The sprouts got pushed to the corner
Hidden under knife and folk
The roast beef in a paper napkin
To the bin I slide
Ate all the carrots, the potatoes
And Yorkshire pud
And the pudding was scrumptious
Just the way it should.
Christmas blessings
To all who do not
Have much to eat
This difficult year.

Love Mary **

Roast beef steaming on a plate
Baked potatoes gravy laced
Yorkshire puddings
Round and brown
Carrots and stuffing
At Christmas found.

Gathered with our festive cheer
Mum, dad and brother near
Laughing in our paper hats
Holding napkins on our lap
Patterned crackers, motto inside.

Sometimes on the floor does slide
A silver plated ring or plastic guide
The pudding rich and fruity bake
Spoonful of single or double take
And Neopolitan ice cream to taste.

Now to go and watch the box
Someone help to do the washing up
The snow is soft on our lawn
Throwing crumbs from garden door
Blackbird and sparrow spy them all.


Love Mary ***

Oh mother I remember you creeping
So quietly in your quiet slippers
On Christmas evening so late
After the street lights had gone out
Up to our bedrooms.

And holding red crepe bound net
Stockings filled with all that you had
Place these one at the foot of my bed
And one at the foot of my brother’s
Each one filled with a tangerine:-

A pink or white sugar mouse with
String tail and red sugar piped eyes,
Chocolate money, rubber end pencil,
A cardboard card of four tiny plastic
Baby dolls with stuck on dresses;

And a few other treasures to surprise;
A tinsel bauble, ribbons and slides,
A toy whistle and a silver crown;
My mother’s purse was never full
But her heart was and so loved.

Love Mary xxxx

Of all the things inside my head
I wonder which I’d choose
The shiny saucers on my wall
With patterns on them all.

Some painted by Susie Cooper
With dainty flower heads
And others Brambly Hedge
With hedgehog tucked in bed.

Then in blue and white china
And Churchill on the back
Picturesque moments of bridges
Willow chintz and that.

Finally the many flower fairies
Their delicate floaty wings
Sitting on a tree branch, Cicily Mary Barker
Who loved all tiny things.

Love Mary ***

Never found you in the daybreak
As it splintered, separating sparks
I stayed, waving at the end
With nothing to give but
The cold Winter heart.

For all the days I lived with you
In our house under tiled roof
And leaded light windows
Making oblong shapes move
I so very much loved you.

Mary xxxx

I struggle to pull the bed covers
In this little room of walls
Surrounded by images
That touch my soul
And days and hours
And folds.


Its been coming a long time
The whispering in the dark
The jackal on the road
The night shadow
And the lark
Singing.

Love Mary ***

Those silver ***** were my favourite
Placed sequentially on piped scrolls
Round the circumference, sparkling;
With Robin and Snowman greetings.

Tied, two inch wide, red satin ribbon
Around decorated cake on silver base
Marzipan and apricot coating under a
Stage of shimmer hardened royal ice.


Love Mary  xxxx

Christmas lights by Pickwicks
A variety pack of colours
With dancer’s skirts
Frilled edges, sharp.

Loose bulbs, unstable filaments
Twisted black flex
Two spare bulbs
And a flasher.

On and off, off and on
Different sequences
Alternative time durations
Reflecting our life story.

Love Mary ***

Sometimes one is just too old
Or too tired and Christmas
Is unwanted cheer
Sadly this is me
This year.


Buying for others is still fun
But cards break my heart
In them I need to explain
My pain
Not to blame.

Love Mary

The morning lay hazy in the blue
A fantasy of candy floss mists and dew
The trees on either side of the road
Water colour Cotman patches of ochre
Dabs gently mixing
Caressing the unclothed hedges
Where berries formed
And what we shared
Eloped the earth.

Love Mary ***

The road, stretchy silver slug trail
Pinned between house and branch
Winds its way upwards
Then down towards mud tracks
Filled with reflected grey
As the sky starts another
Day in December.

Love Mary x

Shades of green and a lichen fence
Leafless bushes embrace telegraph
Triangular factory roofs make hills
In the patch of lavender’s sunshine.

And two paths, worn grass journey
Of favourite places returning home
Break into the emerald field of love
Where our walking brings strength.


Love Mary ***

The frost curls round grass
I can smell its coldness
Tips of ribbon ice on green
A woman’s shadow wave.

Up above a velvet field
Glistening citrus glows
The sky a streak of blue
Mornings’ Winter snow.

Love Mary ***

I am dying of gangerine
But as we have only Brexit
And Teresa May to play
No one gives attention
To the unrelenting penetrating
Blackness inside my head
Soon I will be dead.

Love Mary **

If it had been a bright day
Someone would have noticed
That the notes were missing
Taken it in turns
To look under beds
But instead all went home
In a holiday mood
Jolly good.

Love Mary

Brightly balloon got marooned
On a wet and windy afternoon
The rope got caught on a boat
Which took to sea with sailing.

On the beach was captain Jim
Swam to waters to pull boat in
Strong and fast grabbed mast
Untied cord and got onboard.

Brightly smiled to be rescued
Riding back on Jim’s nap sack
Together they reach the shore
Time for tea and baked beans.

Love Mary ***

On a beach in silver
Sat the fair skin child
Sea bells on her feet
Pearls round her hair

Out came ‘tea-stain’
With his yellow cup
Offered fair one sips
Drippity drip, drip.

Love Mary x

Falling upon a crooked stone
That lent itself some space
In the highest tenements
A malevolent elf smelt.

In the borders of mistrust
Where the baddies grow
Getting fat on mincemeat
Trying not to show.

A scraping of butter
To put on salted bread
Was never brought
To justice, no whistle said.


Love Mary x

The swimmers and paddlers.
Hello swans with your brown signets
On the near edges where the weeds blend
And the green meets the trusted stoney bed
You frighten a little with those huge wings
The strength to **** if fear struck an orange eye.

The ducks and drakes trailing fluffy ducklings
So linger daring the hands of bread and biscuits
A continuity of return until fat and bloated, stop.
Their tail feathers sharing a twitching line march
As they swim back to the safety of the reed beds.

Love Mary

Trouble me not with all those woes
I fear I can do no more
I sat out the evening folk
Met with the crowd for sure
But nothing, nowhere
Listened
Or even twitched a bell
Did not pick up a pen
And never did yell.

So my story ended in ditches
The daisies covered my soul
And I was not missed
On the open road.

Love Mary **

I stood at the forest gate
Waiting for the hare
And down the road
Came ‘Housey’
Hare completely unaware
His legs were stiff
His arms in gloves
And on his head
A crown
He looked much smarter
Than any frog around.

Love Mary ** Grandma

She opens her tin
And in liliaceous
Paints rain drops
Big drops, small
Drops and splashes.

A background of
Pale grey washes
Allows the drops
Of rain to settle
Creating spaces.

Then in come the
Animal people
With curly hair
And bright hats
To keep off the rain.

It is fun to paint
Getting into worlds
You don’t know
And play and dance
While it rains outside.


Love Mary *** Grandma x

Those rugs were your years
In patterns and shapes
Majestic remnants of
Outer wear cut and woven
To make rugs to keep
Us all warm.

Love Mary

The birds flew over the ocean
I wish you were here
For my time is thining
And the gate swings near.

The loss of what we knew
Evaporated
In the last golden sunset
I wish you were here.

Love Mary x

Is it ever worth being young
So much wasted time
All that glitter that we found
It was lonely in the inside.

Prettier than a sparkly lollipop
Never stopping not to shop
Or to gather finalites on a ride
I will see you to say goodbye.

Love Mary ***

Hello swans with your brown signets
On the near edges where the weeds blend
And the green meets the trusted stoney bed
You frighten a little with those huge wings
The strength to **** if fear struck an orange eye.

The ducks and drakes trailing fluffy ducklings
As they swim back to the safety of the reed bed.


Love Mary

Where did it come from that perpetual silence,
Hanging in the air becoming thought,
The birds knew it before the dawn calling,
And embracing lovers touched by a first kiss,
Perhaps in the waiting there are moments

Love Maryx

I love the way you sit
Your long leggies taut
On the soft furniture
Coloured socks on toes.

I love your long fingers
Spread out on keyboard
Intent on dancing about
The tap, click of moving.

I love your face in beard
Flowing silver silky hair
Rests on wide shoulders
I really, really love you .

Mary xxxxx"

Poor little thing unwanted
Uncared for by knowledge
Wondered at how it could be
Such cruelty allowed to be
To be given out to victims
Nothing ever improved
Since time began.

Only a few years of vision
After the 2nd World War
Claimed by a selfish
Generation of smartphones.

Love Mary



Love Mary ***

The black cloud burst the horizon
spilling a deluge of ominous hate
The evil of nations, of people
And organisations, and of arrogance.

It scraped and swamped the rivers
Cascading each venomous paw
As it moved the land to death
The destruction of life crunched.

And Wendy just sat on the sand
Wearing her hand knitted gloves,
Blue, made by a loving friend
Then she raised herself and flew.

Love Mary ***

At weekends in mid-August if the weather sunny
A girl dresses in bright fluorescent pink socks
The sort sold three in a pack at the local market
Puts on her best T- bar white shoes and is ready.

A family outing which included a younger brother;
And a bundle of toys, cricket bat and picnic bags
The train went from Tooting Bec to Mordon station
And from there a tiring walk was undertaken.

Delightful it was with the cow- parsley and crickets
Red Admiral butterflies and leaf blossom on the trees
The siblings, only eighteen months apart, thought
They could barely wait to arrive at their special spot.

And so they did, well before one o’clock, in high spirits
Racing the river as it flowed hidden behind iron railings
Nettles in the tall grass and air scented meadow- sweet
To the trunk improvised seat by The Wandle .

Love Mary x
'

Along the line of shops at the bottom
Was a sweettie shop
Sunday afternoon and father fetched out sixpence
Whilst he watched the television sport
‘Go down to Martins and get a bag of chewy nuts,
Sherbet spinning discs and liquorice laces’
Put on my shoes and flew
There and back in a flash
Brother, dad, mum and I
Sat, ******, munched
Glued to the black
And white set.

Love Mary ***
.

A silver dale stagelit on silhouetted horizon
Treasured musing in grassy hedgerows at dask
A walk under spells of secret cat calls
And hark the birds take night in flight.

You pretty of shade and hour have hope
Thank goodness you now fair long to become
The flower of days when Summer you danced
And woods rang gaily to the tuneful hum.

Love Mary ***

Sometimes we never know a person
Who filled our lives without a breath
Yet made a heart leap
And a mind yearn.

In sepia and postcard size
A professional portrait
Backed on thin card
In a blue album she sat.

Elphin faced just more than thirty
A baby in Christening gown,
Sleepy eyed, stretched across her knee
The family Moonstone upon her chest.

Opal, oval semi precious stone
Set in golden filigree leaf
Falling from a fine nine carat chain
As my mother looked up to smile.

Love Mary ***

You soldier and civilian
Rememembered with red and white
Poppies
We today commence this
Remembrance Sunday
Proud still of our nation
Who seeks to save
Who lost so many
In the bombs and the blitz.

May we learn in these hours
What sacrifice means
What love is and trust
And seek that this world
Endeth not in tatters.

Love Mary ***

Four strange people stand in a line
Pulling funny faces, turning a blind eye
I wonder who they are
I never knew
Lived on a hillside
In a cottage or two.

One played with sarcasm
Used it every day
Thought it very clever
Was in a strange way
Its significance unimportant
Could not even see
That lies were filling the holes in the wood.

The fool was insatiable
For all things combustible
Black bags outside
Always ajustable
There was psychedelic wallpaper
In rolls everywhere
The cats repatriated.

The crazy optimist thought it true
Played with cheque cards
Lined up in a que
Always in London
In spite of themself
The trousers too expensive for size.


Lastly the collector of funds
Father been a road sweeper
Could do lots of sums
Sometimes this wandererer
Found on a map
A paradyn for contagious frogs.

Four strange people stand in a line
I think I knew them better from behind!

Forgive me soldier, I never knew
How your life was wasted in such
Tragic tears
Your youth by the roadside just slipped away
Your beauty went with you
Your poetry too.

Born to be famous with beautiful
Words
Layed out in notebooks and on
Paper scrolls.
Never married, no children born
But I have your poetry in my drawer.

Love Mary

Where is that girl,
The one that comes,
To visit her grandma,
Even if it's not fun,
She sits by my side,
And makes me laugh,
I feed her sweeties,
Out of my jar,
Daisy I thank you,
Your voice ever wise,
Your face full of beauty,
You'll always be kind,
To those less fortunate,
For now and all time.

Love You ,Thank You .
From Grandma ***

Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain
On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me
Remembering again that I shall die
And neither hear the rain nor give it thanks
For washing me cleaner than I have been
Since I was born into this solitude.
Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon:
But here I pray that none whom once I loved
Is dying to-night or lying still awake
Solitary, listening to the rain,
Either in pain or thus in sympathy
Helpless among the living and the dead,
Like a cold water among broken reeds,
Myriads of broken reeds all still and stiff,
Like me who have no love which this wild rain
Has not dissolved except the love of death,
If love it be towards what is perfect and
Cannot, the tempest tells me, disappoint.

The sorrow of true love is a great sorrow
And true love parting blackens a bright morrow:
Yet almost they equal joys, since their despair
Is but hope blinded by its tears, and clear
Above the storm the heavens wait to be seen.
But greater sorrow from less love has been
That can mistake lack of despair for hope
And knows not tempest and the perfect scope
Of summer, but a frozen drizzle perpetual
Of drops that from remorse and pity fall
And cannot ever shine in the sun or thaw,
Removed eternally from the sun's law.
Edward Thomas

Evelyn came today
Just a short stay
On her way to Stroud
Spent a couple of hours
Such a joy to see her face
Lighten up the whole place
Fascinated with her toys
Cheeky grin for all to win.

Gentle, careful little girl
As she explores the world
Looks at every detailed trace
Of the items neatly placed.
Filled with sunshine in her smile
The beauty of a Summer's flower.

As I whisper in your ear
You melt like sugar drops
Turn your face and snuggle in
I love you sweet Evelyn.

Love Grandma Mary ***

Dotty was a beautifully coloured dragonfly with four wings
And a  long slender body,
She was made by Evelyn on the coldest day of the year
When the ground lay under two inches of snow
And a southerly wind blew flurry flakes of whiteness
Into faces and down fronts of coats.

All the way home Evelyn held on to Dotty
Protecting her from the bad weather,
Until she was safely on the kitchen table.
When you make things your heart wants
To share so Evelyn thought of her Grandma
Who she knew would just love to see Dotty.

Now in 2018 there is FaceTime a magical device
Allowing one to speak and see pictures of
One's family and friends,
So Evelyn asked her daddy if she could
Show Dotty to Grandma.

Grandma heard this ringing in her room
Coming from her iPad.
Who can that be she thought and went to see?
And there was Evelyn with Dotty
" I wanted to show you my dragonfly
That I made at playgroup this morning".

Well Dotty was beautiful with her painted wings
And Evelyn flew her round the room for
Grandma to see.
This made Grandma so happy and they both laughed
And talked and then Evelyn showed her Bagpus on her
Own iPad and Grandma and Evelyn both sang
The mice song.

It was only a short call and soon time to say goodbye
Evelyn said "you have made me very happy "
And Grandma smiled in her heart all day.

Love Mary ***

Things never got any better, she laughed
Shuffling down between her two children
One a girl of eight and the older boy, ten
The new addition looking bewildered
Cradled in canvas carrier peeped out .

So here we were all over again, the six family
It had been but four, eight years ago
But one moved in and another departed
And baby boy surprise ****** his tongue
This had been an extraordinary year for all.

Love Mum xxxx

The dragonflies and meadow-sweet
Follow the banks of ‘The Wandle’
Allowing what is hidden and not heard
Behind posted iron railings
To be noted, found on a map, imagined
Its very name conjures up the river’s journey
Drawing one into its currents and flows
A place of beauty where time seems slow
Rippling the edges of thought, living as a space,
Exploration, given  by inclusion and exclusion
Forever to ‘wandle along’ under the sky
Between the gaps in the real
And what finds itself from what
Came before in experience and words.

Love Mary x
The River Wandle is the largest river of the south southwest sector of London, England. Its name is thought to derive from the community around its mouth, Wandsworth. About 9 miles long, it passes through the London Boroughs of Croydon, Sutton, Merton, and Wandsworth to join the River Thames on the Tideway..
Mouth: River Thamesnn

The insects and wild flowers
Follow the banks of ‘The Wandle’
Allowing what is hidden and not heard
Behind posted iron railings
To be noted, found on a map, imagined
Its very name conjures up the journey
Drawing one into its currents and flows
A place of beauty where time seems slow
Rippling the edges of thought, living as a space,
Exploration, given  by inclusion and exclusion
Forever to ‘wandle along’ under the sky
Between the gaps in the real
And what finds itself from what
Came before in experience and words.

Love Mary x

If I could make a garden
Planning it would need
For all the things of loveliness
I’d have to find a seed.


The first would be gentleness
To listen with its words
and then Compassion
Climbing up the old brick wall.

Intertwined with Peace
And a touch of Tenderness
Wisdom in abundance
But most of all love.

A gardener needs good tools
To **** and dig and prune
To take away the debris
Sweep with a clean broom.

When it comes to tools
The old ones are the best
Sharpened by experience
And cared for with love.

A garden must be accessible
For all that walk its ways
Giving to each and everyone
A pleasure that will stay.


Love Mary ***

The days always had Red Robin and Cyril
And us two sitting on the cold back step
You ninety - four and me in my late forties
Red Robin came forward, hop, hop, hop
And took the cheddar from you old man.

Days of simplicity when the bluetits nested
And the birdtable was filled with seeds daily
Your strong hands, tapped up the peanut tin
Your son shaved the stubble on a rough chin
This quietness was rewarded by many birds.

Love Mary ***

Private people you know the best
They leave out what is unintended
The bits of lives you never ask for
So free is this space that friendship
Flourishes unhindered to imagine.

Love Mary xxxx

Hands, rough, gather up two handfuls
Tugging the brown-gold silk into piles
Feeling the chafing on back of my neck
Its tender movement is loved as comb.

A sharp scratch from crown to the nape
Tortoiseshell plastic slightly dusty grey
Divided, plaited, and tied with bands to
Black nylon ribbons, you kiss forehead.

Love Mary ***

Evelyn’s first year at school.

Evelyn sits her pony tail *******
She reads the words on the walls
Hold hands, a friend’s small hand
The cuff of her red cardigan soft
Playtime is outside , warm today
Cakes and orange with an apple
She turns her head to a listening
Where a story stretches out time
About rabbits and mice and love
Evelyn loves school, it is a home.

Love Grandma ***