All innocent
I crossed the fortune teller's palm
with coins - and notes

She looked in her glass
- Crystal she called it -
and in her lilting tones

Forecast a syzygy of planets
which would bring me
all I desired

If it happened

The Technological Revolution
means
Everyone
Always
One step behind mastery

Climb any mountain
Enjoy the space
the fair views
in every direction

Wait a while
savour the pleasure
You've started a trend
Everyone wants to do it

Hello! You alright?
Yes thanks, yourself?
Fine
Cheerio
Move on

Wherever I go
he's there with his walking frame
smiling cheerfully

Box Lids
belong on boxes
On walls
they look
undressed

Over the doorways
new cameras are watching
I wave as I pass

The loose sort
is disappearing
It can't be used
online

A gray squirrel
appeared in my garden
uninvited
destructive
reported

Assignment-'Write a sonnet'
I did look up the definition ...

Pictures gone
Slabs
Of uncoordinated colour
Leap out at me

Little striped buzzers
keep interrupting
when I'm trying
to concentrate

I plan to do so much
and accomplish so little

I haven't
a particle of poetry
in me
Nothing rhymes

Wrestling with words
Forgot water heater
Late rising
Late everything

The man using Charlie's transporter
had a beautiful languorous daughter.
She said 'Give me a lift'
He said 'Not on my shift -
I know you - you'll fall in the water'

Heavy rain
lets you know
which of your shoes
leak

Torn jeans
and box - top paintings
mock poverty's needs
and aspirations

Good voice
but I'd like
to have heard some words

Friends took me to the superstore
of clothing jewelry and more
and said "Look 'round and take your pick"
I said: "You'll think me very thick
but how can I decide to buy
when racks of clothes urge me to try?
There's too much choice, I'm overcome
Decision made- Please take me home"

Anything?
What do you mean
by anything?
Literally, any thing?

A poetry guru named Sean
Said 'Limericks just make me yawn.
The rhyming is flat,
the meter's old hat,
free verse is my thing, not old corn.'

"How long
have these bollards
been here?"
"About twenty years"

Hail hits hardest
when not anticipated
and head is hatless

Don't let the worry
of giving and preparing
wipe out the wonder

The poetry group
tried it this morning
without much success

Snow
source of so much poetry
cancels
poetry group meeting

Seated, crossed legs forming triangles
your breath coming gently, evenly
feeling comfortable in your skin
you ponder strange mystical words

It's possible to make poems
about almost anything
but like most things in life
there's more to it than that
What is a rhyme?
Do all poems need them?
Must I obey rules and formulas
and stick to a code?
What about stanzas, syllables,
punctuation, presentation?
Can the number of lines
accord with the inspiration
or must there be dogmas
to govern its expression?
If I take it too seriously
I lose all impulsion
and the words which should sing
lie flat on the floor

Wild raspberries
Glow richly red
in the hedgerow
Taste wonderful

Herdwicks
look at you kindly
Knowing
you can't help it

Op Shop
Charity shop
Best stop
for Lost And Found

Space
Comfort
Cheerful atmosphere
Beautiful surroundings
assist peace of mind

Camellias, Forsythia and Daffodils
flowering
Dandelions in bud
Squirrels chasing

At Epiphany each year
I think of the Magi
who foolishly doubted
a star's inspired leading
and went to Jerusalem
to enquire of a king.

A king who was noted
for disposing of claimants
to the crown that he guarded
as if held by glue.

In an instant the destiny
of scores of young children
was wiped out forever
by this one mistake.

Had they read Micah's prophecy
of the birth of a Saviour
they would have reached the stable
as lovers to a tryst

and the Bethlehem children
would have lived life as normal.
The carpenter of Nazareth
would still be the Saviour
and the blackbird have sung
over cradles, not graves.

February fourteenth
means something to some
but not to all

The workman came,
said what he would do
and vanished

It's poetry day
and I've  nothing to say
How come?

"The length of a lyric"
the writer explained
over a cup
of what looked like tea
"depends on eroding
a concept held dearly
down to its heartwood
to let it sing free"

The stump of the tree
cut down by thieves trespassing
glows pain day and night

What is a change?
An alteration
longed-for or loathed
mental or physical
swift or subtle
demanding or gentle

and some changes
make things better

You can see the headlines
"Bronze superstar switches beaches"
from cloudy Britain
to hot sunny Tropez
Everything's news to someone

With better
Flower Show mapping
I'd have seen
more flowers

It everyone crunches
together
nobody notices
how loud
you are

As someone approached,
the pigeon I was watching
skeedaddled quickly

Rain sheeting
as forecaster says
"Showers over Cumbria have cleared"

officially true
not your imagination
the sky is more blue

To the untrained eye
most modern art -
'modern'  meaning anything
this century or less -
though luminously painted
remains mysterious
and at times a shock,
a shock so great
as to render one speechless,
minus even a syllable,
on the gallery's contents

Though a friend of mine
a respected artist
was heard to say
as she left the exhibition
"scrambled egg, scrambled egg"

We lived in Cornwall then
crashing waves and seaweed tangles
sea views looking so far distant
it could have been to another hemisphere
Bliss
At least we thought so
until- you know how the smallest things
trigger a firestorm?
In this case it was musc
each of us despising the other's choices
'til the rows reached a crescendo
stereo shouting
and the split was inevitable