I loved it when you read to me
Sitting together on the orange settee
Babies  fed and in their beds
Your words in my head
Images fill my mind
Travellers on a roof top climb
Comrades gathered around
Against evil to find
Gandalf was my superhero
Reminded me of you.
Now nearly seventy-two
It really has come true.



Love Mary **

The Lord of the Rings by Tolkein

My favourite book
Read to me at 16 , And again and again by my dear Roger

If you came to my house
A toy room  you would see
With lots of bits and pieces
Collected by little me.

I pretend they're for the grandchildren
Who love them more than can say
But really eBay bargains
Mother bought to stay.

I have pound puppy doggies
And pound kitty cats
Tiny plastic teddy bears
In a cottage pack.

Lots of playpeople
Lego fairy Belville
But best of all the dollies
Over a hundred to thrill.

There is a police station
And a collection of cars
A garage with a lift
And a small farmyard.

The children always happy
When they come to play
Grandma's Christmas grotto
Every single day.


Love Mary xxxx

He sat quietly in the parking lot
The unprotesting man
With a chess set on his knee
Radio four to please
And Beethoven spinning out the widow.

I flicked up my skirts and flew
Straight into the arms of Masaccio
Landing at the foot of his Madonna
And two angels.
The halo of the Christ child iridescent
Elation graced me, I thought
What marvellous balance
The position of these angels
Then gravitated down
To the unprotesting man
And knew this was love
In the highest .


For my Roger love Mary ***

Hand in back of my dress
We wandered over the forest
The grass dried and sandy
The evening slowly
Terminating the sun
A yellow globe above the flats.
I thought of home alone
No telephone
And Ovaltine mixed with your love
Your smell of tobacco and *****
And oh those first *******
Taking me out of myself
With desire.


Love Mary **

To do your best at chess
You have to wear a vest
With a picture of a score
Could you want for more!
A tie with a pin
Helps you trophies win
Now you have a drawer
With T - shirts galore
And shelves full of more
Momentos than you can store
Two hundred chess sets
For garden and shed
And a tray with a pattern
Given by my dad.


Love Mary **

Went to stay in London when I was but a child
Stayed with my Aunty Betty always a bit wild
Put me in a bedroom that smelt of soap and lace
Decorated in liliac, that was the latest taste.
Sat in the front room overlooking the street
Books on the painters displayed very neat
Listened to the classics,  music I'd never heard
Sipped percolated coffee, never said a word.

By the grand piano a table of pretty shells
A collection from holidays in Corsica and Wales
Where there was a fireplace stood a new gas fire
Above it a reprint of Van Gogh's sunflowers
Lunch in the kitchen with a room filled with light
Yellow painted walls to keep everything bright
Plastic chairs from Heels the strings made a ridge
Susie Cooper tea cups soup with crusty bread.

Salad in a basket black pepper to add
Ice cream for pudding I was really glad
Ate all my dinner then to the garden went
Under the Willow together on a creeky bench
Wondered round the garden, listened to church bells
Thought this an unusual life no children to tell
I loved my Aunty Betty the stories she would spell
Of places on Greek Islands, her boyfriend as well.

John was a teacher, literature of course
He wrote lengthy poems and took photographs
They went to the theatre the ballet and special films
They lived not together but an hours dream
John in the country Betty in the town
Was simply perfect for them to get around
I looked at all her photos when Betty was young
The ones with her sister who also was my mum.
Although they were different alike in many ways
They both chose the sweet life but felt the other's sway
My mother had two children with little money to spare
Betty had not got any so that made her rare.

They both died at eighty their influence great
Thank you Grace and Betty you both have your place.


Love Mary daughter and niece **

Evelyn flew over the sea
In an aeroplane above the blue
To a place she never knew
With a plot and his crew.

She went to see her family there
Amongst a land green and fair
To kiss and hug those she loves
Bringing her smile the little dove.

Grandma Janet, Uncle Jim,
If there's time go for a swim
Crawling with Grandpa is such fun
Next year I'll be able to run.

Saw a lighthouse, the crashing waves
Mummy holds me against the sway
Someone takes a photograph
Be back soon it's been a laugh.

Now it's time to go to bed
Fly over the ocean sleepy head
Back to daddy and my toys
I bet he's waiting that naughty boy.


For Alex from Evelyn and Grandma ***

In a garden far from home,
Sits a gentleman on his own,
Reading in the Summer sun,
A friend's letter that has just come.

Finding things to fill his days,
Which keep him active and engaged,
The trees need pruning, bushes cut,
And must not forget the special plot.

I bought this man a birthday gift,
A waterproof, patterned tablecloth,
So sitting in the Summer sun,
Can be, for him, a bit more fun.

Love Mary x

Tiny, so small,
Not really there at all,
Arrived in the night,
To all our delight,
Came the morning light,
The sound of the birds,
The sun over the horizon,
Your first words;
And from your cradle,
I lifted you,
Only a handful,
My eyes full of dew,
That little cry,
Lifted my heart!
Us two together,
Never to be apart.

For my children, Katharine ,Alexander, Victoria and Elizabeth Kearns

The Millitary road was long and narrow
Hugging the contours of the cliff face
As braiding on a dress,
He teased me
Dancing the children in a line
Along the slim path
Edging  the fallen away grassland.
Dotted every hundred yards or so
Wire cages
Announced memorial sites
For the fallen.
The waves echoed a deathly hush
Crushing against broken boulders
A hundred yards below;
Eventually the path terminated
Running into turf,
The children took up my hands
Again
And the day proceeded as normal.

Love Mary

For all those who like danger.

I saw the children who came back yesterday
Brown as berries , hair blonde sprayed
Limbs golden tan from a week in the sun
Hearts full of lightness from this year's fun.

You brought me a present from The Old Gift Shop
The one with the window and Winstanley cats
It is a glass crystal to hang in the bright
All the colours of reflected rainbow light.

Thank you children for visiting me, today
And to my Lizzie whom I love always.

Love Mary

Whenever my mother went out
There was a place I knew about
Not far away up the stairs
Behind white painted bars
Along a dark and narrow hall
Came to a locked bedroom door.
Took the silver chiselled key
Turned it gently as could be
Lest I be heard
Intrepid invader of secret world’s.



Love Mary x

Everyday we separate from sheds of skin
The crack in the drainpipe gets wider
The moon changes position
The rain is borrowed damp
And I depart from the first place
I ever knew,
You .


Love Mary x
For my Rog love Mary