Category: sonnet

Give us back the seats in public space

When in pain, the world is made of seats
Where one can gain a moment of relief
Ignored are flowers however fair and pure
When pain  grows strong,we cannot  gaze,revere

But since the homeless lie on  seats at night
The council have removed them from our sight
The bus stop , seats of plastic , hurt me sore
Till I am wracked   with pain  I once ignored

I need gardens with low walls of stone
Where I  may sit and softly, clearly moan
My coat is spoiled  and now I feel  my rage
I’m no longer on the human stage.

Yet bees die if they sting us in  defence
Little in the world makes any sense

Strength needs flexibility and give

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When of the world of doctors,I am sick.
When diagnosis is not any aid
When from the choices given,
I cannot pick
Although I feel my deepest debts were paid.
Then off from thinking I must take my mind
To gaze upon the beauty of the woods
And feel the sun not fiery, even kind.
It warms and heartens even my cold blood.
The trees are calm for they have grown deep roots
Though storms may strike their trunks and branches too
Breaking off new tender green tipped shoots
They sway and take it without much to do.
Strength needs flexibility and give;
With no such, the brittle shall not live

Faltering voice

The moment that they told me he was gone
I knew I never more would be at one.
The guilt  is bad, the shame is harder still
That I no longer am  what I would will

That I did not perceive the   your state of mind
That to your heart I seemed to have been blind
That I was not enough to keep you here
That life and death most grievous are  so near

Then  shamed by my emotions I withdrew
Into the prison cell  that no-one knew
My soul was  pierced , I could not own my grief
 Limp, submissive , blown away, a leaf.

Shame is deadly, unexposed to speech
With reddened face and   faltering voice I weep

Their own heart

Living with division in the self
Two parts that can’t be joined by any wealth
Worthlessness,  remote the place it starts
Can we heal,rejoin the broken parts?

Must we go back to  places where we failed
Or be unfree, a prisoner with no jail?
Who might knit the stitches that would join
The valued  half, the other part they scorned?

Ways to go down deep might lead to death
Earn the  anger,bait the holy wrath
The earth cracks wide, the precipice appears
Astride the split, there is  no use for tears

So easy to break up , to split ,to part
Who   will hold their self  in their own heart?

 

The enemy of vision

The sacred heart fragmented does not awe
Broken,lost, and trampled, global   wars.
We worship our own selves, by camera formed
There are no depths, no Saviour to be born

The horizontal Flatland  where we crawl
Does not encourage us to stand up tall
There are no experts, no-one  understands
The dignity of art, the  learning scorned

The heart has cracked, the jigsaw can’t be done
We all lose a game that no-one’s won.
Here comes a vacuum cleaner which will suck
The heart of God  mixed with our human muck.

Can we  think there is no vertical
The lost imagination, the strained will

Deep the soil

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Photograph by Mike Flemming 2020 copyright

 

The ancient bricks are crumbling   making space
For living creatures humble,self effaced 
The  wallflowers waver on the topmost ledge
Leaning out to watch the hurried pass

The sun shines from the East in blinding glare
Shadows shorten .trees bud ,Spring is near
My baseball cap protects my eyes and skin
Even the  most strong  will never win

We take the humus ,grow our crops and flowers
When our time is  done,   we will not cower
Gratefully we love  our neighbours,friends
Right until we reach the very  end 

Then with the  bones of innocence we lie
Deep the soil  and deeper still the Eye.

There is no order, randomness is come

An act of war when no war is declared
 Makes war a problem of the entire world
Now we see    a plane burn  in the air
Was this just an accident bizarre?

No land is  safe,  all  meadows killing fields
We all are soldiers, none of us have shields
We must pretend  for how else can we live
To make   the children safe, what must we give?

Once we had  imperatives,now gone
There is no order,  ethics are undone
War is undeclared , we now shall  share
The fate  so many suffer unprepared

Global  markets lead to global war
The essence of the incident lies bare

As the clock ticks

You know you are superfluous,alone
When going to the dentist makes your day
Lying in the chair without a groan
Although you shut your eyes and say a prayer

A gentle hand,  a polite word or four
The nurse who gives you water is so kind
I hope I shall not go there anymore
But what is lurking,waiting in my mind?

Shall I  find dating site and see
The kind of man  attracted by my smile
What is love and what will come to be
I feel a lack of cunning and of wiles.

As the clock ticks, we are  getting old
Who will help us when we feel so cold?

 

Amber eyes

I brought home a kitten from a friend
So tiny yet so fierce he bit my hands
We could not find him  when we came back home
He was   tucked in with the sheet  under the foam

We  had no garden so we  took him out
Wrapped in a wool cardigan,I think
He lay contented on my knee  all day
Looking at the trees and coloured sky

When mature  he roamed the night away
Sleeping in a rocking chair all day
Benjamin, we called him, was run down
In the rush hour by a speeding clown,

The amber eyes of  Benjamin would glow
He gave us  happiness,we  loved him so

The doll

They gave me a small watch on Xmas Day
But with a watch a little child can’t play
I envied both my sisters with  new dolls
As on the old settee the dolls were lulled

I stood  there uncomprehending and alone
Had I reached unknowing a milestone?
Then my sister lent  me one of hers
I broke that little  head  upon my chair

I was holding her with tenderness
Scarcely breathing in my velvet dress
So   I sat down to   rock  my babe  awhile
The horror of   her  cracking head was vile

Now I play with  numbers and with  words
And   look back sadly at that little girl

 

No purpose, no desire

How can I judge you when I do not know
The river of your heart, it’s undertow
Forgetting  the wide looking that we need
Too attentive  to the goals of speed

I may   compare you to another friend
And in comparison, our love   might end
I may not take you in as one  true whole
How little do we look,  ensnared by goals?

When attention lapses and we  dream
We may see our soul and  its true themes
Too sharp a focus makes our mind compress
Our narrowed eyes  untrue to second guess

With my whole body I  perceive the  true
No purpose , no desire,  nothing  but you.

Grave the undertones  

I ran behind you but the hills were steep
I was frightened, left  behind alone
Now you go ahead into your sleep

Can’t you ever wait, so we could meet
Without you teasing me with  broken bones?
 I ran behind you but the hills were steep

Not held back  by fog or  frost  or sleet
Now you are a husk, where is your home?
 Oh,  must you  go ahead into dark sleep?

You were King , the girls and  boys all leaped
You would not let me use the gramophone
 I  tried  to  meet you,fear and love I keep.

The green sap rose, adventure was the key
Now we’re old so grave the undertones
 Might I murmur while you sink to  sleep?

Let  your hands stretch backward as you go
Before you’re in the earth so bitter,cold
I  passed you as I entered into speech
Yet still you  go ahead  my words can’t reach

 

 

 

 

Sitting in the bathroom,I’ve been stuck in here all night

Sitting in the bathroom,I’ve been stuck in here all night
Something alien’s in my gut, it seems there  is a fight
I wish I were asleep in bed, warm and bathed in dreams
My mind is underfunctioning, a dodo  or a scream

In the bed the sheet  has moved.someone else is here
I’ll share my bed with anyone  but they must not come near
Negotiations all the time, the enemy, the fear
We hate best all those we love, for they stole  mother dear

Up again I feel my way without the bedside light
I don’t want the beetles   running ,fearing human sight
I didn’t know I ate so much, but now I shall be drained
Sitting here, I feel annoyed by all these ugly pains

Would I were a babe again,wrapped in mother’s arms
Smelling her  dear,dear perfume. as her comfort makes me warm

We may miss the  very clues we need

Emotional claustrophobia is widespread
We fear   our feelings,fear the sudden dread
We swing between attraction and dismay
Others have been seen to sink to prayer

Yet all alone at Xmas we are sad
Even   our other choice was dread
People who  can madden with crude noise
Feel some  one else might love their voice

Silence is  like music in  its  joy
No intrusion, no strong  words to annoy
But if we flee intrusion   at great speed
We may miss the  very clues we need

Oh, to find a lover  joyful in our space
When we long  for  touch, for wild embrace.

This frail membrane  is our boundary

My room is warm and comforting and light
This feels  like kindness , brings my skin delight
I remember  being held in loving arms
And soothed by songs  as sweet as any balms

Let the lamplight run across  the eyes
Let them soften to a wider gaze
Let the hair  be free from wax and sprays
Let the skin enclose us, be our way

We can’t deny the skin is often pricked
Or beaten by a parent who’s too strict
More fragile than a leaf from any tree
This frail membrane  is our boundary

Floating into sleep in  reverie
I lose myself  while God imagines me

My naked flesh

On my journey into sleep I hold
A little bag which holds a tiny phone
I hold a spray of GNT  to bomb
My arteries as wide as a mother’s thumb

Yet I’d like to go in naked form
Trusting in the darkness as a balm
Before  all, this  I loved my naked flesh
That with my loved one I might be enmeshed

Now I seem in danger from myself
My own heart is severed from its wealth
Migraine of  the heart can lead to death
Through my artery I  express   wrath

What other mysteries can my body  know?
Thank God,I  only signed for Pay and Go

 

The words were wise, the sentences allured

Once an Empire ,  once an admired place
Great Britain should now be in outer space
We lose connections, cut them with  a sword
No-one  seems to know where dwells the Word

We had  a language rich and full of grace
Apostrophes and commas knew their place
The words were wise, the sentences allured
Shakespeare could  quote  music  sung by birds

We were not wrecked by theories   so base
Enjoyed by French  professors , what disgrace
Sentences should ring  out  and be  shared
The circles  of  our culture can’t squared

Where have gone our manners and our strength?
Where indeed has gone the National Health?

 

Spent a lifetime hanging off a ledge

Ah,rebellious spirit wanting space
With my finger on the map I paced
I climbed Helvellyn, fell off Striding Edge
Spent a lifetime hanging off a ledge

Meanwhile our kind teacher twittered on
Thomas Hardy, Hopkins., we were numb
She never mentioned she saw my escape
The way the nuns  hurt me, the bitter rape

I slipped  on High White Stones and almost  dropped
My feet were dangling off the  fearsome rocks 
No-one knew for I was climbing last
Know me  please but never learn my past

How quickly life has  run since I could climb
Now I merely sit here draped in rhymes

I stood  like a stone

Down the kitchen  stairs they carried you
Two men were enough, the coffin crew
I wanted to take off the lid to see
If Daddy was  asleep. had not left me

Mute and frozen I stood  like a stone
In this the place we  loved and made a home
We knelt down by the fire to say night prayers
The flames  stood up like  fingers  in  the air

The soot fell down, we had a little brush
To sweep the ash,remains of  forests crushed.
Later grand-dad died , my brothers  pale
Carried  his dear coffin down the aisle

 Imagined  into being by the Mass
Jesus whispered   when the storm   had passed

As long as I can see  your love and you

 

I  must have shrunk my spectacles fall off
When I bend or when I have a cough
Then it’s hard to find them  on the floor
I stagger to the spare ones in a drawer

I rarely throw most older  glasses out
For  eyes may change and older ones might suit
I’m wearing ones from 13 years ago
No wonder I keep seeing heaps of snow

I wish I could see better but  make do
As long as I can see  your love and you
As long as I can read and choose my clothes
I shall be   patient,silent on these woes

For some born blind will never see the flowers
The eyes of infants, trees and sun  and showers

The fishes swimming in your head

We humans seem concerned  that we must die
Yet complain we cannot sleep with shuttered eyes
Stay awake and let  the mind roam free
Invent new recipes, enjoy some tea

Feel the peace of darkness and  the bed
Tell off  fishes swimming in your head
Get up and clean the kitchen  of its grease
Check your records if you have a lease

Knit a mohair hat for winter time
Wash a scarf and hang it on the line
Change  the  printer ink  before it dries
Volunteer to work for M I 5

Unwillingly  admit we can’t control
The night and day,  the journey and its goal

I felt as rigid as a metal door

 

Fill  those blessed mugs  with water hot
Throw waste paper into that blue bin
Pick up all the rubbish you have dropped
For being so untidy is a sin

When  daddy died I put my toys away
Into boxes on the wardrobe  floor
I never played with  any toy again
I felt as rigid as a  metal door

I could not eat my dinner,I grew thin
I never spoke for woe had struck my throat
I read  the  tea leaves left inside  my mug
I  never wore my woollen winter coat

Now I am untidy and I write
I did not get  so silent  out of spite

Cat eats curry

I left a pan  of curry on the stove
Hot as  ash combined with burning coal
Yet when I  went back in  a cat stood  there
Eating this strong curry  with no care.

It must have had  thick skin inside its mouth
Before I looked ,it ran out of the house
To think it  gobbled up our supper  so
Leaving me  with nothing  but a glow

So then I made a chilli  beef and beans
My heart  ached as I listened to  puss scream
Can cats learn  that pans are out of bounds?
I’d hate to hear again its anguished sounds

Be  sure to close  the kitchen door  or else
You will suffer torment  from cats’ yells

How can it be morning without you?

How can it be morning without you
There is  a hollow  place inside the house 
Vacated  and now filled with nothing new
For who can take the place of a loved spouse?

How can a day begin without your smile
Without your scent like honey from the hills?
What toy or person can a wife beguile:
Would alcohol or  bottles of strange pills?

I feel the pain  in my arthritic joints
I did not know folk lived  like this for years
Who can now my aching  back annoint
Or wipe away the hanging sheet of tears

How can it be  the world  is short of you?
You cannot be replaced by someone new

Yet I remember  Teesdale and High Force

When I was young he liked to brush my hair
He bought a special brush from somewhere posh
Down my back  my hair flowed  gold and fair
The best of all my features, long and lush Continue reading “Yet I remember  Teesdale and High Force” →

Words unwritten  cannot be erased

Each single word a pointed piece of glass
That splits itself to fragments   and the heart
Thus malediction  like a vampire harms
Our words are  strong ,affecting as they taunt

 The person hurt is damaged even more
Labelled as too sensitive, thin skinned
Shame attracts more violence as we blush
Standing with our face against the wind

 Blaming victims is a strong defence
We are sturdy, they attract  their fate
 The Jews  of Europe were an offering, burnt 
Mostly we will hide the force of  hate

Words unwritten  cannot be  erased
They show themselves upon the hearer’s face

Feel with  the whole body, feel entire

Without the narrow focus of desire
We see a new born world of coloured hue
Our eyes feel  the sensation, gentle touch
Then breathing is much slower in this view

With this text to read why waste our time?
Achievement is not judged nor measured   here
Feel with  the whole body, feel entire
Crumble  not if struck by panic fear

Expansion of our self ,  the muscles ease
Our body softens as we gaze again
Unable to believe all  we  have missed
The inner soul   is rinsed by hiss of rain

Effort and self torment do no good
Succumb  for we are  in the hands of G-d

What is gazing for?

To gaze is   but to love without desire
To be as  satisfied as  with a  meal
To burn  in joy in the eternal fire
To  take, receive and hold  what we can’t steal

To gaze is  but to lose our  central place
To feel a part of  Life in all its forms
The entire world ablaze and full of grace
Able to withstand the  mighty storm

To gaze is but to  be alive and here
To see the new creation every  hour
When childhood’s glory’s  are no longer near
And we no longer wish for total power.

 We gaze and we are touched  inside  our hearts
We  breath  more slowly, feel  our love restart

Which human never feels these cruel assaults?

Here I am  half dressed with uncombed hair
As weary as  a wolf without a lair
Now my thoughts are waylaid by   my faults
Which human never feels these cruel assaults?

Why do I not think of all my joys?
Instead I recall cruelty  nuns deployed
If I could have hated them at school
My  anger would turn outwards ,be less cruel

Do we nurse  such hatred  for some gain?
Surely it ‘s not  worth the searing pain
I wonder how to let it go for good
And quietly bear my burden, cross of wood

Retaliation,  arrows that return
The  sender feels the pain but will  they learn?

Then one day the tide of life will turn

When I’m ill I feel my life’s a wreck
The mirror frightens me as I reflect
Who am I and why  do I feel so
Omnipotent,destroying as I go.?

Yet how we feel   will change as does our health
After trauma, drained of all our wealth
We stagger on the battlefield unsought
Until by kindness we are held and caught

We  must help each other,strength combined
A smile, a touch, a word, a little line
What seems common sense  may be ignored
The strong may hate the weak  and slam the door

Be with others, listen,look and learn
Then one day the tide of life will turn

The people are enraged  about our Play

I dare not watch the News again today
The House of Commons  deep in its own fray
Our leader is as stupid as an ox
Who thinks that he’s as cunning as a fox

We the people are at Civil War
The regime has  split and rotted all our cores
Like Blake’s rose which had its sweet decay
The people are enraged  about our Play

Shakespeare   could not write one apposite
We  cannot find a good enough play-right
The  people nondescript  because unknown
Biting their thin fingers to the bone.

Let somebody rid us of this rogue
Before our weak “democracy” erodes