Taking to the marshes
Holding my Brueghel
Book
His pictures show
Cruelty and indifference
I love him for that
For in cruelty is all
That goodness intended,
Gone bad
Just like a Chardin Apple
So in the painting
‘The fall of Icarus’,
Where all around there is
Indifference
We know
That this may have been us
Or may happen to us
When no one looked or cared.

And in ‘Hunters in the snow’,
The cart ran over
The girl went hungry
While others fun themselves
Ate and made merry
Others died from want.

In the marshes
They found him
Swept up from
The sea.


Love Mary xxx2018 december

The words have missing letters
Taken from my name
Idiosyncratic patterns,
And here and there
These spaces
You remember
And complete
Putting them back together
Making the word neat.

But these missing letters
Like keys that no longer play
On our old piano
Show that I stayed,
Shared with you a life
Reflected in the genes
But mostly the wonder
Of the world that
I dreamed.

Love Mary ***

After the parting
They burnt the letters
Sacks and bags
Envelopes and folders
No one wanted to read
The significance inside.

I slid down the side
Of the velvetine covered bed
And sat amongst my treasures
On a brown wooden floor
If tears could break a vase
Mine would all be shattered.

Love Mary **

By a running stream I watched
As the sparrow pecked the stones
Feet gave a little splash
As the weeds gathered moss
On the half yellow dash.

Love Mary ***

Evolution set us on the wrong path
Being about the survival of the fit.
Which means shortage crucifies
Those who are disadvantaged,
We can never become wholesome.

To evolve the good in us
Many try for justice but usually
Regardless of their own decline.
Most don’t realise the guilt cut,
So much is just genetic code.

This is the lesson humankind comes to
Learn on the presipise of its own demise
But in reality it has always been too late.
Lonely, desolate it creeps along the beach
Cradling the possessions it collected in life.

Love Mary x

Where ever the walk went
You took me
Carried me home on your shoulders
Showed me a newness bright
We picked up the remains
Of each day
Placing them in a memory
And I loved you father
A love that was so safe
That included me
Every mile of you.

Love Mary x

I love you
Probably people love you more than you will ever know,
Probably,
You know what you are like
Thinking people don’t care,
Silly Billy,
Still fighting aren’t you?
Keep fighting, big brave man.

Straight and crooked thinking
Where did it all begin
A history of falsehoods
Lies continually begin.

Sad that we are no better
In 2019, Brexit just a shambles
Takes all the politicians time
A house full of fallacious crimes.

Love Mary **

The blue glazed, cream jug,
Stood on a kitchen shelf,
Surrounded by loves' lessons,
For hoarding and cherishing,
Both what had been found,
And what had been given.
It was the only item of any fiscal value,
Picked for its classical simplicity,
Its rich colbalt colouring,
A wedding or anniversary gift,
From an art valuing relative.
It was all that was taken
When clearing the bungalow.

Love Mary ***

Love to my dear mother and father
Who lived a life of gentle simplicity
And reflective intellect. I miss you both.
Your daughter Mary ***

Falling about in a shamble of giggles
As the quiver tipped her inside,
The Art Master had passed by
She was interrupted.

Taking the path next to the library
Where students poured out
Their sorrows over dissertations
In the Summer heat.

It had come to her slowly this
Sense of embarrassment
Unable to communicate with fluency
Or look into blue eyes.

Love Mary

Treasures layed out on a bed
On a rainy day staying indoors
Opening a lidded Formica box
Faceted stones glinted before.

From broaches now broken, undone
Sorted into colours, spectrum through
Golden backed pyramids of glass
All spread out in straight rows.

Love Mary x

In a shadow down the lane
Stands a tree near to home
Where the truth hushes its
Heart to the cosy comforts
Where buttons close words.

Love Mary ***

The man and boy meet the mists
Between hawthorn hedges thorn
Fellow travellers on the wet road
Grandfather and grandson hold
Hands and feel the excitement of
This December gaily trudge along.

Love Mary ***

Sometimes we never know a person
Who filled our lives without a breath
Yet made a heart leap
And a mind yearn.

In sepia and postcard size
A professional portrait
Backed on thin card
In a blue album she sat.

Elphin faced just more than thirty
A baby in Christening gown,
Sleepy eyed, stretched across her knee
The family Moonstone upon her chest.

Opal, oval semi precious stone
Set in golden filigree leaf
Falling from a fine nine carat chain
As my mother looked up to smile.

Love Mary ***

Sometimes one is just too old
Or too tired and Christmas
Is unwanted cheer
Sadly this is me
This year.


Buying for others is still fun
But cards break my heart
In them I need to explain
My pain
Not to blame.

Love Mary

Dotty was a beautifully coloured dragonfly with four wings
And a  long slender body,
She was made by Evelyn on the coldest day of the year
When the ground lay under two inches of snow
And a southerly wind blew flurry flakes of whiteness
Into faces and down fronts of coats.

All the way home Evelyn held on to Dotty
Protecting her from the bad weather,
Until she was safely on the kitchen table.
When you make things your heart wants
To share so Evelyn thought of her Grandma
Who she knew would just love to see Dotty.

Now in 2018 there is FaceTime a magical device
Allowing one to speak and see pictures of
One's family and friends,
So Evelyn asked her daddy if she could
Show Dotty to Grandma.


Grandma heard this ringing in her room
Coming from her iPad.
Who can that be she thought and went to see?
And there was Evelyn with Dotty
" I wanted to show you my dragonfly
That I made at playgroup this morning".

Well Dotty was beautiful with her painted wings
And Evelyn flew her round the room for
Grandma to see.
This made Grandma so happy and they both laughed
And talked and then Evelyn showed her Bagpus on her
Own iPad and Grandma and Evelyn both sang
The mice song.

It was only a short call and soon time to say goodbye
Evelyn said "you have made me very happy "
And Grandma smiled in her heart all day.

Love Mary ***

Along the path walked Bluebell
Her face a rosy glow
She marched like a soldier boy
Going to a show.

On her head golden curls
She wore a bright red coat
And happiness lay all about
Where the little child dwelt.

Love Grandma xxxx

By the latch gate he stood
Dressed in striped suit, why?
Someone passed by but who?
He never, ever knew.

Love Mary x

The tree widened in front of my eyes
Covered itself in green ivy leaves
Fingers grew out from the stump top
Up it went to the sky as in Fangorn
The fantasy wood in Tolkien.

I stood at the foot looking upwards
And thinking, if I climbed it in my
Clark’s sandels, what would I find?
So off I went, slowly, holding tightly
To the spiral stems of green...

Love Mary ***

Oh Lisa daughter of the fallen,
Come hither so I may bless you
For what you give with your
Carers’ hands and gentle smile
Is greater than imaginable.

I thank you with my frail heart
And my thin hand and voice
You came to me on Easter Sunday
And again on Easter Monday
Bringing your gifts.

Love Mary

Evelyn’s first year at school.

Evelyn sits her pony tail *******
She reads the words on the walls
Hold hands, a friend’s small hand
The cuff of her red cardigan soft
Playtime is outside , warm today
Cakes and orange with an apple
She turns her head to a listening
Where a story stretches out time
About rabbits and mice and love
Evelyn loves school, it is a home.

Love Grandma ***

If man in depth falls short
And wisdom can’t ride his stride
To doom and decay we race
A world of broken days unfold.

Love Mary x

My friend dressed in grey
A round neck jumper rests
His head on the armchair
Of years and sleeps briefly.

He is my reaper of hours
Gathering in the last joys
Folded head behind that
Soft embrace of his hand.

Love Mary ***

The cast iron cot frame stood in the garden
At the top left and held the relics of blue
Unleaded paint used to cover a girlish pink
The mattress disintegrated it contained plants
Mother’s cuttings from an extensive garden.

The girl now eleven and very thin
Sat in a homemade embroidered skirt
And played with her unbraided hair
Her feet neatly together like a doll
A teenage doll from The Pedigree range.

The beginning of ******* were forming
And insecurities and dissatisfaction open
That day in the sun with cousin Hilary
Two different specimens of womanhood
I only really knew her a short time .

Love Mary ***

The orange leaves on viridian  
Dripping trails of season shade
Tangerine carpet sweeps path
Roads runs on a white stripe.


Oh such making of nature in change
Birds find mellow mist on their wing
And firecrackers zoom towards skies
Where the bonfires explode and burn.

Love Mary ***

Standing against a collection of silver birch trees
In her cream padded coat and pink trousers
She stared away from her sister
Who tried to ride her bike.

A wistful child who loved to draw and create
The bike was a Christmas present
She was a little scared being light of frame
Compared to the heavy frame of the bike.

Love Mary xxxx

The road of the White garden
Stretching down the side of the old brick wall
Where all the shrubs and plants were white
And cherries hung in clusters from the trees.

In my imagination I had returned
Bringing all my memories
The flowers, trees, birds, tea houses
The pretty playing children, lollies
Best dresses and shoes, skipping rope
My collection of dolls, ‘blueyes’, ‘Rosebud’
The ducks and swans, families, friends.
This was my childhood and here I will
Stay in the grounds of safety and beauty.

Life is short but the memories linger
Floating in the air, carrying scents of
Fragrances Of a time now gone.


Love Mary ***

Hard edged swimming pool
Costume stretched, still dry
Slowly lowering body to cold
Until shoulders were covered.

Let go of the bar, move away
Letting arms pull the weight
Legs rise to surface warmth
One, two, three lengths taken in.

Mother sits at the far end in sandals
Looking after bags, food and towels
Brother jumps in splashing my hair
Lunch is sandwich, apple, cake and
Mum.

Love daughter Mary ***

My poems are my background
They are my gender and race,
My temperament in the evening,
My breath on a steamed glass,
They start with me as I rose,
Tiny and dreamy in the night,
Pattering barefoot,
Down a sunny path.

They are my parents and brother,
The children I gave birth,
Moonlight on a river,
A cuddle in the church,
My poems tell you more,
Than any photograph,
They are wider and deeper,
Than a narrative verse.

Love Mary ***

Inspired by the Slam poets 2017

Under the eye of love we swing
Tracking the pendulum’s arc
The chains keep one fixated
The metal links, that kind.

Love Mum ***

So you think your beautiful
He told you so,
But you never believed these words
Oh no.
He said you were intelligent too,
But you had few words to show it through,
And by his side you looked so small
And age gap six years or more,
But in the dark no one could see
And thé differences didn't matter
Just you and me.

Love Mary ***

Along an avenue of trees
In a nearby park
Sat a young woman,
She held a camera
Inside her life
For that day.

A painfully lived life
Carefully considered
Captured in images
Of colourful trees
Sharing similarities
Of beauty.

Love Mary x

The black cloud burst the horizon
spilling a deluge of ominous hate
The evil of nations, of people
And organisations, and of arrogance.

It scraped and swamped the rivers
Cascading each venomous paw
As it moved the land to death
The destruction of life crunched.

And Wendy just sat on the sand
Wearing her hand knitted gloves,
Blue, made by a loving friend
Then she raised herself and flew.

Love Mary ***

I saw the Silver swan
Open her wings, glistening
On the top of a white stage
It was noble, stately, nightly
And the stage a circular pond
Let me flow softly, smoothly
Watching the Silver swan glide
Mysterious, beautiful
Silver swan I will swim to you
For with you I am entranced
Mounting a lovelet of songs
Under a starry sky.


Love Mary

Evelyn came today
Only a short stay
On her way to Stroud
Spent a couple of hours.

Such a joy to see her face
Lighten up the whole place
Fascinated by her toys
Cheeky grin for all to win.

Gentle careful little girl
As she explores the world
Looks at every detailed trace
Of the objects neatly placed.

Filled with sunshine in her smile
The Beauty of a Summer's flower
As I whisper in you ear
You melt like sugar drops
Turn you face and snuggle in
I love  you sweet Evelyn.


Love Grandma ***

Your walking right out of my life
Taking that head of bubbly curls
And a floaty smocked dress to be
Somewhere I can’t see in an ocean.

Where protocol and personalities
My arms to enfold were not meant
But I will ache inside and not hide
Till together all our hours are spent.

Never touch the ground my flower
Mummy bears witness to the days
She will catch gleaming sunbeams
On the endings of wooden spoons.

Love Grandma ***

Forgive me soldier, I never knew
How your life was wasted in such
Tragic tears
Your youth by the roadside just slipped away
Your beauty went with you
Your poetry too.

Born to be famous with beautiful
Words
Layed out in notebooks and on
Paper scrolls.
Never married, no children born
But I have your poetry in my drawer.

Love Mary

She sits upon her mother’s knee
Her father’s off to see
All the latest drinking crews
In Windsor and Buckeroo.

The last of little darlings
In a line of brown haired beautés
Bluebell who follows the stars
While sunshine hits the hours.

What does a mother do
When daddy’s forgotten
The rent is due and baby
Blue needs a cuddle too.

Love Grandma **

Hello swans with your brown signets
On the near edges where the weeds blend
And the green meets the trusted stoney bed
You frighten a little with those huge wings
The strength to **** if fear struck an orange eye.

The ducks and drakes trailing fluffy ducklings
As they swim back to the safety of the reed bed.


Love Mary

Standing on this wintery day of branches in May
Take from your mark a measurement between
Thumb and brush
And in proportion place it down
On canvas neatly primed
To pinpoint those places sound
The sky and the ground .
Slowly as each day allows
Measuring, a steady streak
Of edgily painted parts
The picture to complete.

Love Mary

Standing by the fridge
We could see the roses
In a flower bed
Beneath the kitchen window.

We took to tidying
The cupboard, together,
Where the contents had grown
Hard and dusty with time.

The roses were transplanted
From a London home
Finding leaving her garden sad
So carried them with her in a van.

We made pizzas for tea
Using a simple base recipe
Adding tomatoes and chives
Topped with grated cheese.

In the flower bed the three
Roses, fed, pruned and watered
Cleared of greenfly with soapy water
Flourished and bloomed in the sun.


Love Mary for her mother Grace Westbrook

In May the tree has liliaceous buds
And places at the tips a flower
With fluted candelabra frills
To light the wake time evening hours
A touch so close to kiss the sky
And violet bright against the blue.

Love Mary **

Where the tops of the trees
Have been chopped
The looking down
Flows easily along.

Love Mary ***

Just big enough for Sundays was Cyril
In his grey shirt and v neck sweater
Following his wife up the road, closely,
He helped carry the shopping from the red bus
The few minutes walk home;
Then as it was Sunday, chicken roast
Then meringue, fruit and cream.

The sitting room was comfy
With two brown velour chairs
Cyril and Joyce sat together
One in each chair to watch the box.

Love Mary ***

Youth clatters itself on tomorrow’s hopes
Winding wistfully hair on cobweb dream
More beautiful the pathway widens heart
And thé fluttering bee falling nectar leave.

Oh pretty one pick up your dancing skirts
And find that arm around a narrow waist
He will sing you in the Summer nightings
And you will find the damson juice sweet.

Love Mary **

And I know you
In my flowery nightgown
On your feet I do stand
We climb together
The stairway
And my hair falls
All around.

Oh such beauty is this love
Of a mother for her child
As she bends just to kiss her
Turn the light off at the wall.

For what is treasured
In the moment
Will ever remain
Of our closeness
Mother and daughter
A joyous refrain.



Love Mary ***

Penguin and Platypus

Penguin and Platypus put  on their hats and coats,
Took the train to Manchester to find themselves a goat,
Found themselves, in the middle, of an orchestra playing Bach.
Asked to join the fiddlers, to give them a second chance.

After the rain clouds dropped in for tea,
Decided that the goat was now nowhere to be seen,
Inside  Lyons Corner  House had hot chocolate and cream.
Caught the train back to Stroud,
And ran home across the green.

For Evelyn and all those who are gorgeously mad.

Love Grandma ***

The little girl with the mop of hair
Floated onto her chair to eat from
Her dolphin bowl the milky cereal
And chewey red vitamin pill.

It was still dull outside and the room
Grey colour. She had to get dressed
For school. Put on her school items.
It took a long time to get ready.

Evelyn talked all through breakfast
So the Cheerios went down slowly
Then to the dressing task for school
Off came her pyjamas with a kick
On went knickers , socks and shirt
Next grey pinafore and red cardigan
She was ready only shoes and coat
A pink light coat as it was Springtime
Warm and blossoms on the trees.

Daddy held hands with Evelyn
As they passed the swing park
The sheds and fields on the way to school
And they talked about all the things
They could imagine about this new day.

Love Grandma xxxx

The boat was moored
In a place in Norfolk
When Summer came
It was renovated
Ready as were the broads
For the sunny season
And trips taking places
Quietly,quaintly.

A favourite spot  
To visit and find surprises
A boat of singular, solidarity
Splendouredly
Painted in the colour
Of a great philosophy.

Love Mary ***

Love Mary ***

Corruption is a silly voice
Shiny with its own virtue
Nebulous, brimming gall
It thinks clever, dumb thing.


And when open, the pen slips
Onto flippant shoes, smiling,
And hands cradle evil on line
This person is hard to define.

Love Mary **