When I sit and look out to sea
I know I have always been loved.

Love Mary x

So many have I watched
Falling, dripping, rolling
From the clouds to earth.
Catching in my mouth
The taste of dust.
Trickling between cloth and skin,
The groove in my chest.
And the splashes fill the puddles
At my feet where I stand
I'll be a single drop of rain
In the palm of your hand.

Love Mary **

I love the way you sit
Your long leggies taut
On the soft furniture
Coloured socks on toes.

I love your long fingers
Spread out on keyboard
Intent on dancing about
The tap, click of moving.

I love your face in beard
Flowing silver silky hair
Rests on wide shoulders
I really, really love you .

Mary xxxxx"

The cave paintings show us
Art and imagination
Are essential to our being to our health.
To our ability to empathise with others
To be able to show joy in the world around us.
Without our imagination being used we
Create a world of violence , inhumanity
And cruelty.
Just the way it is going today .
Bring back art in schools
For the freedom of our people.

Love Mary ***

Thank you Anthony Gormley
For your programme .

Love Mary ***

I measure out my days
Not in the expected ways
With outings to friends
People popping in
Sunday lunch
A telephone call
But by how far
I can fly
Without any wings.

And in doing so
Turn it into
Something
Beautiful.

Love Mary x

You bring the outside to my bed
In your brightly coloured dress
Hair tied back in a ponytail
You dance about in a grassy field
The sun's gone in but do you care
Dancing around in the clear air
Wonder who you think you'll be
A circus lady home for tea
A fairy with a golden wand
Whoever it is you'll sing your song.

Love Grandma for Delphi x

Little bird you gave me your world
In a piece of Christmas tinsel
From an abandoned pine tree
It showed how unnecessary
Are the human words.

Love Mary ***

To the words of Cat Stevens I sing
Wailing about in front of the glass
You are my everything.

I couldn’t tell you why
Not here and now at least
You would never understand
Could not understand.
The structure of our thoughts
Make such complexity impossible
The greatest sadness is that our lives
Are lived out in such perverse ignorance
All that we remember is the apartness
How we bind ourselves in love to lies.

Sorrow is like the shattering of glass
Broken biscuits in tins
The howl of the workhouse
We as frail as a bird’s wing.

Love Mary
Xxxx

Millions of stars
Budding into life
Filling the universe
With coloured light
From the exploding
New planets born
But nothing to guide
No morals formed,
Just indifference
Circles the globe
What is the purpose
No one knows.

Love Mary **

I never got out of my nursery rhyme books
Daffy down dilly is still coming to town
But wearing bright leggings and a plastic crown
Little Boo Peep has lost her sheep
But does not want to find them
**** Robin sings out of tune
But nobody tells him it is too crude
The three little kittens threw away
Their mittens and mother began to cry
And if your look in the garden
You will find Mary Quite Contrary
And Ted in a flower bed
They have forgotten their *****.

Love mad Grandma ***

It grew out of me like a sharp thorn
Put railings around my door
Allowed me to get into cars
Not stopping for me,
Set fire to a patch of green,
Throw books from open windows
And never consider, that
Inside
A poet resides
Where rules have
To be
Smashed to escape.

Love Mary x

Some saw him as compassionate
A man of the cloth
Caring with tenderness his sheep
But I did not .
For me I saw an ego unsatisfied by
A childhood of expectation
Grown forgetful of his profession
By the unforgiving pull of disappointment
Such was his striving that nothing stood
In its way.
Not the virtues of religion or occupation
Laid them all down for another mark
On his cap, a token of goodness in the community.
But I could see the transparency of his gaze.
And never turned away.
But he sank in his cowardice of deceit.

Love Mary x

I took the left path where hydrangeas grew and sleepy primroses under woods edged shady trees.
The empty stream ran quietly dry
With grass cuttings piling high.
If one peeped, would find tiny creatures of delight.
To cast a sparkle here and there, a delight.
So on tip-toe, with sandels bent
Up high I reached to take
The plastic fairy as she twirled a pirouette
In a theatre made by chance.
Reflected in a silver mirror intwinned with ivy branch
A mottled foal tends his dreams and Chrismas robin chirps.

My brother took the right hand path where thetrees grew fruit
Ripe berries from the gooseberry bush bulged their prickles
Dangling from hawthorn now a cowboy with a hat
Looking for his fellow Indian with the yellow back sack.
Sheep gather in a hollow, dark, protected from the sun
And Mr toad, now lost of paint, has turned a bit glum.

And so we leave our woodland friends and travel up the *****
Winding round the rose bed and goldfish where they float.
Then up we climb, the middle route, to jump the pruned clipped
Hedge.
The lawn divided in two halves, a contemporary taste.

Now we're nearly at that place where if one was to turn
Could see down across the land
To the sea and sand.
Of all the beauties that I've known
Nothing beats this Island home.

Love Mary x

When I was three I played with worms
They simply were my friends
I watched them building worm casts
And knock them down.

Love Mary **

My mother sat by her father's bed
As he took his last breath
It had taken all day
He had listened to the news at one
Then slowly gone down hill.

They called the local doctor
To give some relief
But he was out on a house call
Attending another ones grief
So hand in hand he left this land.

After the funeral at the top of the hill
In Christchurch graveyard
He was laid to rest, this being his will.
My mother, a person of wisdom and myth
Rang me each day to tell of her progress.

Before he left, her father had said
That if he could he would try
To let her know he had arrived
So everyday whilst on her walks
She looked for a sign that talked.

And then one day after quite a while
Found a lamppost and near the ground
Were written the words ,"I  am".
And this was enough to put her trust
In a life ever after and a father she loved.

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.

‘I’ve got to go’, the trees said
Twisting their trunks away
I have to get on with fluttering
The birds will need my sway.

‘I must start running’, said river
My banks are dusty and brown
The fishes are waiting for food
Must feed them or they will drown.

‘I will get on’, said the seagulls
Flying over the South-West Coast
There is food floating on the water
And something I see in that boat.

Mr bear looked at his watch
It was nearly half- past four
Said ‘I am really sorry for you’,
But simply can’t take anymore’.

Love Anonomous x

Where did we get to

On a red trolley bus the last of its kind
I sat with my dad in 1959
I remember the overhanging track
And the clickety clack
The sliding sound
Of steel abound
And the brakes hissing out near the ground.
Ladbrook grove in London town
Where my aunties lived around.

Love Mary

The day went  backwards
With memories straddling
Over all those fiery years
When I was fit and healthy.

And gaiety swung me around
Like a roll of coloured hoops
Never forgetting how I loved
All that this world presented.

I clipped the rose buds, slowly
Closing the secateur’s fastening,
Putting happiness in folders
For others to open their joy.

Love Mary x

Sit with me in the darkness
On the edge of the eiderdown
As your fingers turn the pages
Let me be who I am.

The fairies fly from pages
And the horses ride to town
My love for you is greater
Than the stars on my wall.

Love Mary ***

In the garden ,my friend,
He tends, pulling and digging
Cutting back so hope can Spring
Filling in next year’s spaces
With renewed life.

I have known this slowness
For many a year
Working through paintings
The death of his father
This slowness is my acceptance.

Love Mary x

In the woods

Because everything is useless I draw,
Finding refuge in the marks and shapes,
Discovering new friends in the woods,
Only here I am free from life's cruelty,
My imagination is my companion,
Keeping pace, holding out a hand,
This is the only love I believe in,
There at the touch of a fingertip,
Always waiting at the door for me to follow.

Mary **

On a sunny day waiting for
The answer
About costs
A husband with cheque book
Looked out of the window
Of the reception area
Tha attendant looked out of the window
At this woman
Dancing,
Dancing along a low wall edging,
" Look at that woman,  is she drunk ?", he said.
"That is my wife"
Returned my husband's voice,
" She just has a playful personality."


Love Mary **

The tree has swayed its top branches
For over a month, gusty June weather
Tired we all of a wet and windy month
Colder than usual, we are intemperate
The roses in cerise, peach and heritage
Tolerate this climate of ours but not us.

Love Mary

You are my earth bound chatterbox
Showing the world off to its best
The party always begins when you
Switch me on and finishes with an off.

Love grandma **

Now it is me.
Love Mary

By running to the past
Where the sun came in
Can there be a retrieval
Of the happiness rising
On blue Iris in its bloom.

For the past is safely lived
Untouchable, protected
And the wandering warm
The hawthorn prickles
Not a spray or blight.

Love Mary x

I saw your garden
For the first time in months
All the perennials had
Trebled in size
The agapanthus, by the wall,
Put out many heads
And by the fence
The large poppies
And fluted penstemons
Flutter in the breeze
Which sways the hollyhocks
To and fro
On that same windy spot.


Love Mum to Victoria ***

I'm holding on and you can't come
I travel alone you hold my phone
And it rings on and on
But to answer would be wrong
And I send my love
Far out
To the world I knew
It was you and you .
And I am dancing cause I'm sad
We are together it's true
But the night is dark
I'm alone.

Love Mary ***

Is it ever worth being young
So much wasted time
All that glitter that we found
It was lonely in the inside.

Prettier than a sparkly lollipop
Never stopping not to shop
Or to gather finalites on a ride
I will see you to say goodbye.

Love Mary ***

Behind almost all things
Where the trees meet the edge of the frame
It could have been not this but that
In the distance is a darker shape
Its  position decided on a collection.


Falling like snow without regularity
The canvas surface is patches of colour
Horizontals and verticals intersect
The park with its green avenues
Glides in and out of a century of stories.


Its conclusion resting
On a final brush stroke.

Love Mary xxxxx

If you came to my house
A toy room  you would see
With lots of bits and pieces
Collected by little me.

I pretend they're for the grandchildren
Who love them more than can say
But really eBay bargains
Mother bought to stay.

I have pound puppy doggies
And pound kitty cats
Tiny plastic teddy bears
In a cottage pack.

Lots of playpeople
Lego fairy Belville
But best of all the dollies
Over a hundred to thrill.

There is a police station
And a collection of cars
A garage with a lift
And a small farmyard.

The children always happy
When they come to play
Grandma's Christmas grotto
Every single day.


Love Mary xxxx

That happiest moments come in childhood
When innocence combed ones hair
And Saturdays bring respite
Bedrooms lined with a few toys
While two fair ground ballerinas
Curtesy on a white wood mantelpiece.

Then that snuggling down to sleep
Under homemade feather eiderdown
Hot lemon and sugar brought in a glass
The certainty of mother's voice
Climbing the stairs with wine gums.

Even if time stretched patience
It arrival brought only surprises
And leaf rubbings on paper
Were treasured achiements
Displayed in cardboard mounts.

Love Mary x

I think this is why you came to my room
On a sudden impulse that I would be there
Waiting for the person I needed but never said
The quiet brown bird with songs in his head
And you came because you saw in this child
A woman to grow your children and be a friend
The room was empty and the flowers gone
On the piano was your music I wanted to hear
Played softly with a warm heart and a longing
To stay.

He thought he had permission
Gazing into womanly eyes.
She encouraged him
"Give her a kiss! It is Christmas"
I succumbed,  blankly,
My newly formed *******
Settling under plain top.

"He has taken a shine to you"
She smiled.
Was I flattered?
What sort of marriage
Did they have anyway?
I began to realise when
A hand under my top
Became a regularity,
Susan played with her
Toys.


Love Mary

When you are not understood
Like the clock stopping its ticking
Yet still there in the hall
As substance without voice
And then there is a turning away.

For no longer all that expectation
An empting of oneself.
Like the snail's silver trail
A relic from the past
Deposited on a garden path.

Love Mary x

I gave up writing letters when the frost set in
Having tied each bunch with coloured ribbon
So those clearing out could identify the writer
Before packing into bags for their final home.

Mother’s letters were always playful with a lot of
Funny drawings and a multitude of little sayings
There was often a five pound note for the children
And lots of kisses and hugs to each and everyone .

They came regular at holiday times when distant
Kept us apart and she and I felt unexpectedly sad
For we lived like each other, inside tins and things
Buttons and bows, flower pots, coffee-sponge cake.

I have her letters in drawers, inside books and cards
I have her glasses and blue case, last pair of shoes
A scarf where there remains the scents of The Island
The beach and sea, salty air and a jar of cold cream.

Love Mary to her mum xxxx

Its True


Ay, the pain it costs me

to love you as I love you!

For love of you, the air, it hurts,

and my heart,

and my hat, they hurt me.

Who would buy it from me,

this ribbon I am holding,

and this sadness of cotton,

white, for making handkerchiefs with?

Ay, the pain it costs me

to love you as I love you!

It took a long time
Does one forget how
To put into perspective
This life of ours.

A few words locked in me
‘Grandma Mary, just want to
Say thank you for all the
Things that you gave
But no more at the weekend
Love Evelyn.


Love Grandma Mary xxxxx

And the trouble I'm in
But oh the beauty it brought me
In between
And I dance in my dresses as loud as could be
And bounce off garden walls
Happy in the breeze.
Collect pretty buttons and put them in a tin.
I've always been crazy
Did I ever win?

Swayed in the arms of another
Stamping the floor of my dreams
Carried the flowers
Picked by a stream
Pink, blue and white
From the groves of delight.
But I've always been crazy
And that's how it ends.

Love Mary x

I never said goodbye to mother
As she lay all shrunken in bed
Her hair in a grey ponytail
Her face frightened and white.

Nobody told me she was dying
As my father sat by her side
The nurses suggested sagaciously
I needed to come in a short time.

But I never got to her bedside
Before the ringing of the phone
Announcing that she had faded
And would not be back again.


Love you dear mother
So sorry not to be with you , miss you .Mary xxxx

I was your bridesmaid but don't know you now
In orange satin gown with circles that went round
I stood near your side in your white wedding dress
But I never knew you in that church where flowers rest.

Though only a child in lace edged gloves
Carrying a white bible given with love
And wearing the crucifix a gift with shoes
I stood and waited for the lady I never knew.


I still have one glove made of lace
And the leather bible in its plastic case
But I never knew you and soon I'll be gone
Thank you for letting me share your song.

I will follow you
Down the alleyways of your mind
Lying under your sun
Meling into dreams
Left behind by a shadow
We are loves words
Floating in time
The adventurers of space
Touches emblems, enshrined
Never let it be said
We didn't care
For every fraction of day
Held together
This man and this woman
Looped by a golden bow.

Love Mary

For her Roger ***

Jay is a handsome boy
With long dark curls
Reaching below his shoulders
Reminders of my other lads
His uncle Alex and brother Richard.
Grown in stature and understanding
Smart in striped shirt
Sitting in the sun
Under the Robina tree
I thought how far he has come.

Not my son but my daughter's
Unspoken hero of his age
Worked with seven other
Offspring to bring about
Some sort of change.
Made it to university
Computers he did choose
Compelled by an inner calling
Found a way
He is no fool.
Love you grandson
In the morning of your life
Hope you keep
That spark alive
And I will continue to be glad.

Love to Jay from Grandma ***

Holding his small brown hand
Collecting the coat on a coloured peg
We walk the Cherry Blossom Tree way
He has a work book in his fingers
A satchel and drinking flask on his back
We talk and sing as the road bends
I love you my first grandson.

Love Grandma xxxx

If it had been a bright day
Someone would have noticed
That the notes were missing
Taken it in turns
To look under beds
But instead all went home
In a holiday mood
Jolly good.

Love Mary

Bleached heat, the sun hot
Tarmacadam melted up
The playground equipment
Too warm for little bottoms


Children climbed the wood
Inside were imaginary cats
Daddy stayed outside watching
The crisp grass blew in the wind.


Love Mary
For Evelyn ,Alex and Florence **

Now we find
The garden
Sweet with lavender,
The roses giving out
Their perfume,
Still air after the storm;
Scorched pavements
From sun's shining;
Hollyhock coloured stripes
Horizontal laddered stems;
Quietness in the afternoon hour
Before the coming home
Begins.

Love Mary ***

Now we find
The garden
Sweet with lavender,
The roses giving out
Their perfume,
Still air after the storm;
Scorched pavements
From sun's shining;
Hollyhock coloured stripes
Horizontal laddered stems;
Quietness in the afternoon hour
Before the coming home
Begins.

Love Mary ***