Daddy’s coming home

At three o’clock, we ran across the park
Then up the Wigan Road, we children roamed
Past the houses and along the fields
Looking for our daddy coming home
Looking for our daddy coming home.

I was only  two or three  at most
We passed our church and saw the Pope in Rome
We climbed a fence and walked by fields of wheat
Looking for our daddy coming home
Looking for our daddy coming home.

From the distance came a tall thin man
A ladder on his shoulder, hair well combed
A bucket full of paints and all his tools
Look, Paul, is that daddy coming home?
Bernard, I think daddy’s coming home!

A look of shock, a smile, a cry, my loves!
He rushed towards us, happy and transformed
What about your mammy does she know?
Yes, yes, yes it’s daddy coming home
Yes, yes, yes, it’s daddy coming home.

Oh,Mammy had no idea   of  it at all
She thought we were just playing by the wall
Children were much bolder and more free
 But Daddy  went to Heaven after that

The holy smell of grass, the feel of air

I wish I were on Hutton Roof again
The limestone and the little open flowers
The sea at Arnside  like a distant gem
The spaciousness like days with extra hours

I wish I were as agile now as then
I might  climb High White Stones  for  serious fun
The whole mere  down below still winding on
The  handsome lake, the Old Man, Coniston

I wish I were  in Dent, the curious shapes
The hills and their deep mystery engross
The height, the little river, the mistakes
The lost loved man alive, to hold me close

I wish I were on Hutton Roof  today
The holy smell of grass, the feel of air

Silverdale

I wish we were in Silverdale again

The meadow full of flowers,the nettle’s sting

The boarding house,the hedges rich with song..

The sketch pad,ink, the birthday pen

My brother’s humour and his wacky games

I miss his buoyant face, his eyes untamed

At least he’s not in prison doing time.

I liked the way he misprounced my name.

I wish we were on Windermere today

The bouncing sun,the blossoms rich display

Come back now I love you anyway

My heart was stabbed with death,you went away

I saw your shadow cycling in black rain.

May we help each other with the pain?

Memories of Christmas

At Christmas I worked on the Christmas post

The grass was thick with frost by Cox Green Road

Across the valley I saw Winter Hill

I felt my little heart with love explode.

The Western Pennines make me feel at home

The green green river valleys and the fields

I feel this is my body, my own earth

Take and eat, the sacred is revealed.

Houses built of stone sit by the road

Cheerful people take their Christmas cards.

Once we worked on Christmas day itself t.

Frozen fingers made it very hard

Now the postman wants to go on strike

He can’t afford to bake a Christmas cake

Sonnet 97: How like a winter hath my absence been… | Poetry Foundation

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45101/sonnet-97-how-like-a-winter-hath-my-absence-been

D

How like a winter’s day hath my absence been

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

How like a winter hath my absence been

From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!

What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!

What old December’s bareness everywhere!

And yet this time remov’d was summer’s time,

The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,

Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime,

Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease:

Yet this abundant issue seem’d to me

But hope of orphans and unfather’d fruit;

For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,

And thou away, the very birds are mute;

Or if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer

That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.

More About this Poem

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  • COLLECTIONWinter PoemsBY THE EDITORSPerfect for snowy days and long nights by the fire.

Mi

How like a winter hath my absence been

From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!

What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!

What old December’s bareness everywhere!

And yet this time remov’d was summer’s time,

The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,

Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime,

Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease:

Yet this abundant issue seem’d to me

But hope of orphans and unfather’d fruit;

For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,

And thou away, the very birds are mute;

Or if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer

That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.

More About this Poem

  • Related