The News Demented

For people with social anxiety,mathematicians on the autistic spectrum, agoraphobics etc it is a great relief to move into Tier 4 as the ground is very wet and wet paper is no used for trying to
understand how the ancient Hebews built Solomon’s Temple which needed a good approximation to the number we call pi
But where is my step ladder?How high is a Tier?

Just when we all stocked up with Xmas puddings for 25 relatives we are told we can’t have visitors
To think I’ll have to eat them all myself before the New Year or die in the attempt
Send some immodium please.

Boris Johnson is now known as The Pendulum or, for short, Clock-head or Dandelion
No doubt we can have all the neighbours and relatives over on Good Friday as the churches will be closed unti we find God or at least a message and a clue

Feeling blue? Why not have brandy with your Weetabix.But don’r ride a bike at the same time

On the autistic spectrum? Buy some sunglasses before you go to a party.
And most people have no interest in Wittgenstein, infinity,waves and particles, the meaning of life,Theology, poetry, modern music or art, what is uncountable, angels on pins,
Try
Strictly Come Dancing,baking, having a new kitchen,new shoes,Nigella Lawson, new jokes,
whether to move house, people falling in the street, old people being dead for 2 weeks before the neighbours,gossip,slander, greed, sin in general and particular,lies you have told. your fantasy life, things you stole from the Office, your new phone.

Ode to sweat

No longer are the British smelling pure
Deodorants aren’t selling like before
We decided to save our money for the drink
Why clean your teeth when your whole body stinks?

Toothbrushes and combs had some allure
Men might fancy women,fair,demure.
Women don’t like men who sweat and smell
Man made fibres don’t absorb so well

But now we sweat and pong in our velour
Our teeth are yellow. broken,gnashed with fear
Underneath our arms and all below
Our odour is now going with the flow

Yet the shops are selling rubber sheaths
Morning after pills with mourning wreaths
The natural smell of others turns us on
Save the soap and water, love is come

The Value Added Tax is going up
Women exchange tampons for small cups
They see their blood and do not want to pay
For products that are taxed in nasty ways

Maybe we should let our blood flow free
Climbing outside naked on a tree

After makeup

I put on my new lipstick to show my husband who said:
Congratulations, you have found some lipstick exactly the same colour as your own lips

I said on going out: I forgot to comb my hair,he said
It doesn’t make any difference.

He went so fast on the North Circular I finally learned how to fasten my seatbelt
But was that kind of him?

I myself could only drive at 90 mph so I gave up before I killed someone

I went into Boots to buy some Foundation.A lady came up to me saying she didn’t like her complxion
and what did I have on, because that’s what she wanted for herself!
Then at the bus stop someone asked me the name of my lipstick
As I wore none,I felt embarrassed.I should have invented a name

However with time passing and Lockdown I no longer get any compliments
But it seems in the wider world women are having troubles with males acting badly



The shadows

I have never wanted to despise
Never wished to make you feel ashamed
Never by a hard look you maraud
I have never wanted to deride
I have known what your looks signified
I have seen the shadows of your eyes
Never made you feel you were to blame
I have never wanted to degrade
Never wished to make you feel the shame

Homesick

Homesick for the ones I did not like
Feeling out of place,pushed to one side
Wanting to escape this painful life
Homesick for the ones I did not like
Fearful of the anger and the strikes
Wishing to give love but not to break
Harder still to think and to decide
Homesick for the ones I did not like
Feeling out of place,unwanted bride

Love (III) BY GEORGE HERBERT

Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back
                              Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
                             From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
                             If I lacked any thing.

A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:
                             Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
                             I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
                             Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
                             Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
                             My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
                             So I did sit and eat.
Source: George Herbert and the Seventeenth-Century Religious Poets  (W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1978)

The voyage

We are in  our boat together
Sailing across the bay.
Some have an easy voyage,
The wind is blowing their way.
I wish I could always be sailing
Across a wide ocean with you
And never reach the other side
though it may be in view.
I want to see the sunrise
Across the dappled sea.
The ripples of the water
Reveal a new world to me.
One day this boat will reach the shore
Unless destroyed by storm
And I shall have to leave your arms
Where I have been so warm.
So just before we get there
I wanted you to know
That I shall always love you
No matter where you go

What is not a map

???????
by Katherine
In the Farm shop

Is your glowing face a map?
are your tender ways a map?
what is not a map?
Is your open smile a map?
Is your deepest groan a map?
what is not a map?
Is my  too sharp touch a map?
Is my too quick glance a map?
what is not a map?

Is this sea green leaf a map,
Is this light red flower a map?
What sort of map is that?
Is the evening sky a map,
Is the silver moon a map?
Of what is that a map?
Is this entire world a map?
Is the sun-soaked sky a map?
Is this tiny child a map?

think I am a map.
Who can learn to read these maps?
Without love we can’t perceive;
Who can teach us how to see?

Can we look beyond the Map?
Can we look into the gap?
Whatever Love perceives
What Love can we recei
ve?

The broken lamp

I’ve tried to mend our stoneware lamp you broke
You fall upon the lamp.you want to die?
You looked so weak and sad, you never spoke
I’ve tried to mend the stoneware lamp you broke
From Walberswick we took the ferry boat
I liked still lifes, I draw and thus evoke.
Three years with grief I struggled and I tried
I’ve tried to mend this stoneware lamp you broke
You fell upon the lamp, it broke, you died.
To cut it short, the honeymoon was smoke
The fires of love are holy,red,unclothed
As I bent to help, our two hearts broke.

Too fat for whom?



Emile was feeling very hungry but Mary had put away all the dried cat food when she washed up
She had put Emile on a diet!
She said, you are getting too fat,Emile
Emile was very angry.His fur had stood on end like wire and his eyes glowed in amber yellow when Mary said this but Mary just went to bed.
She was reading The Letters of Ted Hughes.She had already spent five years with the book.Maybe in another five she would finish it.Then what would she do?
Read: The Collected Letters of Sylvia Plath?
Emile was determined not to accept someone else deciding what he should eat.
Now for a cat, it is not hard to find plenty of things to add to your diet, such as
1) Going into other houses with cat flaps and eating their cat’s food
2} Catching mice,frogs,rats and anything else that is smaller than a cat
3} Going down by MacDonalds to see if schoolchilden have dropped their burgers at the bus stop
4} Seeing if the neighbours have left any food out for birds
5} Biting berries off the holly tree the dying
In one case Emile himself had leapt onto the neighbours’ garden table and taken a bite out of s roast chicken they were intending to eat for Sunday lunch
So while Mary read, Emile did a tour of the entire area,Unfortunately he did not find anything edible.
Mary fell asleep in her fetching nightdress of viscose covered in little blue flowers.She began to dream a tiger was going to attack her.So she screamed!
She could still feel its thick fur even after she was half awake
.Oh,Lord, please help me, she prayed
I will never complain again if you save me now
You have said that 600 times already, she heard the Good Lord say
Well,I am a sinner, she said humbly and truthfully
Can’t you be more original?
What, do you want me to be a bandit?
Do you want me to assassinate the Leader?
I’d like you to be a bit more wicked.Steal some raspberries from a allotment.
Claim you gave a shop a £20 note when it was £15
But why,Mary asked?There are no £15 notes here
Because you are too good.
I didn’t know one could be too good!
You are not really good.It’s all in your Unconscious unacknowledged.
You are full of anger and rage
Well, if I start stealing sweets from shops, how will that help?
It will make a crack in your self image.You will have to notice that you do have thoughts and feelings
you have denied.And you saw them in other people
Will it hurt?
Possibly, but it is wiser in the end
Mary felt Emile cuddling up to her face.He was sucking her ear.
What’s this, she cried?
I am starving, he murmured.I got worn out hunting
For what?

Food, food, wonderful food
Nothing quite like it for lifting the mood

When Mary got out of bed,Emile said
Oh, mother!You are too fat.
Too fat for whom?
Who is this Whom? A new man?
Too fat to climb Hellvellyn
But that’s 100 miles away
A walk is just what you need



For worms engraved

Outside our house the tarmac road was changed
Cobbles flat as dinner plates were laid
All were lying neat and well arranged
Outside our house the tarmac road was changed
A line was drawn by councillors deranged
Neglecting reason, arguments soon strayed
Children saw that adult life is strange
Outside our house the tarmac road was changed
Cobbles flat with gaps for worms engraved

Going to school

We saw across a valley, saw the Pike
The graves were by the river undisturbed
We went to visit Daddy,prayer seemed right
We saw across a valley then the Pike
Noone noticed what the live felt like
When panicked insecurity would strike
Little faces innocent, perturbed
We saw across a valley, saw the Pike
The graves were by the river,no returns

Birds like bees

The birds are darting to and from the shed
Parabolas at speed, they look like bees
Bright holly berries looks like flowers of red
The birds are darting to and from the shed
In metaphor, the berries are Christ’s blood
The world is rich in meaning to those fed
The eyes that see, the mind, enriched and pleased
The birds are darting to and from the shed
Geometric paths ,oh, wondrous bees

Courtesy is everlasting

since i lost you i have lost
the keys to my heart
the front door key
my phone
and my money

now all i have is a large tube of ibuprofen gel max strength
and some feathers from the tail of a baby wood pigeon
that flew into our house when i left the back door open

maybe i need better boundaries
closed doors
and windows

the wood pigeon was so strong its agitation rocked the front door like a thundergod
like you,it did not realise
there are easier ways to leave
than smashing through glass
leaving shards to pierce my heart
not to mention my feet

become a better leaver
have mercy on those other lovers
for charm wears thin but courtesy is everlasting
like love itself

Where’s the boundary?

Why don’t you want to go Hadrian’s Wall built as it was by the Romans
I’ve got boundary value problems
Do you mean borderline personality orders?
Is a boundary a borderline?
Just a minute,I need a tranquillieser
Is it a Paradox?
No it’s a Diazepam
Was that a Celtic Tribe?
Stop or I’ll need another tablet
You already have 3 Androids

What with them and the Celts I am getting nervous
I have an iPad
Showing off!
I try to hide it
Where?
In my vegetable basket
Are they clean?
Yes, if I buy them in a Supermarket
I grow my own.
Your own what?
Tramquilisers

They look like potatoes to


A smell diffuse

Oh,transcendental numbers, are you gods
You show the complex world that drives us nuts
If only the circumference could be
The radius squared, then multiplied by three.

How simple Science would be because straight lines
Could wrap round so called “circles” well defined
All the world would be a different shape
The Earth itself would crumble as we gaped

Come to that we would not be alive
For women would have bosoms like road signs
The womb would be a cube and not a sphere
The corners would endanger life obscure

Our heads would be like Rubik’s cube in shape
Our minds would be aghast and emigrate
So here would lie the ruins of the West
No devious politicians could invest

Men and women could not join in sex
That would make the adults feel quite vexed
Procreation would be IVF
Look it up, it’s no fun for the guest

We would need no hats upon flat heads
A dinner plate would sit up there instead
But if we bring back pi, will all be well?
I cannot say while living in this hell

Stupid, evil men are on the loose
The air is nauseaous with a smell diffuse

Imagination

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-marion-milner-1163951.html

Milner underlined the need to imbue the common-sense world with one’s personal sense of meaning. She described this process as the alchemy which transmutes base metal into gold. This requires a sacrifice of the old self and a plunge into emptiness, from which one develops a trust that, out of the unconscious, something new and valuable can grow. These lines of thought led on to other interests of Milner’s – the role of art and poetry in the life of the mind, and mysticism.

Is you an alien?

This person suffered a fit when Trump lost the election
She thinks she is St Paul
Is she suitable for gender re-assignment or is it schizophrenia?
Wait to see if she writes any letters

This person has been given a lethal injection but is alive.
It’s a miracle.Tell the Pope
To whom did you pray?
God
Make God a saint immediately.

This person is guilty of fraud
How?
He teaches birds how to fly
I thought it was innate
Who’s Innate?

This person is too logical
For what?
For a human being
Is they an alien?
Is you?
I aren’t yet

In heaven

The sun is shining brightly
Shall I sit by the pool?
No,I always live my  life by
Rigid personal rules.

Last week’s unruly weather
Let rain fell down in spools
I might have had the heating on;
Oh,those rigid personal rules.

Wear a dress from Mayday
Wear  coats when winter’s cool
Only wash your hair on weekends
That’s a personal rigid rule

But,Ma ,my hair is oily
The girls all point in school.
Don’t be such a  cry baby
Don’t  be such a fool.

Ma,I’ve done my homework
I’m top of all my year!
Can I have an hour alone?
She thwacked me on the ear.

I was her little puppet
And she controlled my strings
Till I caught my Guardian angel
And I stole her sturdy wings.

Well,Ma died  half my life away
But  she is now a ghoul
Watching me so patiently
With her chart of rigid rules.

She didn’t leave me money
She didn’t leave me jewels.
She just left me a message
All my rules are  yours.

I cried ,Holy Moses
She is worse than God
She made rules for everything
From  love to  boiling cod.

Don’t bath when you’ve your period
Don’t let your brothers see
You are now a woman
But  you’re still under me

I think I’ll leave those rules behind
And if it makes me fear
God will send a devil round,
I’ll hit  him with this spear.

Flexible  our bodies
Flexible our minds
We must climb the mountain
And leave those rules behind.

Following personal rules
Can make us feel secure
But  our vocation calls to us
And cares not if we’re   pure.

Steal  and purloin all you need
From books and people too.
Follow your own calling
While you share our human zoo.

And share your learning freely
Give as well as take
Oh,my Lord ,I see some men
Carrying a stake.

They are going to burn my body
But they can’t touch my  soul
Wrap me well in flax,  my dear.
In heaven ,I’ll be whole

The future is yet fiction

The heart is struck a blow, can we live on?
The pain, the blood, the wound ca’t be undone
Lying in the rocks, so grey, so doomed
Death is waiting in the sitting room


Imperceptibly our minds are changed
The contents we examine, rearrange
No energy for living and new games
Like a worn out puma,limping, lame


The animal, our being, our poor flesh
Wishes for relief or even death
Yet as the sun burns through the maple leaves
Who can tell what else we may perceive?

Life and death, those twins walk on white cliffs
I stumbled once,I froze,I turned from death.
Then I found the wild rose and its thorns
The pain of grasping love, the treasure shown


The future is yet fiction,I’ll be damned.
Come to me and hold my
lovely hand

The cat had perfect pitch

A long time ago in my garden

s  March 13, 2018 Cat rescue 2002

I had a cat which never scratched or bit
Her manners were perfection , I can say
But on the stairs she lay and fell asleep
She tripped me up and fled to Uruguay

She always recognised my newest frock
She would leap down from the window sill
And she would try to milk the fabric that allured
Till I had threads and holes writ in my Will

She  used her scratching post when on good form
Yet when we went away, she disobeyed
For we found scratches on the sofa arms
Where she had exercised the right to fray

Yet when she died  we missed her perfect pitch
I should have learned to mioaw like a witch

Too clever and yet had no sense





Died of ulcer on foot, was used to pain, so ignored
Verdict: too unassuming,undemanding and scrupulous
Accidental death
by suicide

Died of a stroke.She thought it was migraine
Verdict: knew too much yet not enough.Accident

Photo by David Geib on Pexels.com

Got out of bed on the wrong side and set fire to her dressing gown with lamp
Verdict:Too shortsighted.Hence accident
and fire

Was found by the wardrobe in her nightgown
Died too early to get dressed hence mistook the door.
Verdict:Accidental death, though unusual


Ate too much and got indigestion
Verdict: Stupid not to realise it was a heart attack.Suicide!

Was found dead by the maid who took her a cup of tea.Hole in forehead
Verdict:Accidentally shot by a poacher with good vision or fell over a runner bean cane

Fell down the stairs and then down a hole
Traffic wrongly rerouted through her hall

Verdict:Murder by Transport for London
Sentence:Send to USA to be shot before January 19th 2021

On Winter Hill,don’t laugh

There were no flocks of sheep on Winter Hill
No goats,no asses,rivers,pools nor glades
From the top, we saw Welsh mountains still
There were no flocks of sheep on Winter Hill
There was no coffee shop,no window frills
There were no good hotels nor lovely maids
There were no flocks of sheep on Winter Hill
No goats,no asses,rivers,pools or glades


On the top, the Mast for ITV
Signals sent to Lan
cashire and Wales
Just as far as Southport’s distant sea
On the top, the Mast for ITV
There was no toilet, nor was there a tree
Hence none blew down in Pennine fearsome gales
On the top, the Mast for ITV
Signals sent to Yorkshire and North Wales


Why no public loos in such a spot
I guess the sewer did not run uphill
Who would build it,maybe time forgot?
Why no public loos in such a spot?
At least it’s not in hell,it is not hot
There is no cat asleep,no window sill
Why no public loos in such a spot
I guess the sewer could not run uphill

1800 feet above the sea
Measured with a modern wooden rod
You’d think they’d have a cafe selling tea
1800 feet above the sea
Who will go, it’s certainly not me
There is no cave, no prophet and no God
1800 feet above the sea
You’d think they’d have a cafe selling tea


Wakening

I heard your footstep coming up the stair
You made me tea then listened to the News
Then you disappeared,I don’t know where
I heard your footstep coming up the stair
My heart was troubled, feeling skinless,.bare
What is this sound familar but askew
I heard your footstep coming up the stair
You made me tea then listened to the News

The carrot or the flu

I’ll never mention carrots. baby
I know you hate the colour,taste and shape
Would you like my cake
Seved on a bed of hake
Or just a Jaffa Orange and a steak?


I”ll never, mention carrots. baby
I know they were not eaten by the apes
Would salami do
Served on a pizza new,?
Or would you rather eat the berries off the yew?


I’ll never mention carrots,baby
You won’t eaten them raw or cooked till glue
Would you like an egg
Boiled until it’s dead?
Do you think it’s moral that I beg?


Happy Xmas

Happy Xmas,my man Sam
Here is bread and here is jam
Let us lie down in this ditch
Just be mine,I am bewitched
The dry leaves crackle as we move
Or is it Satan with his hooves?
You kisses sweet fall down like rain
Your arms are warm ,hug me again
I like your odour, honeybun
I give my heart to you again
But now the sun has gone down low
To our cottages we go
Our secret love, our love so grand
Keeps us fit, for life’s demands
Find yourself in someone’s arms
While you’re alive, love is a charm