Running outstretched to meet the birds
As they took flight at the field’s edge
Faces brimmed over with bright light
Pink boots left the ground, jumping
And hearts filled with the watching.

Love Maryxxx

She never had big enough eyes,
That's what I thought looking in the mirror,
And they were blue, so in photos
Always looked faded.
They were taken from my father,
The colour of speedwell in the meadows,
My mother's were hazel ,nearly brown.
Like my brothers.
Eyes are the entry to the soul it is said.
Over the years I came to like them.
Quiet eyes that lay on the surface of a canvas,
A painting created by a friend,
Who saw the beauty in them.

Thank you Ian for my  painting .
Love Mary **

Here comes Margaret, it is nearly four
Takes her all day, to get out of doors
Makes it to the park
A few hundred yards
And back again, slowly, within the hour.

As she returns, Roger sets off
Carrying a note book
And wearing a cagoule mac
A five mile walk, twice a day
And factual writing recording his stay.

Wind direction, southerly, position of the sun
Underfoot weather conditions
A man on the run
Ducks on the pond, birds in the trees
How wonderful it is and all free.


Mary has a black car and rarely walks
Since losing her husband she rarely talks
The pavements are a sadness
Carrying memories of happy times
Walking together on Sunday afternoons.


Pat, goes gently, her knees are bad
Many operations has got her this far
Stoic disposition she loves the flowers
Looks at the gardens for many an hour.

Walkers of the roadway, kindly, unite
Giving to each other love and insight.


Love Mary x

Sunflowers have no reason
To feel sad
Their petals fall off
Leaving seeds for next year.

For us it is different
Our endings filled with tears
Our hearts break the silence
Our love was it all.

I'd rather been a sunflower
Its seeds fed to the birds
Its flowers giving magnificence
To one and all.


Love Mary ***

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

Please does anyone know a poem
Called " TheWhite Page " or "The Blank Page" or
Maybe verse.
I think it may have been written by Wallace Steven
Or a philosopher.
It is a beautiful piece about the impossibility
Of capturing thought.
And has echoes of the sea and crashing
Waves at bottom of cliffs.

Please can you find it for me
Before I depart .
It says so much
And I need to hear it one
Last time.

Love Mary ***

I use to feel love would never die
That people were kind and never lied
Things always got better if you tried
And goodness lay at the heart of the
World.
But
Now I know
Love only sustains so much
And lies a commonplace touch
Trying only works for an army
Whilst evil fills many souls
Now I know.

Love Mary x

I remember you
Do you remember me
We were just together
But we shouldn't be
Then you sat me down
And you touched my hand
Then you sat me down
And I turned around
And my heart did leap
The words were shy
Then you sat me down
I began to cry
In a silent place
We then embraced
Then I turned around
And I found your knee
And what was forbidden
Had to be.
I remember you
Do you remember me.


Love Mary **

Until March the Peacock stayed in
Keeping his eyes to himself.
Afraid of the rain and coldness of earth
The snowy harsh ice.

But Spring filled his garden with flowers
The trees fluttered with bees
And the sunshine on his feathers
Asked him to open his wings, please!

For a Peacock is a man of display
Loved the people as that passed
Stalked the grass of his grounds
And fanned us all at last.

Oh to trudge up the lane
In the heat of the sun
Keeping to the near side edge
To face on coming cars
I would the wildest flowers, pick,
Hold them in my hand
Wrap around a handkerchief
With an embroidered band.

As the upward ***** straightened
A bungalow came into view
With my mother's gardening shoes
And a flower *** or two
How I loved this moment
My heart turned to glee
All my inside whispered
Soon be here with thee.

Love Mary your daughter **

Speech came easily that day
The day before it happened
Gaiety lay on his shoulder
Shimmering September sun
They had hoped she would
But neither mentioned
So he never definitely knew
And never would
For he drowned
****** under by
Dangerous currents
Just off coast
After attending
A friend’s funeral.
Beatrice is now
Twenty or more
She can but dream
Of the father
She never met.

Love Mary

Changes the way I think of you;
It means you go beyond
To another plane
Where the heart of another resides
In its separateness
And enter.
Fearing not the disruption
Or consequence upon you;
Opening your fortifications
The historical bindings
To embrace a colour
Never mixed before
And spreading it
As a blanket on the ground
For us both to sit upon.

Love Mary **

He was all black and white
A fluffy rabbit in her hands
Bluebell was two and scary
Always doing a deed darey.

She tasted cheese and threw
It hard across the living room
Now able to talk learnt colour
Lots of animal noises like eek.

Bluebell was special with curls
A triumphant manner took her
She loved mermaids had costumes
Took them out toTesco’s shopping.

Love Grandma mary ***

A fairy in a dress of snow waves to the plastic butterfly,
A six pointed star watches as the painted bird sleeps
And ceramic leaves make circles in the wind.

Mr spaceman , all in red, nods to the dinosaur and says,
" If it weren't for you I'd never have seen the globe of blue",
The boy on the backyard fence cries,
And the Christmas doll lets down her hair
For the very first time.

Love Mary **

Standing on the bridge looking down stream
The sunlight a curtain through weeping leaf
Trailing their ends in the moving slowness
Of a shallow children filled patch of crystal.

Love Mary **

Evelyn
For you are beautiful
Unknown mystery
Washed in the waters
Blown by a breeze.

Waking each day
To the sound of cat's purring
The temperature of sunlight
Through curtained leaves.

Can you hear our loving
Feel together our song
We ride on your heartbeat
Shape ourselves around your body.

This is now
Between today and soon after
We wait in the doorway
Of futures unlaced.

Love Grandma

Tiny, so small,
Not really there at all,
Arrived in the night,
To all our delight,
Came the morning light,
The sound of the birds,
The sun over the horizon,
Your first words;
And from your cradle,
I lifted you,
Only a handful,
My eyes full of dew,
That little cry,
Lifted my heart!
Us two together,
Never to be apart.

For my children, Katharine ,Alexander, Victoria and Elizabeth Kearns

Without tenderness the world dies
For it is the only emotion
That prevents evil
It is the most powerful
Incorporating compassion
But not intellectually based
Coming from a deep sense
Of the fragility of things.
Unfortunately it may be selective
In fact usually is
And as such weakened
By virtues of taste.


Love Mary ***

INSIDE THE OLD GREY SHED.

Inside the old grey shed
A path leading from the house
Flower beds and
Grassy turf
Guided each
Advancing step
In children's eyes
This was a den
A place far away from men
Dusted by the wind and rain
A window with a broken pane.

And on this day,
It was particular
A female cat had
Birthed her kittens
In the old discarded tent
Blood stained with
The afterbirth.
It was the children
Who on their visit
Found something moving
In a corner
Afraid to touch
Called their father
This day remembered ever after.

A hand open to reveal
A bundle of softest fur
Curled together in a ball
Like an angora whirl
Three kittens there within
Newness in their pinkish skin
The children held them
Side by side
Watched as their feet did dry
Opened up their floppy ears
Spoke gently so they could hear.

Of the three they kept but one
Called her Lucky just for fun.
Next door took number two
The other one went quickly too.
Mother cat was rather wild
Fought her sadness
Took a while
Never settled sad to say
Had to be put away.
Lucky our special cat
Lived 18 years on our doormat .

Love Mary **
Thank you , Lucky our black and white cat.

At some point
One realises
It has always been
About someone else.


Love Shakespeare

Sometimes out of the throbbing chaos
A voice speaks with compassion
And for a short while
One is lifted
Above the clouds
To where the blue
Is crystal clear
And the sun
A circle
Of returning
Appreciation.

Love Mary x

There is a place I'd rather be
Where the world is clear to see
No direction, cannot breathe
Only saints are trouble free
How to wait, patiently,
For the time set down for me
Travelled all familiar roads
Came to a halt, no longer bold
All that is and all that was
Is what I gave and what I lost
For my life I say but little
I loved it so and want to get better.

Love Mary **

It was not to be Hoppedy!

I never made it past the shed ends,
Back to back at sixty five,
The gates for the everlasting
Had been closed down early,
When it came, to my days ride.

Shame as I turned that corner
Making  a maturing point,
Realising what life wasn't
Opening the seeds of delight.
But it was not to be Hoppedy!

Love Mary ***

By the wall sat I
Dressed spread out
Tear in eye
On my knee a baby boy
Borrowed bundle
Of treasured joy.

Love Mum

Thank you to Pam for sharing her first baby
With a young girl.

Looking down from such rare and breaking site
To watch transparent wings flap the velvet sea
Ounces of oceans drained from chalky white cliffs
Where grasses took root and flowers windy peep
Peering  between yellow gorse on Tennison's Downs
We children, ran parted the *****, daring the edge
To be found, and there stood toes rolled gripping
Where grass meets air, the sparkling waters
And sailing ships, tugged the sea in mystery.

Love Mary **

Round about . For Evelyn .

He took me to the station
And put me on a train
never wanted to go there
So soon came back again.

In the land of jumblies
Where pink balloons fly
And snowdrops are yellow
I am rather shy.

Yes said the peacock,
We'll always let you in
As long as you wear striped pyjamas
And wave a fountain pen.

So when I got home
Went straight up to bed
To find all my animals
And wrap them round my head.

A nonsense rhyme for Evelyn love Grandma  ***

Summer meadow you are calling me
The red poppies standing as swaying trees
Heads of corn tall in the light
My dress shimmering white
I have the picture in my head
Also in my album bed
For this day of moment's power
Etched upon a life-time's file
In the shade you came to me
Held me up so I could see
The love you had and let it be
In the meadow wild and free.



For my Roger and a wonderful day we spent in Essex.in 1968/9

A bird, not heard, flying high, some sky
Over meadow, above sea, see snow, landfill
So flap the palest of wing up lifted it sings
His secret only known is carried into flow.

Love Mary ***

Bronze through Autumn
Light strings across path
Leaf as nugget on branch
And me running to meet
The boy of my dreams
Through shadowed steps.

Love Mary **

I wonder if we were together long enough for the weeds
To grow along the fences and in the ditch by the wall
If we would become cement.

Love Mary x

Maybe in the fields where the mice run free
And the flower stems reach two feet high
Where the air circulates in the sky
And the soil is devoid of pollution
Only here is there a chance
Of  miracles.


Love Mary **

I hope you understand
I know that not be easy
Short we are on intuition
As canker binds the vein.

Withered soul outpouring
The tempest grass flowing
I hope you understand me
Sad it be if not.

Love Mary ***

The tide came in and beached our feet
Surrounded then with sharps and stones
Our clothing wetted and sand filled
Long plaits dipped in the salty green.

The sea swishes and swirles its bubbles
Deep orche the slippery seaweed floats
Waves luxurious wigglets top the depth
Watch we did in awe and felt the swell.

Love Mary ***

When the truth is withheld
The world feels cold
Frostbite in the soul
Tiredness old.


Love Mary

There is love
Then there is great love
One may only every know
That there is one kind.



Love Mary **

The sea a sheet of molten gold,
Shimmering under a fiery sky,
The beach was deserted,
Sailing craft secured against the night tide,
Carefully built sandcastles awaited their obliteration,
A few seagulls picked over picnic wrappings,
I stood, alone, as the the sun dropped below,
Allowing the darkness over the horizen,
It was the end of another wonderful day,
And I felt full of gratitude for the chance of being born.

Love Mary **

Sorry for the inconvenience
Forgive the trouble
Tried all sorts
To do my best
Watch me flickering
As I say goodbye
You were the best lights
I could ever buy.

Love Mum ***

I will not know you little child
Or see your shining eyes
Look up at me.
Never trace that tiny face
And hold you upon my knee.

It is a sadness I must bear
But bear it tenderly
With a love that knows
No infinity or finality.


To Victoria and Pieter for their baby
Love Mum ***

Claim that place that we shared
Heap your heart with our days
Sit patiently on that seat of yours
Where the yellow roses flower.

Each morning dip your fingers
In the books of love and live
You are my dearest daughter
Who glad I was that she came.

Love Mummy xxxxx

When the hour is darkest,
And not a wind comes near,
Know that you are complete,
And who gives a care.

Because, by truth, few are stirred,
Most, complacently out of ear,
Only those, who hear the drums,
Say this life can't always be sung.

Love Mary ***

The green dress is the nearest I got
To writing a poem about sensuality
It rests in an envelope hidden
when I wore this mid-calf dress
The palest and subtlest of greens
I was aware how every seam caressed
Each pocket beckoned fingertips
The front opening's catching edges.


As I walked along the Mall
Breathing in perfumed air
Spilling out from breast and hip
Captivated by the openness of stride
I noticed people were looking
What was it that I communicated?
It was just an ordinary dress
In the palest and subtlest of greens.


I still have the dress somewhere.

Love Mary

And there it was at the top of her heart
Filling all the chambers where she lived
Those days in the war when emptiness
Called everyday reminding the beating
That it had nothing to do but to wait.

And it never came that  peacefulness
Carried in the pocket of her dress
With the flower stem of lavender
And a peach stone of foreign hope
That just soon the sun would open.

Love Mary ***

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 x
Thank you to Ian my Gardener

On the longest road was our home
At the top where the road flops
Bending slightly to the east
From pebbledash to brick clad
This bend left our sight undone
Could not see when Mum did come
Round the corner in her coat
Carrying all the food she'd bought
Gentle corner I loved your curve
Gave us time to put away
Prepare ourselves for all to come
Especially the comfort of our Mum.

Love Mary **

The waves tickled the beach with their coming
Just on the turn, gathering shells and shingle
The sand was sloppy, waterlogged,
You watched me skip along the bay
A brief honeymoon in a homemade wedding dress
With the bouquet of pink roses in a guest room vase
They must have surmised our new status
I felt surprisingly shy.


Love Mary **

I feel your pain trickling down my neck
Catching the crevices in my neck folds
Placing a hand where it hurts the most
I know you did, you tried and you cried.

Love Mary xxxxx

Some gals just want men to give them babies
And clean the gutters.




Love Mary xxxx

I remember all those places
Where I felt you loved me
Sometimes quietly with
Insignificance
As an ordinary day began
At the beginning of spring.

I remember my passion for you
And how you loved it
Over and over again
Joining our sweet bodies
United in our bed
And the after sleep of cats.

I remember your reading to me
In soft tones the story I loved
Sitting closeness in the heart
Feeling your hair on my face
Watching the pages turn
Always an unfolding touch.

I remember you loving me
The way I wanted to be loved
In all the places that I needed
With every part of your being
This was a great love
Never taken for granted.

Love Mary ***

Love filling a blank page
What it says at the end of its days
Is what two people made of it.

Love Mary x

Between ‘Call the midwife’
And ‘Dark materials’
Lies my world
A world of reality.

Inhabited by great empathy
But mostly indifference,
Cruelty, liars and vacuous space.

It, this world, has been deteriorating
Continuously for thousands of years
Through greed, selfishness and destruction.

If tomorrow ever rescuers the day
Let it be bright with love and sorrow
And children play in the long grass.

Love Mary **