Oh mother I remember you creeping
So quietly in your quiet slippers
On Christmas evening so late
After the street lights had gone out
Up to our bedrooms.

And holding red crepe bound net
Stockings filled with all that you had
Place these one at the foot of my bed
And one at the foot of my brother’s
Each one filled with a tangerine:-

A pink or white sugar mouse with
String tail and red sugar piped eyes,
Chocolate money, rubber end pencil,
A cardboard card of four tiny plastic
Baby dolls with stuck on dresses;

And a few other treasures to surprise;
A tinsel bauble, ribbons and slides,
A toy whistle and a silver crown;
My mother’s purse was never full
But her heart was and so loved.

Love Mary xxxx

I remember the hatefulness
Resting between corridors
Watching as doors opened
Waiting to pounce, suddenly,
On someone with mousey hair
Who was studious and square.

The undercurrents ran like
Tram lines, intersecting,
Infecting others with mockery
The pulling of hair, kick on shin
I feared break with its milk stains
And so many broken bottles.

My good looks saved me the bully
As I was seen as an asset to be used
A symmetrical form unnoticed
As I hurried past the stair wells
Hoping today it would remain quiet
Today, I think of Margaret Atwood .

Truth

Autumn and her berries come

Bringing warmth oh fire crave

Embers to the summer gone

A vision life takes
Mortals look for free

Tomorrow green on green we see

Not a dream
TRUTH

BY EDWARD THOMAS

The cherry trees bend over and are shedding
On the old road where all that passed are dead,
Their petals, strewing the grass as for a wedding
This early May morn when there is none to wed.


Such an incredible poem by this young soldier
Who died in FWW.

Your hands hardened by love
All the watering and wiping
Lifting loads up the steep stairs
The blue enamel bowl rounded
We are together stilled by ends
Tangled socks and the touches of
Long grey silver in the night.

Love from Mary xxxx

You expect a caress when together
But too shy her nearness frightened
So arms held straight to girl’s side
Both stiff and awkward in company
The mother-in-law looked at camera
And the girl faced the grassy lawn
She remembered this action years on
And regretted how youth falls short
Of love in embarrassment and desire.

Love Mary x

Montague and Connie Flu
Got caught up in a racing boom
Found themselves in a field
With coloured banners and an ice cream que;
All the competitors in a line
Wearing fitting clothes , combined.
Connie in her high heeled shoes
Wondered what she could do,
Monty suggested taking them off
Wrapping her feet in an old Jay- cloth
Connie did not like this view
So borrowed a pair of training shoes
From a member of the Boom,
Black and white with silver stars
Matched her top and legging style,
So they ran their fastest best
Over hill and under tree
Won the race without out a phew!


Love Grandma for Monty and Connie .

I saw your garden
For the first time in months
All the perennials had
Trebled in size
The agapanthus, by the wall,
Put out many heads
And by the fence
The large poppies
And fluted penstemons
Flutter in the breeze
Which sways the hollyhocks
To and fro
On that same windy spot.


Love Mum to Victoria ***

White Syringa’s fragrance gently sweet
A cup of tea and painted orange bench
With Fluff, a tabby cat, your gardening shoes
Stay longer, mother mine, how I love you.

Love Mary

When I die it is not for you to cry
For you gave me love and sanctified
All that I needed was given in the wait
On the garden seat where I knew you
So tussle not in the shadowy days
Just be with the things that I made.

Love Mary x

My mother sat by her father's bed
As he took his last breath
It had taken all day
He had listened to the news at one
Then slowly gone down hill.

They called the local doctor
To give some relief
But he was out on a house call
Attending another ones grief
So hand in hand he left this land.

After the funeral at the top of the hill
In Christchurch graveyard
He was laid to rest, this being his will.
My mother, a person of wisdom and myth
Rang me each day to tell of her progress.

Before he left, her father had said
That if he could he would try
To let her know he had arrived
So everyday whilst on her walks
She looked for a sign that talked.

And then one day after quite a while
Found a lamppost and near the ground
Were written the words ,"I  am".
And this was enough to put her trust
In a life ever after and a father she loved.

Love Mary **

‘Speak to me ‘,
I couldn’t it cost too much
Energy evaporated
Leaving tangled webs
Of fibrotic nerves exposed.

The traveller lost all impulse
The temperature dropped
And what was given
Could not be returned
So I cannot speak to you.

Love Mary x

I met them on the roadside
Silky black ,smooth ,padded
There were two,  gathering
In the hour before sunset came.

I felt the cold chill my bones
Festering the marrow to dark
Then it happened like a bark
Time to say goodbye to Silky
And Black the cats.

Love Mary. **

From leafy lane emerging into stroll
Along dusty track to terminate
In plastic buckets and spades
Colourful beach sandels displayed
And the smell of cheap meals and coffee.
In front the glistening sea resting far out
On golden plains of sand as it
Waits for its turning to bring in
Those lost shoes and silver foil ships.

Midday rays melt the rubber rings
And lilos tossed against catamarans
Beach hut families steam percolators
Stretching green striped towels in rows
Along the recast promenade.
Curved into a cove of quietness
The beach hides
Under a shelf of chalk stacked grass
The distinguished headland point.

Love Mary x

He slept till eleven a quiet new babe
A sister and brother to love and enfold
A dream of wonder, a wonder of surprise
A poem to open a person to know.

Love Mary

Down in the field where the dandelions grow
I took off my knickers and away did flow
Up on the hillside with a swish of my hat
Caught Cabbage White butterflies doing that.

Love Mary x

I have to travel in my head
Travel when tucked in bed
Around the country’s edge
Remembering all my friends.

Love Mary x

She opened her Christmas presents in
The room with the lighted fur tree
One special from her grandma was Sasha
A very collectible and beautiful doll.

Having bought lots of clothes for Sasha,
Grandma had hoped the little girl
Would have been given them, all,
To play with on Christmas Day.

But this never happened
The box not utilised
A few unmatched given
Grandma cried at her gift.

Being so unconsidered.

Love Mary ***

A little girl sang to me today
Sweetly and with care
She knows everything
About kindness
For that she has been shown.
That love nourishes the world
And is an armour against evil
Dear child stay bright
Displaying a gladness
And truth for ever
Love you Evelyn.

Grandma Mary ***

As one follows the coast line round
Dipping in and out of the coves
Floating flat out for a mile or two
Swimming back under the night sky
What is it of importance, something obtained
That may have changed the course of another
Be held onto as daylight fades.

Ones children are our lessons learnt at a cost
Remembered and cherished, found and lost
They show us who we are, the good and the bad
And take with gratitude the best that we have.
Four gold sovereigns placed in a line from
Each I carry sixpences that helped make life shine
In the coves find some oddments to go on a shelf.

Mary ***

You painted my pots when times contained pain
And the *** was a silent ceramic vessel of peace
It contained no words or inscriptions, images just
Light reflected from window panes to a hurt soul.

Love Mary

I greet your tenderest hands as one
Then time had beated out your name
And so with heart my hands did know
Two rings of gold this day behold.


Love Mary xxxx

Taking the green walk.

Which ever way you approach
This tunnel of green,
Whether from Yarmouth
And the incoming ferry,
Or nearer the Totland end
The experience was much the same.

Underfoot a mossy path,
Dampened by overhanging trees,
Deep puddles to navigate
And the stinging of nettles
In the bracken filled undergrowth;
Adjacent fields where bulls
Occasionally got out of hand,
Charging sporadically and scaring
The birds.

This route was both our outward
And homewards journey,
Taken on family picnics
To Fort Victoria,
A viaduct of small arcades,
With photographs
Of seafaring men lining walls,
And a cafeteria,
Selling limited produce.

Trips to Yarmouth to shop,
Collecting momentoes
And sticks of peppermint rock,
Allowed for the green walk,
Back to the coziness of a chalet.
We use to sing as we walked
The three miles or so,
I looking for blackberries
To take home for tea.

The only difference of route,
Was that of expectation,
The early day high spirits,
Fresh from sleep,
Looking forward to sandwiches
And perhaps an ice cream.
Returning was more arduous,
Tired feet and lagging behind,
The green road seemed longer,
And the holiday
Another day shorter.

Love Mary **

It has been months of misery stumbling on
Everyday even the effort of rising exasperates
I eat chocolate, peel an orange, open a surprise
For my last taste of a Christmas no longer enjoyed
But thank you for trying my loves.
Thank you for trying.
From Mummy Mary xxxxx

The shephard never came to me
He left me in the lurch
Half eaten by cannibalism
Scrabbling in the dirt.

The paintwork has slipped
The door frame fallen
And teachings, a betrayal
For love is forsaken.

Love Mary **

I love the bauble tree fern
Out towards the sun you go
In decorations of crimson
Your seedlings circle rows.

Love Mary x

Buttercups and Daisies
Now polluted flowers
Coming in the Springtime
In concrete made towers
While the trees are leafless
Now diseased and bare
Buttercups and Daisies
Don’t come up much here.

Love Mary x

If on finding me gone
The chair an empty space
Don't send me a rose
It will not replace.
But let those roses grow
With bud and leaf and stem
To flourish in the garden field
To live and laugh again.

Love Mary ***

British home stores once a week
We would meet Mum and I
Would sit for a while
Share fish and chips
Feed baby the bits
Go round the shops
Not buy a lot,
Then to walk home down country roads
Across the bridge, pushing the pram
Shopping in bags.
Home at last Mum and me gasped
For a cup of tea, slice of cake,
Freshly baked.
We bathed the baby, dressed her in
A pink babygrow,
Your first grandchild, I love you so.
Begins to get dark, walk you back to the bus stop
Watching the back of your tweed coat
And sensible shoes, I feel humble inside
That this gentle lady is my mother,
Go safely, I will ring tomorrow
Love Mary .




For my mum, Grace and first daughter and child, Katharine
Maria Kearns xxxxx

I just buy things
It takes space up in my mind
From meteorites
To flying kites
Chewy bites
Lemonade slice
Book on poets
How to sew it.
Marzipan friends
It never ends
I just buy things.
Why?

Love Mary x

Love Mary x

Forty years or so ago there was a boy
Who thought life was about building towers
And plastic ships
Out of all those Lego bricks.

His hands shook at every stage
Sometimes getting into a rage
Whilst others watched the tower tops
Hoping none of them would drop
Breaking dreams , beautifully seen.

Once you have glimpsed the stars
It stays within you at all hours
In the night when the moon's alight
It goes on in delight.

And now that age passed the infant blast.
This  boy, who is a man
Travelled throughout the land
Creating timelines in 3D
For other users eyes to see.





To Alex and Tasha and daughter's Evelyn and Florence
Who are all so creative.
Alex also built a Lego room.
Love Mum , Mary Grandma xxxx

On the beach the children playing
In the August Summer sun
Splashing, swishing, dancing, laughing,
Jumping backwards handstands done.
Watch the sparkling and the glistening
Hear the water's gentle song
Stand together for a moment
Realise life can be such fun.


Love to Lizzie and her nine beautiful children,
Mum ,Grandma xxxx

A love song .

And if he thought it he did not say
But turned away in quiet despair
As if the air had cooled right down
And only others remained to stay.

Mary

Oh Mr Spaceman, it seems a long way off,
Since you landed, carefully, on a lunar spot;
Standing at the station gazing at the stars,
On our way to Walthamstow to spend happy hours;
I recall that day, vividly, holding Roger's hand,
Thinking how wondrous,
And lucky I am.

Love Mary **

Oh poet of the moonlight stars
Wondering up into darker space
Searching for gallaxies of stars
Jupiter and Mars.
You're out in the cold
For hours and hours
With your binoculars
I'm all tucked up in our bed
Long asleep
While you're afar
My beautiful traveller of the stars.

Love Mary ***

Daggers in the heart
Spiders on the wind
À hopelessness inside
A battle within.

For those unaccustomed to lies
The daily briefings leave one pain
That any government with shame
Could be blatant in unfaithful words.

Love Mary **

The day bites in through my window
A brightness of sunshine reflects
Crossed lines on my wall, oblong
Birds sing no songs these days
Waiting for Van Gogh’s Starry Sky
And the faith of a good man.

Love Mary ***

I see you tot, you wobble a lot
On balancing legs along the edge
Holding chains you do it again
And kiss curls brush your face.

Love Grandma Mary x

And if he thought it he did not say
But turned away in quiet despair
As if the air had cooled right down
And only others remained to stay.


Love Mary x

Sometimes the membrane, that transparent shield,
Splits, letting in a grey torrent of stony hail storms
Breaking the apple as it falls bruised base to earth
And no words ever replace the missing numbers
Or comfort those who choose a blinded alleyway
For them it will be life encased in time grown old.


Love Mary x

When I was born we still had prefabs,
Just across the road on a patch of land,
Stood four homes like big camper vans,
Windows and a door,
Chimneys too.
People seemed to love them,
A home for a few.

Now most are gone,
Replaced with flats,
Or new houses,
With gardens at the back,
But after the war,
With poor housing stock,
These prefabs were a luxury,
Many glad to have.

Love Mary ***

I shall miss you
Though me be gone
And the chair
Filled with toys.

And flowers bloom
In the afternoon
From a window
I once knew.

Love Mummy x

Love Mary x

We took the gangway hand in hand
Turning on the sheltered rail
Clinging to our clipped tickets
Stating date and hour.
And up we ran our childish feet
All glorious for the open deck
And spread our arms to clap
The wind as speedily it did hit.

The water sunned in glistening troughs
The Solent with its spray
And at the bars and ropes we played
Waved to the sailing craft.
The captain in his tower room
Hooted now and then
And then turned a steep bend
To the Island that was our friend.

And bouncing on the harbour wall
Fell clambering down the steps
Broke the sunshine with our eyes
Never to forget.
Love Mary x

The B road got progressively steeper until no more
Could the bike seat carry you.
Stopping by the edge of the road at evening
We all decided walking was needed to get home.

With the bottom of your hair bending a curl
And green homemade dress we’d cycled from Staines
Tiredness suddenly overcame high spirits
So the five bikes pushed slowly along.

We took to cycling as a mode of movement
Free and fast the ways belonged to us and time
Home was food, drink and bed, memories
Stored in our legs and head for forty years.

love Mary

Barney boy blonde and slender,
From that bundle of tender joy,
Came this happy, playful nature,
This stoic lad who faced the world.

Loved his cars with a passion,
One that grew into a dream,
Met the challenges ,succeeded,
Got a job with those machines.

Sitting by the flowing river,
Barney and his maiden queen,
With the bluebells all about them,
Gentle in their hearts the stream.

Always loving in your kindness,
A valuing of simple things,
Remembering your childhood laughter,
Your love of tiny sweetie things.

Love Grandma xxxx

A life.

Our lives come and go like the blossoms on a tree
A story told by many voices
It cannot be conveyed with any accuracy
Beyond that of dates and time
For the rest remains a secret
Nothing can describe.
Neither plan nor preparation maps our path
For it meanders like the tributaries of a river
Into unknown clearings
Stopping short of perfection
Clinging to the goodness found
Loving where it can that night owl of wisdom
Belonging to a tribe of people
Who at the end pick up the petals
And put them in a drawer
Saying this was he or she
Who we came to know
Whose name in an address book
Brings tears to our eyes
This was a life.

Love Mary ***

I use to pick my blankets
Turn them into Jesus in the manager
With the coloured fluff from the ends
They were never there the next day
Absently been cleared away
With the making of the bed.
I missed them.

The artist and the model.

When I draw you I create both of us anew,
Your form fills my eyes and I am moved,
I take from you myself, and all my idiosyncrasies.
You are my voice calling its name,
I try to find what is beauty,
Through line and mark and scale,
I give this back to you as Love,
A drawing on a page.

Love Mary

Under a hermit sky you sit
The roof has fallen in and the poem
Begins.
But your not reading the quest
Answering only questions
You like the best.
There's a boy crossing a river
So you decide to fall in
Chasing the dog as he swims.

On the river bank someone calls
And for a minute
You decide to revise.
Taking a pencil to write some lines
Like 'I'm extremely bored'.
You attempt to comply
But all the words flake
On the black and white screen.
At least you don't have Fakebook.

Love Grandma

There are people who know what your heart desires
Without asking
They travel on the same bus route
Look out of the same window
They are rare.

Love Mary x