Turn back, live again, he  asked of me
Do not wander in the darkness anymore
One slip,one move might give death victory

We are each connected to that tree
The sunlit top, the roots hid in earth’s floor
Come back, live again, he asked of me

While we live, we’ll live with dignity
Not scrabbling for the gold in blood and gore
One more lie will give sin victory

The kindness of the golden light was clear
And left sweet feelings in my heart’s deep core
Come back, live your life, he then soothed me

Do not wonder now why you are here
We’re here to live and living shall restore
What our suffering self has found so dear

I had never seen the Light before
Only Christ the Tyger with his roar
Come back, live through pain, he asked of me
Your first step will give love victory

His absence left an empty open cut
Where was my blood that should have made a crust?
The weeping wound must heal from bottom up
The healing force is life and others’ love
Those who touch us gently without lust
His absence still an empty open cut
Slowly cells harmonious in this rut
Do their work and live as all things must
The weeping wound can heal from bottom up
Meanwhile my immunity has guts
Keeping off bacteria and dust
In his absence. now a hollow slit
Tears fly horizontal,eyes are shut
Time goes slow and heavy weights oppress
The weeping wound shall heal if I have grit
Bring me wild flowers from the Clevelands plucked
Give me nectar where the wild bees suck
His presence was a comfort,laughter-lit
The wound heals, oh, the love will never stop

I wrote this after I had an operation on my arm.After the stitches were removed I went to bed.When I awoke there was a big open slit in my arm.It did heal after several weeks

Y

I am working on making my stories into a book.

Mobile loans…. spend them before they fly away
Mobile stones…… they may be tortoises or are you the sorcerer’s apprentice?
Mobile bones…..very painful if your skull leaves your head
Mobile gnomes…. they come at night to move your pens,phones,keys etc into new places
Mobile moans…. someone is hurt.Go out and see or ring 999
Mobile combs..I bought 24 and still I can’t find one
Mobile dome…. when the Cathedral is not good enough
Mobile loam….. a bag of compost
Mobile tome….. a large book flung while angry or amused
Mobile gloom….. when bad moods are passed around a group
Mobile tune….. it’s me humming
Mobile news.. ……….pocket radio or an atmosphere covering all the UK with horrible tales about the Government
Mobile shoes…. when I am asleep one crosses my room to annoy me.
Mobile views…….when you keep changing your mind about political events

Now I’m feeling kind of numb on this January day
The darkness came down sudden and I feel it’s here to stay
Shall I make some tea and pretend that you are here
I’m naked like the wood underneath that swish veneer.

I’m feeling kinda nothin’ now the melancholy’s gone
Should I be doing something that will give me, like, some fun?
The silence is not threatening, but neither is it good
Did you ever wish that you weren’t made of flesh and blood?

I’m feeling so damned stupid for falling on my back
My shoulder was in agony and there’s whiplash in my neck
The doctor, he injected me, but he said it’s down to luck
He may have missed the mark, he says,I wish I’d said,oh feck

Apparently the elderly are not in much demand
I heard a sorta whisper as my head went in the sand
We must keep the silence or we’ll frighten off the young
They don’t seem to notice but the cat will lick my hand

I didn’t know how old I was till the clock flew off the wall
Isn’t it uncanny what you see before the Fall?

Are you feeling amiable today?
The cat plays with the tortoise in the hay
The snails have hidden as it is so warm
They are praying for a thunderstorm

The dog’s tail wags, the beetles do not stay
Busy with their work down in the clay
The children skip and say their ancient rhymes
As once I did myself in Northern grime

The parents try to hide their feelings dark
Hoping for some help, some little spark
Children come back in to have their tea
The ginger cat is suckling progeny.

Back and forth our lives are woven so
Pray that nothing breaks the threads of gold

Blind sight scattered my wits Like whitened bones Across the deserts of my mind. I descended into darkness. Love shrank into the tame cat By the fire,unacknowledged hate Grew to fill the room. I stared too much. A full stop grew gigantic Crowded out All the words in the sentence I saw nothing but this dot Now a gigantic black hole Into which I was dragged. An energy coming from within my own head Sucked me into the black hole. That place was the wrong sort of darkness. Within that full stop, Love Fundamental became invisible. Disappeared into the dark. I dragged my eyes away And saw the moon appear,so eerie, It shone,grey silver. If I had opened my eyes wider I would not now lament What I destroyed in the wormhole Of the black dot that drew my eye Into a tunnel of darkness It blinded me to the light Did not let me read the sentences Beside the full stop. An error of focus left hate Unacknowledged,unmitigated, unredeemed, Kept from love or goodness Afraid to spoil my love with hate, The fear of hate became That which spoiled all else else, By freezing Love itself.

To fulminate against the hands of fate
To vent our anger on  beloved friends
Will not repair our ills and our mistakes
But may bring friendships to  a bitter end.
For who are we to know what is the best?
Who are we to choose when loved ones die?
And  do not think this is a needed test.
As if on us God wastes his time to spy.
Once  we were a joining of two cells
The lively sperm, a salmon riding high.
The egg awaiting without  need for bells
Is fertilised and grows that which  shall die.

Astonishing that we should live at all.
Unsurprising, that a loved one falls.

Exhibiting their humility and pride
The trees stand tall, the branches float relaxed
The buds look full, they open,coloured, shy.

Nature unfolds slowly.does not “try”
Takes its needs, field lilies pay no tax
Exhibiting thus humility and pride

We find our place, our gifts are not denied
The holy candles glow above their wax
The buds look full, they open,coloured, shy.

Society is liberal.what a lie!
Who whacks the homeless and the poor,oh, tact
Exhibiting their blindness and faux pride

Jesus did not speak when he was tried
God was blamed when nazis tortured,racked
Still the full buds opened,coloured, why?

.Europe struggles on from its last Wreck
We ruined half the world, oh nuclear smack.
Exhibiting dumb humility and pride
The fruits look ripe yet rot before my eyes

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/a-brown-study?topic=thinking-and-contemplating

A brown study

old-fashioned a mood in which you are very involved in your own thoughts and not payingattention to anything else:I could see she was in a brown study.He sank back on his pillow and fell into a brown study.

Morale of the workers is lowered
by tales of accountants and lawyers
triumphantly finding new ways
of helping the affluentto evade
the normal tax payments
Morale is crucial to any nation undergoing a crisis.
Recall the“We’re all in this together spirit”of the war years.
But now,it’s disheartening for the 50%
living on less than the median wage of about £25,000 per annum
let alone those just above it
to read the stories of “Grey areas”
“Offshore accounts”
,”Charities” set up from which they take just a “low” wage.
To come through a crisis
We need to feel we are all working
And living together.
And we need to acknowledge
Very many people work full time
And are still in poverty..still needing Housing Benefit..
so we are subsidising the firms
which employ them on low wages like this.
Yes,the poor children do feel the cold,
They do indeed feel hunger.just like you and me.
And they do worry about parents whose hope
Is to win the Lottery.
Those children feel emotions just like all children.
Alienated now,we’ll not have too many chances
To grab them before they take to drugs..crime
Or worse,prostitution.
We are all in the same boat
But some are taking up more of it
And we want to know why

The body’s own soul is the face

Which often is lit up with grace.

So   I was  gentle when gazing

On  you when embracing.

And took care in your sweet sacred space.

They say my television is too small
It’s only19 iches wall to wall
But if I get a larger screen
I won’t watch porn, it makes me scream
I guess I’m nearly ready for the Fall

Seeing whips and gags and ropes
Was it wise we sold our souls?
Where is tenderness and care
Where the mystery de rigeur?
Imagination’s left with little scope.

I see the prices are now low
£200 for pick and go
The top brass hypnotize the mass
As I sit here feeling mad
I taught a few to think but it’s so slow

Well now the aerial will not work
A gale blew off the very top
The trees are frantic in the wind
Mankind commits its bitter sins
As God bleeds with the dying and rhe shocked

You were sitting in a chair beside your bed
You were covered at the top but were bare legged
Your face was black, you fell upon my breast
I thought you must be feeling quite depressed

But the oxygen was lacking in your blood
The sugar too was sinking in a flood
I had to help them get you to lie down
Put a glucose jelly on your tongue

I think you were resuscitated then
The ambulance had come as fast as death
They took you off to hospital ,oh God
Your lungs were floating in your precious blood

Do not let them take your dying souls
A rehabilitstion unit holds no hope
The place for passing over is no gym
They made you exercise your fragile limbs

I’m sorry I was ignorant and lost
But I was with you when you died at last

I noticed the people who are more aware of the reality of the condition are not the doctors or nurses but the people who do humble jobs

In nurse led unit, they had to wait till 6.30 pm to call 111 for a doctor
so when he got pneumonia it was 10.45 pm when he got antibiotics 12 hours
after I could see he was very ill

There is a place for exercise but it was not appropriate here.In fact they killed him
which may have been a good thing given the settings and desire to stop old people
filling hospital beds when younger people may need them
He died in A & E so would not appear in their statistics!

Faded like a pressed flower in a book
Once as vital as a flying hawk
I see your image wherever I dare look

The wallpaper has faces,kind,astute
Yet they cannot see, they cannot talk
Faded like a pressed flower in a book

Your mind was wide and yet your thouht acute
On Sunday afternoons we liked to walk
I see your image wherever I dare look

We liked to share our thoughts without dispute
Though nearby was the gap that ever yawned
You faded like a dying flower ,I knew

I got the China cups and made a cake
The anniversary was too far, it had no dawn
I see your image wherever I dare look

After navigating all the storms
You entered into willing, smiling calm
Faded like a pressed flower in a book
I see your image wherever I dare look

After seeing a comment in The Times that
“Going on holiday is a Human Right”
I was made more aware of how people with money
do not know thst many people can’t afford any holidays.

Also, did anyone ever wonder whether people and goods flying vast distances
across the world would have any negative consequences?
Apart from the fuel being expensive, it means viruses can be transported in the
same way

From The Times

Painting by Katherine.Copyright

Two whole worlds.
One small cut.
One little chink.
Hard to find.
Very,very hard.
One small place
Where a very little cat
Could slip right through
The geometrician ‘s cut.
Cat could slip right through.
Just,slip straight through.
Joining it’s own reflection
On the opposite side.
The mirror’s other side.

And if I caught that tail,
If I caught her little tail,
She could pull me through,
She could pull me through,
So she and I too
We’d be on the other side,
The wrong way round,
On the opposite side.

So when you looked in,
If you looked in,
You would see me there,
Looking out at you,
From the opposite side.
From the opposite side.
And the cat beside
Looking very small,
Very,very small;
But very,very real.
How do you think you’d feel,
If I was looking out,
Staring at you
From the opposite side?

I can’t get back.
I can’t find Riemann’s cat
and without that pussy cat
I can’t find Riemann’s cut.
I think I’m in a trap.
I cannot find that cat.
So she can’t find the cut
To get me back,
She can’t bring me back
To where I was before.

Oh,how queer,
To have two of me in here.
I hope I’ll get on well
With my other self,
Behind the looking glass.
No one looking in,
But two are staring out.
From that other world.

I am looking out,
I’m looking out
To see if you are there.
One of you’s with me
That makes the total three.
Oh,dear me,
I should not have grabbed
Little pussy’s tail.
I didn’t really know
Where she meant to go.

“Where have you been?
Where do you think you’ve been
To get so filthy black,
And where’s your pussy cat?”
She never came back.
Never came back
From the opposite side.
Mammy thought I’d lied.
I don’t tell lies,
But I can see my cat
Staring out at me.
Staring out at me
From the other side.
From the opposite side
Of my looking glass.
My lovely looking glass
Has trapped my tiny cat
On the opposite side.
On the opposite side
On the other side

The second photo is from The Times Newspaper today

Katherine  October 19, 2014 

And it came to pass that they ate their dinner
and that she did washeth up.
And she did leave the dishes to drain
Whilst she put on the washing machine.
and the man was very pleased.

And it further came to pass
that she gave the man some pudding
and he was more pleased.
And then it came to pass the he fell asleep
By the fire.

And the Lord God,said
Who is this man that sleepeth by his fire?
And He said,I shall waken him up
And the man awoke,
And God spake unto him

How is it that the woman laboureth in ye kitchen.
And that thou sleepeth here in an armchair.
And the man said,
But Thou didst order women to labour.
And the Lord God said unto the man
Why dost thou remember so selectively what I have said?
And the man said,
I knoweth not and therefore I will help this woman.
And the Lord God said,
Why dost thou not think of it thyself?
And the man said in reply,
It was Thou that made me,O God.

And the Lord God was displeased with the man.
so he called down a plague of butterflies
To prevent him from sleeping.
And when the woman came in
she was much pleased to see these butterflies
and so she fell onto the man
And he did make love unto her.
And the cat was very pleased.

For it thrilled a cat to watch humans loving
and gave him hope
That the Lord God would take his rib and make a mate for him.
And indeed it doth seem to have happened
Judging by all the cats staring in ye old window here;
And by their ecstatic yelps
That the Lord God was very generous with them
and made them many mates.
For truly there is no jealousy among them
And they mate freely and happily
and never have rows about the washing up..
as they eat straight from the can.Amen

Here endeth today’s lesson.
Be thou kind to thy mate always