Time moves on remorseless yet fresh starts
appear plausible
if from parched discord
we form opportunities from which to carve.

Clearer choices for cutting free expand lone
coaster-rides but tried
ways of surprise
adroitly harness colour into bland unknown.

Distress creates apathy while unrestrained
euphoria decrees
time for growing new wings
and chances to better breed later decades.

Relocated those truncated dreams retreat
to re-form, dried to a crisp
but soon freshly adorned with
made resolutions to avoid future defeat.

Hope succeeds if, skilful in competence,
we apply learned
wisdom to hear the unheard
for discarding the old needs no audience.

Pushing ahead, cutting new paths again
exalts over former  
attempts raw angst to alter
past failure by wearing our skin unafraid.

Stretching and shouldering night away a sun crouches
to birth black's ousting
by one more empty circle of dark's hollowed pouches
then outs in sparkling showers.



Spangled with myriad star-labour unfolding membranes,
like numberless leaves
dreamers listen to soft serenades as the universe favours
lullaby-songs to deep breathing.



Silvered surface shivers with night-eyes as glittery dust
follows with dart-swift
flight each soul's winged journey while murmuring such
mysteries to those sleeping still.



Glimmers on sightless horizon reveal light's celebration
while untrodden dew
newly writhing in close-capped life waits inertia's frame
stirring to shake before rising.



Piercing the brain time's needle regathers worn threads
and remembers that more
sown seed means now-grown grain needs re-collection
in daylight's mind-aware storage.



Open-eyed, naught is over as hinging on less or more,
sun, with slumber done,
now hurries to open the thin partition between yawns
of torpidity to more hours won.

Carrying On.

Sea crosses curved world,
pulls in its waters
as ebb and fall tides
hold back mighty floods
from earth's bolstered sides,
so life carries on
against crash and cry
of breaker destruction
and fights with great fervour
to keep boats on shore
when waves become mighty.

Stormforce confronts the tail-end
of innocence and carefree
calm hurled away, fire's mind-set
lights departure's legacy.

Life in the wake of changes acts
out a merciless course,
composure alters as hurtful facts
faced are being absorbed.

Scarring of hope exposes wounds
and festers turn raw
as lover's lost trust starts to ooze
bile inside heart's disorder

Lies like turbulence cause offence
to shards of memory
and words strike hard when sense
betrays waywardness.

Gathering a last frenzied strength
truth floods thru resistance,
forces entry, flails and quenches
a taste for forgiveness.

Now dry-eyed the lady fights on
safer ground, well-shaken
but wiser and still climbing from
his bitter betrayal.

When half the world was blank on maps,
when people still believed in magic,
sounds became muffled
as underground tappings sprung up
in the hills and holes appeared.
Feet vanished for what seemed like days
then flat Northern caps
full of dust, topping faces of loot-happy
smiles shuffled off hazily
clutching large seeds of glimmery gold.
White-knuckled black
fists clutched closely to ribs dead weight
of their findings, bags
of pure alchemy, stones which changed
when kindled in home-made
dirt-hearths, to the hot comfort of flame
keeping away winter's cold.
Nuggets lost beneath time became finds
worth more than diamonds
when, in days of old, warmth could save
peasants' work-worn lives.
Yes, coveted then was possession of coal.

Forsaken.

They pass unnoticed in café crowds,
the black-penciled eyes of
pre-teen beggar girls.

Treading cement dust they strut, mouths
painted in innocence but out
adult ways to learn.      

Flaunting bodies not yet mature, how
tragic the flesh-trade making
young ****** of the poor.

Such maidens exposed to de-flowering
expect no fearless passage
to painless futures.

When will this cruel insane world yield
to the needs of these forsaken children ?

Love, blind to weakness,
sees what it chooses    
but shadows cast images
and joy sits unused.

Doubt born of judgement
frowns at trust's view
and ends tender harmony
deflecting love's due.

We, what we are, attract
discordant tunes
but love's baton composes
more than just music.