Evelyn

I see you as if for the first time ,
Under that shock of blonde hair ,
Hiding behind your small hand ,
Pretending not to be shy.

Eyes blue as sapphire gems ,
Sparkle in the afternoon light.
I feel your quiet thinking
Filling the space with words.

You hear our conversation,
And stay inside to explore.
But I know you are listening
Making sense of this world .

Lots of love from Grandma ***

‘It will get colder than this’, said He,
On a rainy late August afternoon.
Knowing that would not matter
I thought of him alone in his chair.

So sad I was but not for me, now,
I had known for such a long time
And the pain spreads itself along
But thinking him, singular, alone.

I no longer able to comfort him
Or stroke his hair’s silver thread
And watch a finger on keyboard
This is unbearable priceless love.

Love Mary x

After the snow came
You stopped loving me
Disappearing up the hillside
Fading into shadows
Cast by the trees
It was a protection
From the gradual
Separation to come
I knew it was fear
That held you
When it should
Have been me.

Out in the garden is the place to be
Cutting and pruning the old oak tree
Edging the grass to where it should be
Hoping the sunshine will again be me.


Love Mary

Never found the purple
Through all the years of searching
So what was started remained incomplete
Stashed away in hope that maybe
Recovery would mend broken hearts
Replenish the solitary dream
And bring warmth to those
Forgotten and bereft.

Love Mary

In purple checked dresses we are confronted
Behind a piano sits ‘Miss Creak’ head of house
She has one bad eye, unfixable from childhood
But plays beautifully perched on an oakwood
And fabric stool. This is our secondary school.

On the wall above the piano is a framed print
‘Madonna of the Meadows’ by the artist Bellini
I pushed a drawing of a couple intertwining
Under ‘her’ door knowing she never would have
But a boy may have felt affection for ‘that’ affliction.

Here we all ate meals, did fashion shows and sang
I was glad my dress was purple not orange or red
Went better with my blue eyes and blonde hair
The rest of the school diveded into coloured checks
To represent Shakespearean female characters.

Just opened in Wandsworth a new comprehensive
Serving all abilities, behaviours and nationalities
Cordelia, Beatrice, Juliet, Katharine,
Portia, Rosalind, Olivia, Viola a rather unsuitable
Vision for such an uptake of adolescent froth.

Miss Creak was, kindly, I wish I had always been.

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




Love Mary xxxx

When feet needed no support and found brambles fun
Slid down the ravines in the local park
Forested for nuts, collected leaves to float under bridges
The stream fresh with fish.

Those hours of sunlight when time ran out energy's burst
Slipping into tomorrow with new adventures
The heart beating its chest.
For only now in my infirmity
Can I see how the time sang
And was mine for a while.


Love Mary **

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

Beautiful black girls
With their fuzzie hair
Arms in abundance
Rich golden words
Oh how they give
Speaking of mandkind
Let me dance with you
Our knees pat and beat
Fingers tough together
Then the music speaks.

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 ***

Evelyn floated in today wearing her yellow frock,
She looked like a daffodil being blonde on top,
Could not wait to see her toys the ones she left
behind,
Stones and shells and pretty gems small hands
Did find.
Played as perfectly as any child, her imagination
Flowed,
Put the little people in a boat and sent them
Off to row,
Rabbit jumped in, too, to join the happy throng,
Thank you sweet Evelyn for your merry song.


Love Grandma ***

Sitting round the radio,
We would listen to the play,
Broadcast every Saturday,
In the evening with lights low,
Wrapped in our blankets,
All snug and warm,
Sharing so many stories,
Of lives both great and small.

Those days I remember,
For the closeness that we felt,
Our little family, never remote;
'The Deep Blue Sea',staying behind,
For its impact, of a solitary kind.
Nothing like the radio to let the eye find,
Pictures in the imagination,
Are the very best kind.

Love Mary ***

Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain
On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me
Remembering again that I shall die
And neither hear the rain nor give it thanks
For washing me cleaner than I have been
Since I was born into this solitude.
Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon:
But here I pray that none whom once I loved
Is dying to-night or lying still awake
Solitary, listening to the rain,
Either in pain or thus in sympathy
Helpless among the living and the dead,
Like a cold water among broken reeds,
Myriads of broken reeds all still and stiff,
Like me who have no love which this wild rain
Has not dissolved except the love of death,
If love it be towards what is perfect and
Cannot, the tempest tells me, disappoint.

When things are hyperthetical
It is the realisation that all
Can only be gained through
The rawness of the clasping
Of experience in the poetry
That is gleamed in our words.

Love Mary ***

If I was to wear a bikini
Red and orange it would be
With elastic underneath my chest
And below my waist certainly.

I’d pretend the settee was a diving board
And the armchair a ship on the seas
And travel up and down the stairs
With my long seaweed coloured hair.

Love to Constance from Grandma

Xxxxx

Redoing the stitches
Did not mend the wound.

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 **

There was silence at the station
The waves crawled up the beach
The angels blew their trumpets
The seagulls gathered in heaps.

One hundred and one jellyfish
Spreading out in golden bands
And a line of iced cream cones
Danced along the yellow sands.

Love Mary xxxx

Today lent itself to lending
Borrowed number
One hundred and four
The care carrying gardener.

Now the Robbina is robbed
Of half its branches
The grass a carpet
Of strewn lances.

And Rosalind
The pretty repaint
Sits on the shelf
And smiles.

Love Mary **

You said, "thank you",
I said, " it's ok".

I had no valentines card
To give you
So I made you one
From an Ann Cockerill
Advertisement painting
Of a *** of Spring flowers
And wrote on it
In my poor hand
Love you

Pinky Woo **

Those knees touched the edge of my skirt
That one my mother made with elastic
And an embroidered trim in blue gabardine
They were pre -adolescent,
Bony and sculptured ******* sticks.

My hair fringed like a Rosebud doll
Bent under my mother’s wet fingers
To make it turn so to clip eyebrows
The rest lay like golden fleece on back
Of the broderie anglaise white blouse.

At eleven my underwear was still cotton
And socks white on Mary Jane shoes
I said little and hugged my many dolls
Loved best to stroke our black and white cat
And roll about to the sound of The Beatles.

Love Mary

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 ***

Malisa lived in a one room flat
In a tower block
Two beds and a mat
This was a truant day
Later the school board
Man showed my forged
Letter.

Love Mary

In these silent times,
When the sun drapes its softnes,
Across bough and branch,
And birds make ready for night;
There is gathering in houses,
Conversations around tea,
An hour of revival,
As the roads quieten,
Before the coming together,
Of another day.

The sea and its tides
That vanish and fade
Leaving acres of sand
Rippled and stripped

And when tide comes in
Filling bay to the brim
The people swim about
And the seagulls shout.

Love Mary x

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 ***

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 ***

The last of the Summer roses
were cut today
collecting the remaining flower heads
to keep in a vase
until colour fades
and petals fall.

Love Mary

The last of the Summer roses
were cut today
collecting the remaining flower heads
to keep in a vase
until colour fades
and petals fall.

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  ***

Your hands hardened by love
All the watering and wiping
Lifting loads up the steep stairs
The blue enamel bowl rounded
We are together stilled by ends
Tangled socks and the touches of
Long grey silver in the night.

Love from Mary xxxx

Ruby.

You are my Meadow Madonna,
Painted in front of a hill,
And Masaccio's Beauty,
Sitting upon a throne.
Bellini settled you in a landscape,
Drapery behind in gold;
Sassetta named you
'Mother of Humility',
As the baby held your gown.
But you, my beautiful, Ruby,
Carry your mother's child,
Your 8th sibling, a sister,
Proudly in your arms.

Love to Ruby and Bluebell
November 2017
Love Grandma ***

Ruby I can hear your helpfulness
In every word and breath
Quietly you look around
Find  a mission to make sound
Quided by an inner thought
To make the way less thwart
In your silent cares
The needs of others
Always there.
A pleasure to have around
A lovely girl good and sound
Understated child
You grow more beautiful
By the hour.




Love Grandma for Ruby

Small one, did you catch the ‘hello’ running
Between the Sycamore trees
And catch a winged seed head
As it floated down to breathe.

For the table is laid for supper
Garnished with all you gave
And I will catch you running
Running on quite brave.

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 ***

Unassuming beauty
A manner quiet as May
Gentle in her kindness
Grateful in her ways
A life lived in Caring
For those that she loves
Undemanding peace maker
Saviour to the cubs.

Love Grandma 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

When I die it is not for you to cry
For you gave me love and sanctified
All that I needed was given in the wait
On the garden seat where I knew you
So tussle not in the shadowy days
Just be with the things that I made.

Love Mary x

Mother put your sandals on and we shall walk a mile
Up the road and down again with you by my side
My feet will never falter, nor will my love ever fade
For what you have given me can never be replaced.



Love Mary to her Mother

The sun blisters the sky
Seagulls brittle the air
We scorch under towel
Watching the sea glisten.

This is a world with you
On the sand soaked love
West Whittering in May
The best always stayed.

Love Mary x

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 ***

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

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 ***

The trees were back to front
On the wrong side of the shade
Unbalanced in the garden
Reminded her of toytown
Where there was Noddy.

And those yellow bricks
Where she slid her fingers
Smooth arcs of space
To hide under
With big rabbit.


Love Mary x

Under Scarlet lay
A letter written on a special day
Written by a loving father
To the mother she once had.
Every night she dreamed a dream
About a lady on a movie screen
With a teardrop in her eye
Waving softly a sad goodbye.

For beautiful Tasha who died at 30
A day after Scarlet's birth.
Love Mary

Offer quietly the edges of your mind
Transversing memories in our time
For though we are saddened
We still shine
This lover of mine.

Love  Mary ** happy birthday husband for the 7 th September

Scraping before the rain.

Arriving on time ,
Before the rain had begun to fall,
Took the wire brush from his bag,
One to replace his father's,
Which now remained a garage relic
It's few bristles showing years of use.
Brought back memories,
That sound of scraping,
As he cleared the years debris.
So much learnt from that man,
Respected and loved by a son.
Now doing the same for others,
Scraping before the rain.

By Mary

Xxxx

With bruise I uplift all my sorrow
On scratch and pain now leaching out
And hurt so long no longer feel
Where tenderness caresses bone.

Love Mary x