Category: villanelle

The Russian wolf is licking his rich fur

I sense a feel of panic in the air
As if the Ark is not quite waterproof
I wonder if we’d welcome Tony Blair

To the poor this life was rarely fair
But now it seems unreal, is it a spoof?
I sense a piece of Putin in the air

I am looking in the mirror at my hair
It looks like Boris Johnson’s  but more louche
I wonder if we’d  dye  old Tony Blair’s

The Russian wolf is licking his rich fur
He’s happy Britain’s weakened with fake truth
I feel  a sense of  monsters  near, oh dear.

Putin won his Trump  with  that strange hair
Now it’s cyber warfare on the hoof
Will  he soon take Leave  from Tony Blair?

The Russians in Crimea  are still  there
 The Ukraine weeps  because we did not care
I sense a feel of Russia in the air
I wonder if   they’ll  fragment us  and tear.

 

Holy heart’s affection,beating pulse

One single tear   expresses  love and loss
Dramatic storms  excess may make folk pause
Who  will notice  one tear and its  cost?

A little stone near water may grow moss
But only mountains bring a sense of awe
One single tear   expresses  love and loss

Grief  must not wallowed in, like  baths
Philosophers not hurt  their minds   uncaused
Who  then will  observe   the tear,  the  cost?

To an ant, a pebble is quite gross
To a widow, death has hungry jaws
One single tear  may   show how she is lost

The entire self is  tear-filled  like  a marsh
We weep  till love itself becomes remorse
Let  one tear out and hide its  anguished cost

The heart’s affections use  poetic laws
Holy  circulation,  blood that draws
One single tear  falls down like bladed grass
Who  will care for  this tear, bear  its  cost?

 

 

 

 

Heart and art

Limestone’s softness lets its cracks appear
Wildflowers,daisies,foxgloves love to grow
While little rivers  to the South Tyne veer

Alston on the hill  to me is dear
The main street in the winter’s under snow
Limestone’s softness lets its cracks appear

Granite hard as marble seems to jeer
Limestone  lets the seeds and grass stay,
While little rivers  to the South Tyne veer

The savage Pennines can cause panic fear
Their shadow in the sun, a fearsome layer
Limestone’s softness lets its cracks appear

Do we shift our vision far and near?
The panorama  of the Lakes is fair
The little rivers  to the South Tyne veer

Limestone,like a  woman, let’s love grow
Thus it is creative ,heart and Art
Limestone’s softness lets  broad cracks appear
Thus  streams, well  filled with seeds, are made home there

 

 

 

 

One tear

A silver tear rolled lonely as sliced moon
Down my pallid cheek  and wet my lip
Your loss turned me to sadness and damp gloom

My future  seemed, not promising, but doomed
The icy nails of death gave me a nip
A little tear rolled lonely as lost moons

Yet, in my mind, I heard L Cohen’s tunes
“There ain’t no cure for love” on this our trip
Your loss turned me to sadness ,clouds of gloom

Yet soft, deep darkness  need not lead to doom
Come,I’ll take a lover, board a ship
A starry tear rolled lonely as   new moon

I will  love,I ‘ll seek  for new  hope soon
Will I descend to stealing from a skip?
Your loss sent me to sadness like a room

I  need no LSD to take a trip
My open senses give me what I miss
A silver tear rolled lonely as cruel moon
Your loss turned me to beauty,life resumes

 

 

The fire must burn

Circular the building and the fire
A ring of stones wherein the fire was set
An eye hole high for smoke, a height for gyre

The wind might whistle. might bring chill, bleak, dire
The fire burned hot and red, the cats there sat
Circular the building and the fire

Warm when hunters came in from the mire
Meat  was roasted ,everyone ate that
An eye-hole  for  the smoke, a height for gyre

Families slept in  heaps, as cats desire
The fire  must  keep, the embers not  go black
Circular the building and the fire

The wind looks in  and tries to cool the fire
God  sees through our eye, we eye  him back
An hole above for smoke, a height for gyre

In each living heart there is a crack
The light and fire  get in to  fill our lack
Circular the building and the fire
The eye  is God’s , the wind itself inspires

 

The loss of dignity, the face unread

His face was black, he fell against my breast
Dying in an armchair by his bed
While nurses gossiped,he was  alone left

The  doctor said it would be for the best
The rehab is not meant for those  near death
His face was black, he fell against my breast

I asked him,dearest, do you feel depressed?
He nodded  with a gravity like lead
While nurses gossiped,he was lonely left

Then I realised   my  wifely task
I was even asked to lift him to his bed
No longer  as my bridegroom at the feast

The loss of dignity, the face unread
The  blindness of the staff,  the broken head
His face was black, he fell against my breast
While nurses gossiped,he was fading fast

 

 

A parrot, well brought up, can mimic chat

I went  into your study, found a cat
Black with shining fur and amber eyes
She ran with startling speed ,near knocked me flat

I found your weekend bag and your sun hat
A tear ran down my face, then multiplied
I went  into your study, found a cat

I wondered who composed  the “tit for tat”
And whether any animal could lie.
Puss ran with startling speed ,near knocked me flat

A parrot well brought up can mimic chat
Some live parrots  love to rise and fly.
I went  into your study, found a cat

My previous cat would try to catch a gnat
There is no flesh on gnats,I used to say.
Puss ran with startling speed ,near knocked me flat

I kneel down  here and wonder how to pray
I shall not see my spouse on earth again
I went  into your study, found a cat
Who shot with startling speed across the mat

 

Widen oh my eye, let colour play

From the Knott, we see this Morecambe Bay
We  eye the gentle  meadows where sheep roam
Across the sea the Lakeland Hills arrayed

From  a   town of mills to this display
The joy of beauty on  this scale unknown
From the Knott,hypnotic Morecambe Bay

Widen oh my eye, let colour play
The  green, the blue, the purple, white the foam
Across the sea the Lakeland Hills arrayed

The River Kent pours out its water,sighs
The viaduct excites the child with charm
From the Knott, we see grand  Morecambe Bay

At last we understand  true life  divine
From the train, we see the sea alarmed
Across the  Bay the Langdale Pikes align

For a while, forget the world, its harms
Let the air and water be our balm
From the Knott, we see vast Morecambe Bay
Across the sea the Lakeland Hills survey

 

Su doku for adults

In  any case,arrest the folk who’ve erred
Let them catch corona from a goat
A crossword can include four letter words

When you see fonts coming, you can swerve
Or fling yourself into the nearest boat
To think Su Doku’s vulgar is absurd

Keep your outline covered by a coat
Play your flute while all go out to vote
A crossword might include four letter words
To think Su doku adult is absurd

 

Like an oboe singing as I pray

Precisely when we fell in love’s unclear
I knew your humour and  your eager ways
I  can’t imagine  when you were not dear

The deeper is the love, the more the fear
That one  must go, the other one must  stay
Exactly when we fell in love’s unclear

All alone, it is your voice I hear
Like an oboe singing as I pray
I  can’t imagine  when you were not dear

I see you in the room I know you’re here
I must not look, or I shall have to pay
Exactly when we fell in love’s unclear

I see your head  lean onto mine so near
From my reverie I must not stray
I  can’t imagine  when you were not dear

As we ambled, wandered on  our way
I did not know the ending of our Play
Precisely when we fell in love’s unclear
From this world’s creation, you were dear

 

 

Caught by geese and God





I remember all the humorous things we did 

Peering into windows lit by lamps 

Climbing cliffs then chased by geese and dog 

Walking down from Redcar,sea so still 

After Saltburn Pier, the cliffs high jump 

I remember all the funny things we did 

Wandering Whitby in a sea grey smog 

Eating a pork pie cut into lumps

Climbing cliffs then chased by geese and dog 

Old Hunstanton ,white sands where we’d sit 

The wild spikes of the gorse spread out unclamped

I remember all the colours,scents and that 

I feel the joy inside my heart is lit 

Woe is leavened by old nature’s stamp 

Climbing high then chased through mud by dogs 

We see, in shadows, shades are not so stark 

In Studland Bay astonished by skylarks   

I remember all the humour and the love 

Climbing cliffs then caught by geese and God



	


	



			
				


			

			
Sienna and dark rose
		
	
	

		
Muted colours,sienna and dark rose

Lovely mauve and lilac   please my eye

Linen,silk or wool,I love my clothes


 I like to complement,I don’t oppose

The colour wheel rotates as I go by

Wearing colours,sienna and dark rose


I  like colour,all my neighbours know

The “take” on natural fibres makes me high

Linen,silk or wool,I love  their glow


If people gossip, this is not their show

If I seem conceited,  don’t make war

Wearing colours,sienna and dark rose


Now I’m in acrylic, what a blow

Wool is hard to find, the sheep cry Baaaa

I love, fabric, I love  coloured clothes


It matters not if I have burned a bra

Seems a  little  mad, but  there we are

Muted colours,umber and dark rose

Linen,silk or wool, the art of clothes


 


 

	


	



			
				


			

			
Evolution, accident, who cares?
		
	
	

		
The Enlightment   brought  error and despair

Science can’t give  a meaning to our lives

In two World Wars we seem to make that clear


Satan looked out  puzzled from his  lair

The evil done by men was a surprise

The Enlightment   brought  error and despair


The fabric of the world  is ripped and torn

The war between the wealthy never dies

In two World Wars we seem to make that clear


Evolution, accident, who cares

With the  pill ,no woman  can deny

The Enlightment   brought  error and despair


Now we shop while wearing our nightmares

Haunted faces lifted  with no pride

In two World Wars we seem to  have that clear


Jesus in his wooden tower sighs

Almost human, he has turned away

The Enlightment   brought  error and despair

After two World Wars what else is clear?


 


 


 


 

	


	



			
				


			

			
Singing in the wind
		
	
	

		


I have heard grass singing in the wind.

I have walked through poppy fields in sun

I have suffered when dark rain descends


I have watched trees’ shadows in the ponds

I have known the arctic wastes of pain

I have heard grass singing in the wind.


Another soul is writing with my hand

Yet I have wept while loaning him my pen

I have suffered when dark rain descends


I have known the edges of the mind

I ‘ve sensed hollow silence un-contained

. I have heard grass singing in the wind.


I have sorrowed  people wh’re confined

I have watched the antics of bad men

I have suffered when dark rain descends


I have seen the storm by camera lens.

I have felt the solar system bend.

I have heard grass singing in the wind.

I have suffered when dark rain descend



	


	



			
				


			

			
Stitch the world together
		
	
	

		
Heal your own neurosis ,let go shame

Why should you  be less because you ache?

Stitch yourself together without blame


Have you got the problem with no name?

Have you made a billion weird mistakes?

Love your own neurosis without shame


Be  with other people when you can

Listen to them talking,  you may shake

Stitch yourself together without blame


We all get wet when wandering in the rain

Dry another person for love’s sake

Live your with neurosis without shame


Do not worry that your soul is stained

Keep the pieces when your own heart breaks

Bring yourselves together without blame


It is not Xmas yet but make a cake

Share good news,accept what is now fate

Own your own neurosis, let go shame

Stitch  the world together, that’s our aim

	


	



			
				


			

			
An arch of golden sky
		
	
	

		
All day long the thunderclouds went by

Humid heat without  dark rain’s release

Leaving now  a soft blue tender sky


Branches threatening as a lion’s paw

 Rich and wide with multi-layers  of leaf

Over all the thunderclouds go by.


In the empty garden I shall cry

Naught remains,God cannot be perceived

Hiding in a soft blue tender sky


Only those who know the truth can lie.

Should I not be glad  that life is brief?

Over all, the thunderclouds go by.


Only those who live must  later die

This is plain for Nature can’t deceive

Happy  in a soft blue shining sky


Love when lost may never be retrieved

Many are the children not conceived

All day long the thunderclouds went by

Leaving now  an arch of golden sky

	


	



			
				


			

			
Love must win
		
	
	

		
Of love and hatred which is  stronger now?

We destroy the enemy we choose

Love must win, but we ask when and how


Before the force of evil do not bow

But search your heart to find if you have clues

Oh love and hatred which is  stronger now?


In my own  heart, evil   leaves me bruised

What to do when we are so confused

Love must win, but we ask when and how


Others are not there to be misused

The harm we do adheres like strongest glues

Of love and hatred which is stronger now?


There is no heavenly court where we can sue

In the past we know how hatred grew

Love must win, but we ask when and who


Round  the world pandemics of hate flew

With the media  we see more and new

Of love and hatred which is is   growing now?

Love must win, but we ask when and how

	


	



			
				


			

			
Meeting someone’s eyes is like a touch
		
	
	

		
Meeting someone’s eyes is like a touch

As if our self extends  outside our skin

With no intention to take hold or clutch


Those who do this , how love must be rich

Rarely will they mortify or sin

Meeting someone’s eyes is a kind  touch


If we are afraid, may we find trust

Let us  try again,  why not begin

With no intention to take hold or clutch?


We are human, do we mind who’s first?

Let our minding weigh  less than  a pin

Meeting someone’s eyes is like a touch


In the end we mingle with the dust

Have we made good use of any gift

With no intention to take hold or clutch?


With love around, we  need not be too  swift

Take your own time  wandering through the mist

Meeting someone’s eyes is like a touch

Gentle, do caress, don’t  grasp nor clutch


 

	


	



			
				


			

			
Our mood affects the colour of the sky
		
	
	

		
The park sloped  to a river  behind  trees

 The other side was a large burial ground

Where my father’s body lay, bereaved


In the flowered park we sat and grieved

We heard the thwack of   tennis balls resound

The park sloped  to a river  behind trees


Children can’t imagine mother’s pleased

When her  strong support lies underground

As my father’s body lay, bereaved


Children  torment others , poisoned bees

Sensing sweet fragility inside

The park sloped   down to hide  behind  tall trees


 Now my mother lies where I ‘ve  dripped tears

As if I hope a flowering shrub   will shade

And father’s body lies with mother’s, pleased


Memories may well alter .don’t deny

Our mood affects the colour of the sky

The park sloped  to a river. grave the trees

I once hoped that  my dead could be retrieved


 

	


	



			
				


			

			
Will love last us?
		
	
	

		
 


DandelionClocksThe art of friendship,is it hard to master?

The interest and  the courtesy and care

Learning  skills together   makes love faster


Best avoid  name calling, like  you bastard!

Testing to destruction, do not dare

The art of friendship,is it hard to master?


If you have a friend then you must ask her

if you treat her lovingly and fair

Learning  skills together  brings love faster


In view of lockdown, you will not now pat her

Nor with a gimlet eye  be keen to stare

The art of friendship,is it hard to master?


Be still, my friend, we are put off by chatter

But do not fret about the clothes you wear

Sewing darning,  mending holes love’s better


There’s love around and much more going  spare

Hope the fabric’s tough and will not wear

The art of friendship,is it hard to master?

Learning  skills together love  will last us


,

	


	



			
				


			

			
Take your love and in your arms enfold
		
	
	

		




Did anyone believe blind rage expressed

Could benefit the agent without harm?

Did anyone read Freud and then digest?




Feelings need the heat of blacksmith’s fires

Held inside until they find their form

An image worthy of our right desire


As well as rage, we should mistrust love too

Be backward in expression till more’s known

Or risk an avalanche of cruelty.


Take care of others, they are not our fools

From sacred meetings all mankind has grown

We misuse folk to test our worth and tools


Holding in the inner fires our wish

The blackness of the heart can turn to gold

No contradiction hides such sacredness


Take your love and in your arms enfold.

The future of the world is growing cold

We liked to have the choice for rage and death

Until we found the charred remains of bliss





	


	



			
				


			

			
Waiting
		
	
	

		
Why is it so hard for us to wait?

Why be tense and make ourselves feel ill?

Why not use the time to meditate?


Do all human beings feel this way?

Think of Jews in cattletrucks,crammed, still

Why is it so hard for us to wait?


We  feel our own pain and we fear mistakes

As we live we’re ground by many mills

Could one use the time to meditate?


Life is short and tension lays it waste

I see tiny wren upon the sill

Must  it so hard for me to wait?


In mind madness, I can’t see your face

I lose all feeling; body, heart are chilled

Should I waste the time , not meditate?


If a jug is empty it is full

Full of air and happy to be dull

Why is it so hard for us to wait?

Why not  keep quite still, is my fate?


 


 


 

	


	



			
				


			

			
The baby sees but cannot speak
		
	
	

		
They tore the blanket in my pram in two

I could not sit up but I could see

Is this what older brothers often do?


I have no other memory nor a clue

I could not speak nor could I even flee

They tore the blanket in my pram in two


Ambivalent,dynamic,what’s this glue?

They fought at every chance,ignoring me

Is this what older brothers often do?


Parents were not there,that’s nothing new

Where do the feelings of the mute dwell silently?

They tore the blanket in my pram in two


Still these speech-wrecked moods descend on me

How to transform fear, indentity?

Is this what older brothers have to do?


Intense emotion feels  too sharp. though  true

The feelings push and shove inside of me

They tore my knitted blanket into two

If I’d had no brothers,I’d be who?

	


	



			
				


			

			
I  wish there were no numbers and no dates
		
	
	

		
I  wish there were no numbers and no dates

I forget them all , yet memory is like   glue

With counting, with remembrance, with  lost mate


There’s  our sorrow and its seas to navigate

The waves rise up and drop, so old so new

I  wish there were no numbers and no dates


Why are modern  hearts so separate?

The seas of knowledge, all are one in  truth

With counting, with remembrance, with   no trace


Oh,universe, why do you have such space

With patterns in the stars, that might us soothe?

If there were no numbers and no dates


Why are we  self labelled as a race?

Slowly, surely we will  dig up truths

With anguish, with remembrance, oh, lost face


When will grace remake a soul so bruised

  Struggling with  the time scale, still bemused

I  wish there were no numbers and no dates

Nor counting, nor remembrance,  nor lost face


 

	


	



			
				


			

			
Someone other takes charge of our boat
		
	
	

		

















The kindness of  our neighbours helps us cope

With life, with death,with many shades between

When we despair and  can’t imagine hope


When the sailor takes us in his boat

When he rows us on a  night-blank sea

The kindness of  our neighbours helps us cope


The world  seems  made to hurt, and then frustrate

The mind confuses   dreams , reality

When we despair and  dare not even hope


 Love is built  as we restrain our hate

Sailing well   a new country we see

The kindness of  our friends helps us  to  cope


Persistence in the virtues   gives us scope

Start again, the angel said to me

When I despaired and  lost my  threads of hope




In our mind love’s buried and unseen

Yet we can raise the dead with energy

The kindness of  our  frriends helps us cope

When we are lost and  mapless is our hope.











	


	



			
				


			

			
Virtue rendered void
		
	
	

		
Envy poison, friend of vicious hate

We know Cain for he still lives within

Society is built on hellish states


If not so, how can we lay love waste

When time is short, why cut it down with sin?

Envy, poison, friend of vicious hate




Do not  hide it, saying  this is “fate”

Through brilliant Sylvia,Ted  asked spirits in

Marriage too is built on awful states


Only with her death, did he relate

One had to go to let the other win

Envy, poison, friend of vicious hate


We suffer when we  think  that we need fame

All paper one day ends up in a bin

Society  too is built on loveless states


Comparison and judgment are  no game

Virtue rendered void, our hearts are lame

Envy, poison, friend of vicious hate

Can society be built on other states?


 

	


	



			
				


			

			
Lying on a trolley, feeling Zen
		
	
	

		
Cycling in the dark  one Friday night 

Down St Giles, deserted without lights

On my way to  rehearse with my church  choir

I never got through  Oxford, struck by liars


A car was coming at enormous speed

Is this to be my end, that tourist’s dream?

Time slowed down,I  went up very slow

This world  a film,a construct, down below


I fell as slowly as I’d risen  up

Till I landed on my head,my jacket ripped

Yes, you really do see stars,I told myself

Not a metaphor, the shocking truth


Then I was inside the film again

Lying on a trolley, feeling Zen

	


	



			
				


			

			
The wrens
		
	
	

		
My front hedge is so thick, wrens made a nest

I saw a small bird flying low and swift

With my garden I feel human, blessed


The bonsai beech has grown till almost dense

It has no trunk, the leaves are tiny  gifts

My front hedge is so full, wrens made a nest


My clematis has flowered beyond  all sense

When I looked  I felt my soft heart lift

In my garden, know that I am blessed


In a deep green  wood the eye can rest

Open eyed, a look  must not be fast

My front hedge welcomes wrens ,oh,love,a nest!


Deep happiness connects us  to what’s best

The dark blue sky, the sunset flaming,  brief.

With my garden I feel love, I ‘m blessed


 Be alive, don’t dwell on thoughts too sweet

The natural world   brings virtue  and deceit

My front hedge is so thick, wrens made a nest

These tiny  creatures filled with  love and zest


 


 


 


 

	


	



			
				


			

			
Feel the  loving sun  and kiss the bees
		
	
	

		
I wish that I could be inside a tree

To put my entire body in its form

To feel the sun and wind and hear the bees


I’d like my hands to dance as   flexibly

As birds move  through  the air, as rises dawn

I wish that I could feel myself a tree


I’d love my  garden sweetly, ardently.

I’d love each single  daisy on the lawn

I’d feel the sun and wind and hear the bees


But would a holly want to  be just me?

Oh, poor tree that walks about  forlorn

I wish that I could turn into a tree.


Perhaps a cat that sat upon my knee

Would mioaw inside my  home by   dust deformed

She would love the sun and wind and hear the bees


When I change,I’ll keep you all informed

You may hear me singing in  the Storms

I wish that I could dwell within a tree

Feel the  loving sun  and kiss the bees


 

	


	



			
				


			

			
I apologise for loving you too much 
		
	
	

		
photo0426


I miss the cat and the newspaper


I apologise for loving you too much 

We never learned to balance the see-saw

In modern times the lovers should go Dutch


Two lonely   lovers with  a single crutch

Each one having many curious flaws

I apologise for loving you too much


What ever did I do to merit touch?

Then I was too careless with the salt

In modern times the lovers should go Dutch


We should measure what we speak at lunch

Then we weigh the sentences that spilt

I apologise for loving you too much


Maths and stats are useful in the lurch

Equality of signs and numbers,bills

In modern times the lovers should go Dutch


,


Let the mouth be silent, keep quite still

Love is rarely used when writing Wills

I apologise for loving you so much 

In modern times  we lovers cannot touch


 


 

	


	



			
				


			

			
The pain of our own Cross
		
	
	

		
I see a friend who follows my old path

The downward slope, the tunnel through the dark

Helping partners ease their way through death


The hesitance, the disbelief, the wrath

The sharpness  like a knife that cuts  our heart

I see a friend who follows my old path


So many lovely friends, ny husband said

Just before he lost  the vital spark

Helping  him  to   float  from out his bed


I did not realise that he was dead

Until his pallor faded, blood departs

I see a friend who follows  on this path


We miss them where they used to lie in bed

We miss them  taking photos of the park

We help  them ease their way to  their good death


We need love  to help us with this work

Who will  help the carer when they hurt?

I see a friend who follows my old path

We each bear the pain of our own Cross