There are many outer layers

Covering your skin

It takes a bit of stripping

To find what lies within

That is the beginning

Dig on and you will find

A thousand coats of rainbow paint

Covering the mind

Oil on the water

Gentle spilling colours

Tumbled greens and inky blues

Fade to yellow and pinky hues

Filling the puddle

A requiem for rainbows

I slipped
through a crack in the world
rolled down the bank
and lost myself
among the bottles
and discarded papers
you, a collector of trash
found me
and made me useful again

Speak scarlet secrets
A million sweet vermilions
Whispered in the dark

Don't look back in anger

You cannot wipe the sins of the past

Remember them

Use the fuel to spur you on

Work for the living not those who have gone

But remember

Live for today

Find your own way

A better path

Build a place where you belong

Remember those who were done a wrong

Then move on

But remember

It's your world now

I am the wind
the rain which pelts and blows full in the face of adversity
and the silent sound of a million damp and aching feet
I am friendships that will never come again
and the voice of doomed youth
I am memories in old age
the scarlet smell of crushed poppies
and the iron tang of spilled blood  and rusty wire
I am hope and loss
dignity in duty
and outright defiance in the face of defeat
I am all these things
I am remembrance

I strongly suggest that you put on a vest
and maybe some pants
nobody wants to see
what is dangling from your people tree
I think it would be best
if you got yourself dressed
it's a sensible request
before your arrest!

The sticks and stones
of ancient bones
are seen beneath the skin
a mushroom scented dying
as the year is growing thin
sing requiem for Autumn
so that Winter may begin

The world took a break

Traffic stilled, just the dark rope of empty roads stretching for miles

Birds sang in the trees

No planes flew

People didn't rest

They sat in their houses and  didn't sleep, no matter how calm the world outside the window

We worried and wished and waited for it all to be over

For the planet to wake up

So that we could go to bed

You will not halt the rushing wind
restless seas will turn their tides no matter what you do
rain will fall & wet the land to make it green
leaves will drop at turn of year
you can stop a ticking clock
but you cannot stop time

To live life vicariously
is to be a shadow
riding pillion
on someone else's bike

People are rivers
some are deep
some are shallow
some are a little bit twisted
some you definitely don't want to cross
and others are just wet and full of crap!

your old winter robe
shaped only by memories
still hangs in my heart

Romeo
you were the East
but there was no sun
for you and Juliet
a drip of light
new sprung
from a talented quill
then darkness
stolen moments
briefly given
then taken
puppets
in the mind of your
creator

Rest in peace you gentle soul
your eyes which saw only truth
gave us the spirit of those who worked the land
a portrait penned with honest colour
painted as it was
and not how we would have it be

The roots of art
are often buried deep in childhood pain
every flower needs a little rain

We don't all have a choice

A selective voice

Some get what they get

No being upset

They are the losers

Others are choosers

They pay to play

And have it their way

They will always win

With another spin

We all have to learn

That an extra turn

Will put you on top

No matter how much

You want the ball to stop

She was always there
Britain's loyal royal friend
Working to the end

Farewell Samhain
Celtic custom to honour the dead
****** for profit and greed instead
drowned in sugar
until all that remains
is a Jack-O-Lantern rotting in rain

Hark to the winds of Autumn
Long dead voices raised in song
Saraband for the living
A choir for the dying
Eternal music of the ******
A fading year
Carried on the breeze

On my kitchen shelf
happy little saucepan birds
nest inside each other

Sunset
a final blush
as evening strokes the land
with butter yellow fingers
on a soft and gentle hand
caressing and *******
and finally confessing
to a scarlet indiscretion
that the day won't understand

A thousand scarlet kisses
leaves that fell between our lips
each one sweeter than the last
and longer and deeper
I would swap them all
each plump hanging cherry
just out of reach
to bring you home again

A scurrying wind is a tidy wind
a helpful picker of discarded litter
things that we should have put in the bin
but it has no bag to put them in

Blow rough wind
set the sea to howling
as a barking cur
foam flecked muzzle
wave whipped fur
a dog let free
at your command
shredding promontory land
chewing on that spit of stone
wearing down its chalky bone

Sea sound
The music of life
Wild and free
Noisy in it's joyous abandoned moods
A naked dance under the heavens
Unceasing and restless
Ever shifting
Like the sand which follows it
Snaking in it's wake
A yellow puppy anxious to please the moving water

Drifting
on an ebb tide of confusion
which flings me up beach of myself
then rolls me down to the roaring ocean
before I have time to think that I may at last be saved
the dear dear grasp of reality
slippery through my tangled fingers
is lost to the maw of the waves
pitched and tossed in the blue
sky or surf
fish or floating plant
flotsam or jetsom
I do not know
It is a seaweed day

Fall colours
the russet reds and yellow browns
of Summer's faded hand me downs
Autumn is the second sister

We are all seeds
tiny grains of sand
lost on a desert wind
or so I understand,
on a hot afternoon
under a clear african sky
we blew into existence
God alone knows why

Tears of the world
a salt tide that floods
feeding the marshes
windswept waiting places
sentinels of the hollow margins
lonely but for the cries of birds
wading the cracks where land meets sky and endless water
at the edge
of something and nothing

September rain  
falling grey on Monday faces
washes out the dusty traces
of August in the air,
coffee mug memories
warm and serene,
muse on the summer it might have been

If you long for a life of
sunny skies day after day
you will be disappointed
nothing grows in a desert
settle for a little rain now and then
and someone to share your umbrella

Seventy two Crows
have come to bid you goodbye
dressed in mourning clothes

Scratch off the surface
of anyone's mind
and you might be surprised
at the picture you find
the one that's behind the smile that you see every day
we all paint our faces but leave little traces
in shades of Dorian Gray

Everyone brought flowers
oh so many pretty flowers
to grieve with me through the hours
and to take the pain away
roses and daffodils in every shade and colour
because they wanted to say something, but they didn’t know what to say!

There’s a long long trail a-winding
to the sound of marching feet
worn smooth by shadowed footsteps
their time on earth complete
although a poignant sad reminding
no one’s listening so it seems
there’s a long long trail a-winding
to the land of broken dreams
where that nightingale keeps singing
because that’s what she is for
to welcome home the fallen
from each successive war

The ghosts of old loves
Live again in memory
Casting deep shadows

Leaders are supposed to inspire

not warm their hands as the flames climb higher

on the nation's funeral pyre!