You are my dream child
Flashing across words
Dancing along the table
With ripe apples and pears.

Nothing is more momentous
Than your smile below blue eyes
And golden hair tied in one braid.
I glimpse myself in your gaiety.

The gift of speech an intimacy with you
Your reading, sharing, laughing, cheeky
I have to say goodbye my dear Evelyn
Stay happy and watch the flowers grow.

Lots of love grandma Mary xxxxxxxx

Sixty-six years living in a country I respected
Never regretted it, admired, honoured.
Finished!
The treatment of the underprivileged
Is unstainable
The law allows ******
Of the innocent,
Cruelty to the old,
England has failure
Running through
The arterial map
Corruption explodes
Its ***** fingers
In the corners
Where they should
Show love.

Mary x

If I could I would hold you all
Tucked hands into yours
Close eyes together
Finding lashes brush
And where you move
I will stop you
By a loving more
Penetrating and
Unbearably beautiful
Than imagination
Can predict.

Love Mary ,Mum, Grandma ***

We took the road with crooked end
And followed out across the dawn
As rabbits set the branches back
Their feet soft oblongs down the track
And child of gypsy whispering words.

Love Mary x

Read a passage by Herman Hesse
Who wrote about trees and what they meant to he.
Got me thinking about our Park
And the two trees that were never apart,
One was tall the other smaller and rounder,
They lived together in a binary state.

The Summers came and went until in Winter
One looked bent,
Slowly after melting snow the leaves began
Not to show,
The smaller tree, for it was a she,
Got cut down leaving only he.

Now in the park and proud
The tall tree has his hour
Although a singular frame
The patch of earth still remains
On which he cherished his love
The best companion he ever had.

At twilight when the light is low
He hears the rustling of her leaves
And sways a little to and fro
Just to let her know.


For my dear Roger , love Mary xxxx

The pots on the backroom table
Contain out of shape Money plants
Where neglect has transpired to
Let growth gather at the top
Green and succulent whilst
The stem remains dried out.

Decisions to throw away
Are repeated weekly
Destroying a life is difficult
The attachment overgrown
The atmosphere is winter damp
The pain woody and long.

Love Mary

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 **

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

She came into my arms
Soft flesh over bones
Sweet smile curved lips
Only for a while we played
My new grandchild Primrose.

Love Grandma ***

Van Gogh's models were the poor,
The peasants, hungry with grief,
Girls lost and lonely in misery,
The sewer for whom time was a thief.

Manet came from the classes,
His models passionately posed,
One controversial painting,
Naked and eyes not closed.

Delacroix had them writhing,
Like snakes in an arabesque,
Or standing there half- naked,
A banner wrapping their head.

Then we come to Picasso,
The woman and girls that he loved,
Painted with ultimate tenderness,
A child holding a dove.

Go back in time to the medieval,
Where models turned into saints,
And angels surrounding madonnas
Quietly came and went.

Today the life class is different,
Feminism has made it unclean,
And Art Schools practice the video,
Naked bodies now rarely seen.

But drawing from observation,
Is a skill perfected by work,
Letting  the imagination,
Creating a beauty that lasts.

Love Mary **

If I could, above anything
I would paint the world
Flake white
But it would soon
Get *****.

Love Mary x

Say goodbye for me to the window cleaner
And the people who empty bins
The man who delivers the papers
And all those parcels for my sins
Give a kiss to the tree cutters
And the people who pass by
And don't forget my dear friends
The ones who were too shy.
I've had enough of all this stuff
The pain and dragging on
My family, too, are tired of the veiw
And even the letterbox moved.
Phone calls I make
Are just a mistake
As the answers I get are insane
The best I've known are the artists
Who all have an open heart
They know there are no answers
That's why they do art.
So leave out the platitudes
Let's get down to the truth.
Say goodbye for me to the window cleaner
He's made my vision great.

Love Mary ***

I lost my maidenhead
In a big, big bed
It was not frightening
Or particularly exciting
Waiting out the waves
I lay in myself
Wondering how long
It would go on
Sweat and soft breath
Rolling together into a ball.

Stayed all night and in the morning
Saw the room
Daylight filtered through half opened curtains;
It was nice this silence
This getting to know
For the first time, another,
A man, son and brother,
Someone's father.

You stood behind me
Looking in the mirror
My freckled face, make up gone
Showing you me;
And now we were one in some unaccustomed way
We belonged to this room
Covered in your clothes
Ornaments on a fireplace
Watermarks on the ceiling
I liked it here so far from home
Mother's little daughter did it
All on her own.

For my dear Rog Love Mary ***

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 ***

The light is slowly dipping
Moving from bright to dull
We trip along the road
Mum ,dad, my brother and I
Reaching Freshwater Bay
As the windows of the pub
Turn on.

The pebbles drag themselves
Back and forth on the beach
Boats, far out in the Solent,
Hooting  and shimmering
As the red sunset fills the sky,
We huddle together hurrying
Before night fall completes.


A quick dash for home
Moving fast along the country lanes
Under the harvest moon
The warmth of the day lingers
And birds put their songs to sleep
At last the line of Chalets' appear
Tucked away amongst trees.

Unlocking the door
The smell of wooden floors
Hot tea, sandwiches
A biscuit or two.
Then to the comfort
Of soft sheets.

Love to my Mother,  Father and brother, Richard,
For all those lovely holiday spent together .
Love Mary ***

Together the time lifts and separates
Those for whom there is no shadow
Slowly undoing the winching gears
Watching the guide rope flop water.

And if you hear my song of depart
Do not cry for today is your happy
Birthday hours and it must celebrate
All the days that belonged to ourself.

Love Mary ***

I am going over the rainbow
Where the grass is green
And birds sing on roof tops
And all is brightly seen.

Love Mum xxxxxxx

I have become a bird of travel
Bearing winter’s grey and snow
White.
Living my mother’s journey
Later each night.
Youth took me carelessly
Between a row of fools
Threw me back against a wall
With no impunity.


Love Mary x

Pushing the half dozen sodden flakes of corn
Round the bottom of the Willow pattern dish
The woman wondered how she could endure
The continual daily struggle to exist and enjoy.

There was always Evelyn with her warm heart
And Florence curly in the sunlight smiling out
Two little precious gems conjured from a book
Always ready to give whatever they were able.

Love Grandma Mary **

The trees are blowing houses
In the damp air
I fight for breath but no one comes
My love is getting fish and chips
And the jacket potato will be baked
I have spoken and been silent but
The tree still breaks and what is learnt?
Sorry to those who could not listen
The houses will be re - filled with
Someone.
Love Mary ***


Love Mary

To be loved to death
Is a remarkable saying
Its meaning, meaning
More than any card
Any bunch of flowers.

The lifting is divinities
Holding out anniversary
Slight flickering fingers
Touch flaky, silver skin
And love breaks the sky.


Love Mary **

At the end one has to acknowledge
Staring into the eyes of another
That there is always betrayal
But Love understands this
And is not ruptured
Steadfastly it continues
Doing what it is
Which is to
Live.

Love Mary xxxx

Stop it sister
Evelyn as a lady bird.

Love Grandma Mary xxxxxx

My babies.

Scrabbling up the wall of desire ,
I took them in my hands,
Bundles of cuddly babies,
With ribbons in their hair.

Oh they were ever so pretty ,
With chubby fingers and toes,
I wrapped them up together,
And in a basket they did go.

Sometimes they were naughty,
Would not have a bath,
Had to bubble them all over,
They thought that quite a laugh.

The babies came everywhere with me,
Never, left them at home,
People on the buses,
Occasionally, did moan.

But my lovely babies,
Decided to grow up,
Found one did not need a ribbon,
Because, he was a lad.

Now I have no babies,
They have all flown away,
Found other babies,
To go and make a home.

Love Mary , Mum , Grandma ***
For my 3 daughters and one son.Thank you so much for being great children.xxxx

In the front bedroom
I have been for years
Watching the birds
In the Sycamore tree.

Love Mary

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 ***

Walter W Hoelbling 22h
out there
once you let your poems
fly freely
out into the world
anything can happen to them

and it does
poems free world

I fall into your words
They scatter my thoughts
Swirling radiant flashes
Of remembrance brought.

Love Mary x

A line that announces the heart
And stays embedded in lovers
Pale yellow dressed girl breathes
Leaning across blue hyacinths
And wildness tornados the night
As silkily she touches the moon.

Love Mary x

Over his years he had collected then
Not being sure of their date or place
Finding them digging the thatchers
Seventeenth century wasteland plot.


Stone Age in style and shape combine
To give a sense out of today’s machine
Fashioned by hand to be implements
On a windowsill now like organic rocks.


Love Mary **

The boarding party.

The gathering was informal
Dressed in what was comfortable
For the cold February day.
Here in front of the window,
The panoramic view across
The fields
Stationary as a postcard
Supported only memories.

My father leaned on the chair
As he always had when
Talking about too many cars
And the age of girls having babies.
We listened trying to avoid
Time passing
Trying to be brave for him,
For ourselves.

The Norman church on the Alan Bay
Road, a place of historic beauty,
Where on holidays we stopped,
To eat the days remaining sandwiches;
Received our mother into the parish
There reunited with her father, Frank.
In the air a gentle voice called helping
tired feet make that last mile home.

Love to My mother Grace Emily Westbrook and my dad Eric William Henry Ayton-Robinson .

No longer frilly
Abandoned buttons and bows
Took to wearing breeches
And baseball shoes.

Now she’s having a baby
What will that do
Change our young Lily
Into two.

Love Grandma ***

Bleached heat, the sun hot
Tarmacadam melted up
The playground equipment
Too warm for little bottoms


Children climbed the wood
Inside were imaginary cats
Daddy stayed outside watching
The crisp grass blew in the wind.


Love Mary
For Evelyn ,Alex and Florence **

They all spoke at once,
Claiming their first choice of pose:
Reclining sublimely on mattress,
Or balancing slightly on toe,
Some wanted seated sedately,
Others curled up into a ball.
Whatever it was it was difficult,
I did get paid after all.

So after position was chosen,
Took quietly to my place,
Hoping that comfort found me,
I did not get a pain or an ache.
Found a patch of grey on the window,
To focus my gaze for the day.
Then drifted off into dreamland,
Until my head fell away.

Love Mary **

Whenever my mother went out
There was a place I knew about
Not a step too far
Up the stairs and behind the bars
Along a dark and narrow hall
My parents bedroom door.

Standing outside in my dress
Could I enter without a trace
My fingers grasped the handle ****
Twisted gently the door was fast
Found the chiselled metal key
Opened the door quickly
Stood a while least I collapse
The smell of sweet lavender plus
Stretched out on my parent's bed
Bounced a bit it must be said
The springs were rather creeky too
Wondered what they would do
Two pillows at the head
And a candlewick bedspread.

What intrigued me most of all
The dressing table mirrored wall
Creeping to the window ledge
Peered around least I be found
Intrepid invader of secret worlds (drowned)

The top drawer was the best
The others containing mainly vests
And neatly folded underwear
Stockings rolled into *****
Pulled open the heavy drawer
Began my journey to explore
Opened up the jewellery box
Placed the trinkets on my chest (lap)
A moonstone set in filigree
My grandmother's, I do believe
Clipped it round my slender neck
Held it up with great respect
Then a golden nugget chip
On a sort of safety clip
Came from a mining town
Somewhere in Cape Town.

Rings and other dainty things
Curry grips and cream tins
Powder puffs and pink rouge
Pear earrings with a *****
Letters bound up with string
Hankerchiefs written in
A little note I did write
When my spelling was not quite right
How I loved all this stuff
Smelling of my mother's love.


Love Mary x

I can't take my shoes off the road
Verbally swimming me out
On the surface I see all the words
Gliding over each other, waiting.

Choosing is the reason for living
Placing and position another
My purpose gigantically impossible
But the errand earnestly strong.

It takes from infested waters
The dark black tulips of Spring
All that has covered me over
Until the last swim begins.

Achievement wore her smartest frock,
Held out the drapes that all might see,
For a while it danced within her frame,
Delighted at such a fiery flame,
Then quietly laid down in a box,
But its wonders did remain.

The child asked the rainbow man
If he ever cried and why
Lifting a big drop of rain
He let it splash at her feet
And now she knew why
The rainbow man cried.

LoveMary ***

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

Darling daughter, Victoria, I think we both know
That staying away from each other was the best.
For the suffering I have to bear is not for you to
Witness and rather joy sit in your lap and be near.

I have no regrets and privacy is a necessity now
So I might slip away leaving a glimpse of sweet
Memories and a bundle of cardboard boxes for the
Children when it comes to opening time.

Bring beautiful Arlo to see the garden I made
And dad has another grandchild to cuddle.
Sad for the time we never had but glad of what
We did together over the years .Bye Bye Birdie .

Love Mum Grandma ***

You paint pictures of small ceramic bowls,
Copies of tree trunks from George Seurat,
A single Plane tree in the local park and
A red apple which use to be two.

I read you my poems over the mobile
The one about the boy on the beach
You liked as it recalled your childhood
Its mood is wistfully sad, we share that.

Love Mary x

I got through another Winter
It being not too cold
I wrapped myself in blankets
Gave my room a rosy glow.

Then the Hollyhocks came
Tall and straight and bright
Waving in front of the window,
What a complete delight.

Managed to see the Azaleas
With their very tangerine buds,
The red rose climbs the Plum tree
What wonders do we have.

I got through another Winter.

Love Mary **

Who walked to the end of a road
And turned back?
Realising the reason had been lost
Like a paper handkerchief
Just dropped on the pavement
Getting wedged between cracks
Arriving home with the sadness.

The lantern tree at ballyroberts
Held out branches of pink gems.


Love Mary **

And wisdom went with her frozen
In glass like snow white's coffin
And what was known singed ash
As petals amongst futility's cry


Mary **

How are the Lego kids,
With their boxes and their lids,
Shifting colours ,choosing frames,
Making vehicles ,City games,
Evelyn likes to see,
Watching as the plot reveals,
A sailing ship ,a caravan,
With her fingers says, 'I Can';
On the bed next to Dad
A spaceship glides past her head,
Then Mum brings in a big surprise,
French it is and two feet high.
So much fun to be had,
Playing with your Mum and Dad .

Love Grandma !Mum ,xxxx

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

There is nothing left the child said
Opening up the heaviest cake tin.
There is nothing left in father’s pocket
And no sweets in the tall glass jar.
I have no clothes for the Winter and
And my special thoughts have died
It is the end of the month so let’s try.


Love Grandma Mary xxxx

Woolley Bear did not like computers
For every time he put one on
He forgot what he had to do.

Love Mary

Emily Dickinson
Why do I love You, Sir?
480

“Why do I love” You, Sir?
Because—
The Wind does not require the Grass
To answer—Wherefore when He pass
She cannot keep Her place.

Because He knows—and
Do not You—
And We know not—
Enough for Us
The Wisdom it be so—

The Lightning—never asked an Eye
Wherefore it shut—when He was by—
Because He knows it cannot speak—
And reasons not contained—
—Of Talk—
There be—preferred by Daintier Folk—

The Sunrise—Sire—compelleth Me—
Because He’s Sunrise—and I see—
Therefore—Then—
I love Thee—