As the river  must submit to sea

The broad sands  of old Redcar bright and bare
Dark ochre with  a touch of  lighter tones
Easter time we walked  to Saltburn pier

Cold  but happy  with my love right there
Hand in hand, I felt his very bones
The broad sands  of old Redcar  town were  bare

They say the perfect love casts out all fear
As if  a person’s found their rightful home
Easter time we wandered to  the pier

Loved and known, who has not shed a tear?
Teesmouth is as wide as  winter storm
The broad sands  of old Redcar  town still  bare

As the river  must submit  to sea
So  loving does much more than keep us warm
Joyous days we walked to Saltburn pier

 

The river rushing downhill like a hare
Made  next a valley  fertile   in its charm
The broadening  river mouth ate sand like air

How  we laughed, like children arm in arm
Smiling at the sky and tickling palms
From the  sands  of  Redcar,  rapt we stared
Saw North Sea   and gazed  at Saltburn pier

Green flowers

 The  bowling green, the clack of ball on ball 
Across the grass as perfect as  the dawn
We sit down on a bench,new painted too
Lumpy paint  but good enough to do

Round the edge, the dahlias  bloomed  like suns
No irony was meant nor overcome.
Goldenrod, geranium were bold
The earth was   hot and rich in summer’s hold

Past virgin rhodedendrons , children  played
Swings and see-saws, all somewhat decayed
Painted with the same paint as the bench
I saw my father fall, I felt the wrench

Where shall we sit, my sweetheart, by the lawn?
I have lost your face. my heart lies torn

Oh,doctor I am in a flap

Clematis-Octopus-2020

Oh,doctor I am in a flap
I cannot turn this childproof cap
I cannot take my medicine
So I shall toss it in the bin

The beta blockers make me down
I am in a study brown.
The mini aspirins make me bruise
And my mind is quite confused.

The ibuprofen hurt my heart
Yet without one I cannot start.
The thyroxine has no effect
So now I feel my life is dreck.

The codeine fails to make me high
I'm not addicted, though I try.
I'll have to take a shot of gin
And alcohol will make me sin.

I'll go to parties in a dress
That makes men's hormones more or less.
I'll take a big one home with me,
And give him poison in his tea.

And when I am in jail at last
I'll feel remorse for all my past.
For as I suffer dreadful pain
God has hit me yet again.

It's not enough that I am blind
And suffer terrors in my mind
Not enough that lovers cruel
Give me stick instead of jewels.

Or maybe life does not make sense
Especially when I feel so tense.
Maybe random are my days
and my life has gone astray.

I think that I shall buy a cat
And love it tenderly and chat.
But if my cat gives me a scratch...
I'll light its tail up with a match.

All the world must me obey
Else I'll be enraged all day.
I want my own way all the time.
Other people must conform.

I am here and full of ills
What do you think of these blue pills?
If they take away my heart
That at least will be a start.

Then they can remove my brain
To help me with this damned pain.
Why not kill me right away
Then I'll be from pain astray?

 

A jellied eel is rarely served today

Smoke your fish in grandad’s polished pipe
Unless by accident you caught a pike
Foxes  tails are not a brush for hair
Without a tail, a fox will need repair

Herrings  caught in Whitby harbour glare
They may be dead but that is their affair
A jellied eel is rarely served today
If you eat one piece then  do not say

Bacon. ham and sausages despair
Moses said to eat them was unfair
Can we  reverse the  process we have used
And make some pigs, if only to amuse

Did smoking food  conceal the smell of death
The pig is  gone, it’s not holding its breath
Smoking pipes did not keep men alive
Some smoke in their grave. as I have spied

In the end  it’s  burial  or fire
The ashes of  the dead   are not for hire

Being

Epimedium-versicolor

In The Courage to Be,  Paul Tillich asserts:

He who does not succeed in taking his anxiety courageously upon himself can succeed in avoiding the extreme situation of despair by escaping into neurosis. He still affirms himself but on a limited scale. Neurosis is the way of avoiding nonbeing by avoiding being.

 

https://hokmahrevision.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/tillich-on-signs-and-symbols/

 

Senseless we will suffer, we are sick

We believe  just what we want and then we find
All unaware, unconsciously, within
The evidence we need to close our minds

We might as well be deaf and if not, blind
Perception lies, conception is then thin
We believe  just what we want which  we  then find

We justify our actions, are unkind
Cast    first stones as if we never sin
With evidence invented by closed minds

By the blood of others our own soul is stained
Starving children  grovel in waste tips
Affectless we look, we cast off blame

The widespread wars, the  rage, the napalm aimed
The slaves who make our clothes, who feel the whip
Are evidence  we  choose to close our minds

The punishment for blindness will  now stick
Our souls and minds degraded by one click
We believe  what suits us and then we  surely find
The evidence we need to shut our minds

 

 

 

As pale as paper

img_20200104_201319784

If this were 2040 I’d be 70 ….. so how does that grab you and your   grocery delivery slots?

I am over 70 and  am very variable.Can I book a delivery or a funeral?


I am 69.9999999
Must I wait infinitely  long for any delivery.I’m an asymptote.I never reach the end.Unless I die of starvation and fall off the curve

Ny husband says pi is a real number.I say it’s a meal.Can you deliver either of these?

I am 69 and 3/4.Can I round that up to  the nearest whole number?  You’ve never heard of whole numbers? Just guess.No it’s not holy.

I should  be 70 but I  was overdue and stayed in the womb 3 weeks extra.Now I might suffer starvation which seems cruel.I can’t get back in to the womb.Tell the manager.

I am 91 and highll y visible.Please give me a slot. Do I pay after tasting?

I am very frail and can no longer ride my bike.Shall I die or will you send my  order
Or both?

I will survive if and only if you anwer the phone.Yes ,I am a mathematician but I can’t live on numbers alone.Send some protein I beg you.

I  just stumbled upon this site.May I book a slot? No.not for letters I want some food
I can’t see any other answer to my prayers.God says he’s never seen me before.

I’ve had to live on pizza for 2 weeks.I shall be 70 tomorrow.Any chance of  a delivery?
I was born at 12.02  April 3rd am 1 in 950 weighing 3lb 6 oz.I was premature.I still am.Any chance of ordering some baby food for delivery?
Don’t make me die hungry.

Wild statistics

Shall we die of flu or suicide?
Or shall we live  as sanguine as  sweet joy
Who  by wild statistic is deprived?

Which man shall now look out in wild surmise
Perception  is  not truth,does  that annoy?
Shall we die of flu or suicide?

What will shops sell now when noone  buys
Do not   yet despair when  self employed
Such  daft statistics   make old people cry

Think about the sadness of a bride
A cancelled wedding, her good day destroyed
Would she die  if anger  brewed inside?

I ate ten bars of chocolate  in my rage
That was all the food I could afford
When  by strange statistics I was caged

Write sweet songs and do not folk ignore
Then   turn  again to love, that aged  whore
Shall we die of flu or suicide?
Who  by damned statistic is deprived?

 

 

 

 

Therapy is over

Sometimes we don’t like our thoughts.
They tell us we are no good, ugly or a failure
I believe that we can get CBT  as therapy. here in Britain
This makes us challenge the thoughts we hate
Now since Freud is dead I’ll tell you my idea.
Stop hating your thoughts  but  don’t love them either.
Let them flow along  like a stream of clear water.
There, that didn’t cost you anything.Your therapy is over Continue reading “Therapy is over” →

The sea was greeny blue, at least on top

Hepatica-okesabayashi-2020 (1)St Margarets Bay, the  cliff top the wild flowers,
We lay in warm soft sunlight, lighthouse tower,
The clifftop where we lay has   come to grief
Don’t blame us, we  kissed  on Hampstead Heath

The ground is shifting underneath our feet\
This  curious government deserves defeat
They tried to make a human sacrifice
What, turn the telly off  or it may spie?

Then I saw the dress I wore at sea
They took us off  the cliffs to give us tea
The lifeboat men  had saved us from the drop
The sea was greeny blue, at least on top

They took us into Folkestone for some beer
I prefer  green tea, I am sincere
Actually I told another lie
I’ll drink Earl Grey tea  until I die

After that my memory grows dim
I fear my entire life is one long sin

Choice

Shall I be one of those who get no care
The framework of the doctors’  thoughts  lies bare
Who can say migrainous hearts  are weak
Who  has  got a  heart valve which might leak?

Since I see the world throught just one eye
Will that be enough to let me die?
My thyroid gland is fading as I age
I do not have the  energy for rage.

We have no rights from God [ is he a  lie?]
Kant’s Imperative  deserves a try
If I’m looking pale  or even sad
That does not mean I  wish that I were dead

Austerity was  hardest for the poor
Now the Graveyard waits, there is no cure.

Write better poetry

Gethyum-atropurpureum-2020

https://www.scribophile.com/blog/10-ways-to-supercharge-your-poetry/

EXTRACT

Emotion. One of the traps of poetry is the temptation to write around an emotion, rather than to fully immerse yourself in and write with and through that emotion. Don’t be afraid of feeling! Without a doubt, this can be one of the most fulfilling aspects of the art. Emotion is the currency of poetry. Show me the money! Take a class. Continue to learn about poetry. Look for a university extension class being taught by a local poet, or a night school class, or a workshop at your city’s writer’s collective, or even on-line correspondence course. If nothing else, at least read a book about the art and craft of poetry. I recommend Poemcrazy by Susan G. Wooldrige. It’s fun, easy to read, and has lots of great exercises. I’ve had great success with it.

The kettle too sat on the fire, I played and then I dreamed

I remember mother’s beauty and her coal stained and cracked hands
Each  little line was etched in black,   like a map to other lands
She always wore an apron that  she made from an old dress
How I loved my mother,I did I must confess.

I remember mother’s beauty and the row of nappy pins
She always wore them like a brooch,  while we kids made a din
The baby had her rusks and milk, she had a little pot
She slept inside a cradle then she moved into a cot

I remember  most Mum’s  cooking, the apple dumplings steamed
The kettle too sat on the fire , I played and   then I dreamed
She had a tin of buttons, she  was ace at making clothes
She knitted like an acrobat  to forget her many woes

Her daddy was a miner till he had a heart attack
He came home   black and dusty, then he filled his old tin bath
When he retired he got a dog,  he loved her very well
He called  her Lassie for her name, she was  beautiful , my belle

Her daddy came to see us after our own daddy died
He help my mother with odd jobs, then we  all ate cake and cried

Perfect love will cast out perfect fear

There is humour in the Bible we revere
Soles are heeled,partitions sent to God
Perfect love will complicate your fear

Five thousand people shared a single deer
The meat was cooked by one fierce lightning rod
There is humour in the Bible, we can hear

There is nothing much to salvage the impure
But plentiful the ways to cut off heads
Perfect love can escalate one’s fear

God made Jonah subtly disappear
And caught Elijah when in caves he hid
There is humour in the Bible if you peer

With a wail from Jonah,God appeared
His still small voice got louder by the Flood
Perfect love will castrate perfect fear

After many liars are burned as wood
I hope Gomorrha we will all be good
There is guidance in the Bible, but laugh here.
Perfect love will tame that perfect fear

I remember reading of Gommorah

I remember reading of Gommorah
Sodom too where no good men were found
I’ll get the Bible out  to read tomorrow

We don’t act but wait  and wait forever
While homeless people lie upon  cold ground
I remember reading of Gommorah

Jesus spoke, it’s we who must deliver
We act as if we’re mentally unsound
We’ll get the Bible out  to read tomorrow

The politicians may be very clever
Yet I  don’t like the way they act or sound
I remember reading of Gommorah

We have a dusty Bible made of leather
It may not be in Jesus ‘ native tongue
We’ll get that Bible out  to read tomorrow

Our home is on this earth where all belong
Yet after all these years we still do wrong
I remember reading of Gommorah
I’ll get the Bible out  to dust tomorrow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who are the key workers?

adult art black and white group
Photo by Mike on Pexels.com

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/30/how-can-you-feel-safe-amid-coronavirus-swap-mindfulness-for-mindlessness#comment-139360585

  • Selected comment

    mazza45  lester48

    4344

    Indeed
    Salary should be dependent upon how soon people notice that you haven’t turned up for your work.
    It would be a long time before anyone went looking for Jacob Rees Mogg compared to a refuse collector, n

 

Beauty,lust and brilliance do not last

How can you love someone who is cruel
Beauty,lust and brilliance do not last
Then every word you say is used as fuel 

Masochism and loneliness for fools
Soon your love is in the misty past
How can you love someone who is cruel?

Conversation  must not be a duel
We  should not cling when we are now harassed
When every word we say is used as fuel 

In our breast the heart  may sing and howl
How can we control  our own disgust?
How can any love  the one  so cruel?

Why not take defeat and use  this tool
Change our life  whatever way we trust?
When every word we say is used as fuel 

The wisdom of the heart is  killed by lust
The work of men and women  is unjust
How can you love someone who is cruel
Where every word you say is used as fuel ?

What happens next.. article by Christopher Stone

sky space dark galaxy
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

https://www.splicetoday.com/writing/what-happens-next

 

 

Extract

. After an initial period of doubt, I’ve come to accept that we must stay indoors, even if we’re well, in order to avoid spreading the virus to those who are more vulnerable, and to free up capacity in our chronically underfunded health service.

I’m not, however, in lockdown. I’m meditating. I’m on retreat. I’ve become a hermit in my own home. The strongest feeling I’ve had since going into isolation is that we’re all being thrown in on ourselves. We’re being made to look inwards. And the really interesting thing about this is that, when you look inside yourself, you find everyone else there too.

I find I have two distinct kind of thoughts: those that are about myself, how I can look after myself and ensure that I come through this crisis intact, my self-preservation thoughts; and thoughts that are about other people, wondering how they’re feeling, and what I may be able to do to help.

The thoughts about other people have more power than the thoughts about myself. If I have a selfish thought I find that it’s almost immediately countered by something more generous. We’re all in the same boat really, all going through the same thing. It’s hard to pretend you’re a special case when everyone’s suffering; hard to make out you’re unique when the whole world is in exactly the same position.

Won’t power

orange tabby cat on gray blanket
Photo by Tatiana u0410zatskaya on Pexels.com

You must get married if and only if you are mature
That’s rude.I am not  made of cheese.Who are you,anyway?

You must write if and only if you are  always polite
That’s me ruled out then as I am rude on Fridays

You must write a novel if and only if you are related Stephen King
How will you know?

You must write in free verse if and only if you want to be famous
I only want the money.

If your IQ is too high  have your brain reduced in size by reading bad books
How about watching TV?

You must love your father or go to hell or both.
If you are God,I don’t love you anymore
You made me

You must not envy others
Is it  possible by will power alone?

Comsumer Society is based on Envy
And it is base.

 

I spurned my mother’s cheek.

Cercidiphyllum-japonicum_2020

 

I spurned the other cheek.
Adjourned  but never leaked
I  spurned  the other’s sheep
I turned the others weak
I learned  maths last week
I burned  like fire to meet
I earned his ire while bleak
I turned the gyre ,oh beak
The falcon cannot speak
My thinking is oblique
I’m spanking fit and neat
My husband’s  hands were sweeet
I churned, my   backside creaked.
Yeats wrote twice a week
Keats’ letters weep.
Was Mozart ‘s mother Greek?
Hebrew is our meat
Did angels  look so chic?
God must be unique.

Lean on others,let them lean on you

Now we can’t go out, we stay within
Let’s not start a war  we cannot win:
Wagner played so loudly  that it hurts
Responses to our friends that are too curt

Even groups set up to help and guide
Cause altercations, splits,and even lies.
People we  idealise  do wrong
Then we feel so hurt we won’t belong

Energy  and fear  make minds derail
Rejection makes us feel we always fail
The great Unknown is there for us to  trust
The inner guide will  often be the best

Lean on others,let them lean on you
Lurching but upright we walk as two

How wars start

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
This lovely photograph was taken by Mike Flemming 2020 copyright

My street has got a WhatsApp group so that older people and sick people can ask someone to buy them food etc
Last night a man put some photographs of 3 coats belonging to his [ex] partner and asked if anyone would like to buy them.
Another person  got angry and said this group is not for such purposes
Now they have both left the group after a few more exchanges… so even something trivial can blow up into a big problem
I think it waas inappropriate  because if others began selling things it would fill up the messaging and detract from the aid being offered to the vulnerable.
But for both to leave seems sad

Quarantined

You must love your mother or go to hell
Can’t I go to the Cinema and see Oedipus Wrecked?

Why do you  tell lies?
Who else can I tell?

I may be odd but I will  get even one day
A mathematical miracle.

I like to read my books
What else could you do with them

I feel for my husband now
Put the light on and  use your eyes

I   am thinking of leaving Britain
To whom?

I can’t write any more poems this year
That is unprovable.

I am not being  rational
No, you just act rational

Why be alive and be 6 feet away from my lover?
Use your imagination.

Why read in bed when you have a wife?
She can’t read out loud

Well, why sleep in bed if you have a wife?
Can she sleep for me?

Why eat a meal and quarrel?
It must be genetic,generic or genuine

Oh,beady dent

Leucojum-aestivum-2020

You must love your mother or go to hell
Can’t I go to the Cinema and see Oedipus Wrecked?

You must always be obedient
No I am O,Beady.Bent

Does your father love you?
How can he, he is dead

Do you love your  father?
Who is he?

Why do you  tell lies?
Who else can I tell?

I may be odd but I will  get even one day
A mathematical miracle.

Don’t believe what I say
I believe what you say is a  lie
So I must believe it
I believe in a lie
That can’t be right
I don’t believe what you say

The gratitude of rivers

When we’re empty what will fill our hearts?
What can be created in this space
Where Eros lived creating  love’s sweet darts?

War has outdone Love on every chart
What race is   run without the nuclear waste?
When we’re empty what will fill our hearts?

No  way to  grow  our love  has yet been thought
Even though we know of every taste
Since Eros lived creating  love’s sweet darts

Love is free, we find it where we ought
We do not need to grasp to  obtain grace
When we’re humble love will fill our hearts

Love cannot be measured on a chart
We see in  human  beings  god’s new face
 Eros works creating  love’s long darts

Whose  the finger that my feature’s traced?
Whose the womb that bore me  and embraced?
When we’re empty   trust will help our hearts
The gratitude of rivers ,mountains,Arks

 

Recipe

orange tabby cat on black textile
Photo by Viktor Mogilat on Pexels.com

Make a cheese sandwhich.Cut into quarters and tie each up with cotton thread
Then  deep fry them No,I haven’t tried it yet
It’s just a way of getting excitement back into our lives but don’t  let your cat eat it!

Where does logic go to in the night?

Where  do dreams  go while we are awake?
Where does logic go to in the night?
Why does laughter make our body shake?

Why do  men like eating home made cake?
Why  do little children want to bite?
Where  do dreams go while we are awake?

Why is Windermere not Winderlake?
Why do we have wars and want to fight?
Why does laughter make our body shake?

Why do people not read William Blake?
Why is it so rare to have insight
Where  do dreams go while we are awake?

Why do we so often feel like fakes?
Why do people like to see the Light
Why does laughter make our body shake?

Oh, to see an eagle high in flight
Oh, to see  a friend   and love the sight
Where  do dreams  go while we are awake?
Why does laughter make our body shake?

 

How do you feel?

Cyclamen-2020-2How did he feel?
He’s dying to go to Heaven
I feel your  pain
Leave it alone.

How is the doctor
Very patient.

How is the phone?
It’s not alive!
Oh,my.Where shall we bury it?

Where is  my dinner?
On page 67.

Why are  we eating on our knees?
So we can pray while we dine

Where is the cat?
She ate the goldfish and   has gone  to Confession
But can animals sin?
She can’t even talk
There are silent ways of sinning
If we get divorced we could  give that a whirl
But we’re Catholics!
That makes it even more sinful
I can’t wait
But it’s not a sin
You bet?