Evelyn came back to me
Came over the ocean
Over the sea
Worried that she might forget
The daddy that she'd always had.

Saw her coming across the floor
Through the airport's open doors
First a smile and then a tear
Glad to have her daddy near.

Back at home it is just the same
Just as if she'd never roamed
On the settee made for three
Evelyn, Tasha, the cats and me .



Love Evelyn to her daddy .
From Grandma Mary ***

Found you at last! Under that ****** clock,
The hour passed,
What were you saying to me today
About our first date?
Never knew that stations
Had so many venues.
Anyway, my lad, I got there in the end
Found you looking grim,
Words did not begin
But I shy apologised
For being late, was my mistake;
Took your hand from your pocket
And we went out of the station
To a new destination
That lasted a life time.


For my Roger in his pink shirt,
And winklepickle shoes love from your Pinky Woo
Love You ***

It was a yellow background,
The sort of yellow that lets the light in,
Here and there were brown rubbings from furniture,
But the overall pattern of black arabesque stalks and couplets of flowers;
A spiky pattern , rather,
Not quite nice in some way.
I expect the rolls had been a reduction at sale time,
Those January trips with dad in the rain,
Arms laden and collars tightly round faces.

I would sit by the fire tracing the design,
Making up stories in the landscape;
That yellow wallpaper was my childhood,
My father's love, my mother's comforter,
I am sitting by it now just remembering.

Love Mary **

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

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

Love Mary x

Look at the cave paintings
Back in ancient times,
See how the shapes and colours,
Transform this world of ours.
Images tell a story
Not descriptions of life,
But metaphoric depiction
Abstract verse.

Picasso read their story
Knew of their words,
Found on his canvas
Flat and balanced to tell.
Seurat was a scientist
Applied this to his art,
Constructed like Picasso
A surface that did dance.

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 **

If I read you I might get you wrong
Resting eyes in the places that do not
Belong
Or awkward mistakes of vision;
From this I refrain
In order that I can love you
Without discrimination
Not knowing what it is
That you are
Floating beside me
My daily weathercock.


Love Mary **

She fell out of heaven
Like a Bottichelli angel
With a smile as appealing
As any Fragonard or
Boucher cherub.

Gliding across the floor
on padded feet
She decides to smile at all .

Love Grandma xxxx

I see you tot, you wobble a lot
On balancing legs along the edge
Holding chains you do it again
And kiss curls brush your face.

Love Grandma Mary x

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 ***

I want to tell you about our cat
He was big and fluffy, like a furry floor mat
Moved from a house a few yards away
Adopted us and came to stay
Our big, fluffy, tabby cat.


Use to sit on my mother's knee
Kept her warm as warm could be
He had big paws just like a lion
Could give you a scratch if got alarmed
Our big, fluffy, tabby cat.


And though we all loved him
His temperament was fierce
Kept those paws ready to pounce
Snarled and hissed given a chance
Careful we were of that cat.

One day we noticed Fluff could not see
Kept banging his head on the garden tree
No longer could find his dinner plate
Now we knew it was getting late
For our big, fluffy, tabby cat.


For days and days we all did cry
No warm patch where Fluffy resides
In the garden under some flowers
Where the Spring bulbs grew scented hours  
Lies our very dear, Fluffy cat.



Love Grandma Mary **
For all my grandchildren

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

Fooling about on a rattlesnake
The sand slipped quickly by
Nobody noticed the cliff face
Only the boy and I
With rings on our fingers
Wherever we Stroud.

Me and the jam and dodger
Were never really aloud.

Love Mary xxxxx

Sitting by the window watching the falling snow
Landing on your dustbin and the ground below.
Footsteps up the path look like a wiggly snake
Big ones and small ones and those ***** cats make.


Love Mary ***

The reeds in the river bed,
Know it is Spring,
There is lightness in footsteps,
And the birds sing,
But far out in the meadow,
A little girl cries,
For something she lost,
And never could find.

Love Mary **

Sometimes it has to remain a secret
Forever.
My very dear Aunty had a lover
For over forty years.
She was never named to his family.
After her death he had only me
To share her memories.
He was very lonely for a long time
I did my best for him
Keeping in touch
Seeing him at Christmas
Going to Art Galleries together.
I am grateful for the twelve years
That I got to know him
Differently from my Aunty.
When I die he loses all contact
With anyone who knew her
And him as partners.
Sometimes it has to remain a secret
Forever.


Love Mary ***

Sailor sail on by today
And cowboy hold me
I will love all that is you
And the tree will stay in
The night sky.

Love Mary ***

When you are old
You live on your own
Nobody cares
Just swears.

Ones clothes are untidy
Shoe soles flat
And all of the mirrors
Show a poisoned apple.

Love Grandma Mary xxxx

Please forgive me for leaving
It was not meant to be
I really did not want to
Had so much more to do
All the people I learnt from
Those that I loved
I'm sorry I had no choice.

Love Mary ***

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

For just that, I opened my eyes to watch the seagulls
Circle the cliff face, swooping and diving,
Black and white above viridian tides.
On top deck of those cream and green country buses
That bumbled along, taking the dips and hollows
As though a 'Big Dipper' at Margate.
There was such little stopping the journey
Seemed seemless as the sky.
And we,
Hanging out the window to catch the wind.

Love Mary x

Sometimes the membrane, that transparent shield,
Splits, letting in a grey torrent of stony hail storms
Breaking the apple as it falls bruised base to earth
And no words ever replace the missing numbers
Or comfort those who choose a blinded alleyway
For them it will be life encased in time grown old.


Love Mary x

I just wanted to say
That I have never met anyone
Quite like you,
Never heard your voice,
Sometimes get confused with you
But always come back to you,
You are both goodness and yourself
As we all are.


Love Mary x

Four strange people stand in a line
Pulling funny faces, turning a blind eye
I wonder who they are
I never knew
Lived on a hillside
In a cottage or two.

One played with sarcasm
Used it every day
Thought it very clever
Was in a strange way
Its significance unimportant
Could not even see
That lies were filling the holes in the wood.

The fool was insatiable
For all things combustible
Black bags outside
Always ajustable
There was psychedelic wallpaper
In rolls everywhere
The cats repatriated.

The crazy optimist thought it true
Played with cheque cards
Lined up in a que
Always in London
In spite of themself
The trousers too expensive for size.


Lastly the collector of funds
Father been a road sweeper
Could do lots of sums
Sometimes this wandererer
Found on a map
A paradyn for contagious frogs.

Four strange people stand in a line
I think I knew them better from behind!

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

How beautiful the hours between
You and me when our histories talk
Now you flourish in your evening
And I find the country girl cutivating
The fields of youth’s treasured times.

Love Mary xxxx

People always die on me, my friend said,
So it will be okay if I visit as I do not mind,
I thought how strange to be so complacent,
But rather comforted by such an outlook.

Yeats said death and *** maketh the poet,
And if by going to such depths, I laugh!
We die, then so be it;
For all of our life is packed for departure.

Love to all my very dear friends and loving family.

Mary xxxx

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 **

From Totland to Alan Bay.

Climbing by path and road
Until we reached the edge
When then by turning found
It leaving the chalky cliff.

And follow out across the fields
A view to tip the eyes,
Heavenly laden with wild parsley
And fluttering butterflies.

The accent so gradual as not to tire
With sunshine overhead
The summit came slowly into sight
As did what had been hid.

Dresses blowing in the breeze
Clung all about our knees
Salty spray misted the air
And the seagulls squawked away.

Then down we looked towards Alan Bay
All glittering foaming sea
The colliding of the coloured pebbles
A wildness and free.

All our senses did explode
Our hearts began to beat
For here lay so much loveliness
Just below our feet.

Love Mary ***

Linda lived on the other side of town
A war hero's daughter and mother
Of German extraction.He'd left.
With cropped blonde hair and plucked eyebrows I was out of her league.
She thought I looked like Susan Hampshire and slightly French.
Dressed me up like a doll with chiffon
Scarf,
So at fourteen I looked going on eighteen.
We went up the Kings Road
And did not come home for days.
Your children are never safe.

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

I laid them on the old brick wall
Those many coloured hollyhocks
Their heads now cracked and open
Their stems brown and dried.

And as they pass, the friends of mine,
Gather in their gardener’s hands
What next year will begin to grow
The following year stand tall.

Love Mary ***

The Winter song lay on the carpet
Its notes the colours of fallen glass
Stained from a Summer’s heating
Brilliant in the sunshine’s blast.

Fear me not those the leafless call
This tune is overturned and brown
My whiskers are curled with bows
And my hair combings of grey ***.

Love Mary xxxx

A road of palest lime fluttering Sycamore trees
Some almost leafless, others coronets still there
Through the golden branches colbalt blue skies
Lilac bushes, the garden daisies, flower in rows.

Thinning Robinna casts shadows of dim shade
Contrasting the red Acer’s lace leaf with green
The trunk arch of handkerchief laden Foxglove
Holds open its beautiful boughs to be admired.

For Autumn spreads my walk in glorious glitter
Though the evening pulls in the coldness of year
Making the best of these last savages of seasons
Gathering leavings, the birdtable spills its seeds.

Love Mary ***

Now is the time,
To put away my shoes,
Fold softest blankets,
With the neatness of the day,
Gather up crumbled paper bags,
Resting gently in corners,
Making sure space is cleared,
For others' beginnings.
Along the front wall,
Smelling the roses ,I walk,
Enjoying the greenness,
Of Sycamore leaves,
And the circle of grass ,
Cut carefully, by myself,
When inspiration sang,
Of fairy rings .
Tidy the stone animals ,
At the bottom of the Cherry tree,
And blow a kiss to the wind.
These are my priorities,
A symbol of a life loved.

To all my family and friends
Love Mary ***

I always wanted to meet a genius
Being not one myself
But every time I thought I'd found
Was always something unsound
A scratch or scrape in the wrong place
An area unclearly seen
That in the end
My search did end
No genius to be my friend.

Plenty in the times of old
The voice vigorous and bold
Now there is shimmer on the bough
Temptations for an hour
But that quality I do seek
Lies dormant and not complete.

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 **

GERTIE.  

A family of nine
Mother died
Father took a gun but no one knew
He blew
For the sorrow was too much
I heard.
But you my children's Nana
With your country life
Potato digging
Outside toilet
Did not expect
A Rolls Royce
You came to visit regularly
And at our door
My children stood
Arms wide for your smile
The smell of lipstick
On their cheek
At each third weekend
Roast beef in paper bag
Toys and sweeties galore
At first I found it hard
Different flesh I suppose
But came to love you
As my own
A second mother
Not home grown.

And when you died
At eighty
From a brain tumour
I felt I had lost
Someone I could trust
Stoic saviour of my soul
Whose knitting
I have still.

Love Mary

To Aunty Betty my children's wonderful Nana from Walthamstow. Thank you for all your love and I m

MILO.
IT'S OK.

At 13 life
Can feel
Like an empty purse
Childhood verses
Disperse
But you'd rather
Be there with your Lego
Building bridges in your mind
Places magical
And fine
Not the lessons
You are bored
Homework
Such a chore
Inside your house
You escape
Relax, collapse
Take the dog
For a walk.

When people ask
How was your day
You look at them
And say It's ok.

For my Milo , soft as a bird's wing.
It will get better . Love you my dear grandson. From 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

When life was simpler
Than today
We lived it in
A different way
When visiting a friend
Or someone new
Always took a posy too.

Mother would, kindly, ask
If I minded doing a task
Gathering flowers
with perfumed scent
Trailing ferns to decorate
Make a bundle of delight
As a token
Of friendship's sight.

Into our garden
I did went
With my scissors
Slightly bent
Chose from all
the pretty plants
A stem or two
From every branch
A bouquet of delicate blooms
On this sunny afternoon
Bound them up with silvered foil
A ribbon tied into a coil.

Showed my Mum
The lovely bunch
Kissed me with
A tender touch
Found a vase
To rest them in
Until the time to begin
Dressed in best
Coat and frock
With Mother ready
We did knock
What a joy it was for me
A happy face to see.

Never forget that simple life
When giving posies
Was so nice .

Love Mary xxxx

Little crown of gold resting on green
Each floret a circular gem, a princess
A friend, healer sustainer, nature into
Flower laid in the grasses as I walk by.

Love Mary ***

beautiful poets
For me the end
Keep me near you
In some way..

Love Mary

It is an ordinary Tuesday morning
The walkers regular in their time
Carrying shopping bags
On their way to the supermarket.

It is that gap between the old and new
When people buy bargains in shops
Left over items, later to be discarded
Or sold on eBay or local based sites.

But this Tuesday will have no ending
That can be rejoiced in the roadways
For it ends with a goodbye as I slide
To Spring in a bare cardboard coffin.

Love Mary **

The day bites in through my window
A brightness of sunshine reflects
Crossed lines on my wall, oblong
Birds sing no songs these days
Waiting for Van Gogh’s Starry Sky
And the faith of a good man.

Love Mary ***

Goodness is given in many ways
It could be a bunch of flowers
Or a telephone call.
Sometimes a text,
A trip down the shops
Remembering to remember
Something you once forgot.

For my daughter ,Elizabeth
It is a photo everyday
Of Bluebell her baby
In pretty display
She knows I love babies
Have since a child
This is her love
Given with a smile

Katie makes me dinner
Of rice and veg
Cooked on a Friday
In a big stainless dish
I keep it in the fridge
To eat day by day
Lovely daughter
Bless you always.

Alex and Victoria
Both have their plans
To get me Spring bulbs
And little animals grand
To decorate a garden
Designed by their mum
As for Rog a card will do
And the fact that he is here
Loving me still.


Love Mary
27/02/2018

On a chair with our cat
Fluffy tabby big and fat
Sat my mother book in hand
Reading something to expand
All the knowledge she did have
Collected there in that chair.

Remembering my Mum from Mary ***    Loved to talk to you all my life through .

Way slide on grassy hill
My mother bride laid down
The air warm with tenderness
My father neatly gowned.

Oh love of sweet moments
Come gather in the hours
Wrap them in secret’s scent
Hidden from the showers.

Love Mary x

We part but meet daily
In everything that moves
The caterpillar and the cranefly
The fairies with dainty shoes

So what I laid out for you
In times of greatest best
Will always be before
As you get redressed

Don't look in the mirror
You will not find me there
But in the books I've chosen
And plant pots here and there


I sleep with the dollies
The ones from long ago
And all those you gave me
With your love to show.


To My lovely family
Love Mary ***