Sixty-six years living in a country I respected
Never regretted it, admired, honoured.
Finished!
The treatment of the underprivileged
Is unstainable
The law allows ******
Of the innocent,
Cruelty to the old,
England has failure
Running through
The arterial map
Corruption explodes
Its ***** fingers
In the corners
Where they should
Show love.

Mary x

Evelyn whispers to her plastic cats
That they are all girls
The boys come in sheep and piglets
And hide under cardboard, gravelling.
She likes to crunch the kittens into
One section of the many
In the title play case
“Kitty in my pocket”
That I bought her.

Love Grandma ***

From' Twopence to Cross the Mersey' we became friends
Finding in each other's soul a companion
And so we trudged, together, pushing the unwieldy pram
Along the streets of Liverpool where the river swam.

Structure, meaning, characterisation, the book had its plan
But we loved dear Helen, little waif from another span.
The waters had their beauty that we could see,
Finding yet another  moment to share a read.



Love Mum ***

Thank you dear Vics for all the good times we had.

By the river just outside Paris George Seurat
Painted his tree trunks using black conte crayon
In a cream sketchboook
The year was 1893.
Critics say of this work,
All most black,
That it is hovering between
Regularity and irregularity
Reversing the lights and shades
I think he was just trying to get it right.

Love Mary x

Falling about in a shamble of giggles
As the quiver tipped her inside,
The Art Master had passed by
She was interrupted.

Taking the path next to the library
Where students poured out
Their sorrows over dissertations
In the Summer heat.

It had come to her slowly this
Sense of embarrassment
Unable to communicate with fluency
Or look into blue eyes.

Love Mary

The tarmac a dotted carpet
A yellow orchard
Fallen seeds, tiny stems
Carry in the gutters a dream
Fertility in a crack of sand.

Love Mary x

The daylight paraded through the stainglass heart
Clipping the edge of the stairs with dancing hues
The boy tall and fair picked up his bag
Stepped outside with a menagerie of thoughts
Into his world where the alligators were friendly.

He was a flaneur, in the making, after Manet
With the odd misspelling and circumvent
Adding a silky flourish to filtered words.
But was it enough to guarantee sixth form grade?
His propensity for idleness a growing concern.

Getting to the shops, early, before school
The boy bought another pair of white shoes
White was his favourite, a sort of purity.
It helped, this buying of things, to dissipate
The consumption of unending urban terrors.


Love Grandma ***

Oh my roses you bloom so gently
Turning your palest petals down
And the raindrops roll off you
But no words not a sound.

How I love you as your moving
My sweet roses taking turns
Holding out for each other
As the day twists you round.

Then to take you to my lips close
And your fragrance breath it in
Filling my soul with your perfume
From your stamens on my skin.

Now to evening and the light fades
Delicate roses you come down
Scattering all your tenderest beauty
Silent petals lay on the ground.



Love Mary ***

I do not want the flowers to know
That I am dying
That never again will I see their petals form
Watch their leaves from a window
Fluttering in a rainstorm
Please don’t tell them that I am dying
Never let them know.

Love Mary x

I wonder if we were together long enough for the weeds
To grow along the fences and in the ditch by the wall
If we would become cement.

Love Mary x

“Play it like music”,  James said.
Slamming himself into an armchair
The boy took another ride with despair,
“He criticises everything”.
I cuddled him with my words
“It was very expressively played
I like it that way”.

All the years he had tried to please
Fitting in with people’s demands
Braving himself.
He admired his stepdad
Accepted and understood
Affection was not easily shown
By those damaged themselves.

His mother found a lover to hold her
The boy laughed thinking life a joke
Respect faded.
At least James he thought clever
A strategists, of sorts.
Peter was so loving to be flimsy
Like the soft cloth on the door.


Love Grandma xxxxx

I think I shall buy
Some Vintage Alam Bay glass
The shop is now empty
These many years passed.

Was near the bottom
Of the Totland Bay Hill
I would stand there often
For hours at a spell.

A double fronted window
Stretching the place of two
Filled with many cabinets
Holding colourful jewells.

Owned by the company
Alam Bay Glass
Made at the Seaside shop
Where people did pass.

Swans, ducks and hens
Abstract shapes
Blown from a tube
Until they'd inflate.

Then there was twisting
After the blast
Beautiful bubbles
Of shiny spiralled glass.

Have to look on eBay
The only place they'll be
Maybe quite cheaply
My childhood memories.

Love Mary x

Finding this place has allowed
My family to know how I feel
To capture memories to read
To tell how much I love each
In a special and particular way.

In doing this I read the words
Written by others for reasons
That they know not quite
And oh how similar we are
Under Van Gogh's Cosmic sky.

Love Mary x

To  Daffodills

Faire Daffodills, we weep to see
You haste away so soon;
As yet the early - rising Sun
Has not attain'd his noone.
            Stay, stay,
Until the hasting day
                   Has run
But to the even- song:
And, having pray'd together,we
Will goe with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you,
We have as short a Spring;
As quick a growth to meet Decay,
As you or any thing.
       We die
As your hours do and drie
                       Away,
Like to the Summers raine,
Or as the pearles of morning dew
Ne'r to be found againe.

By Robert Herrick (1591-1674

Love from Mary XXXX

I wonder if I said nothing would you know
Could my name be drawn out along a lane
Cut- out stencils for an autograph
Hardened plasticine creating the frame.

Maybe the more that is said, the less heard
So sit beside what is not my poetry and
Remember in the grains of time what I am
All that is ordinarily attributed to a friend.

Love Mary x

I filled  my basket with flowers
And four baby eggs
A son and three daughters
Under a checkered spread.

We never went to market
For that not meant to be
But cuddled up together
With buttered bread for tea.


Love Mummy.

A painting, an orchestration
A trembling anxiety, enhanced
By chance.
No trace of description
A ratio in space
Flat on a surface
Embedded in spool
A mood outstanding
The sobbing of a fool.

Love Mary x

Open university  'Civilisations' poster is free on
0300 303 5303

Love Mary x

This girl
Came to visit me
As often as could be
First in her mother's arms
Then on buggy wheels;
She played with the dolls' house
Spread out across the floor
What more could a Grandma want
Than a friend to play with the toys.


Love Grandma to Daisy ***

Give back the tree that stood by the gate
Casting its shadow to the south
Cutting hedges in half
Protecting the smallest of animals
From the hottest sun.

You have been a horizon from a silled room
A fragrance guided by light
Tomorrow's promise of another
And the gap left is a silence
Remembered when I cry .

I will be there for you in the days that follow
Do not worry, my son
For when you take each child's hand
You're holding mine too.


We'll walk in the park in the Summer
I will be there, my son
Life is a repeating pattern of smiles
I am always your Mum.

Love Mum x

Stephen, love surrounded you
Tragedy befell you
Corruption embalmed you
We all failed you
You made us better people
You made us more aware
That for racial hatred
There is no room to bare.

Nothing can replace you
A boy of seventeen
Helplessly slaughtered
In a London scene
Remembrance of you
Is the best we can give
Beautiful boy
Just wish you'd lived.

Love Mary x

Running fingers through nutmeg hair
You claimed the silky tree bark
Black ribbons in a sea of leaves
And a brown checked school dress.

Love Mummy x

Float those fingers across my mind
Do not dally in the sad alleyways
For we are always friends
And the dappled Maple
Has been our glade.

Mornings bringing shades of green
Flickering on our window pane
For we are always friends
And the dappled Maple
Has been our glade.

Love Mary **

I will speak with you dear friend
Though my heart aches
And all our beauty offends
This state of disintegration.

For my love carries to the end
Its bruised fruit
Resting down upon a table
Where we shared.

And every brush stroke
Stole my eye a surprise
And I never cried for sorrow
On that wooden chair.

I will speak with you dear friend
For if this be our last time
Let the apple and the pear
Bear the departing hour.

Love Mary

There are no words today
My heart lies in two
Can't suture the wound.

Love Mary x

I fall into your words
They scatter my thoughts
Swirling radiant flashes
Of remembrance brought.

Love Mary x

Running between downpours
Mackintosh over head and back
Clutched tightly the front
To stop the drips on our chests
Run now, go.
And we left the shelter of a shop doorway
Feeling the rain hit our shoes
Soaked socks
Eyebrows drizzle
We keep going in the storm
Reaching a dry spot under
The leaves of a Sycamore tree
Rest, relax
Sharing chewy nuts.
The road is awash
Dribbling streams criss cross
Meeting in drains
And steam rises from tarmac
Misting the air
Then out comes the sun
The blue sweeps in
Blowing away grey clouds
And we continue our journey
Splashing  
In the now still puddles.



I loved these moments .
Mary ***

That edge of the sea feeling
Barefoot where the sand slops heavy
And popping seaweed drapes knots
Slimey, slippery ribbons drifting
Along with our feet.
Stubbed toes bruise on rocks
And that sudden extra wave
Surprises, chasing knees
And thighs with bubbles.
Sun splinters through spray drops
Brown to golden streaks
Collect in our hair and eyebrows
As the evening slips
Into still waters
And we return home .

Love Mary ***

The Place Of The Solitaires.

Let the place of the solitaires
Be a place of perpetual undulation.

Whether it be in mid-sea
On the dark, green water-wheel,
Or on the beaches,
There must be no cessation
Of motion, or of the noise of motion,
The renewal of noise
And manifold continuation;

And, most, of the motion of thought
And its restless iteration,

In the place of the solitaires,
Which is to be a place of perpetual undulation.

The first daisy was your first flower
As if you knew not its name but its power
Caressing fingers found as the sun shone .

Love Mary
Grandma

That late hour after school
When all is mellow and gentle
The quiet light licks the sides of things
Making pale shadows as we begin.
Unroll the mackintosh and onto
The ground put out our frugal
Tea that we may eat after
Climbing the trees.

For these times are long past
But to see all the leaves
And stones in the dry earth
And feel that warmth of you
Our mum and the courage
She had. For that walk
Was not an easy trek when tired
And your eyes only wanting
A sigh as we both played
It was such as is given
By a poor man.


Love Mary





Love Mary x

Forty years felt this land
Green
But how the  carrions caress
Its shores, pollution stains
In all the halls
Where hang the priveledged
Like bats in the light.
Without vision or right.

With cupped hands the meak
Hold out the remains of the
Saint's words, crying why?
And the challis falls until
Failing retribution they, too,
Break hour for the truth
For carelessness is unbearable
Sorrow.

Love Mary x

In a field at the edge where
The Burnet's reproduced
Their dark wings with six red spots
Giving birth on our hands
From inside their chrysalis.

Mating from egg, larvae
To pupae and adult moth
Took about three weeks
We went almost everyday
The hot sun stroking our backs.

This was our moth Summer
Guiding our courtship with
Fluttering wings and newness
Stepping through the railings
To gain this precious time.

Ate holes in my heart
It was humble in the way
Quality without exuberance
Maintains.
There was a slight flap at the bottom
Below which showed your tanned
Stockings and low heeled brogue shoes.
You left my house after tea to be home
Before nightfall where my father
Would meet you at the bus stop.
Your greying hair cut short in waves
Peeped from under a headscarf.
I walked you to the path where
No longer were you in sight
As you turned a bend onto the
Main road to catch your bus.
At this point I felt every texture
Of your tweed coat, its solidity,
I longed to hide inside and get
On that bus returning with you
Forever.

Love Mary **

We jumped in feet first
Slightly unbalancing the craft
Red it was, a catamaran with
Those pedals and oars, difficult
To steer.
My pink pinafore got splashed
And dad's beautiful face laughed
The pleasure of being a child,
Ruddy cheeks, generous mouth.
It was just me and him,
A boat for two, as we spun
Round and round trying to get
Started in a direction.

Out in the shallow sea we bobbed along
Only had half-an-hour before call in.
Our feet got wet in our shoes
And we smiled and smiled
I loved my dad that day
In his stripped top.

Love Mary x

As one follows the coast line round
Dipping in and out of the coves
Floating flat out for a mile or two
Swimming back under the night sky
What is it of importance, something obtained
That may have changed the course of another
Be held onto as daylight fades.

Ones children are our lessons learnt at a cost
Remembered and cherished, found and lost
They show us who we are, the good and the bad
And take with gratitude the best that we have.
Four gold sovereigns placed in a line from
Each I carry sixpences that helped make life shine
In the coves find some oddments to go on a shelf.

Mary ***

Being of an outward mind I do myself pretend
That babies are Easter eggs and rabbits silver men
And white chocolate elephant and shiny ducky doo
All travelled on the sleeper as part of the night crew.

And when they got to Dainty- hop took a private plane
Flew across a poppy fields but they'd turned quite strange
Down they dropped with a flop, lay round under a tree
Suddenly came a swamp of bees and stung them quietly.


Although the world can seem quite flat and tortoises slow
One never knows what direction the north wind doth blow
So gathering up thought for the day and putting it in a sack
The family of chocolate friends took a speedy train back.

Love Mary x

I use to pick my blankets
Turn them into Jesus in the manager
With the coloured fluff from the ends
They were never there the next day
Absently been cleared away
With the making of the bed.
I missed them.

You float across me
As evidence that you are not mad
Hating the dependence bar where you eat
I am not that spider you nurture
Just a plate of cold ironies.


Outside the running fakes you
Into a daily ritual of bliss
I lie flattened, blind, deceived
The buttress of my heart stapled
You float across me.

Love Mary x

Happiness is hairy legs
And a crimplene skirt
Cheap sandels on a patch of sand
Favourite sky with its clouds
Egg sandwiches and cheese
A mackintosh to sit upon
An old sunhat
The peace which is this day
Uninterrupted love.

Your hands are stiff but I take them
Feeling how cold in spite of the sun
But today we will drive you to Ventnor
It's been sad these years without Mum.

The wind is light and the sky azure
Memories flood through my brain
Today we will drive you to Ventnor
Have lemonade and ice- cream again.

Love Mary ***

I think of you little mummy
When the snow gathers round your gravestone
Creeping up the sides of the white marble
Touching the words with its soft hands
Covering the overturned urn
As the last flowers lay like a fan
Uniting you and daddy
Under the lightest eiderdown.

Love Mary your daughter .

I can't take my shoes off the road
Verbally swimming me out
On the surface I see all the words
Gliding over each other, waiting.

Choosing is the reason for living
Placing and position another
My purpose gigantically impossible
But the errand earnestly strong.

It takes from infested waters
The dark black tulips of Spring
All that has covered me over
Until the last swim begins.

"Catch up",I said, "Catch up",
But it was he always trailing
Dragging those new shoes
Though they were sand paper
Until the toes nothing but
Dust.
Then the new top itched
Like a foreign skin
So you punctured it
Stretching and pulling
Until the zip almost
Popped.
What were you brother
So angry and gaged?
You grew up to be
An amazing parent.
Better than I.

I keep going back
To the spot
Where the ocean meets the sky
And I am that child
Who never cried
At the front of the bus
Holding onto the rail
So I don't roll my head in the clouds
Watching the farmland slip by
It was once I.

Love Mary **

You paint pictures of small ceramic bowls,
Copies of tree trunks from George Seurat,
A single Plane tree in the local park and
A red apple which use to be two.

I read you my poems over the mobile
The one about the boy on the beach
You liked as it recalled your childhood
Its mood is wistfully sad, we share that.

Love Mary x

I have to go to the pussycat heaven
There to find my friend
That brown mottled tabby thing
That sat on the sofa end.

He'd been about almost all our life
Since marriage a time ago
Saw the babies born to us
Loved them right away.

He was a very treasured cat
We knew he was not well
But suddenly he disappeared
Out our cat- flap door.

A last journey of exploration
Steroids helped him run
Let's really hope dear Nuska
Had one last day of fun.

From Evelyn ,Florence ,Alex and Tasha
To their deavely beloved cat of
Fourteen years .
Love Mary x

Like an upside down monkey
Climbing his frame
Hands attached
To a sleeve as velcro.

What is it that you
Are saying
Is it that baby sister
On the floor playing?

Love, that confused
Emotion breaking
Rules of behaviour
As we try.

Love Mary x

As handsome as a lion
Tall with crew cut blonde
Hair and articulate
To the point of nausea.

Too young to give me
The eye or a glance
But was my brother's
Friend from The Bec.

The four of us played
Bridge, a heated game
Where intelligence rules
And chance gets a bite.

Paired into twos, competing,
Boyfriend and I, unequal
Richard and Colin, unequal
The serious and comedians.

Sitting opposite our partners
Reading expression, important
Prediction the golden glitter
Siblings had only expectation.

Love Mary x