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Mary Gay Kearns Jan 2018
Little baby sweetly sleep,
Gentle in our arms do keep,
Watching every tiny move,
Mummy and Daddy,
Are holding you.
We are waiting for a smile,
Know it will come in a little while.

Two dark eyes look at us,
Giving now all your trust,
We will always honour you,
With a love that is true,
Be there at your side,
Little baby sweetly sleep,
Daddy will make you a fimo sheep.

Love Grandma Mary xxxx
Mary Gay Kearns Apr 2018
I think I shall buy
Some Vintage Alam Bay glass
The shop is now empty
These many years passed.

Was near the bottom
Of the Totland Bay Hill
I would stand there often
For hours at a spell.

A double fronted window
Stretching the place of two
Filled with many cabinets
Holding colourful jewells.

Owned by the company
Alam Bay Glass
Made at the Seaside shop
Where people did pass.

Swans, ducks and hens
Abstract shapes
Blown from a tube
Until they'd inflate.

Then there was twisting
After the blast
Beautiful bubbles
Of shiny spiralled glass.

Have to look on eBay
The only place they'll be
Maybe quite cheaply
My childhood memories.

Love Mary x
188 · May 2019
Travel.
Mary Gay Kearns May 2019
If travel be not in the head
What else can its name be
For the imagination is how
We see and travel a concept
That moves in picture books.

Mary **
188 · Jun 2018
Maybe
Mary Gay Kearns Jun 2018
Maybe after the grass is cut
Things will get better.

Love Mary **
188 · Sep 2019
I was never able.
Mary Gay Kearns Sep 2019
I never said goodbye to mother
As she lay all shrunken in bed
Her hair in a grey ponytail
Her face frightened and white.

Nobody told me she was dying
As my father sat by her side
The nurses suggested sagaciously
I needed to come in a short time.

But I never got to her bedside
Before the ringing of the phone
Announcing that she had faded
And would not be back again.


Love you dear mother
So sorry not to be with you , miss you .Mary xxxx
188 · Jan 2018
After school
Mary Gay Kearns Jan 2018
They told me I had to
Those girls from Southfields,
Buy why did I
Crumpled angel that I was
Straight out of Winnie the Pooh
And Start - rite shoes.
Waiting to be had by some lads
In the back bedroom.
"Taking it in turns" they said,
"You next".
I waited it out
Someone took an age
Then we had to leave.
Thank goodness
For early returning
Mothers .

Love Mary
Mary Gay Kearns Aug 2020
What is our innocence,
what is our guilt? All are
naked, none is safe. And whence
is courage: the unanswered question,
the resolute doubt, —
dumbly calling, deafly listening—that
in misfortune, even death,
encourage others
and in its defeat, stirs
the soul to be strong? He
sees deep and is glad, who
accedes to mortality
and in his imprisonment rises
upon himself as
the sea in a chasm, struggling to be
free and unable to be,
in its surrendering
finds its continuing.
So he who strongly feels,
behaves. The very bird,
grown taller as he sings, steels
his form straight up. Though he is captive,
his mighty singing
says, satisfaction is a lowly
thing, how pure a thing is joy.
This is mortality,
this is eternity.

Marianne Moore
I love this poem and poet .uses geometrical categories
187 · Apr 2018
The edge
Mary Gay Kearns Apr 2018
That edge of the sea feeling
Barefoot where the sand slops heavy
And popping seaweed drapes knots
Slimey, slippery ribbons drifting
Along with our feet.
Stubbed toes bruise on rocks
And that sudden extra wave
Surprises, chasing knees
And thighs with bubbles.
Sun splinters through spray drops
Brown to golden streaks
Collect in our hair and eyebrows
As the evening slips
Into still waters
And we return home .

Love Mary ***
Totland **
187 · Feb 2018
Harriet and Hastings
Mary Gay Kearns Feb 2018
Harriet and Hastings and two red robins
Arrived  one morning, unexpectedly,
In an Amazon cardboard box;
Tapping and pecking and scratching
They got out from all that cardboard
With a hop, skip and a jump.

It had been decided, by others, that
Their home would be near a lovely
Old Flowing Plum tree
Nestled between pink Cranesbill
And a variegated **** with mauve,
Candle flowers, in Summer.

Now in this garden lots of other folks
Lived sharing a small plot of land
Filled with shrubs and evergreens
Which included two Camellias, one red,
And one white, a climbing clematis,
******* with string, and Winter aconites.

Hustling for their patch was Danny duckling,
Samantha snail, Flippity frog, Tweeny owls,
Penelope pigeon, Woolly sheep and a few others
Often hibernating, sporadically, or out for the day.
So the new comers slowly got to know all
The inhabitants of 16 The Gardens, Watford.


Love Mary xxxxx
For Evelyn and Florence and their mum and dad xxxx
187 · Mar 2018
Never
Mary Gay Kearns Mar 2018
I loved you from the start
On day one
Just felt comfortable
And we could talk
You told me about
The world of everything
Mother liked you
You shared knowledge
Of scientific things
She always liked you
My father less impressed
As sport not on your
Agenda, especially football.

You read to me books
With a voice filled with
Intonation
Curled together in a chair
You had a beard
And long hair
Dark soft eyes
Against my pale blue
I never stopped loving you
Never
It is now forty- eight years.

Love to my dear Roger from Mary x
187 · Nov 2018
Thining
Mary Gay Kearns Nov 2018
The birds flew over the ocean
I wish you were here
For my time is thining
And the gate swings near.

The loss of what we knew
Evaporated
In the last golden sunset
I wish you were here.

Love Mary x
187 · Mar 2018
Carrying my heart.
Mary Gay Kearns Mar 2018
I lost you at the corner
As I turned round to go
The little child with me
Had simply flown
Down I laid my basket
Carrying my heart
Bravely searched
The pathways
Before it got dark;
Then like a wonder
I saw your shining trace
Tugged you up close to me
Kissed and kissed your face.

Love Mary x
187 · Jan 2019
A walk.
Mary Gay Kearns Jan 2019
The moon in a deep blue sky
Barest of Winter foliage
Two yellow beacons on the road
Lighting our way
And the evening is cold.

Love Mary ** ***
186 · Jun 2018
Two Tom Cats.
Mary Gay Kearns Jun 2018
Prattlebag  and Whistle were two tom cats
One was all stripy the other was all black
They were part of a trio born in late May
The girly sold first with a bright yellow bow.

The two lads were playful the curtains did pull
Dethreaded the settee but habitat have them still
Uprooted the rose bushes with those front paws
Trampled the daffodils so they dance no more.

But when in the evening the clouds come down
And darkness falls in their grassy playground
Through the cat -flap, come quickly, the kitty cats
Placing themselves down to sleep on the mat.

For my grandchildren
Love Grandma **
186 · Mar 2018
No time did I linger.
Mary Gay Kearns Mar 2018
Take me not to any dusty hall
Where flowers dressed in vases stand
Or windows paint the saints of old
And carpet in panels kept
For no time did I linger here
Though tried in vain a search
So take me to that wooden bench
Where all around roses bow
And while still sad the birds will sing
And bring merriment to such loss
And children walk the many paths
Where bamboo rises in a clump
And Camelias embrace azaleas
Lay your hearts in this place
And be comforted, now, by
Thoughts of Summer sun.


Love Mary x
Cheslyn Gardens .My bench under the tree with the roses.Love Mary ***
186 · May 2018
Tennyson
Mary Gay Kearns May 2018
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;



         Close to the sun in lonely lands.



         Ringed with  the azure world he stands.



          The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;



           He watches from his mountain walls,



            And like a thunderbolt, he falls.
Wonderful is it not .Love Mary
186 · Mar 2018
When you find a rainbow
Mary Gay Kearns Mar 2018
Pushing through the bushes
Four small heads
Tasting the rainwater
Dripping down their face
Step into a meadow
Filled with hay and grass
Long legged poppies
And tall buttercups
Flies in the air
Misty, cobweb trace
Come into the bright light
From this covered place;
Glistening in the sunshine
An arc across the sky
So gloriously brilliant
A rainbow for our eyes.
Standing together
In reverance for this sight
Only seen occasionally
When the weather's right.


Love Mary xxxx
186 · May 2018
Goodbye dearest poets
Mary Gay Kearns May 2018
beautiful poets
For me the end
Keep me near you
In some way..

Love Mary
Going into hospital ,bowel cancer .Have to leave you this day .Love you all.Mary
185 · Feb 2018
Evelyn's Eyes
Mary Gay Kearns Feb 2018
When I look into your eyes
That gaze back with intent
Symmetrically aligned
Parallel to the ears behind
I wonder who you will be
Pondering the world you see.

And under those Speedwell globes
Is a dainty buttoned nose
You can twitch and wriggle
To make any audience giggle
Dropping vertically down
Is a mouth that rarely frowns.

And on the top of all of this
Is the fairest of the gifts
Lightly feathered cap of gold
Onto your shoulder folds
But it is your big blue eyes
That is where your beauty lies.


To Evelyn at two Love Grandma Mary **
185 · Apr 2019
The music
Mary Gay Kearns Apr 2019
So it is with our fortunes on our backs
Tapering the edges of life we continue
Never really understanding the naked
Flame as it enfolds, wraps us forever a
Moment to standstraight and say come.

Love Mary
185 · Aug 2020
Written before
Mary Gay Kearns Aug 2020
So many times
I repeated the space
Transversing the content
With my thoughts
They never got fully digested.

I would wake, acknowledge another day
Face it diffferently but the same
Inbetween the bird  would sing
The day advance into Autumn.
The year begin to creep to its end.

Love Mary **
Love Mary **
184 · Feb 2018
Apple on my wall.
Mary Gay Kearns Feb 2018
On my wall
I have a little picture
It is of an apple
That was the sitter
Painted by an artist
As yet unknown
Living out his life
All on his own.
I like the apple
It's simple and complete
Speaks of many voices
And tastes so sweet.
I look at it  each morning,
Just as the sun awakes
Reminds me of happiness
The loveliest of states.


Love Maryx
Thank you Ian for letting me buy the painting of Apple for my Katharine .***
184 · Feb 2018
Wedding Day
Mary Gay Kearns Feb 2018
The gardens are having their wedding day
All dressed in shades of white
With bouquets of greenery
Tucked neatly out of sight.
Magnolia Stellata
Grows a feathered gown
Fit for any regent queen
To stand and take her vows.

Less extravagant but equally graced
The Camelia is in full bud
Clusters of rosaries
Pinned against leaf lace.
Of all my loves is The Bride itself
Abundant in its ecstasy
A cascade of loveliness
Showers like pearl beads.

Not forgetting the Snowdrops
The Brunnera and Daffodils
The Weddings are for all of us
To stand and watch at will.

Love Mary
183 · Mar 2018
Quiet evening
Mary Gay Kearns Mar 2018
In the quiet of the evening she plays to him
As the light slips into mellowness
Creating that peace before dark
He loves to listen as she rocks him
Wraping him in the beauty of her world.

Her fingers take up this time of day
Filling the room with lost emotions
Embracing, as she does, his tempo
This union of friendship which is theirs
Held together by bars of notes in a room.


Love Mary ***
After Vermeer The Music Lesson
182 · Nov 2019
Lilies
Mary Gay Kearns Nov 2019
Will you wait by the lilies side
In your flowery shirt
Wait for me by the church
In the country road, casually,
And carry me home at last
Never, longer to be alone.

Love Mary xxxx
182 · Nov 2018
Open road.
Mary Gay Kearns Nov 2018
Trouble me not with all those woes
I fear I can do no more
I sat out the evening folk
Met with the crowd for sure
But nothing, nowhere
Listened
Or even twitched a bell
Did not pick up a pen
And never did yell.

So my story ended in ditches
The daisies covered my soul
And I was not missed
On the open road.

Love Mary **
182 · Oct 2019
EVElYN is scatological
Mary Gay Kearns Oct 2019
Evelyn is five years old
And cheeky as Mr Toad
She likes using *** and poo
And being really quite rude.

Everything is a bit of fun
Eating cereal, crumb by crumb
I watch her on my télé face
And laugh when she is a disgrace.

Love Grandma Mary xxxxx
182 · Jul 2018
The oversewing.
Mary Gay Kearns Jul 2018
Inside where lining attaches to sleeve
The coming away had loosened there
Leaving the fragility of many winters’
And the oversewing of a tender hand.

Love Mary
Mother’s coat.
181 · Aug 2019
Rondo
Mary Gay Kearns Aug 2019
The hands curled fingers like leaves
Overlapping repeatedly the notes
He and her childhood companions
Speaking spirit to spirit, their souls.

Schubert’s Rondo romantics piano
whispy greyness floats her flowery
Dress, while he payne’s grey suited
In tune with life their hands trusting.

Love Mary ***
Mary Gay Kearns Mar 2018
As I stand and think
Any ideas fall or rise
According to other elements
The day maybe cloudy
Or full up with fog
So remembering is banished
To the outskirts of town.
Seeded thoughts lie dormant
And in this metamorphosis
Take flight
Never to lighten the world
With a flowery rose
Or cast wisdom on the stone.
I might think mightily
But fall to earth in despair
Mistaken by virtue
Or an over risen ego.
And so the slow decent
Only to rise up
In fallow field made of straw.
Capture me whilst energy
Still flutters, before
Thought in its watery
Words is submerged.
For without it
I was not.

Love Mary
Remembering Wallace Steven .love Mary ***
181 · Sep 2019
Poems to write
Mary Gay Kearns Sep 2019
Stop it sister
Evelyn as a lady bird.

Love Grandma Mary xxxxxx
181 · Jan 2018
Thief pickers
Mary Gay Kearns Jan 2018
I use to take them,
Pocketed up against naked flesh,
Torn by hand so stem might survive,
Hidden before the park gates.

Yet there were gardens,
Along well walked streets,
Where I remembered flowering
Stalky jewel headed, against sky.

Slipped silently up the sideway,
Grabbing fists of seeded promises,
For next years storms,
And a nominated plot.

'Open Gardens', thief pickers paradise,
But a note on my garden wall
Says, 'help yourself', for we are
But a substitute for the birds.

Love Mary
Xxxxxx
180 · Apr 2018
Looking Behind
Mary Gay Kearns Apr 2018
She sits as only little girls do
Playing with the ends of her hair
Watching the boats come in
And go out
On the choppy Solent waves.
The shingle is wet glass
And clouds form playful shapes.
Looking behind she sees her father
Smiling as he carries dripping lollies
To console a sunless afternoon.

He reaches the promenade
With its concrete *****
Balancing feet without sight
He slowly walks towards her.
She senses his vulnerability
Love pours out
Soaking her dress with spray
As she moves
To help him
Those last few steps.

Love Mary
For her dear  father , Eric William Henry Ayton-Robinson
From his ever grateful daughter Mary **
180 · May 2018
Grassy Hill.
Mary Gay Kearns May 2018
Way slide on grassy hill
My mother bride laid down
The air warm with tenderness
My father neatly gowned.

Oh love of sweet moments
Come gather in the hours
Wrap them in secret’s scent
Hidden from the showers.

Love Mary x
For my mum and dad , loved always
179 · Feb 2018
I measure out my days
Mary Gay Kearns Feb 2018
I measure out my days
Not in the expected ways
With outings to friends
People popping in
Sunday lunch
A telephone call
But by how far
I can fly
Without any wings.

And in doing so
Turn it into
Something
Beautiful.

Love Mary x
179 · Oct 2018
Poetry
Mary Gay Kearns Oct 2018
I use you like an old tool
Something I can turn over
***** in tight so you stay
After I have moved off.

You fix what is left of me
Tied down, knotted silk
A binding of age and beauty
My hair, still plaited, remains.

Love Mary x
179 · Jun 2019
Kiss me.
Mary Gay Kearns Jun 2019
A birds kiss had been his song
On every celebration
This was his greeting of love
Such a beauty within
Had the boy
Though for he
The shadows rolled
A tresspassing volt
Leaving tenderness
Unhinged.

To Milo
Love Grandma

***
Mary Gay Kearns Jan 2018
Marie Thérèse Walter, an imaginative tale.

Marie Thérèse lifted up her golden hair
And placed a clip on the left to hold back a fringe.
She came through the city of Paris, in the hot sunshine wearing simple sandals
And a Summer dress.
           --------------------------
At the door of her lover's house she paused,
Wondering wistfully how he would greet her.
Would she find him laden with canvas
Impatient for her love or her pose.
He was an artist, fabulously famous,
Married, with son, to a noble woman.
She was his mistress at seventeen.
The thing from which he drew inspiration.
That moved her to tears.
                ------------------------
On a street in Paris whilst shopping,
Browsing the Galleries Lafayette,
They had met by chance in an instance,
Her face attacking his skin.
Tall, athletic and graceful,
A beauty with Grecian profile,
Fascinated, he was, by her movement,
The space between her eyes.

Unhindered by his pronouncement,
She offered to model there in;
And so began the beginning,
Of changes,
That altered art from within.
             ----------------------------
The price of art is expensive,
Its development claims many lives,
For Marie Therese it was lonely,
After Picasso said goodbye.
She lived with their daughter,
Maya, born out of love,
But ten years of giving,
Only made her sad.
After he died,
She knew, her time had come.
Knowing the world was empty
With his power gone.

Love Mary xxxx
178 · Feb 2018
First a smile for daddy
Mary Gay Kearns Feb 2018
Evelyn came back to me
Came over the ocean
Over the sea
Worried that she might forget
The daddy that she'd always had.

Saw her coming across the floor
Through the airport's open doors
First a smile and then a tear
Glad to have her daddy near.

Back at home it is just the same
Just as if she'd never roamed
On the settee made for three
Evelyn, Tasha, the cats and me .



Love Evelyn to her daddy .
From Grandma Mary ***
Mary Gay Kearns Feb 2018
Bear came to do my garden today
It had got into rather a mess,
Sticky Jenny and dandelions,
Rotten roots and garlic shoots
Got poor Bear betwixed;
Hot and sweating, really fretting
Bear began to cry,
Why was it that I thought gardening
From painting let me hide.
But off he went along the fence
Pulling out the weeds
Found some bulbs that did not smell
Dug  them up, as fast, as well
Now they're  back in a different spot
Three short stems in an empty plot;
Made me laugh just to see
How silly that Woolly Bear can be.


Love Mary
Thank you to Ian my Gardener
178 · Apr 2018
For just that...
Mary Gay Kearns Apr 2018
For just that, I opened my eyes to watch the seagulls
Circle the cliff face, swooping and diving,
Black and white above viridian tides.
On top deck of those cream and green country buses
That bumbled along, taking the dips and hollows
As though a 'Big Dipper' at Margate.
There was such little stopping the journey
Seemed seemless as the sky.
And we,
Hanging out the window to catch the wind.

Love Mary x
Taking the middle road to Freshwater.
178 · Aug 2019
Happy Birthday Alex.
Mary Gay Kearns Aug 2019
The curtains hung in loops
From the missing and broken
Those brittle plastic rail hooks
Unable to be replaced, renewed.

So in the bedroom light entered
From the grey day at their drape
Singing in her sixty seventh year
Her only son a birthday song.

Love Mary
177 · Mar 2018
Drifting
Mary Gay Kearns Mar 2018
Dry and dusty the old man lay
Had not moved a vessel for many a day
Slept below the moonlight stars
Thought of his weath and fading power
Drifting, drifting the old man saw
Far beyond the cliffs and golden shore
Had crossed the marker made for man
Slowly he felt the dying man's hand
Deeper, deeper into silent sleep
The water green, the water deep
And then from the ocean he heard a call
A voice rang out from distant shores
There in his softly swaying boat
Was lifted, feet first, by a riddled rope
Laid in comfort in a cabin bed
Fed and watered, bandaged head
Nearer and nearer the headland crept
Restored this dry and dusty vet
To this world again and whole .
Grateful he was this poor old soul.


Love Mary **
177 · Mar 2018
The Avenue
Mary Gay Kearns Mar 2018
All along the avenue of trees
Which leads down to the canal
Are spaces which cast shadows
Tall lengthening towers.

Down the avenue of trees
Many have walked
Some are missing, others gone
The gaps are like fallen trees.

The park, a monument to change
To the universal truth of sorrows
The welcoming joy of Spring
And every new footstep that begins.


Love Mary ***
Cassiobury Park , Watford , Herts
For you all .Love Mary
For those who live near find this park
And walk in my steps , finding the beauty
I knew .
176 · Feb 2018
One day my love
Mary Gay Kearns Feb 2018
Aunty you were like poetry
Missing out the boring bits
Brimming over with flowers
Telling stories of distant hours
Your hands varnished in cerise
Up close, like wisteria, hung
The softest of black curls.

You made the simple day
Unbelievably lovely
Crystal earrings caught in the light
Cake eaten with a silver teaspoon
The world was magically composed
From your colourful robes
And I would sit at your feet.


Love Mary x for her Aunty Elizabeth
176 · Dec 2018
If you close your eyes.
Mary Gay Kearns Dec 2018
If you close your eyes
You will remember how
We wrapped together
In the cold dark night.

How we walked the park
As the leaves fell down
How we spun around
You never let me down.

My one and only Ro.

Love Mary xxxo
176 · Jan 2018
A petticoat for Daisy
Mary Gay Kearns Jan 2018
For a time I took photographs
In black and white
To enhance
What is timeless
And thus free
From the world's
Scrutiny.

In layered petticoat
Edged with lace
White and flimsy
Which did float
Wellington boots
And handknit coat.

******* ribbon in her hair
The fairest waves
Lay just there
On her shoulders
Round her face
A touch of angelic grace.

I took my Daisy
To the shops
A yard or two to pop
To get something
Nice for tea.
Biscuits, sweets
And ice cream freeze.

As with an artist's eye
Could not let this moment by
Blonde curls she peered around
I captured this without a sound.

The photograph of a little girl
In an undated world
Classless, nameless
For all to see
The wonders of simplicity.

Best photograph I have ever taken. Thank you Daisy  May , love Grandma ***
176 · Feb 2018
Thank You Dad
Mary Gay Kearns Feb 2018
It was hard telling him
Breaking the peace that was his world
If only it could be not this
But some other story
There was no choice
So with courage
She found the comfort of his lap
And with his love
He held his pregnant daughter.


Love to my dad from Mary **
176 · Mar 2018
Bearable bearings
Mary Gay Kearns Mar 2018
At certain moments
All that you are stops,
Like the falling of plates
Crashing onto alabaster
A tingling, biting into walls
One is pricked, ****** sore.
Unable to find bearable bearings
In the harvest of despair.
It takes a very long stretch to
Get together a pair of shoes
And walk that first mile.
How many times does a person endure
Before becoming a chip of china,
So sharp it would ****.
For most the brain rearranges and
The pilot reignites
But sometimes , just occasionally,
One dies.

Love Mary ***
175 · Apr 2018
Ventnor with Bill.
Mary Gay Kearns Apr 2018
Your hands are stiff but I take them
Feeling how cold in spite of the sun
But today we will drive you to Ventnor
It's been sad these years without Mum.

The wind is light and the sky azure
Memories flood through my brain
Today we will drive you to Ventnor
Have lemonade and ice- cream again.

Love Mary ***
Roger , my father ,Bill, and I went to Ventnor one day
And we had a wonderful day dad with you .mary ***
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