It is so sad when the weather is bad
And you can’t go out and the freeze does bite
And the dogs stay in with basket bins
The children play upstairs today
It is so sad when the weather is bad .

Love Mary **

Sit with me in the darkness
On the edge of the eiderdown
As your fingers turn the pages
Let me be who I am.

The fairies fly from pages
And the horses ride to town
My love for you is greater
Than the stars on my wall.

Love Mary ***

And I know you
In my flowery nightgown
On your feet I do stand
We climb together
The stairway
And my hair falls
All around.

Oh such beauty is this love
Of a mother for her child
As she bends just to kiss her
Turn the light off at the wall.

For what is treasured
In the moment
Will ever remain
Of our closeness
Mother and daughter
A joyous refrain.



Love Mary ***

In purple checked dresses we are confronted
Behind a piano sits ‘Miss Creak’ head of house
She has one bad eye, unfixable from childhood
But plays beautifully perched on an oakwood
And fabric stool. This is our secondary school.

On the wall above the piano is a framed print
‘Madonna of the Meadows’ by the artist Bellini
I pushed a drawing of a couple intertwining
Under ‘her’ door knowing she never would have
But a boy may have felt affection for ‘that’ affliction.

Here we all ate meals, did fashion shows and sang
I was glad my dress was purple not orange or red
Went better with my blue eyes and blonde hair
The rest of the school diveded into coloured checks
To represent Shakespearean female characters.

Just opened in Wandsworth a new comprehensive
Serving all abilities, behaviours and nationalities
Cordelia, Beatrice, Juliet, Katharine,
Portia, Rosalind, Olivia, Viola a rather unsuitable
Vision for such an uptake of adolescent froth.

Miss Creak was, kindly, I wish I had always been.

So beautiful lay you all
In your tiny beds
Cuddled up with
Panda,  Firstlove,
Tiny tears and
Noel.
Little fingers curled tight
Knees rolled up
I leaned over you all and kissed
What was my great delight.

We went about together
Down the roads and parks
Caught a train to London
The museums and the art.

You grew up, gently, slowly
In each other’s arms
We made Chocolate Easter
Bunnies and Christmas shower.

We touched the lights together
Sang each other’s songs
Four wonderful children
Never got it wrong.

Love Mummy xxxxx

Turning towards the left
My ponytail followed me
With a flick catching the sun
I liked flicking my hair
Feeling it brush my shoulders
And presence of a tied bow
Circular plastic clips
Holding the whispy bits
Often on a Sunday.

Love Mary ***

The children stood the sea beside
In toes the seaweed hair
A row of beauty just begun
To float a sparkle in the air.

Love Mummy **

Evelyn looked at the path in front
Meandering into the dark woods
And quietly considered the future.

Nettles grew about the side edges
And beetles and caterpillars climb
Hidden from bright hungry beaks.

She heard small animals twitching
And smelt the river’s down flows
Groundcover spreading its beauty.

The world was peaceful in her hand
And dad holding tightly the morning
As they walked slow along the curve.

Love Grandma **

I think I’ll call her Griselda or Florentine of the sea
She is lovelier than a star fish with eyes of green
And hair twists around this, brown ringlet, queen
Constance of graciousness a madamoiselle’s dream
Mood matches her dresses, bohemian with a spark
And nothing deters that subterranean love heart.

Love Grandma to Connie ***

Swinging skirts,  dancing rings
Girls playground, plaits begin
Up against the old brick wall
Hand stands and cartwheels
Revealing all.

What it is to be a girl.

Love Mary

Treasure the path we walked along
It was not chosen but became a song
Not for freedoms are we born
Nor for the cowslips at dawn
But somewhere in our hours
We give to others
More than a smile .

Love Mary ***

Picking icicles from window
Sharp and cold under cut nail
And wetness into cuff of dress
With water in stains on wall.

Each breath a melt and flow
Drips as metamorphosis go
The sky a heavenly promise
Of snowflight by nightfall.

Love Mary x

Whilst walking my father and I
Fell upon words that brought
Out the skylight in a window
And made a dog bark for sweets
We shared words together
Hand in hand with each other
Trampling roads near shops
And under railway aqueducts
Seeing the daffodils growing free
The bubbling of stones in a brook.

Love Mary **