"I've come unarmed"
I said
"There's a poem"
he said

Join a poetry group
for chatty composing
laughter and learning

On a painter's easel
is a double portrait
just a sketch at present

The artist feels he hasn't
got the sense yet of his sitters
or of their relationship

What was the grievance
causing such a ferment?
Was there a fracture
behind the smooth facade?

The painter pondered

and went on with his painting

You can't hurry
'home'
It has to evolve
within you

"Just write a poem"
says the group leader
Nothing comes

A lovely sunny day
shows up dust
wherever you look

Sweet - scented hawthorn
Smothered in lively little bees
Earning their keep

Cat and I stare
He turns to run
I won

Potplants nearly given away
for not flowering
are suddenly budding

Yesterday
routine altered
and my appointment
completely
left my mind

Mother swatted wasp
that stung her
Daughter cried
for wasp

Sounds like a song
from a nineteen sixties
kitchen sink movie
It all depends
on what you mean by "it"
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
said: "The answer is forty two"
but
Forty two what?
Now there's a question

In one of my dark moments
I saw a starling
orbiting
all the old emails
I thought I'd deleted

Bats in a Belfry
sound poetic
but make much mess

An equinox happened the other day
The earth was tilted just the right way
Night, hours and days were almost the same
but not quite precisely
Now there's a game
Why does it happen? I want to ask
but discovering why is quite a task
I'm not an astronomer, to know these things
I just know they happen in winters and springs
and as the world spins on its merry round
there'll be another this autumn, I'll be bound!

Mostly I'm prompt
but there are times
I am not

Don't read your emails
It only encourages them to breed

I am helplessly bound
by the magnetic stare
of the famous magician
about to perform
his most noted illusion

Do I dare
to read the conditions
that say in the small print-
No refund for knife slips
by even a quantum,
which leave me in limbo
I do not know where

With coffee and biscuits
blueberries and prunes
The Poetry Group
ponders rhymes and runes
discussing the future
and phases of moon
like mist on the water
it's all over soon
We make up a poem
and publish online
then argue the toss
over which bit is mine
It's all very friendly
We have a good laugh
as we're deciding
what's good and what's chaff
Now we're thinking of Christmas
of peace and good cheer
of friends we have loved
and still hold dear

I've heard of a number
but that's a new one

I sat in the shelter
as the sunset flared

In my steel thermos
is hot freeze-dried coffee
instant, not ground
but
a sure reviver

Poetic proclivities
or a taste for rhyme
won't make a poet
all of the time

But discussing the subject
revising the plan
makes a prize-winner
from an also-ran

No poem today
Fine day
No worries
Why no poem?

In an absurd dream
or possibly a vision
I saw this thin line of words
all lower case
illegible
except for one word
isolated in capitals

It was my name

Inexpressibly
Sweet this morning
Alarm off-key
Joins in

Self-discipline
is remembering what you want-
and not being diverted

"A stitch in time saves nine"
is proverbial
"Inchworm measuring the marigolds"
is a song

Snippets remembered
from days long gone by
built by a poet
intuiting a story
imagining an ending

a prize-winner

Blank pages
invite writing
but I have only
unimaginative minutes

"Pull your self together"
is what they say to me
It isn't all that easy-
I've lost the string, you see
Anxieties keep coming
they overwhelm my mind
and without some mental quietness
that string is hard to find
So give me quiet thinking
help me see I needn't strive,
that the world will go on spinning
and I will remain alive

Thirty years ago
Ethel in Australia said:
"We used to have new outfits
for Easter, and you knew it would be fine.

Now you don't know what to buy
or when
since weather has become
inconstant, unreliable"

2019
It's mid June in England
should be warm and sunny
It's raining and I'm cold

I heard a tale
of a broken heart
a soul in a desert
of uncovered sorrow
of griefs
and sad memories
which set him apart

What's different
you ask me
from thousands of others
looking at
oval-framed
pictures
of loss?

Hairdresser hared off on holiday

Home now
Happy hair day




Janet

Imagination,
versatile thinking
makes a good Haiku

Why so easy
to procrastinate
when I'm happier
doing it

My new bed
goes up and down
electrically
How quirky

Brief poems I find
Are fun to do
But I'd like to share
With more than a few

You publish, I hear
All kinds of rhyme
- or not,  as the case may be -
Would you you publish mine
Please?

'Message send failed'
Heads together
Try again
Same message
Gloom

Time, a concept
Accordion pleated
Billowing,
Retracting,
Mocking,
Permitting
Disappearing

Ifs ands and buts
What would we do
without them

Scurrying under umbrella
Sudden light halts
Above is almond-blossom
Joy

Bath taps turned off
In sudden silence
Hear soap squish

What can I wish you?
Good in abundance, inner peace,
infinite blessings

Blue and yellow paints
make green
but flowers, mixed, don't

The geese flew over last night
I saw them in moonlight
The whisper of wing-beats
eclipsed by their honking

Steady in line
one after another
changing formation
but never the pace
A graceful sight!

"Removal of shingle
is prohibited"
Reluctantly
I replaced my pebble

I shrink in cold weather
And my shoes fall off

Poetry has to rhyme?
No it doesn't
It´s like life

A message of love
is sent down through the ages
every Christmas

Natural Beauty
Waterfall splashing
laughter music dancing
Almost a poem

White cat
Strolls between sensors
Intended to divert
And smiles