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Dec 2020 · 399
Imaginary
Unpolished Ink Dec 2020
Ever changing memory flowers
grow on the sunny windowsill in your head
they bloom and fade in their imaginary ***
seeding the world with stories
Dec 2020 · 502
Turnstone
Unpolished Ink Dec 2020
Turnstone
Tumbled by the tide, over and over
Washed by rolling waves
Polished by the shifting sand
Dried out by the winter sun
That shiny pebble in your hand
What a life!
Dec 2020 · 134
The Last Day
Unpolished Ink Dec 2020
Take the trail,

footsteps in the mist of a thousand misheard voices

follow the singing memories as they fade around each corner

time has left you on this journey through the mountains of your life

you go ahead, rest for a bit

enjoy the breeze and the pretty yellow childhood flowers

for you the walking is done
I hope my last journey is like this
Nov 2020 · 680
Liquid Bricks
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
Fingers of fire
Flaming desire
Flirting with strings
Melted angel wings
Acoustic profanity
Electric insanity
Liquid bricks in your heart
Tearing you apart
A nuclear star
Now that is the sound of a proper guitar!
Nothing quite like it
Nov 2020 · 426
Memory Blue
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
Thistledown light

Released and surfing the breeze

Up into a cloudless sky painted memory blue

Dandelion puffs

These are the fairies

At the bottom of a suburban child's garden
The kind of fairies I remember
Nov 2020 · 454
Rainbow Requiem
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
Oil on the water

Gentle spilling colours

Tumbled greens and inky blues

Fade to yellow and pinky hues

Filling the puddle

A requiem for rainbows
Even rainbows have to die sometime
Nov 2020 · 145
Art -boiled down
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
Art is the joy of creation
Whether it is a painting on a cave or a monkey with a paintbrush making a splat-if you enjoyed it then it is art.
Nov 2020 · 161
Shrinking Woman
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
The crown of thoughts that once did sit upon my weary head
is gone, fading gently into the distance
only the impression remains
vague marks of what I used to be
the other much more consequential me

Someone let her out
She slipped away
and never quite came back
although she had a key
each time she went I used to find
she left a bit of me behind

What is left is a badly knitted gift
A thing unravelled
Full of holes is what you get to see
The tattered remnants of the shrinking woman that was me!
I have an aunt with dementia-it really is a terrible drifting away
Nov 2020 · 261
The Yellow Balloon
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
The yellow balloon that was mine, got away from me

It escaped from my infant hand
waving gently as it sailed

I watched it go and realised that nothing was forever

It took off for for the sky,
with a little bit of innocence attached to the string!
Nov 2020 · 184
Troubles Shared
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
You can trust the moon

She is too old to be shocked

And she never gossips

Except to the stars

They shimmer

Because they know

All the juicy details
Nov 2020 · 179
Temporary Claim
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
Winters frozen earth my tomb below a shadowed frosty mothers face, a working boot with rusted nails that pushed me deep beyond the freeze to where I came upon another place, a womb of warmth within the soil

The fallen leaves which flew me to my doom, became a broth to speed me into verdant life.  I cannot say how long I lay within my room, growing fat among the worms which chewed my infant food and burrowing things all shiny on their backs like glass which passed and took me to the sun and light and air.

My growing place I knew not where, was ploughed and ready land where I so small could barely see above the plants which grew around me as a coat and shield from spring and summer heat.

For so it came to pass upon my second year and more when I did chance to see the floor the grass and daisies at my feet for I had grown so tall that they were hardly there at all.

A mighty oak I stand through changes to the times which seem to work though some mysterious and unknown hand. I heard the ***** of soldiers in their passing off to war and heard returning feet of some I heard before.

And when my limbs became so heavy and then thickened to  a width beyond what eyes could see, they changed the name upon my trunk and I became the famous hanging tree, it was not right, it was a man who pulled the rope and took a fearful struggling life, not me.

The seasons came and went and all around me in my view, began to build and change from what I always saw and knew to be my place, tall buildings sprang from what had been a lonely space, of solitude and wind that whipped my leaves and brought my children to the ground, as that surround which I had long held dear began to fade and slowly disappear replaced by traffic ever near.

I cast my green and shaded eyes upon grass and daisys once again, an old and fallen victim of the rain, now I with scurrying creatures lie upon my back to see the sky, so once I grew and now I die, to sink beneath the soil from whence my acorn came, I lived the life which all of us man beast or tree have only temporary claim.
Please be kind, it is a new venture. I am not known for writing long poems so there might not be another one. I just felt inspired today.
Nov 2020 · 150
Feather In The Breeze
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
A feather in the wind

dances

and knows nothing of direction

a free flying thing

without the slightest notion

that others find it beautiful

as they watch it skip and dive

gently landing and taking to the air once more

it has no cares

no timely worries

a happy child of the elements

chasing the libertine breeze

little knowing how much we would like to follow
Nov 2020 · 275
Sea-Sound
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
Sea sound
The music of life
Wild and free
Noisy in it's joyous abandoned moods
A naked dance under the heavens
Unceasing and restless
Ever shifting
Like the sand which follows it
Snaking in it's wake
A yellow puppy anxious to please the moving water
Nov 2020 · 483
Gossipy Old Ladies
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
Faces are our covers
They show the world what we want it to see and to believe

A replacement cover can make a tired old book look new

But hands tell a different story

On the ends of your arms are two gossiping wagging tongues

They always tell the truth!
Nov 2020 · 78
War Dogs
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
The Ice dogs are howling

Hear them roar

Loose on the wastelands

They mean war

Patrolling at the margins

Looking for an ‘in’

Listen to them calling

Let fighting begin

Scarred of greying muzzle

Torn and rent of ear

They sing throughout the ages

A song of blood and fear

The world will always listen

To their glory tales of  war

We invite them to come calling

As they raise an armoured paw

Then we watch our soldiers falling

As we always have before!
Nov 2020 · 291
The F*** It Bucket!
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
There is a place, It has no name
Easy to get to just the same
Everyone has one, a room of despair
You can knock on the door
If you no longer care
It's the end, I have had it
I’m glad that it’s done
Can’t be bothered to fight
And nobody won
Battled ourselves to the bitterest end
If anything’s left
You can keep it my friend
You keep on talking
But I am walking
Today
Get out of my life
Get out of my face
Apologise to an empty space!
Sometimes you have to know when enough is enough!
Nov 2020 · 167
Broken Bottle
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
To see the stars fall , and have them melt as falling rain upon your face

the drowned sorrows of another day, run and leave no trace, upon your damp and salted skin

they leave their scars writ large upon the beating heart within
Nov 2020 · 477
On Days Like These
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
On days like these

Winter sunrise low on the trees

Bruised dawn of crimson pinks and yellows

silhouettes the waving branches

sharp relief against a cloth of birds

A bedraggled army of tattered hungry souls

clinging to straws in an empty field

feathers moving in the early light

as tinted day takes on the shift from frosted winter night
Just what I saw on my drive to work today
Nov 2020 · 104
Circle
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
A simple haiku
Our considered thoughts expressed
Without the excess
A Haiku about Haikus
Nov 2020 · 223
Blame The Rain
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
I blame the rain

It has a ceaseless patter

A rhythm on the window and in my head

It stalls my words

Drowning them with sound

Stones that sink that great grey whale of my thoughts

Stilling his song into empty silence

No poems today

I blame it on the rain
Poems in short supply!
Nov 2020 · 178
Unrequited
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
Unrequited love
Is a smouldering fire
Alight on one side
Nov 2020 · 402
Shy People
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
Shy people
Sometimes have the most to say
They just don't know how to do it!
Nov 2020 · 663
Snake Oil
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
Syrup

drips from your tongue

saffron words, yellow and fragrant, pool at your feet

sweet and clear they charm the birds from the trees

but not the bees

they know real honey!
Nov 2020 · 81
The Non-Existent Song
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
There must have been a time
When the world was quiet
just the moving trees and the breeze
and the waving meadow grass
When did that moment pass?
Now and again away from the din
a little stillness creeps back in
Maybe it’s been there all along
With its peaceful non-existent song
Perhaps we just forgot how to listen
to the silence!
Nov 2020 · 266
Duck
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
Calm on the surface
Frantic paddling underneath
Ducks mirror the world
Nov 2020 · 504
Waking Sky
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
Those who mourn will ask the heavens why?
Lovers watch the sunrise when dreams have gone awry
Old men scratch their beards and think of days gone by
All beneath a single waking sky
Nov 2020 · 546
Fern
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
Ferns hide from the light
Seeking solitude and shade
Beauty in shadow
Nov 2020 · 139
Briar Wire
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
A wilderness heart

Wrapped in thorns

Tangled spikes, to keep the hurtful world at bay

You sought me out

And you cut them anyway
Nov 2020 · 200
Autumn
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
Bramble king of Autumn

Swirling cloak of windblown colours

Spikes and blackberry sweetness on the vine

A talented contradiction

Who does not feel the summer heat

Or own the chill that winter brings

One alone

A blended showy charmer

With a magic only he can bring

Beware this tattered crown

For he can turn his tune to bitter-song

With freezing notes that hang upon the frosted air

Weaving seasons end of twisted fabric

Holding out a hand to cold

Signalling to all the year is  done
Just a little thing about Autumn
Nov 2020 · 222
Gravitas
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
Time to turn the pages

Leave the book open

Scribble what you want to say

Then draw a line

Put down the Pencil

Make space for a new beginning

A fresh hand can start their story

You wrote a chapter or two

When someone moved over for you

Now do the same

Let the music fade

The lights go down

Time to leave the stage with grace

It is done

Goodbye
I challenged myself to write an election poem with some dignity!
Nov 2020 · 152
Scar
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
The scars we collect
As we battle through our lives
Show strength not weakness
As a person with a noticeable scar-I have  learned to love it because I'm still here and fighting. If kids ask I say I was a pirate!
Nov 2020 · 98
Garden
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
A dry river bed
Gardens patiently waiting
For flowers of rain
Nov 2020 · 258
Rain
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
The rain on my window has no idea that I think of it as fat unsalted tears, as I watch the flow from ashen discontented skies

It cannot think or reason why
I feel this way

About the foggy endless grey
that fills my head

The heavy sense of brooding and unsatisfying dread

Maybe tomorrow the sullen rain will drain away

But not today
Some days are just grey! I am not given to miserable poems as a rule but today...
Nov 2020 · 180
Show Me The Beauty
Unpolished Ink Nov 2020
Show me the beauty, beyond our careworn world
where sighs of woe outnumber gasps of wonder

Show me the beauty, of a winter sky seen from a window
etched in deepest shades of elephant grey

Show me the beauty still to come,
Sleepless dawns above silent shuttered houses

Show me the beauty hidden in plain sight,
A gift for those who dare to reach beyond their walls to see
Trying to find the beauty
Oct 2020 · 117
Blink Of An Eye
Unpolished Ink Oct 2020
Do the stars look down and gently sigh
From their lofty home do they wonder why,
as we scurry around on our little blue ball
concerned about things that don't matter at all.
Do they weep when they see us again and again
smashing our world and the bits that remain.
The continuing heavens roll on and on
they were there before, and after we've gone
they will still exist to shed their light
with a fire that warms the eternal night.
Human kind is the blink of an eye
To those who look down and wonder why!
Excuse the phrase-Humanity is not always the 'Bertie Big *******' it thinks it is. There are bigger things so have a word with yourself mankind!
Oct 2020 · 114
People Trees
Unpolished Ink Oct 2020
People are like trees
Short tall fat thin
What goes on above
Is anchored by roots beneath
Some want to be together
Others prefer to be alone
We grow better when supported
There are always trees that take the light
When they fall, new trees can shine
A living memory is hidden inside
The world needs trees
More than it needs
People
We **** trees
Trees rarely
**** us
and
that
is
the
difference!
Oct 2020 · 230
Rock
Unpolished Ink Oct 2020
Rocks are memories
The ancient shattered fragments
Of earths burning heart
Oct 2020 · 182
Subconscious
Unpolished Ink Oct 2020
Every thought, every sight,
every book that you've read
Is all packed neatly away in your head!
A big subject in as few words as possible-neat!
Oct 2020 · 397
Angeline
Unpolished Ink Oct 2020
In the garden stir the flowers
That whisper through the trees
A subtle hint of fragrance fading on the breeze
Ripples over pebbles
Gentle rushing of the stream
Is the smile in cool reflection
That of you or Angeline?
In the binding choking clinging ****
Which stops the waters flow
Do you find her auburn tresses
And that face as white as snow
Does she walk beside you?
Like she did so long ago
It was you that drowned her
So only you would know!
Halloween is a time for Edgar
Oct 2020 · 316
Winters Tune
Unpolished Ink Oct 2020
Turn back the clocks
Countless ears who heard the restless call of spring
Will never dance to winters tune
The hands of time are stilled
For them the clock has stopped
On this year
And all others
This dying year
Has become a year of dying
2020
Oct 2020 · 869
Feather
Unpolished Ink Oct 2020
Thoughts are our feathers
They lift imagination
Then they blow away
Oct 2020 · 248
Shutdown
Unpolished Ink Oct 2020
I am having a rough time
In my head it's shut down season
for which there is no reason
and certainly no rhyme!
A bit jaded-I'm sure it will all come back
Oct 2020 · 260
Writers Song
Unpolished Ink Oct 2020
The people in my head
All speak with different voices
I set them free in ink
and I make all their choices!
Oct 2020 · 248
Stop Pushing It
Unpolished Ink Oct 2020
Each nation

Each successive generation

Has punched that button

It isn’t red

It is quite round

And it’s there

Just look around

It fires doomsday

That elephant in all our rooms-day

We need to stop pushing

We  need to start thinking

The oceans are filthy

The ice caps are shrinking

We all own the button

It's big and it's blue

It's everyones planet

and that includes you!
Oct 2020 · 1.2k
Freebird
Unpolished Ink Oct 2020
A bird

A graceful fragile thing devoid of earthly care

Which sings and sets the sky alight

On wings so light they skim the air
Birds are truly free spirits
Oct 2020 · 541
Blackbird
Unpolished Ink Oct 2020
I have laid down my life as I laid down my gun
the battle is over
I don't know who won
their side our side
does anyone care when it's all  said and done?
Long ago and far away
at very the end of the hardest day
when silence falls on the blood red, mud red, grass
will anyone remember what came to pass?
Young men die and old men weep
for comrades lost and the memories they keep
hugged to themselves till their time is done
a long life haunted by the shadow of the gun.
I have no name
war took it from me
a symbol, instead of the lad I used to be
It is 100 years since the unknown soldier was put in his tomb.
Oct 2020 · 217
Shhhhh!
Unpolished Ink Oct 2020
The thin bare bones of a silence that was

Shattered calm, a mirror cracked

Snapped underfoot like a plastic toy

Smashed, a fragile thing destroyed

Beauty broken by a careless word!
Some people can't understand the beauty of a silent moment!
Oct 2020 · 118
Sparks In Winter
Unpolished Ink Oct 2020
Flowers in winter
Bright children out in the cold
Candles in the dark
I love a flower in winter-colour against the grey
Oct 2020 · 60
Chasing words
Unpolished Ink Oct 2020
I do not know why
my words are elusive and shy
They wouldn't say
why they refuse to play
I guess I am on my own today
I miss my words
Oct 2020 · 118
Beware Standing Water
Unpolished Ink Oct 2020
See your face in standing water
it reflects back the truth

No airbrushes in nature
no photoshop filters
you get what you get

Staring into the clear and glassy depths, right to the bottom
You think you can see through it, but really it sees through you!
A longer poem inspired by the Haiku-there is more than one kind of reflection!
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