
Month: November 2025
Spare beauty

Waxy flowers in the snow
Waxy flowers poking through
Snow so white
Flowers so bright.
Made me think of you.
I see once more your just washed hair,
Soft as snow,
On pillow.
Now my bed is bleak and bare
,
Face alight,flower to sun,
I loved you.
Love so true.
Fear by love,overcome.
Cyclamen in the snow,
Pink and red,
Now frozen,dead.
Love was,oh,so long ago.
But never gone from in my mind.
Thoughts so deep,
Upwards seep.
Love was gentle,love was kind,
Always in my mind
Why walk on the water? Is there a choice?
Why did Jesus walk on the water?
He never learned to swim
Why did Jesus feed the 5,000?
That was the biggest number they could think of when writing the New Testament
Why did Jesus cross the road?
Because the other side was flatter.
Why do we learn arithmetic in school?
To escape from the quicksands
Why do we have to learn to read in school?
Because it would be boring in school with nothing to do
So you can go on the internet on your phone and get into trouble arguing on political forums.
Who could have been the first person who learned to read?
It must have been the first person who invented writing because until there was writing there couldn’t be any reading
Did Adam and Eve have a library?
Nobody could read what God had written.
Did Cain and Abel go to a comprehensive school?
Well it didn’t teach comprehensive morals did it?
What would God think of VAT on private school fees?
Jesus didn’t need to go to school.
Why are rich people averse to paying more tax?
Because they don’t want to get through the eye of the needle.
If you are forced to give money to the poor it’s not an act of virtue.
Well it still helps the poor though.
The vital line-Picasso
The vital line was drawn with one brush stroke
The way the back leant curving into space
The dance and danger are thus well evoked
Like a play, a drama, fire and smoke
A dance performed so swiftly and with grace
The vital line was drawn with one brush stroke
The heavy bull is pounding,is provoked.
A threat, a man, intrudes into his space
The dance and danger both are still evoked
See, the matador throws out his cloak
A dash of black, and here we see his face
The vital line was drawn with one brush stroke
The mind needs just a hint to see the whole
We fill the present with our past distaste
The dance and danger, mirroring dark smoke
Acting both dramatic and displaced
The artist may still love what he forsakes
The vital line was drawn with one brush stroke
The dance and danger , life and death evoked
Trial and horror
In Finchley there was an old man
Who kept all his eggs in a pan
He said, don’t use a basket
The hens will not trust it
And then all will not go to a plan
Oh dear hen will you lay in a basket?
No sir I will lie in a casket.
Please do not die.
I shall tell you no lies.
You may go to hell, so don’t risk il
2
Children don’t know hens lay eggs
And sausages are made out of pigs.
If folk know too much
Sharp anxiety will clutch
Especially when served with ducks’ legs.
Drowning in the sea of words and lonely

There’s an epidemic of loneliness in western society.
All of our messages emails WhatsApp messages etc etc all verbal all words but in the end it’s the presence of others that we miss. Someone to be silent with?
When we are alone and lonely we feel that the presence of others will help sometimes however when not fit to be alone with ourselves we are not fit to be in the company of other people either.
This is a dreadful form of loneliness.
Ironically when we’re fit to be with others we are also happy to be alone
But the strange thing is if we talk to someone on the phone it doesn’t help totally because what is missing is the company the presence The silence from words but the presence to the whole person.
This is why I don’t believe that phone counseling will help you as much as being in the presence of the counsellor and the evenim if you don’t talk in your session you still experiencing the company of another person who might be more patient than your family and friends.
Too much talking too many words written or spoken all of these can be damaging.
I don’t agree with banning books but I can see the damage that some books and other forms of writing have done
November in Oxfordshire

My sister
My sister’s eyes were sea green and deep
Like pools in the Irish sea off the coast off Anglesey.
Moelfre where she swam ,despite the cold,
Like a small seal.Night times I told her stories,
She lay and dreamed them till schooltime
But we grew beyond my storytelling
When adolescence drew us apart.
Years later
As I sat with her child
At my knee,
Weaving stories for her
Around the Russian horse
From the antique shop in Aldeburgh,
I saw my sister leaning towards us,
Her green eyes full of long-lost yearning.
I realised she was still my loving little sister,
From long, so long ago, her green eyes,
In the deep caves of her inner sea ,filled with longing.
I felt she wanted to get back
Into the magic circle
Of the arms of the mother we
No longer had to hold us.
So, I took her inside my heart,
And hold her there always
How I miss your eyes

Dearest sister how I miss your eyes
Grey green as the sea as up it rides
In the sadness of the water as it sighs
In the squelching of the sand beneath the tide
Sister dearest sister I’m alone
I miss your quiet voice I miss your face
I cannot reach you now by telephone
But loving memories are not erased
Last year you came to visit me at home
You filled my fridge with food you were so kind
Now I feel the sadness in my bones
I only see you here within my mind.
The inner seas are wild they moan with grief
Time goes slow, we weep, we are bereaved
Who did you say?

It was only Mee
You certainly get your wordsworth from my blog.
The beach was way too shelley for me on Saturday.
I hate eyre so much,I never want to see eyre again. Otherwise Jane.
Shakespeares somewhere else please.
I hughes the royal mail sometime.
I spender money often and she is ok with that.
My book is jew to be published in the spring.
I wish the leaves did not russell.
I do like a whitehead of eyre.
She’s too austen-tashius for me.
My baby was over jew but he war fein after birth.
I want a War on peace .
I don’t get the Tolstoy eyrie.
I hope to make a prophet this year or the next..
I don’t noah at all,just crossed plaths with her now and then
I saw him last eve or defoe yesterday
Mary’s eyre’s amazing since it was trimmed.
I want to Reed the reel Hebrew ribald soon.
I wrote my last will in the Old Testament.It’s out of Tate now
I believe in tragic.
It’s a tolstoyrie. What I believe in..
Dostoyevsky………I can’t even spell it.
Tell a lie if you Khan. What about , pilates?
Nobody asked you to Pontius
Sylvia,there was method in her sadness.
My sister went to pilates but she said who is going to Pontius?
I never cared when evelyn swore.
Mantels masterpiece confabulation
Chaos theory and the sudoku puzzle
Do good and move on (from those who hurt you)

Little words
The little words invented as we loved Now have no other speaker but myself. Lost,unique, the man whom I once loved, These humorous words came from our deep, sweet love. In my tongue , these words no longer live I cannot use our words, our loving wealth. The chosen words invented as we loved Now have no other listener but myself
Metal heart
I wish my heart were made of iron or steel
I could be alive but never feel.
Made of glass my heart could crack and break
My tongue would fail my mind make its mistakes
A plastic heart could deal with feelings cheap
But such heart could never hold the deep
Shall I freeze and turn to metal strong
But then I could not love or not for long.
Which is worse to bleed and suffer pain
Or turn to steel and never feel again?
I cannot choose I do not know what’s worst
May our human hearts survive uncursed
· 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
Mam was so depressed she killed the cat
Happy in the golden fields of joy
Happy with no money with few toys
Daddy never walked that road for long
I missed him so I cut off my own tongue
The hand upon my tiller
Come back to me, my sweetheart Don’t leave me all alone. Come back to me, my darling I can’t believe you’ ve gone. I’m crying ‘cos I’m feeling blue again. I’m crying’cos I’m falling like a stone. Oh, let me tempt you with my beauty And my voice forever young. Let me tempt you with my spirit My laughter and my songs. I’m crying ‘cos I never did you wrong. I’m crying ‘cos with you I still belong. I thought maybe I’d follow, To see where you have gone But there’s a hand upon this tiller That is not mine alone. I’m crying ‘cos I wrote this old blue song. I’m crying ‘cos I’ve been lonely for too long. The hand upon my tiller The mystery of the dark The unknown one who lives in me And sings like a skylark. I’m singing ‘cos I wrote you a new song. I’m singing ‘cos the cat ain’t got my tongue.
I am here

The dentist wants to charge in advance in case I die in the chair
Surely it’s not electric.
Not the first time apparently.
Is it not murder?
I don’t know I’ve never been murdered.
Have you ever commited suicide?
Why, have you?
I have not.
I am thrilled
I didn’t know you cared.
I am shy
That’s one way of describing it
What do you mean?
Some of us thought you were conceited.
About what?
I can’t recall.
Are you demented?
Just argumentative.
I hope you are soon at peace.
Is it far away?
No it’s here if we are.
I feel you’re right.
You can feel me all over.
Are you a rash?
No, an allergy.
I don’t like Greece.
I saw you frying bread.
But not licking the pan.
I lick the pen
When the voices demand
Stop listening.
Alright
What ?
Prayer for the demented
They are like some other beings altogether the cry more animal than human The wordless pathos, musical,disturbing They have gone back to a troubled and unimagined infancy but no mother responds to such a nightmare of overgrown voice boxes the cry of a rabbit wolf in a trap it’s the shriek in the wall cry of a baby in a psychotic nightmare. Nicholas haunts Sylvia in the evocative memory of Ariel And so it will end for you and me Trapped in this old body with its old brain on and on they cry help me, help me,help me nurse nurse I want the manager I want the manager I don’t want to be here I don’t want to be here I want to go home Help me we don’t listen because they have dementia what they say has no meaning. that’s our defence I am the norm You are abnormal but you smiled when I asked you if you would like your hair dyed pink and I know you love the music therapist. Your smell repels Alas Is this where Jesus dwells If you did this to the least of my little ones, you did it to me. We you haven’t forgotten about Eros you are still hoping to find love you are not dead yet but you can’ wait to go home Published by Katherine
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With horizontal fur like wire
Its horizontal fur like wire
The black cat runs, climbs fences
Dances on the roof of the shed
Hides in the forsythia branches, like a demented child
My hair cut that way I could pass for 23.
The cat runs up the seesaw, its teeth gleaming like an advert for Colgates’
Back up the seesaw, the little devil flashes green eyes like old marbles iced with frost
Now he wants some money he says.
He’s just a stand-up comedian nowadays.
Are you allowed to have four legs?
I don’t know what God would think
But does he even think?
The black cat laughs and I say would you like to borrow my hair dryer for a blow dry.
But you can’t blow dry wire!
Demented people look like refugees

Like refugees demented people flee
They have no plans no place where they can be
In my nightmares I have felt like this
No surrounding arms to bring us bliss
The fear which seems irrational is not so
Would you be patient with no place to go?
Lucky refugees may find a home.
The elderly are lost, they scream and moan
Help me help me like a child they call.
There is no Eden after that great Fall
They long for death, the home they’re in appalls
Where is the Ark to rescue these lost souls?
They have nothing left to pay the toll
Mother father husband and young wife
Confusion takes the meaning from a life.
They do not pray because they are locked out
No church no Mass, no priest,no rites,but doubt.
The piteous hands held out for us to grasp
We turn away, unbearable the task
Vitamin b9 or folate deficiency can cause symptoms like dementia

I was diagnosed with this a few years ago and I have to take folic acid
As we get older it’s a good idea to have blood tests to see if we have any kind of anaemia or shortage of vitamin d or iron etc because it’s all too easy to label people as demented sometimes even fear can make someone appear to be demented as I saw with my husband when he had an accident
Love is
Today I’m grieving feeling sad and lonely
Like the saviour said I’m feeling blue
Today I’m feeling nearly black and homeless
Every day I’m missing missing you
Everyday I think about your laughter
Everyday I think about your joy
I remember how you loved your little boys
You said my poems had got even dafter
Everyday I think about your garden
Everyday I miss your homely voice
I hope my tender heart will never harden
That is down to me and my own choice.
Everywhere I look I see your image
My tears fall on the flowers like gentle rain.
The world you loved so well may pay you homage
Love is wiser, greater than our pain
Wearing out

Just after you died I bought a new chair
I
Now it’s old, the armrest is worn .
I have sat on this chair for 10 years
But you have never come back
I have never watched the television again.
If the chair is worn, then how must I look?
I suppose joints of the chairs or id humans can wear out
It’s easy to buy a new chair if you have some money
Not so easy to buy a new joint for your knee or your shoulder.
Ask for the organs you can have a new kidney even the lung now .
Even the heart can be transplanted if it’s a good one.
We didn’t have a piano and now I regret it
Should I learn to play the recorder instead?.
Maybe a violin would make my neighbours realize I’m still alive.
That’s my ambition to get them to complain about something that I do like playing the violin upside down on the ceiling looking down upon them mournful and humorous
They have a large ginger cat but I don’t know its name I call it Ginger
Ginger does not respond to my voice but maybe a violin would help. what do you think?
Carol Rumens’s poem of the week | The Guardian
Frozen In – The Poetry Society: Poems
In the light
Oh holy light that held me in your gaze
That spoke to me in words without a sound
A holy light, a person hidden away
I did not seek and yet I have been found.
When I was trapped alone with my numbed heart
When nobody could touch me with their hand
When in bleak despair I sat apart
By your holy light I have been found.
Although you did not speak I heard your words
I heard them all and yet there was no noise
How did you convey them so I heard?
The senses were conjoined, became one voice
I thought I was near death and yet I lived
Despair is long yet graceful are its gifts.
‘Everything is either anxiety or your period’: Readers share experiences of being dismissed by NHS GPs | The Independent
Trial by life
Trial by life has an unbearable twist
Sad days of darkness must come to an end
Trial by life’s an endurable test
Send for the minister,send for the priest.
With her long pointed nails ,she has her garments all rent.
This trial by life’s unendurable tryst
The priest is no longer either sacred or blessed.
The succession has faltered with bitter dissent
Trial by life’s an endurable test
The people must now to each other confess.
The Tabernacle’s empty ,for who paid the rent?
Trial of life, who can endure such a tryst?
We need to look into our own hearts that cursed.
We need to take shelter,though torn is the Tent
Trial by life’s an endurable test.
Who gives the verdict,which judge is not bent?
Who can decide whether we should assent?
Trial by life:what a blow ,what a fist.
Trial by life: the unbearable last
To find a home for love without
When first I saw your soulful face,
I wished to dwell in your embrace.
I wished as well to clothe you in
The sacred images within.
To find a home for love without;
To fold my dreams all round about;
Your loving body and your face
Were covered in such joy and grace.
I found my dreams were cast aside;
The world of meaning denied life.
What seemed most precious now is fled
As I lie sleepless in my bed.
What is the world when unadorned
With all that in my heart I’ve formed?
There is no meaning I can trace.
As in a mother’s empty face.
On these grey rocks. my path is hard.
From paradise, my self is barred.
To struggle or to grief succumb,
When this dark day of mourning’s done?
Into His dazzling darkness dart
My dreams and love like dying sparks.
Into His Mystery so fair.
I’ll cast both hope and my despair.
Thus my dreams will be transformed
To show themselves in other forms.
What feels a loss may foretell growth.
On my hope,I’ll take an oath:
“That nothing in my life is waste;
That I have not for phantasms chased.
And you are human,as am I.
Let’s live again until we die”
The diet of worms [
In New South Wales
They’re hunting bees,
And shooting trees.
They’re hanging worms
For lengthy terms
They’re on a diet
And don’t we know it.
The diet of worms shall be our fare
And on the bible. we shall swear.
We’ll swear our oath
We are not loth
We’ll strangle frogs
They’ll die in bogs.
We’ll always use four letter words
And they shall be our hunting swords.
We’ll kill the good
We’ll burn the wood.
We’ll shout out,fuck.
We’ll burn the book
We’ll let no thin skinned people live.
We’ll always take and never give!
We’ll use our charms
To quell alarms.
We’ll rape the girls
Cut off their curls.
For as we’re human, so we’re mad.
We kill the good and love the bad.
We saw the babe in Bethlehem
We saw him die between two men.
We did not run to cut him down
We said,Oh,fuck,another clown.
For he spoke love
And said to give.
For he spoke peace;
Let joy increase
For like most human,we are crazed
We see it and we’re not amazed.
No sunset red
No welcome bed
No golden dawn
No welcome morn
No loving arms
No sacred charms
No newborn king
No tune to sing
Oh,we are damned
We are broke
We built Auschwitz
Saw the smoke.
And now it’s built again,again
Drops the bomb
In Bethlehem.
And on our knees, we women crawl
To bury babies born too small.
To take the swords from these mens’ hands
And bury them in desert sands.
To pick up scraps of humanness
To hold up hands for God to bless.
We did it wrong,we did it bad
We never thought, so now we’re mad



