Falling, slowly, effortlessly
Like a floating feather
Without wings, watching
Space interrupt
No hands to heed the
Speed
No one came to me
With ****** chin
Lifted soul
And ran
Finding the door ajar.

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

Love Mary x

I think of you little mummy
When the snow gathers round your gravestone
Creeping up the sides of the white marble
Touching the words with its soft hands
Covering the overturned urn
As the last flowers lay like a fan
Uniting you and daddy
Under the lightest eiderdown.

Love Mary your daughter .

I loved it when you read to me
Sitting together on the orange settee
Babies  fed and in their beds
Your words in my head
Images fill my mind
Travellers on a roof top climb
Comrades gathered around
Against evil to find
Gandalf was my superhero
Reminded me of you.
Now nearly seventy-two
It really has come true.



Love Mary **

The Lord of the Rings by Tolkein

My favourite book
Read to me at 16 , And again and again by my dear Roger

Where when close to the wall
The edges of your hair
Almost touch an upturned face
Filling just the slightest trace
As if not a whisper was shared
Nor a flutter undisturbed
For the note is quietly played
And Schubert's subtle sigh,
Goodbye.

Love Mary ***

What do I say to you
Blonde clipped hair
Twinkle in your eye
Not yet shy
Politeness always
Abides in that wise style
Ages older than your time
Mischief gentle
On your mind
Friend of intelligences
Known
But in your own
Tranquility
Tested life's experience
With a king's crown
Love you for your wit
And candour
For the loving heart within
Be you happy in your hour
May your life
Always sing .

To Tasman love Grandma xxxxx

Stabilise the sinking grass
That gives the hills their shape
Stabilise the hinges
On the old wrought iron gate.

Letting in the way we see
Please stabilise me.

Love Mary x

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

Love Mary x

Everywhere you look
Evil is masquerading as good
Care companies, aid agencies
The church.
Humanity has not evolved.


Love Mary x

Daddy , daddy you can see I'm a girl
By my wonderful curls
When wearing a dress I look such a splash
Especially if it's in blue.
I know you like cars
But we've been playing for hours
And the juggling *****
Don't bounce anymore
Even the hoops are bored.

You call me Flimmy
I think I am a cat
But can't get through
The door flap.
The house is strange
With lots of weird names
And screens bright
With bionic mice
Whilst dinner comes in tubes.

But when you hold me tight
I know I'm just right
Growing up like you.


Love Grandma for Alex and Evelyn.

The little bubble girl
Sat on the kerb
With her clay pipe
And took a breath
Deep in her chest
And blew
And blew
And blew.


And across the sky
The bubbles fly
Bright dancing globes
Reflecting light
A lovely sight
Goodbye
Goodbye
Goodbye.

Love Mary x

I gave up writing letters when the frost set in
Having tied each bunch with coloured ribbon
So those clearing out could identify the writer
Before packing into bags for their final home.

Mother’s letters were always playful with a lot of
Funny drawings and a multitude of little sayings
There was often a five pound note for the children
And lots of kisses and hugs to each and everyone .

They came regular at holiday times when distant
Kept us apart and she and I felt unexpectedly sad
For we lived like each other, inside tins and things
Buttons and bows, flower pots, coffee-sponge cake.

I have her letters in drawers, inside books and cards
I have her glasses and blue case, last pair of shoes
A scarf where there remains the scents of The Island
The beach and sea, salty air and a jar of cold cream.

Love Mary to her mum xxxx

The ferry's late, we missed the last,
Running fast,
Now in the harbour, tickets clipped
Cars first, lorries and buses ****,
Passengers climb the rickety gangway
Looking down, into the murky brown,
Bags and suitcases against legs
Children scramble  ahead
Upstairs on the deck
Drinking coke
Smelling the air
Seagulls alight
We are alright
On our way over the Solent sway
The Isle Of Wight is in sight
Delight!


Love Mary x

In the window frame there is room for you and me
The garden always overgrown still a child’s delight
Pushing wheels along uncemented paths of grass
Those blowing clocks filling the sky with your breath
And I watch you, for hours, golden rounded limbs
Moving the air, swirling dresses, petticoats, a dolly
In spotted blue and a new mother growing into
Herself.
I watch silky chestnut hair, float, pulled by the wind
Over red knitted cardigan and an upturned nose in a
Smile as you see me there at the window of love.

Love Mummy xxxx

Oh tides you carry out your friends
From mooring safe into the night
Slipping between the row of buoys
Under the moonlight night.
Though it is late and time short
The stars are shining bright
And do not fear the open sea
Where Gandalf did take flight.

On the shore they stepped so light
Their gowns a feathered grey
And waved and waved as they depart
For the Havens far away.
So silently they cross the bar
As Tennyson spoke of too
To raise the currents in their wake
And slip slowly out of view.

Love Mary **

How many foldings hold my name
Leave out who I am
Fold me and fold me
Till I can't be seen
Stored away in a drawer.

A fold is a crease
A link drawn
You folded me
So now I can't stand.
How many foldings hold my name
Leave out who I am.

Love Mary x

Where do we meet?
Can it be said
You have the same words
In your head
Or ideas reframed
Do your eyes drop tears
And your hands reach out
To touch the soil
Do we ever meet?
Different voices in the wind.

Love Mary **

Connie is upside down
Head between her knees
Feet flaying in the air
Two bunches in her hair,
Connie just likes to be
Upside down
Between her knees.

( for all to see) alternative .



Love Grandma ***

A painting, an orchestration
A trembling anxiety, enhanced
By chance.
No trace of description
A ratio in space
Flat on a surface
Embedded in spool
A mood outstanding
The sobbing of a fool.

Love Mary x

I dropped from your memory
Like a book of desire
The pages scatter the beach
And the words wash away.

No longer the nightingale sings
Or roses brush the doorstep
Unwelcome enters the rooms
As I slowly wither and die .

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 **

As soon as the light turns grey
I begin that same journey
Knowing the night will be unsettled
A repeated wakfulness
Winchingly carried out near to tears
For the exercise so carnivorous.

Love Mary xxxx

Down the lane under the trees
Reaching the latch first, lifted it carefully and quietly
Not to disturb the reverie of the place.
But he and it was always a he
Came barking and bouncing, full pace, to see who intruded there.
No bigger then a foot high, like a bundle of curled white wire
He protestested.
Waiting for a retreat, seduced by his water bowl
Finally peace was restored.
Some days he was out on his walks.
Then the garden lit up without fire.
And we two children were the ones running wild.

Love Mary x

I can’t, simply can not.
Stretch out the time anymore
The rod is broken
An avalanche has fallen
On this sleepy town.

And so shall it be
Until the world
Gets better
Then we shall see.
Go safely my friends
For you are loved.

Mary ***

This Is Just To Say
BY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold



By William Carlos  William

The road lay like swansdown
under a light leaflet of snow
The corner a curvaceous cut
Stright towards the stars
Beauty bearing truth
Nature has its own.


Love Mary ***

My good girl.

Shining brown hair with a hint of chestnut
Straight and silky and a sharp cut fringe
Sometimes in black beribboned plaits
Or two bunches showing your ears.
An elfin face cupped in my hands
Slenderly graceful you are still
You are my good girl.

Embracing life joyfully, you smiled
Through days of schoolwork
Touching the world with sunshine
Making all seem bright and clear,
Loving daughter, my first of three
You came to start our family
This is my good girl.

And yet you are many things
Other than my good girl.
You mind an encyclopaedia of answers,
Your heart a lover of nature,
A social activists,
You crochet beautiful blankets
Teach and make ceramic pots
And love to curl up with a book.

Love and thank you My Katie .
From Mum ***

‘True knowledge exists in knowing
you know nothing’.

Love Mary ***

The children all stand
At the headmaster's voice
They do not rejoice
What will it be today?
The girls at the back
Tweek and hack
Twist their hair
And stir.
Hymn books go gliding
To the floor
The boy on the left
Gets hoiked out
Made to sit in the front
With the teacher he dislikes
Someone snores
The teachers aren't singing
Cause they have to watch
Whose doing what.
Then the mood changes
The headmaster takes
To the stage
Makes the children laugh
In so many ways
Tells them stories
Of when he was a lad
On his keyboard plays a tune
Lets have a happy afternoon.

In loving memory of my time as a teacher at  Chater Junior School. Also thank you to the the great and inspiring staff and children.
Love Mary ***

To the words of Cat Stevens I sing
Wailing about in front of the glass
You are my everything.

We define people by their shape,
How they sit upon a chair
Twist as they turn to go
Open a door
Place one foot before the other
Cross over legs
Slouch or sleep.
These idiosyncratic behaviours
Are the way we fall in love
Remembering an ear or nape of neck.
My mother was a number eight
Softly outlined with loose curls
And a retrousse' nose.
Shape is how I came to Art
Moved by a silhouette
Roundness of heads
The downturned oval
Elongated by position.
Art is shape in love.

Love Mary ***

Your struggle , the pots
Blue oxide is inflexible
The grim reaper returns
On a note of savage trust.

The struggle is each day
And lingers to get it right
Then your spirit lifts lighter
The edges spread, smudge.

To Ian my painter friend.
Love Mary

We are holding on
On thé edge of time
Looking out
Crying out loud
Is this the beginning
Or is it the end
Life as we knew it
Folded down.
Love Mary

A little white *** grew a blue smile
It sat on the shelf
Thinking for a while
Opened popped two blue eyes
With a bewildered frown
And inside a figure moving around.

So the painter propped him up against a wall
Deciding on position, balancing it all.
After many years sitting with him
Watching the paint brushes
Applying thin
The artist put down his brush.
Just sat and looked at Little ***.


Eventually the painting got sold
Found itself in an Art show.
A lady bought him to put on her wall
Did *** feel happy, I’m not sure.
He liked his owner who made him
So sad and small.

Love to Little *** .

From Mary **

The pottery shop at Freshwater
Glassworks at Freshwater
Touching glass
For Nuska

Meeting off the road where grass doth grow
Not far from the number ten bus stop
We together unsure of what
So I stretched out on this bench
The night was dark and wetly damp
You in your new boy clothes
Handsome but already chose
I didn't want to marry you
Or even spend much time
Just for half an hour or so
Sweep you with my arms
And so we tip-toed round the hour
Stroking things we should not
Until the street lights began to fade
Then, separately, we left that spot
Goodbye was not necessary
We never came again
Knowing this was not
Lovers' knot
But just experimenting.


Love Mary

I wonder if I said nothing would you know
Could my name be drawn out along a lane
Cut- out stencils for an autograph
Hardened plasticine creating the frame.

Maybe the more that is said, the less heard
So sit beside what is not my poetry and
Remember in the grains of time what I am
All that is ordinarily attributed to a friend.

Love Mary x

I never thought
It mattered
All those years
Ago.

Knowing he was
Mad
At twenty-five
It glowed.

Sadly sandust
Besieged hope
Now in poverty
We *****.

Love Mary
Xxxxx

Farewell to an idea
In a way
We are just this
Concepts, imagination and sound
You see me but I can't be found
I think I know who I am
But the I evades the me
Leaving a collection of hours
Somewhere between the stars
I lived a life with you
Happily we made a crew
In a random,spectacular Que.

Love Mary , Mum , Grandma xxxxxx

If only I stayed with my dolls
I would not be where I can't see,
They always gave me comfort
Sitting looking at me.

I remember all their faces,
Had personalities too,
Some robust and cheeky,
Others floppy and rather unwell.

At night on my bed they would sit,
Or cuddled up close in a shawl,
Blue eyes, Rosebud and Belinda,
And  a wee little baby black girl.

If only I'd stayed with my dolls,
Nothing bad would have
Befallen me,
I'd still live in imagination,
A Wonderfully, gifted world.

Love Mary **

You are my future
Standing in the bamboo
Safe from the crowd
Sheltered, protected
Blowing in the wind.

You wear the blue coat
The one that I bought
With fur edged hood
You loved the surprise.


Love Grandma xxxx

He holds the gun with crooked hand
Close to the sun in lonely lands
By fear encircled stands the child.
The blistered bricks about her land
A bulletin so breaks the sky
You gave the child no reason why.

Love Mary x

Let’s play dear brother
As we never did before
But with an understanding
Together once more.

Out in the garden
Climbing the trees
Drawing and painting
Just you and me .

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 ***

She stood at the window
Hoping for rain
The sleeves of the cotton dress
Loose
And her shoes muddy.

‘Why’, she thought,
Sitting down at last
Did the world have to be so
Forgettable
Loose strands of grass.

Love Mary

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

‘What shall I tell them?’
Asks a junior doctor.
‘Consultant ‘,
‘Old age’.
Can we accept this
Simplisticity?
Lying has become
Medical heaven.


Love Maryx

Where the birds never sing
You come across secrets
That you've never seen
And this is what I say
And doubt not my words
But finding you all
Brought joy into this world
You come from every race
And touch every space
Have wisdom in your bones
So I am never alone
Sometimes in the city.

Love Mary **

VIctoria sandwich
Is my favourite cake
Bought from ch ch chr
In the park
It can be cut into three
And stored in the freezer


It lasts for days
And goes crispy
When dry
I love it.

Love Mary

Coming to my door
In coat and hat
You bring me food
And this and that.

We try so hard to find a smile
We talk a bit just for a while
I love you more than I can say
Stay with me darling
Till evening is still.

Love Mummy ***