Month: February 2021

Danger in Yorkshire:Don’t camp on a cliff

The River Warfe has raw sewage in it and will have until 2030 so the Water Board say
And it looks so inviting,The further upstream the better if you want a paddle

A couple and a child put their tent up for the night on the Edge of The Cliffs near Staithes [it’s unclear whether
that’s the top of the cliff or just below.’There have been many cliff falls near Runswick Bay and all along there
It may not be in Yorkshire but it’s close

A house in Halifax blew up but nobody seems to be seriously injured
Can it be gas?

Now speaks the Earth


Now speaks the earth of spring and all its joys.

Now flowers and blossom soothe our  lonely eyes.

So happy are the lovers, girls and boys,

As in the  daisied meadows they may lie.

Now speaks the sun and makes us  want to grow

to open like the flowers for his love

To let the life within us start to flow.

With  blessings sent down to us  from above.

Now every part of nature is in flood

Fresh leaves point down from trees to holy nests

The birds are active in this little wood,

And dwelling on the tree branch breast to breast.

Oh let’s not waste time glued to inner thoughts.

For we may miss the joy which spring has brought

It fell to earth with solemn gravity

Another branch has fallen from the tree
For nine short months, it weakened and grew dry.
It fell to  earth with utter gravity

Is comparing us to trees good simile?
I’d find a better if I’d wits to try
Another branch  has fallen from the tree

The tree grieves not, for trees like to be free
Their main desire is stature, to be high.
Dead branches fall to earth by gravity

Some compare life to a drunken sea;
Or to the sky where dance wild nuclei
Yet our most holy symbol is the tree

The strong hang on in their tenacity
Even as their leaves and berries fly
Weaker branches fall  with gravity

Death comes  so much harder to the high
This is no truth but neither do I lie
Another branch has broken from the tree
Thus disconnected , it is down and free

The shivering moon

The spiteful moon glares through the clouds of night
Unwanted by the men whose conscience aches
They must long for dawn, for sun and light
The shivering moon peers through the clouds of night
With unintended force it hurts the eye
Reminded those bereaved of their ill fate
Demented now, the moon gawps through the night
A loathsome sight to those whose conscience wakes

Yet life endures

Since you died I learned to use a crutch
I have noone to lean on, none to touch
I wanted you to die with kindly ease
Now I miss another I could tease

Noone knows what was our special tree
Nor why the pain of loss dwells in my knee
As if I cannot stand or wait alone
Dark earth is softer than these paving stones

The trees you loved my neighbours see as weeds
I shan’t recite a list of their misdeeds
Others gossip of my coloured coats
A widow’s weeds aren’t teal, they grin, they gloat

Before you went I saw the cloth of gold
Coming down from heaven to enfold
Then it rose, its satin thick and pure
Taking you away, yet life endures

The emptiness, the void, the loss, the pain
The crash severe we know is foreordained



The sky’s a shark

The sky is stark, the air is cool and still
The black cat’s run, the birds unfold all day
I sit down here and with my totty pray
Ye cast o’ foolish thoughts, you raped my will
We’ve each enraged the bureaucratic mill.
Oh frigid purse, I never meant to pay!
The sky ‘s a-spark, the air is warm and shrill
The saturnine demoted knelled their way
With this feathered pounce, my sample quill,
I cite the cheque and date it for next May.
Oh, tit for cat, the tiger’s bed ‘s astray.
Yer life is settled by a harlot’s will
The sky ‘s a shark, the air is sharper still.

The pavement

I knew the nearby pavement as if it were a face
The lines and cracks and puddles where holes sucked in the rain
The gutter where the marbles rolled,the grids like iron lace
I knew the nearby pavement as if it were a face
As if it had a consciousness,a heart to be embraced
It must have had some kind of mind,though never had a brain
I knew the nearby pavement as if it were my face
The lines and cracks and puddles where holes were filled with rain