"kew" poems
The old lady planted roses near the corner by the driveway
She never planted roses by the door
I remember once she told me, "Bees come out to get the nectar"
And a bee sting can be deadly or quite sore
Instead, she planted herbs along the walkway to her cottage
You'd pass by, the scent was rather nice
Rubbing rosemary and lemon grass and sage against your trousers
Sometimes you would even walk by twice
She had hollyhocks and primrose, a classic English garden
Lots of fragrant trees and bushes there as well
There were cedars by the windows and hyacinth close by
If she even had a lawn, you couldn't tell
There were irises and tulips, daffodils and more
And great bushes of white lavender abound
Not only was the lawn gone, with the bushes and the trees
I bet from inside you'd nary hear a sound
Around the back the same thing, exactly as the front
Herbs and plant life, and I'd say maybe more
Than all the plants in Englands Kew Gardens have to see
And more lilacs by the walkway by the door
The vents from down the basement blew through cedars and the lilacs
Sending warming scents around the clustered yard
There were windows to the basement, blocked by flowers and the trees
And to see in was really rather hard
The one day I remember when I came out to the house
Is one I know I'll not forget
For walking down the pathway with a policeman on each side
Was the old lady with a look of deep regret
It seems the scented flowers and the bushes and the trees
Provided scents to hide the smells from deep inside
The air was vented out directly through the flowers
The house was just a grow op in disguise
Mar 27, 2013
Mar 27, 2013 at 11:58 AM UTC
And more than echoes talk along the walls.
'Tis education forms the common mind. Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclin'd.
I am his Highness' dog at Kew; pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
Jul 8, 2014
Jul 8, 2014 at 9:26 PM UTC
Masculinum Hyppeastrum,
monstrum;
the man eating
botanica,
the endlessly flowering plant,
had enough of me.
Went to sleep,
or worse,
he perished.
I must have said something nasty
about his size;
doesn't flower anymore,
all dried out,
doesn't do a thing,
his onion is weeping.
Christmas roses,
as I call the girls,
lost the will
to live.
All my,
previously green, flora
is pointing her leafless finger
at me.
I've done nothing,
that's the problem.
I forgot all about my green plants;
the environment is wrong,
there is too much acidity,
and that's my fault.
I will search
under the garden snow
for snow drops,
I left to themselves
two years
February,
my snow tears.
For colour,
I have lemons and limes,
green and yellow;
sitting on a traditionally,
blue, hand-painted
Chinese china platter.
River Yangtze
is still running through my mind.
Chai,
Lemon tea and lemonade.
~
Author Notes
*Flowering plants from Bahia : Hyppeastrum sp.
From the 1970s, many plant novelties from Bahia
came to light with the expeditions carried out
by Howard Irwin and collaborators
of NYBG (USA) and by Raymond Harley
from RBG-Kew (UK). This provoked a renewal
of interest, among botanists, in the flora of Bahia*
(3-1-07)
Oct 14, 2010
Oct 14, 2010 at 3:43 PM UTC
*I find a story in the veins
Of spaces; Relative
To nature. Authors scar --
Rhythm concentrates the mind.
Plot. ****** Literary art.
The character who passes
Unconventionality -- A snail with conscience?
What is a story without substance?*
Feb 10, 2014
Feb 10, 2014 at 12:43 PM UTC
There was a young person of Kew,
Whose virtues and vices were few;
But with blameable haste,
She devoured some hot paste,
Which destroyed that young person of Kew.
1.4k
On the way to Kew,
By the river old and gray,
Where in the Long Ago
We laughed and loitered so,
I met a ghost to-day,
A ghost that told of you--
A ghost of low replies
And sweet, inscrutable eyes
Coming up from Richmond
As you used to do.
By the river old and gray,
The enchanted Long Ago
Murmured and smiled anew.
On the way to Kew,
March had the laugh of May,
The bare boughs looked aglow,
And old, immortal words
Sang in my breast like birds,
Coming up from Richmond
As I used with you.
With the life of Long Ago
Lived my thought of you.
By the river old and gray
Flowing his appointed way
As I watched I knew
What is so good to know--
Not in vain, not in vain,
Shall I look for you again
Coming up from Richmond
On the way to Kew.
1.3k
The river wrestles on, furrowed by light bulbs.
The iron song of the evening bathes the air in
London's homeward beating hearts.
A world of leather and troubles, not of one's own.
The summer moon is a dim lamp
as we walk from Kew Bridge to yours.
Quietness clings to you so unnatural.
It's rattled your breath, like a spectre's hands
have tipped black medicine down your throat or
A devil's tongue, wet with mockery,
has kissed away daylights fervent laughter
and left your mind to move on silence.
Under this train crash crescendo – the world is too much
so I make balm from my words,
that I shake out like polaroids of times
we felt worth remembering.
Yet, a monkey rattling a cage, my lullaby falls deaf
and your lungs sit still, heavy.
We walk on like stuffed dolls, for all our beauty
just passengers in the night's school bag and
I'm left to think of the Thames as the great, grey, mother of us.
How it forged what we have, set in motion our hearts
to be tugged shallow, wrenched deep with the tide.
We were born in it's ritual, bound, heaving in sync.
And the caustic moonlight gives us nothing to rein,
In the silence you shine like beaten copper and my grain is the
hammer. Each lilt of your body begs me to love and to know
What spills from your mind
when you cant scream and cant cry.
What do you have without words?
I want you to have me -
because you are the words.
That I write everyday.
And the reason that makes me
want to remember
that I'm feeling this way.
Dec 16, 2014
Dec 16, 2014 at 9:03 AM UTC
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Mar 28, 2015
Mar 28, 2015 at 2:36 PM UTC
Yesterday I kew my name/I had a schemes/To get my way.
But things changed/That I did not plan/Still, I didn't complain.
I accepted my defeat/Not because I was weak.
But because my decision would affect me.
I invision the consequences, of my action/And my conclusion satified my soul.
When I thought I was lost and distressed.
I realized just ,Who I Am?
I'm someone in the wildnerness just talking to God.
He touched me inside down to the bottom, of my heart.
He build me up/When I was lost he guided me to a better place.
And looked me directly in my face to see the real me.
And said, I am. Who I am?
And you, are. Who you are?
Simply, a lovely child of God.
That's, who I be?
That's who I am?
Feb 9, 2011
Feb 9, 2011 at 10:25 AM UTC
IV
Dear Frank,
My father, who was the wisest man I ever knew,
thought it the duty of every man, young & old,
to keep an account of his money;
& I very unwillingly obeyed him;
for I was not always so bothersome
an old fellow as I daresay I appear to you. . . .
My dear Father,
I have sent cheque to a repeated bill from Griffin.
A thermometer has come from Kew,
For which I have also paid.
I go on maundering about the pulvinus,
& from what I have seen roughly
in the petioles of the Cotyledons of oxalis,
I conclude that a pulvinus
must be developed from ordinary cells.
I have tried watering Porliera out of doors,
I gave four small cans full in the day
& next morning it was wide open
though for several days before it had been shut.
The pot-plant is very unhealthy I am afraid
As its leaves are dropping off at the stalk.
I was very glad to find that Sachs is dead
against all the people that find
the Descendenz theory in
Ray, Lamarck, Goethe &c.;
Sachs says that he believes some ferns
of the family Marratiaceae sleep . . .
Dear F,
I have finished the long chapter on Sleeping Plants
& sent it to Mr Norman to copy & diagrams to Mr
Cooper.
I am now looking over piles of notes on Heliotropism.
I am more perplexed than ever about life of Dr. D:
Hen thinks it very dull, & wants it much shortened &
otherwise arranged. Erasmus likes it.
Your mother wants parts shortened.
I shall take it on Aug. 1st to the Lakes
& finish it there.
I am tired— Ever yours
C. Darwin
Apr 9, 2014
Apr 9, 2014 at 12:54 PM UTC
The river wrestles on with
light-bulb's furrow
and the iron song of the evening
bathing the air in life.
I feel London's homeward
beating
hearts.
The summer moon is a dim lamp
as we walk from Kew Bridge to yours.
Though the quiet
hangs off you so unnaturally.
It's rattled your breath,
left your mind to move on silence.
I also know how world can be too much,
but unlike you I cope with my words,
that I use as photographs
of times when when I felt
there were feelings worth remembering.
still we walk and
I think of the Thames as a
great, grey, mother of us.
How it forged what we have,
set in motion our hearts.
What spills from your mind
when you cant scream and cant cry.
What do you have without words?
I want you to have me -
because you are the words.
That I write everyday.
And the reason that makes me
want to remember
that I'm feeling this way.
Aug 14, 2014
Aug 14, 2014 at 4:56 PM UTC
I loved every thing, every inch
and the song-streams never ceased
But now my moon has left and the tides
are
all
a
s
kew
so why should I be able to channel anything?
the group mentality is to reject the sober and drink until
nothing
matters
oh
we're so far ahead of the group
[correction]
I am.
Aug 6, 2011
Aug 6, 2011 at 9:05 PM UTC
Some life
We will link arms
And walk the paths of kew
The warm hand of the sun
On our backs
Some life
We will go in the palm house
And melt away the years
Among the Latin names
That ancient cyclad
Some life
We will touch the tall pine
Remember the pattern
And the strength
Some life
We will climb up
To worship the trees
And look across London
And turn and kiss
Some life
We will turn home
Multitudes of leaves
Dancing reels
On the path ahead
And falling joyfully
In our hair
Some other life
Jun 10, 2015
Jun 10, 2015 at 2:29 PM UTC
There is an owl on the gate and he is singing “tu whit tu whoo”
He is not sure whether he is at Chelsea or indeed at Kew.
He knew here there were well to do types
He also knew that bamboo was green and had stripes.
There were ladies dressed in white Broderie Anglais
Most of which were covered in Italian Spaghetti Bolognese.
Somebody said “Oh I do really beg your pardon
I do like a good nosh up in your garden”.
Some preferred a patch with movement and flow
on the other hand stuff hadn’t chance to grow.
Some folk needed style, imagination and some shape
And all that some required was a simple landscape.
One chap needed mud and a garden full of sweet roses
Rather a contrast but his stuff just decomposes.
Most were impressed with the Chelsea Flower Show
And they all shot off to see what they could plant and grow.
Magnificent!
Jul 30, 2015
Jul 30, 2015 at 3:05 PM UTC
There is an owl on the gate and he is singing “tu whit tu whoo”
He is not sure whether he is at Chelsea or indeed at Kew.
The Pig knew here there were well to do types
He also knew that bamboo was green and had stripes.
There were ladies dressed in white Broderie Anglais
The Pig was vile covered in Italian Spaghetti Bolognese.
The Pig said “Oh I do really beg your pardon
I do like a good nosh up in your garden”.
The Duck preferred a patch with movement and flow
The Pig on the other hand stuff hadn’t chance to grow.
The Duck needed style, imagination and some shape
And all that the Pig required was a simple landscape.
The Pig needed mud and a garden full of sweet roses
Rather a contrast but his stuff just decomposes.
Both were impressed with the Chelsea Flower Show
And shot off to see what they could plant and grow.
Jul 25, 2017
Jul 25, 2017 at 3:56 AM UTC
i already said that i made a mistake:
hijab and niqab...
but hence the q.
a question, not a queue
standing outside the kew gardens...
but this enforced diacritical markings
over j-ay hey!
or iota (ι) -
it's enforced...
why not a candle í of the acute iota?
he-dziab = hijab
you don't say hi / high all of a sudden,
followed-up with jab...
the diacritical
**** of iota, can morph into an "umlaut"
whereby i can morph into a "digraph",
i.e. hi- = ee...
or simply ē (which is what prolongs
the stress on the letter).
what could i ever conclude with
having written the following?
well... the first philosophy book i ever
bought... in camden town,
plato's θηæτητυς
and i do treat eta (η), as if it were epsilon (ε)
with an acute diacritical mark hovering
over it.
anyway... it only took
over two-thousand years of history
to deal with...
so there's plato's theaetetus: "strange"
how siamese consonants are named digraphs,
while siamese vowels are named graphemes...
there are more digraphs than graphemes,
since there are only two graphemes: æ & œ,
no other variants, i.e., well that's one
to claim, although segregated by . . and
those are two unique words.
yet in the theaetetus dialogue,
socrates is talking about S O
so- (+) -crat- (+) -es,
a syllable broken down into letters (units) -
but this is the 21st century,
and what minor detail occurred in
the 20th century?
something similar, i suppose...
the same concerning bringing it down to just
two letters...
heidegger's ponderings (iv, 221):
why do i two g's in my name?
at first i'd suggest he asks the question
as a case of vanity, but i suspect there's
a question concerning aesthetics of spelling...
at least in english that's the case,
the germans write like chemists,
they compound excessively,
and they don't hyphenate their words like
their english cousins...
so he goes on to state why his nickname
is gg (jee-jee)
g1. güte (benevolence, not pity)
g2. geduld (patience, supreme will)...
sure, but why not géduld?
ah... because that would be frown-ser
(french) - and that would hardly be patience,
it would be a 35 hour working week...
other nations frown and say:
you're ******* lazy!
and the french reply: qui-z la
pita-mont (πíta-mąnt) / (we're patient).
Jun 14, 2017
Jun 14, 2017 at 12:26 PM UTC
The blind beggar near Aldgate
a city gent at the Embankment
the Temple not meant for a psalm
this District line takes
some time to unravel
so I travel on blindly
much the same as the beggar.
Euphoria
I'm passing Victoria and she passed
away many a long day ago.
and
I am heading to Kew but Richmond may do
a walk in the gardens or a stroll by the Thames
all caught quite neatly by the camera's lens.
In a day filled with happy
I have to ask her to
slap me
just in case I am dreaming.
........................ ................,.
(part 2)
Back I thought to Barons court
alas 'twas not to be
I took the platform on the other side to find myself beside a sea
which pleased me absolutely,
going home is such a chore
I'd sooner watch the comings of the tide but what I actually saw
was building sites by seaside huts,
this nuts and bolts society has once again undoubtedly
******* me up completely.
Short platforms are the norm for me
in this shrunken underground
where I can see
that insanity
Is the next stop.
Aug 9, 2016
Aug 9, 2016 at 3:08 PM UTC
we walk the path to the spring
where the waters come constant
from the ground unfreezing
warm enough for duckweed to thrive
even in blue winter,
deep with snow.
the air holds few sounds,
the snap and tumble of tree limb,
river's crashing iced sheets,
the click and kew of the junco,
wind, amplified one hundred fold
razor sharp in the cold.
how does the waters know
who told it; here.
it's here that you will rise,
at the end of a path in a small cleft,
said by locals to be the gathering
place of the ancients, the fairies
and the dead who died before their time?
we come to the spring and beside it
as deep in the snow
as we are in its mysteries,
we become a part of the story
reassured that the promise
of the thaw is as constant
as the coming march sun
and the ever flowing water
at our feet.
Sep 29, 2025
Sep 29, 2025 at 4:41 AM UTC
Down the corridor of your mind are many doors
Who knows what lies behind them?
Life makes you choose.
In youth, hungry to win, afraid to lose
Not wanting to disappoint, and eager to please
You open them with ease.
Some bring you failure, or its twin, success
Some seem a certainty, others a guess
You find many unimportant
Or only means to ends
Behind some lie enemies,
A precious few hide friends.
The trip down this corridor is a test
To prove to yourself you have what it takes
Focusing on your goal, ignoring the rest
Savouring your victories, exposing mistakes
You press on to be best.
At some point down this corridor, far from the start
When you least expect
A new door opens to a journey apart
You meet someone and suddenly connect
And are led down the corridor of the heart.
This new corridor is different though,
Its journey lifelong
Behind each door lessons are learned
New emotions you couldn’t know
Right and wrong the hard way earned
Daily paid as feelings grow.
These emotions conflict as inside you change
You feel joy and doubt,
Contentment and pain,
The bitterness of loss and the sweetness of gain
As solutions somehow work themselves out
In this corridor decisions count
Both when taken and later
As consequences mount
There are no victories, no defeats
No false starts, no repeats
Only the experience of life made greater.
In this corridor you go forward and remember back
Old scars heal
When new feelings take their place
Showing little behind a public face
While inside you alone can know
That like your inner thoughts, each scar is real.
The corridor of the heart leads to love
But there is a price to be paid
For its end is the sum of all decisions made
Of the anger you have felt
Or the hurt you’ve been dealt
Of all words good and bad you’ve said.
But whatever the price this corridor exacts
Through what is in your grasp
Or beyond your control
Without the sum of all its acts
Your human life would not be whole
For the corridor of the heart leads to your soul.
Kew, England March 1998
Feb 8, 2019
Feb 8, 2019 at 11:43 AM UTC