Silently and slowly the hands turn
Seconds rewind into the long ago
A sun rises in the West, a fiery glow
I can almost feel the heat of the burn
As the orbit stutters into opposite flow

I am counting the rotation roll
As spring falls into winter cold
Then autumn colours as leaves unfold
Going back, searching for a missing soul
It was lost long ago, a sad story to be told

Speeding through the lived out days
Counting back to where you can be
Then finally the day comes into view
And my heart slows the reversing ways
Of Earths flow, and I finally see you

I step into the day, and it’s clear
Like a picture, so perfectly matching memory
Tears blind me to your smile, so I don’t see
You crossing the room, then arms hold me near
Finally, I have reached where I want to be

As I take the keys, that hold all of my fears
The time glass is silent, it waits patiently
For time to repair the change in history
The fateful trip not made, so no widow tears
Seconds click forward, into a new possibility

Happiness is a kiss not asked for
Happiness is your hand taking mine
Happiness is a smile not looked for
Happiness is your eyes looking into mine
Happiness is warm cuddles on cold nights
Happiness is this life with you
Thank you for bringing the happy :-)

I see our way of life
That is ******* in tedium
Excitement lost in the humdrum
Of early morning rises

But a life of ordinary
Wrapped up in our comfy bubble
That is everything and never dull
It’s just me, loving you

Into the glass I look and see
A figure of half century life
A reflection of an older me
Eyes showing the child I used to be
As they reside amongst a face of crumpled skin
That still has traces of a younger beauty

Wisdom is like the teeth grown over years
And I carry the wounds of choices made
I can’t now regret and shed crocodile tears
I will live with the mistakes, and have no fears
Of retribution when I reach the end
Though they will be no horns or angel cheers

No, I can’t change what is to be
But if I could step through the glass
Take the hand of the younger me
Show her another way, make her see
One mistake can put steps on a road
To life lived lonely, just me, not we.

When you reside in a world of perpetual sorrow
The heart is unable to decide
Whether to laugh or cry

But the sun will always rise on the morrow
Bringing warm light to another day
So maybe there is room for both

Lightning strikes, thin as cotton thread
Traverses the brain, inside the head
A thought is born
Silicon chips, a revolution. We mourn
The loss of emotional bloodshed
As life, as we know it, turns unfeeling dead.

Let me sail on a western wind
When my time on Earth is ended
Let me breathe the salted froth
As the path of my life is wended
No more scents of summer rose
Will I take into my breast
No more smell of Autumn leaves
When trees prepare for rest
I will no longer feel a summer rain
As it falls on flowered fields
I’ll no longer hear the rumble of thunder
And the power that lightning welds
So when all my life is done
Let me close my eyes and rest
Let me dream in loving slumber
As I sail warm seas, into the west.

When I was young I wasn’t taught
How poems are written using thought
I have no idea what the poetic terms mean
And lines should be worked until pristine

Alliteration, Anapest, Assonance, Blank verse
Too much for the mind to traverse
Tercet, Trochee, Refrain and stanza line
Apparently free verse means lines don’t rhyme

I feel it’s all a bit clinical and cool
And poetry shouldn’t follow a written rule
It’s not something than can be planned
Like an essay written on demand

Poetry is love, lost and found
It’s anger, regret, a human battleground
It’s all of you, written down on a blank page
It’s grief, laughter, hope and rage

Poetry is a flow of all your fears
Written with ink of salted tears
And emotions tumble into cyber space
Searching for a connection, they cannot trace

Every poet travels the downward dip
Of the emotional power trip
Feels the soul of the written word
That bleeds more freely than the cut of a sword

Existing in a spinning circle
Of washed up wanted dreams
Living in this surreal of awful
As nightmares exhale primal screams

Ripping up the wasted minutes
Like trash discarded in the bin
Barely glimpsed, as the door shuts
Moments of what could have been

Life becomes a faded hue
In this dazzling world of wonder
You search for what you once knew
Before infant dreams were torn asunder

But enchanted ever afters
Live only in childhood play
They dissolve in children’s laughter
As age slowly melts the magic away

But I want to find the magic spell to say
Which will bring the enchantments back
So I can believe, before I’m old and grey
That ever afters can be a happy fact

I recently bought an amazing fad
A car that thinks. Wow, how amazing is that?
So I get it home and open up the instruction pad
Flick through pages covering every language format
Finally, I found the paragraph for me. Number one.
What a fantastic light show, as I turn on the key
Three sweaty hours later and I am done.
I soon realised to read the rest you need a degree
So I gave up on instructions after ten
I know best, and soon destinations are programmed in.
So here we go, first visit, to pick up Ben
Then off to the bar for a few tonics and gin

Six hours later and things are little blurred
My singing is great, I sound like a star
Can’t say same for Ben, man, his voice is slurred
So time for home, we head for the car.
State your destination, a woman’s voice purrs
I clearly state Sandsend Drive, or so it sounds in my head
And off we go to Ben’s as the landscape blurs
While we sit in the back, like bugs in a bed
I awaken to daylight and the sound of the sea
My tongue is stuck to my mouth like something alien
And Ben’s head is snuggled on my Knee.
What the..?  I blink against a rising sun

As waves lap around the window frame
And gulls swoop on the floating craft
I utter a screech so high, a soprano could claim
And Ben's head catapults up to the roof of this drifting raft
His cry’s join mine in perfect harmony
And I look around to survey the coastal scene
A small crowd of dog walkers are looking in glee
Laughing at sight never before seen
Then a coastguard boat assails the waves to reach
Us, and throws us a line. I should be brave
Open a window. But I could drown so far from the beach
While Lifeguards choose to risk life and limb to save

So I huddle against Ben, like kids doing wrong
Then a Lifeguard makes a Spiderman leap
Across to the car, rips open a door, man he’s strong
He throws two life jackets to us with a sweep
Come with me if you want to live, he yells
Yep, I kid you not! He didn’t need to ask anymore
Soon we are on the lifeboat battling the swells
Watching as my car sank to the seabed floor
A cup of tea at Landsend Lifeboat station did the trick
As we told them the funniest story they’ve ever been told
Lesson learnt I’m avoiding modern cyber Technic
For one, bloomin things don’t understand the spoken word.

A hundred years from now
I will be a robot, encased in metal skin
Miles of electrodes running within

No heart beating

My brain will calculate
A billion calculations of fact
No need to sleep, just charge the battery pack

No tears to shed

I will live in a box
Don’t need to sit on a chair
Just stand in a corner each night and stare

Love an unknown fact

Each day I will work
With a thousand others like me
No words spoken, silence reigns in this metal factory

Individuality what’s that?

I live a routine
Of scheduled never ending duties
A job for life, no need for job vacancies

A family lost

I have no expiry date
I am one, I am me
Forever more I will be

Alone

If I had never been born
Would there be a space left empty
Waiting to be filled with a human form

If I wasn’t here
Would the world mourn?
This child’s life, a star of Capricorn

Would my Family
Miss the laughter of jokes never told
Look for someone, they can never enfold

Would my friends
Act on advice never passed
Who will they turn to when feeling downcast?

And my love
The one I found, who will love you now?
Will they kiss the same when you make the vow?

If I was never here
There’ll be no change in discoveries of anything epic
And definitely not missed in the world academic

So there is no reason
Why I am here, that I can see
Living this life of mundane ordinary

Yet there was the time
I helped a stranger who was in need, in pain
Though I’m sure others would have done the same

Maybe that’s why I am here
Not to live a life of fame and celebrity
Just to bestow one simple kind act of extraordinary

Heading for a landslide
Of a breaking heart
Listen to the rumble as it falls apart
It has a familiar sound
So I know this isn’t the first
And memory says I’ve survived worse

Following a cycle of repeating destruction
As the heart feels the love burn
Love lessons I will have to relearn
But it’s a wasted moment in time
Trust gained is shattered and broken
I was sure that this time, you were the one

But time heals, so they say
And too quickly, plasters are applied
Patching up the hurt deep inside
I’m moving on, I’m brave and strong
And look, there on the horizon I can see
A new love. Hi, are you looking for me?

Gentle slumber take me
Into dreams where I can
Be the person you want me to be
Become part of the perfect plan
Where I agree with everything
Just nod and bow down
Like a bird trained to sing
Look at me, the dancing clown

I see you clap and smile
As the knots are pulled tight
Around me, is it worthwhile?
Seeing me disappear out of sight
As I am made into someone new
A mute speaking with your voice
As I fade into shadow behind you
Too late. I've made my choice.

I can recall my teenage days
Spent in the company of ghosts
Traversing a wooden maize
Of intellectual hosts

Contained in a blanket of silence
Away from the daily chaos
I would look for their guidance
In dealing with life, love and loss

I can still recall the musty scent
Of words written on the time aged pages
Reading the thought out wisdom
Of these ancient sages

The library is lost now
Not needed in this current time
Technology and internet are the new Wow
And ghosts can be downloaded anytime

But I miss sensory feel
And smell of the written leaves
Now lost in the sterile, electric unreal
And there my heart grieves

Modern life is killing me
Yawn, yawn, block out the TV
Pictures of bears, wales and lion
Dial the number, save the newest extinction
Money wanted for the latest charity
Save the children, comes the plea

It’s all too much for the heart to take
So it’s numbed in ice, to prevent the break
I am now part of the world’s population
Where denial is guaranteed self-preservation
But here we go with another newsbreak
Money needed after a recent earthquake

So I will travel upon my merry way
Living in ignorance every day
Paddle in an ocean where plastic rules
Ignoring the singing of dolphin blues
Don’t want to hear about what’s at stake
I can’t make a change, put in the firebreak

But to the next generation, what can be said?
When they look at oceans a long time dead
And a lion’s roar can only be seen
In a cartoon film shown on the big screen
The only animals in the world are biped
Trying to survive on this floating sickbed

I am not one to name and shame
Or make judgement, place the blame
But don’t want to leave the world as I found it
Hand it on, like it’s a gambit
So I will make one change, I hereby claim
I leave it up to you to do the same

Driving through the de-stress of another day
I can feel miles of worry fall away

Home, I am coming home

As tyres tread the familiar pass
The minutes drip through the hourglass
Only five more minutes to the underpass

Cars swarm like bees in honeycomb
Following the scent, the path leading home

Feeling the pull of your cologne

I can see the hug in your eyes
As your smile lights the world like fireflies
And your kiss rewires the heart ties

I am home.

Laying on a bed of sand
Soft as feather downing
You take hold of my hand
I am floating, drowning
Feeling the blue salt fill me
Your breath kisses my eye
Taking me down to see
Where the turtles fly
Amongst rainbow coral
And fish, timid and shy
Hide amongst a skeletons hull

Gossamer clouds waft over
Driven by a sun tanned breeze
As we lay, cocooned in our ardour
Surrounded by quiet seas
I can feel the blue salt fill me
As your breath kisses my eye
And it’s taking me down to see
Where the turtles fly
Amongst the rainbow coral
And see the fish so shy
Hiding in a shipwrecked hull

Life turns into a lyrical
Orchestra of song, as blissful
Violins play across the heartstring
Ever promising it can be lasting

Adore you
Need you
Desire you

Minds made, choice done
Aligned hearts become one
Ritual of old taken
Romantic words spoken
I give to you
All of me, I do
Growing into age
Every step a travelled page

Used to be tangled with you
Stuck together like superglue
It was we, us, one half of two
Mind reading, amazing but true
Yeah, you knew my brain too
But isn’t that what couples do?

It was like when Juliette found her mate
Star-crossed lovers, it felt like fate
I remember our very first date
The apologies, when you arrived late
The film we saw, the popcorn we ate
The goodnight kiss, making my heart accelerate

Six months later, under a neon moon
A diamond needed an answer, and soon
After, in the rose scented month of June
Vows were made as bride and groom
How tender the night of our honeymoon
As our hearts sang in perfect tune

A lifetime of you and me
Now it’s just me, I no longer see
You in the rooms where you used to be
A ghost in the misted rooms of memory
But I still visit the place where me becomes we
Just need to open the door with the love heart key

Under a shadowed bower
Of olive green scented leaves
I fall into morose reflection
As the heart grieves
For a love that was barely begun

For there was a time of you and me
In summer fields of broken hay
Where we spent our childhood years
Dancing amongst butterflies at play
And laughter came before the tears

How brief those hours in the sun
Before clouds gathered over the summer day
And a letter arrived at your door
I can still see the words pulling you away
A call for country, a call for war

I remember the day I said goodbye
There were no promises given
A brief hug, a touch of a hand
Then the train steamed out of the station
Taking you away to a distant land

For a year we kept in touch. Though
Letters were few and far between
I remember how the ink was smeared
On paper that had once been clean
Then the last, the last that came
Words written strong and unfeared

I opened the letter, to find crushed
Petals, placed between each page
A memory of our sweet meadow summer
While around you a war continued to rage
Words written, as if love would give you armour

Your body came home soon after
Your time with me frozen, as you were laid
To rest under branches of an old summer tree
I bring flowers each day, so the scent won’t fade
A reminder of summer, and you and me

Restless in spirit, no calm to be found
Fighting against the normal, trapped and bound
Mind screaming to be free
Need to be me, only me

So you traverse the mountain pass
Wading through heavy snowfall mass
Do you feel the chill?
Of a lake frozen still.

Then walking through desert, liquid dry
Where hot winds whip up sand in your eye
Can you see journeys end?
Is it around the roads next bend?

Looking with lighthouse gaze
Across a restless sea, dipped in silver haze
Can you see the distant land?
Is this what you planned?

Can you see the grass, so green?
Is it really greener than you’ve seen?
Or are the perfect strands plastic and hollow?
Is this the dream you wanted to follow?

Suddenly the heart knows what the mind must
And tears cleanse away the dust
Heart is the home
It can’t be lived in alone

Air thick with the suns glow
As grass once green is scorched into brown
Birds wade in dust that was once liquid blue
Amongst the dead of the sea
Summer’s here

Heat hits land like a hammer blow
As ancient trees push roots deep into ground
Thirstily looking for the trapped liquid dew
As birds shade under crumbling leaves
Here’s summer

In the shadow of a mountain weeping ice
Red dancing fingers race across a dying meadow
Roaring in delight as the life is eaten
Its blackened breath rises up into a cloudless sky
Summer’s here

Where is the rain to release us from this burning vice?
Where is the hail, where is the snow?
Where are the storm clouds, to cover this murderous sun?
They are lost forever under this climate of change
Here is Summer.

Hello

You look, but don’t hear
Each day the same
You speak my name

I am here

You look tired, and face worn
Eyes crusted from nights not rested
And days lived where strengths are tested

Listen

I need to say, so much, or very little
So many minutes we had, lost in silence
Would trade my soul for one more sentence

My heart beats

Silently from the depths of my cold bed
But love, yes the love, that I forever gave
Beats a tune of the loudest drum from my grave

For you

I have lingered, but I can feel the pull
Gently leading me away, I can’t fight, though I try
It’s time. I leave you with love, but not goodbye

I will be waiting.

Under a pale damaged moon
A ghost takes to flight
On soft white feather wing
It glides amongst stripped bare wood
As soft as a whisper
It plunges into the undergrowth
And a small thrumming heart is stilled
With deadly strike
Then quiet as a sigh the ghost drifts away
With its silent passenger
Hungry mouths are waiting

Lay down your head
On soft velvet clover
Breathe in the perfume bed
As cotton white clouds drift over

Slowly walls break stone by stone
As the silence hits, hard as a hammer
Are you lonely? You are alone
Amidst the wreckage, as memories stir

A journey travelled by crooked road
Each turn a choice, or was it destiny woven
Every step taken carries a load
And the weight grows with the path chosen

Regrets? There were a few rocks in the road
Second chances are like fairy powder
You don’t get chance to reload
A life lived, is a life, so live it louder

At the end when peace is searched for
Lay down in a perfumed bed
Of soft velvet clover
While white cotton clouds drift overhead

If choices were wishes
I would wish
For you
If you were in an ocean full of fishes
Then my hook would be baited
For you
I would kiss a thousand frogs, looking for romance
But hey, I’m not looking for prince charming
Just You
I would fight a dragon with pointed lance
Brave the fire, risk life and limb
For you
I am not a princess looking for rescue
I am not sleeping, or cleaning cinders
I’m here
Ditch the white steed, there are no villains to pursue
Give me our happy ever after, love me.
And that will do

How soft the wind sighs
Over perfumed purple bush
And songs of the bees
Breaks the lonely quiet shush

I am alone, adrift, marooned
In an endless sea of untamed heath
Shadowed by ancient crags
As they rise up high like broken teeth

Life abounds in the gorse and heather
And a curlew cries out its haunting cry
My heart aches in wonder as I watch
As it soars under a clear open sky

But I am not wanted, nor needed
In this place, this frozen time
But my presence will be suffered
By a land that will never be mine

Crystal splinters fall as tears
Creating ripples of light
Dazzling
I am blinded, filled with fears
Of this never-ending fright night
Wrenching
As the explosion hits my heart
And I feel the pain as it rips in two
Bewildering
Encompassing, this love was new, a start
Of me and U 4ever, I have your text, so it’s true.
You lied.

Don’t fall sleep, my little one
Don’t close your eyes
Not for a second
Don’t rest your head
On that soft feather pillow
Don’t count the sheep
As they leap over the wooden gate
One, two three, four

Don’t look to the sky
The sun has long gone to bed
Don’t search for flowers
They have hidden their beauty
To shine for another day
Don’t look for the squirrels
They are curled up, warm in their tree
Dreaming of a world of acorns

Don’t listen carefully
To this lullaby I sing
Fight against the pull of heavy eyes
As you drift into dreams
Where stars will carry you
On a magical flying carpet
Over rainbow mountains
And cotton candy fields

Don’t worry
I will be here
Keeping you safe
And in the morning
When you wake
I will be waiting
To share another day
Of wonderful adventures