Down in the field where the dandelions grow
I took off my knickers and away did flow
Up on the hillside with a swish of my hat
Caught Cabbage White butterflies doing that.

Love Mary x

She gathered her gloves from top bookcase
Those fingerless ones knitted by a friend in
Grey and blue, slidding them along the rail
To keep her hands clean and warm, cabled.

Love Mary ***

By the time I got to see him
He was an old man grey hair
Thinly combed across his head
Still loquacious, bending over
Stewed apples gathered from
A wind swept garden of falls.

A proud collector of knowledge
Across boundaries and wisdom
Stretching age ‘youthfully ‘at gate,
City centre and poetry recitals  
With copies of books for selling.

Love Maryxxx

Brightest of the Spring blossoms
That in front of my window fill
These days with cascades of rosettes
On leaves like satin silk
And if I had within my strength
I would polish each and every one
So a mirror might be cast
Reflecting the noon day sun.
My Rose Red and Snow White
Bear out friendship's time
Sharing together what weather's blow
From raindrops to icey winds
And as April does appear
You once more turn to green
I look forward to the new shoots
Awaiting to be seen.


Love Mary x

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 **

I never knew
Or asked the questions
When young enough
To change fate.

Just kept blowing
Out the candles
In their frilled holders
Until all was too late.

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 ***

Can you feel the place where I got off?
It was in a bookcase between two others
That spoke to me of a sadness carried
Tucked warmly away
So it gave protection.
You can only be hurt once
After that a switch turns down
And though you may hear the words
It is just a passing nod
And a picking up of skirts
Can you feel the place where I got off?

Love Mary x

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

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

I lost you at the corner
As I turned round to go
The little child with me
Had simply flown
Down I laid my basket
Carrying my heart
Bravely searched
The pathways
Before it got dark;
Then like a wonder
I saw your shining trace
Tugged you up close to me
Kissed and kissed your face.

Love Mary x

So here I am like a cartwheel
With the green dress today
As my hands touch the pavement
And my legs arc away
Then I float through the skyline
Reach the ground and display
All the joy of a tightrope walker
Upside down on a Summer's day.

Love Mary **

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 **

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

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

A little girl sat at breakfast eating
Her cheerios with a straw
She commented about all things
In her upsy downsy voice
The world seemed so colourful
As she smiled at her sock animals
And the plastic mammoth by her plate.

She was nearly always late for school
As there was just too much to say
But daddy and her usually made it
Evelyn loved school but was equally
Happy at home with her family
She drew beautifully images of animals
From a television programme, it helped,
They were so friendly with big eyes.
She was an unusual four year old.

Love Grandma  Mary ***

See branch oh cherry blossom ripe
Below Payne’s haunted sky of grey
In mornings rain dripped clouds on high
The pink now wetted held to bough.

Love Mary x

I think of this bench
In the shade of two small trees,
Surrounded by roses,
And in Winter their thorns
Spike the damp earth.

How will it be years hence,
When children sit
And women knit,
Some at lunch, finding
Peace looking at the sky.

I put it there for you and you and you
So that its comforting presence
Is a reminder of our days
And your tomorrows
In this garden I loved.

Love Mary xxxx

Enter down concrete steps
To the basement flat
Iron railings
Black door
Red painted hall
Condensation on the floor.

Two up, two down
The basement flat
Scrunched together
Back to back
Three sisters, mum and dad
Then the brothers quickly had.

Grandad's face always stern
Impeccably dressed
In shirt and vest
Roast dinners
were the best
Plates on a dresser rest.

Out the back a concrete patch
To play a cricket bat
Across from that
These tenement stacks
Elm trees give a screen
To this suffocating scene.

Street life was the choice
It gave freedom a voice
The boys gathered out late
Playing football with their mates
Fathers called from indoors
Time to stop that ****** noise.

A mile or so stood the hoards
Of Wormwood Scrubs' prison floors
Then there was the track
White City and greyhound backs
Chelsea loved by all the boys
Arsenal just upped their score.

The skyline filled with birds
The trains go rattling by
And yet from this place
My father took himself a pace
Up the street and far away
On a bright and sunny day.

Mary x

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.

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

Come toddle here your hands stretched out
With chocolate mouse and lemon squash
You are my candy, sugar babe
Arrived at forty in a hurricane
But if love can spin a web
You little darling got in my head.

Love Grandma xxxx

A woman walks to her post office
In her hand she holds a parcel
In the parcel there is a present
The present is for a far off friend.

On the way open Winter jasmine
Its flowers and bud bright lemon
Celebrate in the spruce green leaf
A nativity scene stands on a shelf.

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

The hall made for singing on Sundays
Filled with pink leggings and tutu skirts
And an old piano in the corner
Watching a flurry of signets point.

Late to start, us being poor, but anyway
You wanted to try and both were good
I wanted a ballerina in the family
And the hour passed fast and costly.

When one of you, after university, took up
A position at Sadlers Wells in the offices,
You got cheap tickets and we all went
At Christmas, sitting in the stalls, aglow.

Love Mary x

She lost her son did my friend Pam
Took her with him in his arms
His possessions in the garden shed
His words and gestures in her head.

Met her often we’d talk of him
How handsome the boy, clever within
She spent her days collecting litter
Bits of silver paper from the gutter.

Went to Art school to sooth her pain
Painted the same picture over again
Found in an image reflected in glass
That boy, her life, in circles of light.

For Pam and Stephen.
Love Mary x

Oh let this sun filled day
With flower head’s opening
And the grassy green ring
A circumference of circle
Perimetering the brim.

Just before leaving when
Inspiration can come in
This day of my mortality
The eternity is speechless
Under flow of bird’s wing.

Love Mary x

Bought from Clements on a cold afternoon
A coachbuilt navy Silvercross pram
For my third and beautiful little lamb
And when she was born at six pounds thirteen
I wrapped her tight and placed her inside
She had long black hair brushed in a peak
And more lovelier a sight could not be reached
And destiny played out its days and more lovelier
She became each day and now at forty- four
Has four to love and tender and put in seats of cars
Not gigantic coachbuilt stars.

Love Mummy ***

I really did not know what they meant
Standing on the outside
Like nothing was of importance
Other than the coming along
The day splattered with rain
Spreading the newly bared earth
The weeded area with breathing
And the afternoon sprang tears
While **** Robin
Sang his song.

Summer has arrived,
I see you dancing in the rain
Outside a Soho Bar
Gorgeous woman
Humour sharp as ice
Heels longer than cocktail sticks;
It's five  in the morning
And your shopping
Food to start the day.
The train rattles
Jangling the wrist bands
You uncross your legs
Unlatch the carriage door
The children  are dressing
Bags scatter the worktops
You grab two hands
To walk the half mile
To school.


Love Mum **

Summer has arrived I see you dancing
Outside a soho bar, gorgeous woman
Humour sharp as ice, heels longer than
Cocktail sticks.

It is five is in the morning and you
Are shopping, food to start the day
The train rattles, jangling the wrist bands.
You uncross your legs, unlatch the door.

The children are dressing, bags scatter the
Work tops. You grab two hands
To walk the two miles to school.

Love Mum

These poems gathered together in
Harmony are my life in pictures
The thoughts, blessings, memories
Hours of pain and suffering put aside
For the love of those most dear and
Others new to me whom I share my heart
For I have not travelled alone on cold nights.

Love you all Mary **

From leafy lane emerging into stroll
Along dusty track to terminate
In plastic buckets and spades
Colourful beach sandels displayed
And the smell of cheap meals and coffee.
In front the glistening sea resting far out
On golden plains of sand as it
Waits for its turning to bring in
Those lost shoes and silver foil ships.

Midday rays melt the rubber rings
And lilos tossed against catamarans
Beach hut families steam percolators
Stretching green striped towels in rows
Along the recast promenade.
Curved into a cove of quietness
The beach hides
Under a shelf of chalk stacked grass
The distinguished headland point.

Love Mary x

He collects his bag
Catches the bus
Returning with two items
From town centre.

Tomorrow; gardener,
Lady sort.
First gardener in fifty years
Mowing grass, bush cutting.

He wonders how far
He has come after that call
Stating changes
The dust settles slowly.

Love Mary xxxx

Wild morning glory
Ties the world in knots
Pigweed or Aramanth
Appears in late Spring.

A ****, simply
a plant,
A long term survivor
A carrier of germination.
Dandelion and Burdock.
Marshmallow and nettle,
Purslane, clover and Mellow.
Eating weeds,why not!

Love Mary ***

You may be born in some unsightly shed,
Or in a hospital bed,
On the floor on all fours,
Wanted, planned and loved,
A wicker cradle for your bed,
A mistaken holiday plan,
Left in a station van,
Fed with a tube
Or breast, if best,
Cuddled, coiled
Wrapped in sheets,
But however it is
You are complete.


With love to all new babies.
Mary ***

I remember the hatefulness
Resting between corridors
Watching as doors opened
Waiting to pounce, suddenly,
On someone with mousey hair
Who was studious and square.

The undercurrents ran like
Tram lines, intersecting,
Infecting others with mockery
The pulling of hair, kick on shin
I feared break with its milk stains
And so many broken bottles.

My good looks saved me the bully
As I was seen as an asset to be used
A symmetrical form unnoticed
As I hurried past the stair wells
Hoping today it would remain quiet
Today, I think of Margaret Atwood .

Connie was born a lady
She knew what to wear
Opened up her wardrobe
Stood and quietly stared
Loved the frilly dresses
And the ones with butterflies
What she put on
Was always a surprise
In her silver slippers
And slides in her hair
Connie was ready
To go anywhere.

Thought it might be nice
To go out twice
As the day was sunny
She'd go with her Mummy
Up to the shops
To buy some new socks
White fluffy ones
with ducks at the top
Then a pair of shoes
Pink ones will do
Go with her smock
With the lollipop.

Connie was a lady
She played ladies' games
Never catch Connie
Out in the rain
Liked to dress her dollies
In ribbons and lace
Hand knitted dresses
Slipped over the face
Had a row of shoes
So dolly could choose
Turquoise boots
with high heels too.

How I love dear Connie
We have lots to do
Playing with our dollies
And taking them
To the zoo.

Love to Connie from Grandma xxxxx

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 ***

I think I’ll call her Griselda or Florentine of the sea
She is lovelier than a star fish with eyes of green
And hair twists around this, brown ringlet, queen
Constance of graciousness a madamoiselle’s dream
Mood matches her dresses, bohemian with a spark
And nothing deters that subterranean love heart.

Love Grandma to Connie ***

Holiday were always spent at The Isle Of Wight
Its sandy, long beaches ideal for building castles
Floating in the shallows of the sea
Safe from rapid currents and rocky projections
It was without much tourism and low priced.

Year after year we returned to the same spots
The same  walks and the same unpredictable
Weather.
At shop counters the assistants did not change
Only the hotel owners, running at a loss the previous year.

My parents bungalow situated near to Totland bay
Overlooking field filled countryside, narrow lanes
With the sea salt reaching noses on windy days.
It was a paradise of simple meals, memories
And long conversation of the regularity of things.

Intertwined were the years of my own childhood
Playing with my brother on chalet steps as
My parents prepared the day's sandwiches
And those, taking my four across the Solent
For annual holidays visiting of grandparents.

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 ***

Tearing thorns from coat
I found hidden amongst
The winter fabric a broach
Slightly mellowed by age
And the stone a shiny blue.

No one knew its origin outside
An old cigarette tin with rust
And the smell of cough candies
That belonged to a mother’s love
Returning home I was not alone.

Love Mary **

I could have been so much more
One of those girls who was seen on stage
Dancing the red lipstick off the page
Chasing sparks out the window of love
But I died earlier than time allowed.
So goodbye..


Love Mary xxxxx

As one follows the coast line round
Dipping in and out of the coves
Floating flat out for a mile or two
Swimming back under the night sky
What is it of importance, something obtained
That may have changed the course of another
Be held onto as daylight fades.

Ones children are our lessons learnt at a cost
Remembered and cherished, found and lost
They show us who we are, the good and the bad
And take with gratitude the best that we have.
Four gold sovereigns placed in a line from
Each I carry sixpences that helped make life shine
In the coves find some oddments to go on a shelf.

Mary ***

I struggle to pull the bed covers
In this little room of walls
Surrounded by images
That touch my soul
And days and hours
And folds.


Its been coming a long time
The whispering in the dark
The jackal on the road
The night shadow
And the lark
Singing.

Love Mary ***

Down at Portleven where the harbour
Watches
Day in, day out, filling with small craft
I sit in the sunshine
Legs crossed and sketch
These rocking cradles
Sleeping.
Blue netting tangles the edges with orange buoys
Draping the nursery in a softening
Becoming gentle rhymes
The air sits still
And today my drawings
Hang on a wall.

Love Mary x.

Cranberry and Sickert.

Cranberry the caterpillar and Sickert the snail,
Went for an adventure in the woodlands one day,
It was early Summer and the leaves bright green,
The trees swaying, gently, in the light , warm breeze.
When out of nowhere they saw a girl
Blonde as sunshine ,with clips in her hair,
They stopped to ask the girl her name
And very quietly she did explain,
I am Evelyn from fox-moor  way and here is my sister with whom I play.

They all gathered sticks and built a house,
It took a long time , they did not rush.
And then there was time for tea, and juicy leaves for Cranberry,
Evelyn told them all her news, her days at playgroup and the zoo.
At six o'clock it was time to go , journey backwards to find their homes.
It had been a special day, to find Evelyn and Florence in the woods that way.

Love Grandma Mary ***

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 **

If I ever stood at the bottom
I got no answers
If I went to the highest
I got no answers
I met  with cruelty,
Indifference,
The dregs of human reasoning
Spread out on a conference table
To be dissected,
So the verdict
Went to the powerful
And the frail
Dropped in a ditch
To be washed by ***** rain.

Love Mary x