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175 · Jun 2020
A High Price To Pay
Unpolished Ink Jun 2020
Help I'm falling

The pit has spikes

It's calling

I cannot fly

My wings are deadened by the
night below

This I know

Because i'm falling!
If you are getting a lot from me at the moment it is because I am on the edge of depression which always makes me write-it is a high price to pay for creativity
174 · Sep 2023
Hope Is A Bird
Unpolished Ink Sep 2023
In darkness
when fear of fear itself and the unknown
ensures that certainty and other showier birds have flown
an unremarkable bird of no particular renown
will sing to you, her feathers plain and brown
no matter how hard the road, or the steep the stair
nothing is ever hopeless as long as I am there
174 · Jul 2020
Rain
Unpolished Ink Jul 2020
A sky full of rain
New life springs from brown parched earth
Green shoots from grey clouds
173 · Mar 2020
Memento Mori*
Unpolished Ink Mar 2020
Let gentle rain fall softly as she sleeps

Let tumbled grass grow long and wildflowers be her counterpane

Let twining strands of ivy cover up her name

Let her rest in peace
* Latin for Remember You Too Must Die.
Marking the death of a family member
173 · Nov 2022
Corners
Unpolished Ink Nov 2022
At the corner
where the year turns
Autumn’s carefree child
dressed in shades of rebellious scarlet
whistles as he walks full into Winter
a vicious hungry old man
who strips him bare naked and cold
before he strolls away to find the waiting arms of spring
she wraps him in a warm embrace
bestowing kisses sweet enough to melt his cruel and icy heart
and leaves to find the Summer
bearing gifts of fruit
with which to make the heady wine of Autumn
172 · Sep 2019
A Room With No Doors
Unpolished Ink Sep 2019
Grief is a room

It has no doors

No one can join you

For each of us has our own


You sit in the centre

On the hardest chair

Wondering how you will escape and join the world again

Leaving the sorrow behind


You take the sadness with you when you go

It is a burden all must carry

You will learn to manage the load

One of the many rocks we must bear on our journey through life


One day you will leave

The walls will know when it is time

You will see the crack of light under an exit you never even knew was there


Do not fear it

Embrace its protection

This room

Is a womb
171 · Aug 2020
Bubbles
Unpolished Ink Aug 2020
Bubbles in a stream
Floating by like passing thoughts
Deeper than you think
171 · Jan 11
World
We were given a lovely world
but we trampled it and mashed it
beat it up and trashed it,
nobody else to blame
we did it to ourselves
and it's such a ****** shame,
we can't walk away,
we can't say I quit
we made this awful mess
now we have to live in it
170 · May 24
Anglerfish
Anglerfish anglerfish
you clever lightbulb dangler-fish
169 · May 2020
Fake News
Unpolished Ink May 2020
Fiction causes friction

An untruth uttered and whispered, gets muttered

It grows until it throws  a shadow on the truth

Fake news screws and skews what we see

In a deception of perception

A false perfection

Losing reality

In a flood of banality!
169 · Jun 2021
Butterfly Soul
Unpolished Ink Jun 2021
When I am gone
think of me often
for I will be a butterfly free soul
a forever spirit of the air and wind
dancing among the flowers
in endless summer
169 · May 2024
Diesel Daisies
Unpolished Ink May 2024
Down along the motorway
pathos flowers grow
a tiny piece of nature
putting on a show
watch the diesel daisies
dancing in a row
among the shredded leavings
of the M1 contraflow
169 · May 2024
How Kind
Unpolished Ink May 2024
Spring you called, how kind
I see you’ve settled your wandering mind
you brought a leaf for every tree
and flowers for every buzzing bee
sit a while we’ll have some tea
I made a cake so I hope you’ll stay
if not, can you visit another day
168 · Jun 2020
Hope Is The Butterfly
Unpolished Ink Jun 2020
The winged things

Feathery worries

Ills of the world

Released furies

Moth like

Tearing holes in the future

To feed their ravening savage mouths and starving offspring

A plague of stinging hornets

Free to fly and drop their bombs of despair where they will

And yet beneath this hateful cloud

Lives hope

Crushed but never defeated while it lives

Yin to the vile Yang

Fluttering slowly behind

Always there until the very end

A tiny crumb of comfort

Oh Pandora

What did you do?
168 · Apr 2020
Chequers From The Same Box
Unpolished Ink Apr 2020
We are chequers from the same box

Sailing in the same leaky boat

We all bail

We get to stay afloat

We don't bail

Then we fail

So think

Do you really wanna sink?
167 · Jun 2023
Designer
Unpolished Ink Jun 2023
Design me a coat for the seasons
remember as you sew
to add vents in the sleeves
filled with crisp Autumn leaves
and to let Springtime breezes blow
why not add a long Summer
as that is in style this year
please try to shorten the Winter
it is looking a bit severe
167 · Oct 2019
I Dare You
Unpolished Ink Oct 2019
Dare you follow the old road?

The one that leads to everywhere and nowhere

You with your masks and Jack ‘o’ lanterns

Will you take that path into the mountain?

Where midnight pixies dance to the sound of a flaming violin

And the night birds with their wicked lonely eyes hover, ceaseless in their search for prey

Keep your gaze on the way ahead

Never look around

You don’t want to see

The darkling things that are waiting

But they can see you!

Come with me to the broken table

Give up your Soul

Sit and dine with the dead and the ****** and those that aren’t too sure

Feast with us

And leave this tattered weary world behind

Halloween is play for children

Follow me to the old road

Real darkness lives there…
167 · Feb 2020
A Bite Of The Apple
Unpolished Ink Feb 2020
The profits of crime

Are not half as sublime

As the wages of sin

So jump right on in!
167 · Feb 2020
Silent Sonata
Unpolished Ink Feb 2020
Words you once read

Voices long dead

A silent sonata

Of sounds in your head
The prompt word was acoustic
167 · Dec 2019
Metaphor
Unpolished Ink Dec 2019
Soul flame

Flickering  life

A gentle burning

Smouldering until the end

When the light fades

A tiny glow

Then out

Leaving only smoke

And the essence of memories
166 · Aug 2024
Picot's Field
Unpolished Ink Aug 2024
The waving wheat in Picot’s field
is burned to yellow sand,
a harvest tide of buttered rain
salutes the combine’s hand,
one last defiant gesture
before the cut and fall,
bowing at the reaper,
who comes to scythe us all
Picot is pronounced Picko
166 · Jan 2023
For Margaret
Unpolished Ink Jan 2023
Margaret's hands are small and white
they will never hug her mother
or feel a lovers hand squeeze hers
never play piano like her sister Maud
or wear a wedding ring
not any of these things
Margaret's hands are marble still
each dove at rest upon her chest
166 · Jul 2020
Crocodile
Unpolished Ink Jul 2020
A crocodile smile
Might be a covering for
Sad crocodile tears
People hide their sadness behind a smile.
166 · Dec 2020
Missing Kissing
Unpolished Ink Dec 2020
In the year of missing kissing

it was masks for simple tasks like queuing for bread

ditching foreign travel so we all stayed home instead

we swapped hugs for elbow rubs and waves from afar

coffees in the car instead of drinks with a friend

oh the fun of this year

Will it never end?
166 · Jul 2020
Tweet Tweet
Unpolished Ink Jul 2020
Hungry Twitter beast
Constantly demanding food
Are you never full?
165 · Mar 2020
Star Birth
Unpolished Ink Mar 2020
Savage birth

A flaming child

Of fire

And light

Fills the dark

Drowns the night

The Universe is set alight
165 · Sep 2019
Calling Me Home
Unpolished Ink Sep 2019
I watch at first light

Summers dawn

As it ripples over daisy fresh grass

Not yellow like syrup or honey

Sharp and green and cool

With the possibility of peace

He sleeps

Quietly folded into a bedside chair

Like an old newspaper that someone else has read

Time to shut the pages and say goodbye

For me the tale is told

He will wake and find me gone

Our story is done
My last day
164 · Feb 2020
Powerball
Unpolished Ink Feb 2020
Smooth

Sometimes round

Sound as a pound

A chamber for nesting

For sitting and resting

Awaiting the call

An egg has it all
164 · Dec 2024
Sea Of Tranquility
Unpolished Ink Dec 2024
Oh, sea of tranquility,
we came, but we could not swim,
so we claimed you with a flag
and put a towel down for the race,
then we left our grubby footprints
across your perfect face
163 · Jan 2021
Music Is A Joy
Unpolished Ink Jan 2021
Music is a joy
more pure in every fluted ringing note
than we could ever hope to find
forgetting all our own desire
on ever soaring wings of smoke and fire
it leaves the petty cares of man behind
and reaches out for something higher
I wrote this on the death of a musician who brought joy to millions-he suffered huge amounts of prejudice throughout his extremely long life. He was 97 years old.
163 · Jun 2020
Now I Am Seven
Unpolished Ink Jun 2020
I liked the way sounds jumped into place

Gained their own pace

Made a poetry space

All their own

An exclusive zone

Where words, like flocks of birds

Made patterns in the sky

I used to wonder why

They only danced for me

And nobody could see
At seven I realised I could do something that  the other kids couldn't. As the  middle child and the duffer in a seriously sporty family I made words my own.
162 · Nov 2024
Jade
Unpolished Ink Nov 2024
Today is jade,
cloudy,
with a chance of tears
161 · Apr 24
Presser
They applauded the president
those with no hands stamped their feet
those with no feet clapped their hands,
and the president smiled his crocodile smile
because he hadn't fought for his country
and he still had hands and feet
but he had no heart
not even a painted purple one!
160 · Jul 2020
Bear
Unpolished Ink Jul 2020
Only poke the bear
If you can outrun the bear
Best to find out first!
Love bears!
160 · Mar 20
Spring Tide
Spring tide
deep and wide
sweeping clean
the beach where winter once was seen
160 · Dec 2024
St Thomas Eve
Unpolished Ink Dec 2024
Close the curtain
stem the night
feel uncertain
light the light
Trying out very short poems
160 · Jan 2020
Mango Heart
Unpolished Ink Jan 2020
A borrowed  knife without a blade

The sharpest sting

Slices deep and plunges in

Down through mango stone and bone

Soft beneath the outer skin

Reveals the running juice within!
159 · Mar 26
Wings In Flight
The sound of busy wings in flight
sweet song in mellow April light
carried on an early breeze
which shakes the limbs of new leaved trees,
pleasure after winter’s sting
a simple yet essential thing
we could not start the season
without the birds in spring
159 · Nov 2020
Shrinking Woman
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
The crown of thoughts that once did sit upon my weary head
is gone, fading gently into the distance
only the impression remains
vague marks of what I used to be
the other much more consequential me

Someone let her out
She slipped away
and never quite came back
although she had a key
each time she went I used to find
she left a bit of me behind

What is left is a badly knitted gift
A thing unravelled
Full of holes is what you get to see
The tattered remnants of the shrinking woman that was me!
I have an aunt with dementia-it really is a terrible drifting away
159 · Aug 2020
Starfall
Unpolished Ink Aug 2020
My hand caught a star
It ran between my fingers
Glittering like rain
159 · Oct 2019
Depression & Me
Unpolished Ink Oct 2019
My sly and stalking beast

Which jumps and catches unawares

Grey light from within

A candle dimmed

Hidden from the world

Exhausted heart

Of half remembered dawns

******* slowly

On the fog

That is myself

I cannot feel

Until I cut

And bleed myself  

A path of living words

To follow to the light
Poetry Helps
159 · May 2024
Falling Light
Unpolished Ink May 2024
Falling light on springtime leaves
shadowed fingers stroke the breeze
sunlit table, awning up
proper tea in a china cup
supper cooking down the road
a neighbours grass efficiently mowed
cat on a cushion flicks an ear
rock doves calling somewhere near
new clad branches swing and sway
peace at the end of a busy day
159 · Feb 2021
Ophelia
Unpolished Ink Feb 2021
Stones in my pockets
weigh me down
and roll like eggs while I wade in the blue
further than I thought my nerve would ever hold
chill creeps a frosty band around my chest
feet no longer touching sand
hands two waving fish among the ****
gulls as they cry pay little heed
I am beyond them now, those earthly things
Ophelia has her water wings
158 · Feb 17
Punched Ticket
I shall not come this way again,
I cannot hope to travel on the time I borrow
so I shall seize the chances given me today
and cast away the worries of tomorrow
Having a life limiting illness gives you perspective : )
158 · Jun 2020
Bitter Road
Unpolished Ink Jun 2020
I have walked the bitter road

Where tangled briar romps

It is a place for dying

The twisted path for twisted thought

Minds bent out of shape beneath hanging branches

A narrow lonely place, built for one to travel

Uneven ground beneath unsteady feet

Landing is hard, rising harder still

Some fall, some follow the sign to lighter daysWhen you leave the bitter road

A little dry earth will cling to your feet

Because It never leaves you
158 · Nov 2020
Broken Bottle
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
To see the stars fall , and have them melt as falling rain upon your face

the drowned sorrows of another day, run and leave no trace, upon your damp and salted skin

they leave their scars writ large upon the beating heart within
Unpolished Ink Dec 2020
I think I will go to the sea and listen for a while
to the roar of dark ill tempered waves and ravenous black backed gulls , ceaseless circling gods who scan the beach, hopeful in search of any offerings given, trying to outdo the wind with their endless calling

I think I will go to the sea and watch the sky,
the shifting clouds a pencil sketch as yet unfinished,
a symphony of graphite  grey and mellow umber tones,
smoothed beneath some restless artists hand

I think I will go to the sea, to feel the wind on my ears
the sharp sting of blowing sand, frozen skin nettles
as I shrink into my scarf, a futile knitted bastion against such savage elements

I think I will go to the sea, but not today!
Unpolished Ink May 2020
Creatures of the mind

Searching for freedom

In  the misty space between dreams

They don't hunt

They farm

Sewing fear

Harvesting panic

Do not fret the climbing shadows on your wall

There are darker shadows in your head

And they are real
158 · Mar 2020
Broken
Unpolished Ink Mar 2020
Grief is a sea

A lonely place

First comes the shock

That slap in the face

It tells your brain

You can't take the pace

Leave the pain for a while

Drop out of the race

Sit on the side

Watch the world go by

Numb and chilled

Too stunned to cry

It will be too much

When Reality hits

Let's take it slow

Face the news in bits!
A VERY WEIRD PLACE TO BE
157 · Aug 2020
Sunset
Unpolished Ink Aug 2020
Mourn for drowning suns
Dying colours drink the light
Night baptised in flame
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