On a sunny day waiting for
The answer
About costs
A husband with cheque book
Looked out of the window
Of the reception area
Tha attendant looked out of the window
At this woman
Dancing,
Dancing along a low wall edging,
" Look at that woman,  is she drunk ?", he said.
"That is my wife"
Returned my husband's voice,
" She just has a playful personality."


Love Mary **

Our lives come and go like the blossoms on a tree
A story told by many voices
It cannot be conveyed with any accuracy
Beyond that of dates and time
For the rest remains a secret
Nothing can describe.
Neither plan nor preparation maps our path
For it meanders like the tributaries of a river
Into unknown clearings
Stopping short of perfection
Clinging to the goodness found
Loving where it can that night owl of wisdom
Belonging to a tribe of people
Who at the end pick up the petals
And put them in a drawer
Saying this was he or she
Who we came to know
Whose name in an address book
Brings tears to our eyes
This was a life.

Love Mary ***

I tried to give you my beauty
Learnt at my mother's knee
Of Wordsworth and the grasses
The hilltops and the trees
I had a little garden
And hours of golden fun
Hands brown with sunshine
Our laughter could be sung.
Underneath an open window
A little girl swings
Swaying her new dolly
While the blackbird sings.
Pictures of moments
Are all that I am
I give you my beauty
I lay it in your hand.
I know I am not you,
Wanderer of the stars
You beauty is of a different kind
But the choices we made are ours,
Underneath the heavens
Looking at the sky
We met in the middle
And beauty was not shy.


For my Loving Roger from Mary ***

The gardens are having their wedding day
All dressed in shades of white
With bouquets of greenery
Tucked neatly out of sight.
Magnolia Stellata
Grows a feathered gown
Fit for any regent queen
To stand and take her vows.

Less extravagant but equally graced
The Camelia is in full bud
Clusters of rosaries
Pinned against leaf lace.
Of all my loves is The Bride itself
Abundant in its ecstasy
A cascade of loveliness
Showers like pearl beads.

Not forgetting the Snowdrops
The Brunnera and Daffodils
The Weddings are for all of us
To stand and watch at will.

Love Mary

I held you up to the stars
And they shined on you
I showed you the wind
And it slipped around you
The snow made an igloo to keep you warm
And love reached you
In my arms .

For my darling husband love Mary ***

I felt such profound sadness when she told me
Nothing inside me moved
No sense of delightfulness
As there would have been
All that imagining and planning
Others rejoiced, congratulating
And looking forward.

Not noticing my pain
Feeling the emptiness inside
I was an outsider to pity
Holding dignity close
I told of my pleasure
Nurturing a broken heart
In a speechless world.

The beer glass empty
Time to leave
My arm  slipped gently
Around your sleeve

The day remained the same
Nothing did we say
Just walked to the station
The usual way.


Love Mary

Summer has arrived,
I see you dancing in the rain
Outside a Soho Bar
Gorgeous woman
Humour sharp as ice
Heels longer than cocktail sticks;
It's five  in the morning
And your shopping
Food to start the day.
The train rattles
Jangling the wrist bands
You uncross your legs
Unlatch the carriage door
The children  are dressing
Bags scatter the worktops
You grab two hands
To walk the half mile
To school.


Love Mum **

Bear came to do my garden today
It had got into rather a mess,
Sticky Jenny and dandelions,
Rotten roots and garlic shoots
Got poor Bear betwixed;
Hot and sweating, really fretting
Bear began to cry,
Why was it that I thought gardening
From painting let me hide.
But off he went along the fence
Pulling out the weeds
Found some bulbs that did not smell
Dug  them up, as fast, as well
Now they're  back in a different spot
Three short stems in an empty plot;
Made me laugh just to see
How silly that Woolly Bear can be.


Love Mary
Thank you to Ian my Gardener

My father was a man of integrity
He taught me right from wrong
He did it with a gracious hand
That was always warm and strong.

Everybody knew him
Tall with an elegant stride
A smile for everyone
A kiss on the lips goodbye.

I never met someone more wholesome
Who knew the ways of folks
Grew out of a poor background
With love in every root.

His word was his trust
An anchor in the dark
A whistling bird of the lane ways
The sunshine of my heart.

Truth and beauty followed him
A kindness to the poor
An honour made more noble
And yet a footstep sure.

I carry what you gave me
In all the hours we grew
The pavements that were walked
I knew you through and through.

I am my father's daughter
Not always quite as bold
But fight I will for justice
It is our greatest goal.

For my dad Love Mary x

Daddy , daddy you can see I'm a girl
By my wonderful curls
When wearing a dress I look such a splash
Especially if it's in blue.
I know you like cars
But we've been playing for hours
And the juggling *****
Don't bounce anymore
Even the hoops are bored.

You call me Flimmy
I think I am a cat
But can't get through
The door flap.
The house is strange
With lots of weird names
And screens bright
With bionic mice
Whilst dinner comes in tubes.

But when you hold me tight
I know I'm just right
Growing up like you.


Love Grandma for Alex and Evelyn.

The stillness
After the cat had gone
The house seemed empty,
Devoid of soft patter;
Downstairs,
The shaking of biscuits on tin- foil
And the long slow meow
Of a morning yawn.
The warm spot in the garden
Now an obvious space,
Plantless from years of basking.
Only the birds seemed grateful
Peace had returned to their world,
No more feathered grassways
To clear.
We buried you in front of the fir tree,
You were part of eighteen Christmases
Our very dear black and white cat.

Love the kearns family

I remember you
Do you remember me
We were just together
But we shouldn't be
Then you sat me down
And you touched my hand
Then you sat me down
And I turned around
And my heart did leap
The words were shy
Then you sat me down
I began to cry
In a silent place
We then embraced
Then I turned around
And I found your knee
And what was forbidden
Had to be.
I remember you
Do you remember me.


Love Mary **

Woolley Bear did not like computers
For every time he put one on
He forgot what he had to do.

Love Mary

Under Scarlet lay
A letter written on a special day
Written by a loving father
To the mother she once had.
Every night she dreamed a dream
About a lady on a movie screen
With a teardrop in her eye
Waving softly a sad goodbye.

For beautiful Tasha who died at 30
A day after Scarlet's birth.
Love Mary

Montague and Connie Flu
Got caught up in a racing boom
Found themselves in a field
With coloured banners and an ice cream que;
All the competitors in a line
Wearing fitting clothes , combined.
Connie in her high heeled shoes
Wondered what she could do,
Monty suggested taking them off
Wrapping her feet in an old Jay- cloth
Connie did not like this view
So borrowed a pair of training shoes
From a member of the Boom,
Black and white with silver stars
Matched her top and legging style,
So they ran their fastest best
Over hill and under tree
Won the race without out a phew!


Love Grandma for Monty and Connie .

I pick my friends because they don't need me
For like the flower and bee
It is a passing arrangement .
Not tainted by a smothering gasp
If unavailable.
Never wanted to be hugged
Other than by words
Beautifully written in letters
I am a contradiction.
Gregariously plain.

On a wall for many years
Is a painting three foot tall
Behind the class, in a frame
A collection of artefacts displayed;
Two apples and a jug,
Reflected in an oval dish
A brightly coloured tablecloth
Orange with embroidered grapes.
Two wine bottles in green and brown
And a shell which was jumble found
Plucked in a hurry so to last
For they are known to drop
So fast
Taken from a garden tree
Placed in perfect harmony.
In a classroom, not too late
These pretty bunches
I did paint.

Love Mary **

Bobble hat and Terrance rat
Bought a flat at the back
Filled it up with tiny things
Pebble stones and fairy wings
They built some shelves
Made of wood
Cheaply bought
Without much thought
Stacked them up
Day by day
With their collection
Now on display.
Bobble hat was rather grand
So went shopping in a Harrod's
Van
The store detective very cross
When Bobble hat took a lot.
Under hat, behind the brim
Lots and lots of diamond rings.
Terrance rat was not impressed
Said your manners' a disgrace.
But off they went out for tea
To their local Busy Bee .

Love Mary

For Evelyn and Florence and all those who like to play.

I close my eyes
And dip again
Feel the moments lie within
Move into space
Dressed in lace
The loveliness of your face.
I close my eyes and look again
What was imagined
At an end
Yet the glow
That you showed
I find it in the words we told.

In memory of Roy Orbison.

Love Mary

The Millitary road was long and narrow
Hugging the contours of the cliff face
As braiding on a dress,
He teased me
Dancing the children in a line
Along the slim path
Edging  the fallen away grassland.
Dotted every hundred yards or so
Wire cages
Announced memorial sites
For the fallen.
The waves echoed a deathly hush
Crushing against broken boulders
A hundred yards below;
Eventually the path terminated
Running into turf,
The children took up my hands
Again
And the day proceeded as normal.

Love Mary

For all those who like danger.

I wanted to give you
The beauty of my heart,
In a pretty face
Or the smile of a child,
Something, mysterious,
Unknown,
Carried within me,
Like the feathers of a dove,
Cradled forever,
But never quite shown,

So I gave you my beauty,
In the things that I owned.

Mary xxxx

When you make
The wrong diagnosis
Through lack of time
Or too much expense
Or did not want
To be home late
The patient
Not to your taste
You could not
Be bothered
To go on
Make the last link bond.
Remember they are someone's mum
A daughter or son
Grandparents to a child
And think again
And be inspired.
For if you don't
The repercussions
Will create
A culture of hate
All through
The place
You advocate
To practices
Far and wide
And other peoples
Lives.
So don't misdiagnose
Use your intelligence
And grow.

Mary

We all have to climb the stairs sometime,
To wave goodbye to friends,
To kiss the roses one last time,
And understand we can't mend.

Though tears may fill our hearts,
Many have journeyed before,
Laid down their possessions,
Quietly closed  the door.

I leave behind my treasures,
The things that made me, me,
The people that I loved,
And those that loved me.

Be thy still of heart,
Knowing you did your best,
Filled my life with gladness,
Right from the very start.

Find in the petals,
The perfume in the air,
Traces of a wonder,
I always shared.

Love Mary ***

There were days of continual wetness
When the beach huts
Suffocated
Limiting pleasure
To mealtimes
And quick dashes to the
Sea.
Ice creams stayed frozen
In their wrappers
And craneflies buzzed
In the corner
Making the humidity
Irritated
After a fortnight
We were glad to go home
Next year was a long way off.

Love Mary x

It was not to be Hoppedy!

I never made it past the shed ends,
Back to back at sixty five,
The gates for the everlasting
Had been closed down early,
When it came, to my days ride.

Shame as I turned that corner
Making  a maturing point,
Realising what life wasn't
Opening the seeds of delight.
But it was not to be Hoppedy!

Love Mary ***

Their out of the office,
On another line,
Away today
Be back Tuesday ;
Can't take your call
Right now
But if you leave your number
We will get back to you!
I am sorry this mail box is full;
All the lines are busy right now
We do apologise;
This person no longer works
In this department;
Please hold the line.
This Extention is unavailble.

Living in a world of excuses
And abuses
Lies and deception
Poor reception
Does my head in!!!

Mary

How are the Lego kids,
With their boxes and their lids,
Shifting colours ,choosing frames,
Making vehicles ,City games,
Evelyn likes to see,
Watching as the plot reveals,
A sailing ship ,a caravan,
With her fingers says, 'I Can';
On the bed next to Dad
A spaceship glides past her head,
Then Mum brings in a big surprise,
French it is and two feet high.
So much fun to be had,
Playing with your Mum and Dad .

Love Grandma !Mum ,xxxx

On a chair with our cat
Fluffy tabby big and fat
Sat my mother book in hand
Reading something to expand
All the knowledge she did have
Collected there in that chair.

Remembering my Mum from Mary ***    Loved to talk to you all my life through .

Cruelty is a kind of dismissiveness,
A remembering to forget,
Not to notice or take an interest,
Ignore rather than prepare.

I have met it infrequently,
Thank goodness,
But harsh it is
And sharp as a knife,
Slicing through another's pain
As easy as butter.

Love Mary

To all those who have suffered at the hands of others .

SUMMER'S END.

The skies have been overcast,lately.
Draining the flowers of colour,
Bringing Autumn varieties adjacent
To August stock.There is a tiredness
In the stormy winds, a dusting of dry leaf.
We bring water in cans to restore
The last of this Summer's glory.
And hope for just a few more days
When one can bask in the blueness
In ignorance of Winter's call;
With the months of indoors
When perfumed air is gone.
The dampness in spider's dew
Replacing our Summer song .

Mary

On being three.

The baby Elephants and the Kangaroo,
Said to Evelyn "what can we do,
How about a game of cards,
Or racing cars in the backyard?"
"No" she said "that's not for me,
I'd rather climb the old oak tree."
So off she went right to the top,
Looked down at all the lollipops,
Down she came foot by foot,
Stood on the ground and took a look,
Saw how very high she'd climbed,
Said "Now I can write this little rhyme."

Love Grandma
Happy Birthday

Under the orange blossom,
Sat my mother and I,
My hands flat and smooth ,
Her's cracked and dry,
A simple band of gold,
Shone in the sun,
Oh I loved these moments ,
Oh I loved my mum.

Mary

Delirious.

No one ever realises, knows,
Other than in retrospect,
The significance of their action,
How the years will mount up,
Spilling this moment,
Out across the foundation of their lives.

There I was delirious with happiness,
Seventeen and a bit and skipping,
Running in the dark,
To tell,
To tell someone my news.
Circumstance did not touch ground,
Merrily I was oblivious,
As the door opened to the crying of a child
I stepped in,
Announcing my news with a smile,
Trembling with fear of this,
Holding arms she gathered me in,
I joined the clan,
Fell into the limitation,
As she had before,
And thousands before we were even born.
Her mother smiled, another bit of guilt lifted;
I came from a good home.

As I left hearing my footsteps
On the wet streets and creeping into bed,
My innocence dissipated,
The next day, the beginning,
The reality took away that joy,
Leaving the news to be broken
To the grandparents of my
Unborn child.

Love  Mary

Thank you dear Roger for being the father of that child and giving me a good life.

Under the damp and darkened skies
The smell of Autumn begins:
The leaves of the deciduous trees,
begin to fall,
Dew forms pools in the cobwebs,
The days get cooler and flowers,
Change direction,
Moving backwards,
They begin to close,
Preparing for the dormant period.
We ,too, know the shutting down,
When slowness creeps into our souls,
And energy leeches out from within.
Let this time be that of reflection,
A tidying up of a life,
And all bitterness or sorrows,
Allowed their freedom,
For what is it,
But to be polite.

Love Mary x

My good girl.

Shining brown hair with a hint of chestnut
Straight and silky and a sharp cut fringe
Sometimes in black beribboned plaits
Or two bunches showing your ears.
An elfin face cupped in my hands
Slenderly graceful you are still
You are my good girl.

Embracing life joyfully, you smiled
Through days of schoolwork
Touching the world with sunshine
Making all seem bright and clear,
Loving daughter, my first of three
You came to start our family
This is my good girl.

And yet you are many things
Other than my good girl.
You mind an encyclopaedia of answers,
Your heart a lover of nature,
A social activists,
You crochet beautiful blankets
Teach and make ceramic pots
And love to curl up with a book.

Love and thank you My Katie .
From Mum ***

Darling granddaughter
A fairy's name
Beautiful and gentle
A poetic refrain
In a cradle
White as snow
Curled like a ribbon
Waiting to show
All of your treasures
Saved for our pleasures
Sweet Evelyn
May your love roam.

Love Grandma ***

We live near the corner
Where two roads cross
Trees to the right
Give beauty and light
Ever changing colour
The Sycamore and the Pine
A Hawthorn  blossom, cerise
In Spring time;
Today this place
Is spread with snow
Patterned tracks
Where the cars go
Over garden walls
Ice drips stripes
Of frozen crystals
In the grey light;
This corner where we live
Is always a delight
A very spectacular sight.


Love Mary

Evelyn loved her seahorse
Popped it in a bowl to swim
The seahorse liked the water
Made the little girl grin.

After all that playing
She wrapped it in a towel
Put it in a casket
To sleep for a while.

Evelyn watched her seahorse
Until it was time for tea
She gave it fishes on a plate
The seahorse was so pleased.

Now in the land of seahorses
Anything can be
So Evelyn found it a friend
Now there are three.

The seahorses have their own castle
With shells and flowers and beads
There are mermaids to look after them
But they can do as they please.

When Evelyn goes to bed
The seahorses are quite good
And never make a noise
This being understood.

It may not be the best,
Or even have decent,
I have no card to give you,
Will last year's do?
The soap in the bathroom
I have replaced,
So now you can wash
Your dear hands and face;
The Jaffa cakes could have hearts on,
As they were bought with love,
So have a Happy Valentine's Day
My one and only Rog.


From Mary to Roger  **

Everyday you kissed me goodbye
In your blue candlewick dressing gown,
The cat rushing out of the door
In his hurry for freedom.

A peck on both cheeks and a spoken phrase,
Always remembered till this day,
"Rather be late than the late",
I waved back till you closed the door.

Love to my Mother ,Grace Emily Westbrook.***

Evelyn and Mary and Janet,
Florence and Anna and Grace,
We're six little girls,
Inhabiting a different space:-
Evelyn born in London,
In 2014,
Mary south of the river in 1952,
Janet came from America, Florence
Somewhere in Stroud,
Anna rather special,
And Grace an eldest child.

To be continued .

Love Mary ***

Sitting in this room with me,
Resting on leather seat,
Is the partner of my life,
A gentle man at peace.

I love you my darling
Roger from your Mary
XxxxxX

Tiny, so small,
Not really there at all,
Arrived in the night,
To all our delight,
Came the morning light,
The sound of the birds,
The sun over the horizon,
Your first words;
And from your cradle,
I lifted you,
Only a handful,
My eyes full of dew,
That little cry,
Lifted my heart!
Us two together,
Never to be apart.

For my children, Katharine ,Alexander, Victoria and Elizabeth Kearns

The room was full of a quiet light,
She lay back in the chair
Letting peace find her,
Cradle her in its arms.
Everything seemed still.
Then she noticed the curtain
At the bottom,
About the height of a child,
Moving.
She said it was like a baby
tapping it from behind.
She had to go over, eventually, and look.
Nothing and no reason for the curtain
To have done that.

She had longed so much
Just for some comfort.
To know he lived
And lived her as she had
Lived him.
She was very emotional
When she called to tell me.
She said "Mummy at least I know he's ok...
I am so sure it was him."
She just felt after all this time,
That he was letting her know,
He was there.

A few weeks after, she found out
She was expecting a baby.
A sister, Bonnie, for Alfie.
He was letting her know,
She was coming.
Sometimes,
Time is different in immortality....
to how we see it.

Pam's beautiful phrasing/words in a poem
By me.
Love Mary ***

The last of the Summer roses
were cut today
collecting the remaining flower heads
to keep in a vase
until colour fades
and petals fall.

Love Mary

I think of this bench
In the shade of two small trees,
Surrounded by roses,
And in Winter their thorns
Spike the damp earth.

How will it be years hence,
When children sit
And women knit,
Some at lunch, finding
Peace looking at the sky.

I put it there for you and you and you
So that its comforting presence
Is a reminder of our days
And your tomorrows
In this garden I loved.

Love Mary xxxx

You said, "thank you",
I said, " it's ok".

Holding tight to mother's hand
You peeped into my room
A face touched by angel's grace
And rounded like the moon.

Dressed in gathered netted skirt
And bodice pink and brown
You came to see your grandma
With your opened arms.

The contours of your shape I felt
A kiss as quiet as snow
You loved me in my rosy bed
And did we play just so.

Delphi of the ancient world
You are a modern child
In your eyes history speaks
Of wisdom with a smile.

Kind and gentle , soft and bright,
Grandma's lovely , golden delight.

Evelyn
For you are beautiful
Unknown mystery
Washed in the waters
Blown by a breeze.

Waking each day
To the sound of cat's purring
The temperature of sunlight
Through curtained leaves.

Can you hear our loving
Feel together our song
We ride on your heartbeat
Shape ourselves around your body.

This is now
Between today and soon after
We wait in the doorway
Of futures unlaced.

Love Grandma