumper over the top Mary replied plaintively.

Well lt won’t hide your knee but then who is going to look at you now?

Only a very old partially sighted man I suppose Mary replied feverishly

Maybe a horrible neighbour will notice and pass a remark

Mary told her we can’t live our lives trying to escape the rude remarks of horrible neighbours. In any case it’s all in our paranoid imaginations. Everyone is through caught up in their own thoughts to notice these details. Anyway stop talking I’m getting tired.

That’s the trouble with being old Annie replied. Nearly everything is too tiring whether it’s talking getting dressed or washed. Or especially vacuuming the house and garden

Not to mention the pavement

Mary gently picked up the mathematicak experience from the table in the hall

She went outside and across the road to where her neighbors Jane lived.

Hello Jane. I have brought a book for Rosa.

Jane looked at the book and said that’s very kind of Mary but Rosa has decided to change to social work.

That’s a big leap from mathematics said Mary randomly

Well Rosa is concerned at the state of the world and she was trying to escape by going into the world of mathematics but unfortunately it didn’t work for mainly because she’s never been very good at mathematics but also it seems inhuma spend all day with numbers and symbols.

So now she wants to help people who are suffering as they always on her mind anyway.

Wow said Mary she must be a very thoughtful intelligent girl with a very kind heart

Come in said Jane and Mary went in followed by Emile her little cat

Hello Rosa she cried I brought your book but your mother says you are no longer doing mathematics. Would you like me to get you something by Richard Hoggart ?

I’d love to read The uses of literacy  the teenager replied sumnily

I’m sure I can get one on eBay Mary told her ignorantly; that’s where I got this mathematical experience book.

You can take this anyway because you might even keep  mathematics as a hobby.

Thank you very much Rosa re people it may help me to understand why otherwise say sane people go to university to study mathematics.

Archimedes didn’t go to university, said Emile the cat. Then nearly everything that’s been invented was not invented in a university and maybe that’s the problem of our time. By the way how did you teach your cat to talk?

We didn’t teach him to talk and the vet says it’s probably genetic

One of his ancestors must have been able to speak English and he has inherited it although listening to the conversations between me and my husband Stan might have helped him.

Yes it did the cat informs them and I miss Stan very much.

And so do all of us

Top 10 tips on how to write like William Shakespeare

I need to read 10 rules for painting in watercolor before I do anymore

https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2016/mar/14/how-to-write-like-william-shakespeare?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

When we are the warp without the weft

Sometimes sunshine makes us feel bereft
Rain and shadowed clouds would suit our mood
When we are the warp without the weft

As if we are the pen and no ink’s left
As if we hunger yet there is no food
Sometimes sunshine makes us feel bereft

Our mind slows down and all we do is drift
Evil thoughts into the soul intrude
Like we are the warp without the weft

Let the eye and all its muscles rest
With wider focus we may cease to brood
Sometimes sunshine makes us feel bereft

Do not try with will power nor it test
Relaxation brings back knowledge of the good
We take it in like babies at the breast

We must not test the will but let it go
Trust the ocean and eternal flow
Sometimes sunshine makes us feel bereft
Sometimes sunshine brings its golden gifts

Can the war be won?

Trump will win the war, he’s very sure.

He’s got the biggest bombers ever seen

For everything that’s wrong, a bomb’s the cure

Trump will win the war he’s very sure.

And of Iranian people, there’ll be fewer.

Fire the bullets now, death is the cure

Bomb their whole world flat while babies scream

Trump will win the war, he’s very clear.

See him grinning now  on all your screens.

Poetry and logic

Photo0027
Town centre 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57615/logic-56d23b4c891a9

 

Logic

It was a poem
men took because it said ovary
didn’t take my
political poems
they took the one that said ovary
Are you sure it was because it
           said ovary?
Yes, for them that’s logical.
—————————
Destroy another
          city
What
else
is war for? So
you’ll go down
each of you does. dies in
                           whirlwind
each of you who does, dies
          paying
for the pain you experience
         Just that
and nothing is established
Because I am a woman
Cutting as many cords
as tie you to me. this isn’t
           anarchy
it isn’t anything you
           could name
You’re still here
without ties?
because they were logical.
—————————
Dance little asshole dance
oh he gets elected, like a Calvinist
He says, I have these guts
Men, I have these guts.
—————————
Having dedicated whole
regions to the destruction
          you inspire, the
logic will be to go on doing it
doing it. Having proceeded by
the logic
         of your per-
sonal vaccuum
you will perceive your continued
          lightlessness
as an excuse to go on. having
gone on
as you have. And so one continues.
—————————–
Lead the boy out of
          the building on fire
his head twisted
          upwards
all fucked
What else is there to
       know if
one has gotten
twisted up
all fucked
he is a screaming fire
—————————–
In the explanations
of our lives’ experience
they’ve left out this wild moment
the long mirror on the right-hand wall of the
corridor suddenly shattered
I can’t see myself anymore.
—————————–
I repeat that I am not frightened
          and why not
I don’t know
what my reactions
are supposed to be.
—————————–
        “Please tell me something
with which I’m familiar.”
isn’t there another part of now
Alice Notley, “Logic” from Songs and Stories of the Ghouls. Copyright © 2011 by Alice Notley.  Reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press.
Source: Songs and Stories of the Ghouls (Wesleyan University Press, 2011)
  • Related

By the river

Scattered pools of rainwater gleam on the dark paving stones

The road disappears under an arch

A family approach smiling : conversation occurs

The dog jumps with delight

By the river, a cat hides looking for water rats on the bank

The terraced houses by the water look contented and prosperous

The third one has new curtains.

A man walks by seeming nervous, nothing to do on Sunday.

Turning the other way I see the huge tree by the large end house

Then a sharp turn on to the bridge

Small bridges here remind me of Thames bridges

These are secret hidden and beautiful like little treasures.

Here comes someone on a bicycle better step back.

Now we walk towards the pub with another bridge in front

But I forgot, you are not here. The last time I drank grapefruit juice.

I have not had any since then.

Last night I dreamed I was in the garden with a big hedge on my right

The shrubs were leafless and as I pressed my ear against them I could hear laughter and I knew that it was you.

The secret garden that we never enter

Then you cried hello hello. You sounded merry

That was a small heaven

And always the river flows down the contour lines as it was designed.

And the people change but everything is still the same

No sin,no repentance.Jesus can’t be a Christian

12705558_1395535747218021_6208192298085691084_n (1).jpg

Jack had just taken early retirement from his old job as a maths researcher. in Knittingham university.His large collection of books was overwhelming the home he shared with his excitable French wife Simone.
Simone was still working at the university cleaning computers heads all day long.Now she was hoping that she and Jack could do more entertaining.If only he would get rid of some of the many books he owned!
Simone left for work wearing her new pink cord trousers and a dark blue denim knit jumper with a long lasting beige foundation from Max Factor covering her red complexion.
Jack gave the cat,Louisa, a hot bath in goat’s milk.Now instead of being grey she was cream coloured!
I’ve been dyed,she shrieked politely but Jack never replied.
He pondered,as he dried her what to do with all his maths books.He had thought of making a large collage but who would want it?
Or he could donate them to the university or have a fire in the back garden.
Suddenly he looked up and saw a very charmingly pink faced woman peering into the window.
It was his neighbour Mima whose husband had disappeared last year,possibly inside a wheelie bin,though no-one was sure.
Hello,l,did you want me?” he cried nervously
I thought you might like some company for morning coffee.What a pretty cat.what is her name?”
Louisa was wary of Mima.Maybe the purple trousers and orange jumper might give the cat an epileptic fit… she was a sufferer, just like St Paul.She hoped to be converted but so far was disappointed.She longed to see a vision of heavenly cat food in the sky.
Can cats go to Mass? she mioawed to Jack.
Yes,but they can’t have Communion,he responded furtively
Well,we don’t eat bread but I love wine!
I’ll mention it to the Pope next time I see him,Mima said with a roguish smile.Her make up looked to be waterproof as the drip in the ceiling was right above her head and heavy rain was falling yet her face did not change at all.Was it plastic coated?
But Louisa,you would have to confess your sins.All your sins
I never did a thing wrong in my whole life ,the cat replied haughtily.
Well,you know the Church is only for repentant sinners,so if you never sin,you can’t repent. so it follows indubitably that you can’t join the Church! I studied Aristotle once so
I get all logical with emotion.I only wish I’d got to Wittgenstein..I could have loved that man….though now I seem to recall he was gay…still,who knows?
If that were true about the Church,would Jesus be allowed to join?
Certainly not.He was perfect and also he was Jewish.So why would he want to join a Christian church?
As he began it, he might like to see its holy life,Louisa purred loudly.
Really,I think this is a very odd conversation murmured the parrot,Felix Semper.
Not so odd,responded a tall dark man who just appeared from nowhere.
I am called Jesus he said,but I’m from Malaga.
In Spain many men are called Jesus,he continued mellifluously.
Is that so, cried she murmured tenderly.
I never met a Jesus before.If you married me it would give people a shock if I said I was married to Jesus! she whispered loudly behind her hand.
Marry you! Is it leap year? Women have never proposed to me before.
I was just thinking out loud,she replied demurely in her soft voice.
Nuns used to be married to Jesus and wore a silver wedding ring.
I was educated at a convent school.That’s why I’m so very neurotic.
Are you really neurotic? Jack,screamed neurotically
I have a whole shelf of books by Karen Horney here.Self Analysis, is just one.
I could give it to you now….
Not in front of Jesus,she muttered chastely.
Have you no moral feelings?
No,I’ve never had any feelings of any sort in my entire. bu life but it’s done me no harm.
I’ll ask Simone when she gets back, we’ll see if she agrees!
I’m just like a computer with a human body.
I sometimes think I’d like a suit of silver armour.
Bless you,my child,Jesus murmured.
When they looked up the tall dark man was gone.
They looked around but he had left no footprints.
Should we call the police?He came in with no permission!
How disgraceful.
How dastardly.
How disgusting
How damnable.
How divine.
How dumb.
How deplorable.
So on they murmured until it was time to cook lunch. for the cats and birds.What a morning,what a life.

Nameless

Oh either sighed the river lyre or long fields of curly and of bye, That tell the told and right the wry; And though they yield, the toad runs by

To its sandy, dried alloy

The hallowed siege by water pulley

The clean and unsheathed bread knife dally Shambled on her daughter’s lily Round about a dot

Pillows whiten, aspirins shiver. The sun-famed showers broke a willy.

In the stream that runneth weather By the island in the river

Flowing down the Com and dot

Four gay wails, and four gay hours

Underlook a spice of dowers,

And the silent isle implored

The Lady of NottNott Underneath the bearded charlie, The reaper, reaping slate and silver,

Fears her ever wanting cheery, Like an angel, ringing early,

O’er the cells of Camelot.

Beguiles the leaves in furrows hairy,

Beneath the loon, the reaper teary Listening whispers, ‘ ‘Tis our Mary, Lady of NottNott’

The little isle is all entailed

With hose-pants, overtly tail’d

With roses: by the barge unhail’d The shallop flitteth silken sail’d,

Skimming down to What is Nott

A pearl garland signs her screed: She leaneth on a velvet bead,

Pull loyally unapparelled,

The Lady of Whats Hott..

No time hath she to court a nerd: By charmed fib she seized her bird

A purse is on her, if she’ll gray

Her leaving, oversight or pay, To sulk more down on Whatt is Knott She knows not what the hearse may be;

Therefore she leaveth stealthily, Therefore no other bear, hath she, The Lady of TopKnott

She lives with little boys who play.

With her daughter, running here,

The cheap cell tinkles in her ear. Before her sings a mirror clear, Reflecting hours in CamAlot.

And as in the internet she whirls, 

She sees the surly pillage hurled,

And the wed oaks of driven earls Passed to cloud from NottAlott. Sometimes a ship of damsels glad, An abbot on an ambling dog, Sometimes a curly shepherd bad, Or long-hair’d rage in crimson bled, Goes by  tower’d Cameuplot:

And sometimes thro’ the mirror blue

The night comes guiding two by two:

She hath no cool old knight it’s true,

The Bath of old Shalott.

But in her web she still delights

Sees the mirror’s magic bytes,

For often thro’ the silent fights A funeral plumed with traffic lights And loose it came to Blamelot: Or when the moon was overheard Came two young lovers lately wired;

‘I am half sick, to shadows wed

The Lady lost her Plot

Just fill in these 81 answers before we put you on the waiting list.

Apple tree
A student

I’ve not got dementia but my spelling and grammar may I feel like that because I have to dictate it because my vision is not good and my hands are painful hands. I can only

do it on my phone now

This morning I spent a long time filling in a questionnaire from a major London Hospital where I’m going to have surgery.

There were nine pages beginning with assessing your heart health.

Each page that up to 9 questions on it so there are quite a lot. I had to ring the British heart Foundation to get some information

About halfway through came the brain and the nervous system

And one of the questions was

Do you have dementia?

How on earth would you have got to that point when it’s involved answering about 30 questions about other organs of your body?

Would it not make more sense to ask patience on page one whether they’ve got dementia?

They also s want us to list all medication. If you have dementia that will probably be very difficult and most likely some of it will be wrong with any of us because we’re all challenged by cognitive decline boredom impatience and rage. We didn’t live all these years to have the world in the current situation where mad men can start wars on a whim.

It would be so much quicker to do it in person with a doctor or a nurse. I realised thats ambiguous.

I don’t think Donald Trump would take the advice of a doctor or nurse about starting a war

Why is everything being done by remote means when the pandemic is over?

Don’t they realise that it’s much harder to cope with illness and surgery when you never see the doctors and you won’t see the surgeon as you will be unconscious. Well that’s the intention anyway.

I’m really looking forward to being unconscious as I’ve been on this track since September 2025 and it was March 2026 before I got a CT scan.

Because of the illness I am very exhausted most of the time it’s not a lot of fun.

And there must be thousands of people like me all over the country.

I told them at the beginning

Just take the damn thing out.

I feel very sorry for my kidney but it’s causing me a lot of trouble and unfortunately I can’t take it out myself.

You want to share British culture?

This is not me

How to look and be Bringlish

If you go to a friend’s for supper, never take a bottle of water or wine.Never turn water into wine and never get shrunk even if he is a psychoanalyst

Wash your clothes but don’t iron them
Go out in only a T shirt and jeans at night in winter.
Go to A and E as much as you can except when you have acute coronary syndrome or sepsis
Old grey /beige anoraks look good on most “English” people
Never wear a red hat.They might think you are Father Christmas
Wear skirts that show your thighs off or leggings that show everything off.Saves men buying soft porn.But do not charge.
Do wear crop tops and low rise jeans especially in winter.
Jeans with rips are perfect for old ladies.Rip them yourself.
[Teach Yourself How to Rend your Garments £4.99 my e book’]
Wear thick padded down coats in the summer.
Never wear a summer dress unless you are a man
Never wear petticoats and other lingerie unless you are a man
Wear a T shirt saying: Anti-Semitic, moi? while touring Oxford looking for pubs
Wear a T shirt saying: Belgians, go back to Congo..
Wear a T shirt saying: Take that French Leave now
Wear a T shirt saying: No sprechen Sie Deutsch/Believe me.Nein.Ten,When?
Wear a T shirt saying: I feel Rubbish/I feel your pane/I just feel you.
Wear a T shirt that says :I Luv money/I have an oyster card/I have no bike to get on.
Wear a T shirt saying: I want leave to commit crime/I want Remain to leave./I want leave to Remain.
Wear a T shirt that says: Educated in Burton, can’t spell
Wear a T shirt saying: Och aye, President Rump!
Make sure your hair is exposed— both head and pubic.
I don’t understand either but they keep saying, where are you from?
I say, here. But somehow they don’t believe me.Yet.
I am getting my T shirt tomorrow.It says: I’m a Viking and I don’t care.What’s your problem?

Why there are ten commandments

lilac and white

When Moses climbed the mountain
And he got to the top,
God was waiting for him,
He didn’t say a lot.
He said, Take my commandments
They are written on this stone,
I have only fifty,
Or was it fifty one?
Moses was very worried
~about the human race.
Fifty one commandments
Would meet with strong distaste.
So he told God his troubles
And God thought long and hard.
He came back with the commandments
Written on a card.
How many have you got there?
Moses politely said?
I’ve got it down to ten, said God.
His eyes were very red.
So Moses took the postcard
And put it on his pad.
He said I’d better get back down.
Oh, and thank you Dad!
When Moses got to earth
He called his people near.
He produced his i Pad.
Look what I’ve got here!
I saw God on the mountain.
He gave me a few rules.
They’re easy to remember.
We are not moral fools.
How many of these rules
Has God given to you?
I got it down to ten.
Let’s see how we can do.
Ten is far too many,
Some of the people cried.
We don’t want these rules.
We hate to feel we’re tied.
But all games have their rules.
They’re what define the game.
If we had utter chaos
This loss would be a shame.
As pictures have their frames,
And lessons have strict times.
We need some good constructions,
Like poems need their rhymes.
So all his people heard him.
And they agreed to try.
They lived as best they could
Until they came to die.
But one part of this story
We will never know–
What were all those commandments
That Moses did not show?
And why did God give in
To Moses’ bargain plea?
Do not ask for Moses,
For Moses name is “ME

The shame, the rage, the  crash

Near illiterate, they watch TV
Not Nigella not the BBC
They ask the educated to sink down
Come Dancing ,Benny Hill. the maddened clown


No more does learning merit due respect
Nor do they treat the erudite with tact
They do not wish to study or discuss
So any leader vicious wins the toss

Does it matter much if sights are lowered?
They felt shame at school and were ignored
They do not think they’ll benefit from books
But watch the behaviour of an errant Duke

The lack of cash,the shame, the rage, the crash
No surprise some vote for sociopaths

Why not learn about topology?

Aujourd’hui, nous étudions la topologie

Ça doit être bref. Et le caoutchouc Ooh, vous êtes impoli, n’êtes-vous pas Regardez, ce n’est pas un jeu de mots croisés

Non, mais vous êtes.

Vous obtenez la croix et nous avons

Qu’en est-il des mots?

Juste bourdonnement aujourd’hui. Maintenant, nous allons apprendre sur les nombres transcendantaux Vous pouvez parler mais nous ne pouvons pas apprendre Pourquoi, est-il interdit?

Non, nous sommes juste épais

Eh bien, mon QI n’a que 65 ans et pourtant j’ai un diplôme de maths D’où? Vous ne pouvez pas les acheter.

C’est ce qu’ils disent tous

Je suis un crétin, vous êtes un crétin, ils sont des crétin

Et moi? Tu es un imbécile.

Je ne suis même pas français Pourquoi avez-vous cette lettre dans votre main?

C’est un refernce de mon tuteur. “Ce garçon est tellement stupide qu’il ne peut même pas épeler Feck et il n’a jamais entendu parler de Sodome et Gomorrhe.

Eh bien E n’est pas U Sont-ils les jumeaux sur la rue Coronation

Pour l’amour de Dieu, lisez la Bible. Sera-t-il heureux? Non, mais ça t’arrêtera de parler autant.

I ask myself

I find I just can’t get to the bottom of you however hard I try.

Did I get  my message?

Let me ask myself.
Oh.apparently I’m not in right now.

Telephones, don’t you just  hate them especially the ones where they can see you?
I won’t call you Back or Front

.I can’t see you.

Don’t cry for me,I’m guaranteed to last for ages,

I tell you.
It’s conceptual poetry.

Free at the point of a knife….

the best is good enough for you… so keep looking.
And you will find her  everywhere or anywhere.

Women,don’t you just love them?
So sweet,so kind, so  nearly human.

Not tough enough for some
But God knows her mysterious ways.
Her wonders cause reform.

Stan in denim

Stan woke up later than usual owing to the comfort of sleeping in his dear wife’s soft cotton nightgown.He had slept better than usual despite the police calling to question him about a nude woman found wandering in the town centre.
Women have better clothes than men,Emile, he remarked to the cat which was stretched out on the Guardian.I don’t know why I buy that paper.You couls sleep on a bath towel.
After having a shower,Stan decided to take another look at Mary’s clothes.He found a long denim skirt in indigo which he fancied would match his new T shirt.
Of course I shall only wear while I do the housework he told Emile.After all in Scotland I could wear a kilt.Can you get a denim kilt he wondered.He decided to wear underpants but not to wear Mary’ssilk petticoat.She might get angry with him.
There is a certain logic in wearing a denim skirt as it much cooler than trousers and allows easy movement.But of course one must wear decent underpants in case the wind blows under it and reveals all.That’s why women are always buying packs of pants.So Stan was thinking. and he remembered his old espadrilles which would look good.He stood in front of the mirror and imagined he looked quite fetching.


The doorbell rang and on the step was the Vicar of Knittingham South.
Hello,madam, he said.
I’m a man,Stan muttered mournfully.
Yes,dear,of course you are.May I speak to your husband?
I am the husband,Stan screeched.
Oh,I see.You are gay then, I assume.
Stan pointed to his beard and said,I am a man. Didn’t you hear me?
Please forgive me, the Vicar said.Some old ladies get quite hairy and with the skirt I thought it was rude to mention your beard.How do you find the skirt,by the way?
Well, it’s quite nice having air on the legs and it’s definitely cooler than shorts.
But a cotton dress would be even better.Are you married?
Yes,said the Vicar but my wife is very intolerant of anything unusual.She’d be furious if I wore her clothes.
My wife doesn’t know,Stan told him.I bet she’d be angry too because she’d have to iron it again.
Why don’t you wash and iron it before she comes home, the Vicar demanded.
Well, just between the two of us I am afraid of irons,telephones,and making a mistake in a recipe.Also eye tests and blue litmus paper and crisps
I’m afraid of dentists,fogs ,dogs and sausages the Vicar admitted.And doctors and fierce women.
The two men stood pondering.
Come inside, said Stan after a few minutes.Let’s have a coffee.
They sat on the patio drinking their coffee and saw a wren fly past into the weigelia.That’s the first I’ve seen recently.said Stan.
Emile was asleep in a woven wastepaper basket in the kitchen.
Anyway,why did you call,Stan asked the Vicar.We never got to that.
I can’t remember, the dear old man admitted.I’ll have to come back tonight.
Oh,dear Stan said
I think I’d better put some trousers on, he whispered
Yes,you had said Emile.I can see the Bishop outside.
And how play all of us?

I shall live again

My heart is crushed like petals on the road
When spring winds blow and cars speed by like shot
The weight of caring is too hard to hold
Yet such a pastime seems to be my lot.

When buds appear I dread the frost of sin
When leaves uncurl ,I bear my breathless dream
I was not always of this mind so grim
Neither did I ponder complex schemes.

Shall I descend to ploys and plots of doom;
Wreak revenge on those who trouble me?
No,I ‘ll not give home to conquering gloom
I’ll sit it out and find what good’s for me.

My heart is crushed but I shall live again
Far from the habitat of wolf-like man.

Like ducks that dive into the watery depths

The sun is far away and we feel low~
Like ducks that dive into the watery depths
Freezing rain has not the feel of snow

No more do living waters seem to flow
And when we kiss there’s frost upon our lips
If sun is far away , what’s our bed for?

Despair can get us in its undertow
And from our happy time we’re may be ripped
Freezing rain has not the charm of snow

Best to feed wild birds and live snail- slow
Sorrow is the parent of joy’s scripts
The sun is far away , oh deep, oh low~

But yet beneath the soil new life will grow
As the parents quarrel souls still wait
Freezing rain has not the charm of snow

Unthought babies wait for signals glow
Swiftly to the womb the souls migrate
The sun is far away and we are low

Like a tide with hidden under rips
The sea of life will take us where love’s trapped
The sun is far away ,but why feel low~?
Freezing rain will cease and life will flow

The liturgy of the birds

The force and beauty of the wild North Sea

The coast of Norfolk,sands so white,so free.

The grief that rips the heart out from its cave

Throws it on the sea to ride the waves

The loss of you and love and all it means

With my inner eye I see these  scenes

The snow that fell on Cromer Easter Day

The lifeboat on the pier, the words to say

Ancient churches guard the holy space

And everything is right and in its place.

Eagles do not live here, but the birds

  Sing  from yellow gorse and know the words

What names might small birds  call us as they  watch?

The world is re created in a snatch.

The word gorse rhymes with norse

In 865 Ivan the Boneless a Viking  invaded East Anglia His army wintered in Thetford forest before heading North where they eventually conquered York

The birds singing in the yellow gorse is a reality but it’s also reminder of the history which the birds may remember more than the humans.

Also because the birds are singing for joy and they know the words it is akin to a liturgical offering

It’s not only humans who can praise. The way that the world is at the moment it may be hard for us to do that

My wife has left me

My wife has left me for an adverb.
I don’t know which one it is!
Is it slowly,quickly, nearly?
Life should not be like a quiz.

She told me that she “nearly” loved me,
When “dearly” was what I had hoped.
Life is full of lost illusions…
How do deserted people cope?

I think I should have kept it secret,
For now I sit and sadly grieve.
Do you think my wife is cruel?
What a strange excuse to leave!

Would she leave me for a pronoun?
Would she leave for a full stop?
Would I leave you for a quote mark?
Would I fall into a dot?

Come back,darling for I love you.
I have learned I must take care.
I will go for grammar lessons.
I am sure I can learn flair!

We can write a poem together,
You can choose the topic,dear.
I will hold my pen and write for
They say true love drives out fear.

Did I fear her? Did I love her?
Was she worthy of my heart?
Did she dislike my hairy nostrils?
Was that why we had to part?

Come back Mary,come back Mavis.
Come back Sunny, come back Sue
Without my wife I feel quite lonely.
What is a poor man to do?

I admit I was unfaithful.
God made men to procreate.
Yet I loved my wife the best…
And how I loved her homemade cake

No need to search in foreign parts

No need to search in foreign parts

Find foreign places in the heart

By grief we’re thrown  off usual roads

Do not desert us from your hold

We have no maps, we fear our friends

Into the suffering we descend.

Our children once sat at our knee

Now the parent they must be.

Some groan and rage for their own loss

Through wild places all must cross

Some may fall and be helped up

As we share the bitter cup

We must drink it to the dregs

As we walk on ancient legs.

Do not shun us when we grieve.

Our maps are ripped yet we must leave

We face again the unknown heart

Of which we only know a part

No package holiday, no deal

We’re on our own how raw we feel.

Though every single human heart

With grief and pain will surely smart

Would you wish to be a stone?

If you have love then you will moan

Tha end of the Holy Land

Evoking the beauty og stars far away,

I like to watch geese at the end of the day. Patterns and poems disclose other worlds.

Feel the hand of a baby with the fingers all curled See the trust and the smile when the mother is home,

To create entire worlds for the one she has borne.

For chaos and panic are not far away

Even in adults who don’t care to say.

The little hands touch me so deeply, so well;

⁰ How come the world is diving to hell?

How can we kill little wains by the score

Was it for this that I opened your door?

Was it for this that love electrified us,

And we were lost in each other, in the holy white dove.

Was it for war that we gave love our wombs.

Making more soldiers and filling more tombs

The bombs are a-loading they’re having parades. It’s not North Korea, it’s Washington, dude.

Let the tanks roll on Corrie and the Bedouin tribes

Let the allies laugh blindly as the Lord Jesus dies.

O take me, dear mother.Please take me away

I can’t see the point in saying my prayers.

The leaders’ religions are making God frown.

The desert is empty, the tents all dragged down. The centuries of living so free , so mobile;

The holy land blessing as they pause for while.

The little black tents like wombs of the night

Are all gone to shredders as we sing, Silent Night.

Betrayed and cast aside

Art by Katherine

In the desert grey I walked alone

I was great with child, my heart a stone.

Betrayed by love, who can we trust again?

0 God protect us from the wiles of Man

The pains of birth are easy to detect.

The grief and  sorrow made my womb contract

Here there is a doctor dressed in black

He has no face, no courtesy no tact

My baby dies, the father is a lack

The doctor throws my baby on a pile

Babies, children killed without a trial.

Hitler’s still around disguised, I’m cold.

Evil runs the world, so mad so bold

I know I too will die unless I leave

Postpartum grief so rarely will deceive

But when I gaze upon his holy face

My baby smiles and waits for my embrace.

Even here in hell there is some good

In the muck and dust of human blood

I do not know where I can walk from here

I walk into the darkness with him near.

Sad and lonely, yet I must go on

I must not fail until my life is done

He is alive

In my dream, I gave birth to a child
The doctor said that he would die quite soon
My feelings overwhelming made me wild

The Nazi doctor threw him on a pile
I lay nearby unmoving as I keened
In my dream,I gave birth to a child

A week passed by,I knew that death beguiled
Frozen lips made no sound, song or tune
My feelings overwhelming made me wild

I had to rise and say my black goodbye.
My baby with the others;horror loomed
In my dream I gave birth to a child

I picked him up , when suddenly he smiled
I held him to my breast, my songs I crooned
My feelings overwhelming drove me wild

I had to carry him, the landscape gloom
A desert grey aand rocky like some moon
In my dream I gave birth to a child

In terror I had walked yet love consoled

Arresting menu

Avocado stare with prophecy and police caution
Melon and brain salad. Fresh brains daily
Carrot and Squeak soup. Sorry we have no screams today
Battered beans all aching on fresh moans
Casserole of jam with funny broken bones .
Salmon and duck eggs in steam chamber

Cheese sauce on white mice and immigrant children. (None black yet.)
Fishcakes and celery hearts with bullet holes. Very Pretti
Vegetarian man just shot with pearl barley and foreign spices
Hot spiced police with pasta laws
Chilli thief and barmaid
Seven pear trees with roasted root canals
Icecream and sausage jelly on custard pond. Bloody Sunday

Shoulder,breast very Renee Good and sweet lamb toast with bloody butter

Crazed marauders with ginger cat, well bred. Recently shot with stolen handgun

And why not have a drink of a special coffee

Mau mau brew with apartheid screams

No torture is allowed in the coffee shop please go outside first.

Meditating over the dale’s edge

short-eared durham owl
meditating over the dale’s edge,
shadows the fields and folds
in elegant diurnal flight.
on wind-side,careful sight,
may swoop to prey
and away.

your yellow broad-eyed look,
at once both sharp and distant,
holds me.
oh,silence,
oh,wind on green,
oh,earth,
sky.

immense your held vision,
sphere without center,
pied geometer of flight,
oh, swift descent and ascent.
trees bunched by dry stone wall
call heart home

Sometimes love fails

How does your handwriting look now-

Like an inky beetle crawling across white paper

following a map or wandering haphazardly

Across some page?

From coloured inner space come different dreams,

And images swimming within inner seas,

But, essentially, it’s love that fills our hearts,

Directs the movements of our hands.

Yet love can twist, stretch, bend and snap.

Sometimes love fails,

Sometimes love wounds,

Sometimes love gives pain Oh, no!

Oh, my sweet Love…

But deep inside, goodwill prevails.

Good will come again.

I do not doubt.

Don’t doubt, my love.

 

Whirling in the winter wind

Whirling in the winter wind, dead leaves
Dry and brown and broken ever more
Send their substance to the souls bereaved

People pray and yet do not believe
Christ was born and angels him adored
On the winter wind float dying leaves

By our spirits may we be deceived,
Even in the heart’s quiet hidden core,
Sharing presence with all us bereaved?

Look into the sun and fire perceive
Power destroys the lives of all its whores
On the wind float lingering, burned out leaves

For men of power think God  can be deceived
Yet even kings will die despite their force
To lie in marble graves, of love bereaved

Wrapped in cloths of linen, cream and coarse
With no coffin, Jesus high is borne
With the wind, with ashes , with dead leaves,
The photons of his love light hearts bereaved

The tweedy jacket on the chair

In my dreams I travel deep and low
Into the loving world of long ago
The jacket on the chair ,it smelled of smoke……
The funny tales, he sang, he laughed, he spoke

So faint the memory, strong are its remains
Security and love in our domain
The brushes and the stipplers all stood by
For no-one told his tools that he would die.

On his shoulders, like a queen I rode
So safe and happy on the path he trod.
His voice was clear and he could whistle too
In those days men were used to do

 

And  love shone from him on my mother dear
She smiled and made us cakes for Sunday tea
What  tragedy to leave  his children five
But in that distant space ,he is alive

The fire as red as any glowing rose
We were dressed so well in  home made clothes
Too happy, needing no words to relate
Our sense of being in this  generous space

I can’t get back to them, I cannot swim
The passages too wet , the light so dim
Yet I feel it in my body faint and clear
Death is not the end of those so dear.

Deep inside our minds, ancestors live
And   to out hearts a depth and breadth they give
Yet missing him,I hover near the place
Where I might dive into his dear embrace

The  table where we  banged our little heads
The chairs so close together like a bed
The teapot  always full, the sugar bowl
The fire, the kettle , pussy cat and coal

The fireplace had its oven  nice and warm
Looking at hot coals made me feel calm
The children seem to play in that   far space
And all around  is love  and on  and on I gaze

Psychology suggests that the loneliest people in life are not usually the outcasts, but rather those kind, competent, and always-available individuals whom everyone values, but whom almost no one calls to ask how they are doing because they seem too strong to need care

https://www.ecoticias.com/en/psychology-suggests-that-the-loneliest-people-in-life-are-not-usually-the-outcasts-but-rather-those-kind-competent-and-always-available-individuals-whom-everyone-values-but-whom-almost-no-one-call/30813/