Age 12 and 3/4
Put cold water on your feet
It will help you sleep
Said my Dad one night
So I put cold water on my feet
And without a peep
I went to sleep
My Dad was right
For once!!
Father and Son
Love there is none
Only angry words and pumping hearts
Criticism and defense
Cheek and threats
Lives torn by anger
Drawn by fate
Together but apart
Why then when he left to lose innocence
Did the others hardened eye silently shed a soft tear
The 6.35am to Liverpool Street
Cosily we sat
Staring
At the headlines, through the darkness
Or for the briefest moment into another’s eyes
Suddenly a soft voice pierced the rustling silence
And a tiny boy gently sang....
cold and dark
the carriage trundled on endlessly
lost between the legs looming above him
a small boy whispered the words his Mother had sung
he ached
filled with loneliness
wet with fear
The Door Opened
a steaming breathing mass piled the platform
dogs roared
their eyes bulging in brutality
leads snapping as claws flayed the air
but only the Soft Fur caught his eye.
i pray that in those last hours
a Mother
wrapped her arms around you
warming you with love, lullabies, dragons and kings.
i pray that in those last moments
a Mother
held your hand and pulled your face towards a soft cheek
but I know you were crushed and broken
as those gentle people clawed their way towards the last inch of air.
The Singing Stopped
Faces mirrored my own minute smug smile
Headlines swallowed down with toast and coffee
Turn the page you’ll soon forget me
Again
Again
and again.......................................
Violet
Cold nights tucked cosy
Feathered pillows and candlewick quilts
Creaking stairs soft footsteps
Warm whiskey and sweetened milk
Held tight in growing darkness
Stories whispered dreams unfold
Arms safe so deep surrounding
Kindness keeping out the cold
Headlong (Song)
I was waiting at the garden centre
Making sure the coast was clear
Being spotted buying flowers
Had become my biggest fear
Now I mow the lawn with gay abandon
Dig the borders plant the seeds
Pray for rain in July heat waves
Tend to all my flowers needs
Tick Tock Tick Tock
Once I lay within the long grass
Sunk a tinnie felt the sun
Floated somewhere with the music
Sure of endless days to come
Now I wear my suit of armour
My mail chains me to my seat
You know stats are so important
They just make my life complete
Tick Tock Tick Tock
Headlong and hurtling through my life
Headlong and hurtling through my life
And I’m jealous when you go to school
I’m jealous when you play the fool
I’m jealous when you break the rules
I’m jealous of you
I’m jealous when you’re holding hands
I’m jealous when you find new bands
I’m jealous when you make a stand
I’m jealous of you
Once I flew down darkened hillsides
Chased a star across the street
Closed my eyes and bathed in moonlight
Felt the breeze beneath my feet
Now the car park beckons slowly
I head home with my briefcase
My best treasures still await me
But I can’t keep up the pace
Tick Tock Tick Tock
Headlong and hurtling through my life
Headlong and hurtling through my life
I want to be like you, I want to be like you, I want to be like you
Again…….
Machine Wave (Song)
Looking up at an August sky
The sun is high and the breeze is dancing
Take your time lying in this dream
The sea of grass will hide all but our friendship
These moments linger and enhance
Soaring forever in our hearts
The world put right by a beer or two
To stay forever it would be so easy
And when the moment could not wish for more
The PA springs to live the sun is eclipsed
These moments linger and enhance
Soaring forever in our hearts
And we’re waiting to welcome the machine
Waiting to welcome the machine
Mad man moon and Garwick city
Captain Scott and Itty Shitty
Reading Rock, Patti Smith
Bureau keyboards, the best ever kiss
Rush, Yes, Van der Graf
Sour Taste and the photographs
Down the dell with Red Drum
Yellow sand round the stadium
Football till the summer sets
Friends down the Live and Let
Music that would make us fly
‘Leave me here I want to die’
And will these sparks of our love
Fly through space with comets tails
As we lie here in the dark
I pass these stars to your small hand
These moments linger and enhance
Soaring forever in our hearts
I give them all to you
I give them all to you
I give them all
I give them all
I give them all to you
And we’re waiting to welcome the machine
Waiting to welcome the machine
A while ago a friend and I had a Haiku battle
Here's a selection. Those marked * are my friends I think
In a sea of stars
I saw your shape move
Five months later I held it
Breeze blows on my face
Unfelt before you
Now an ants breath is a storm
A yellow daisy
Bright in a green field
Special and unique like you
Brambles may scar me *
But remind me I'm alive
And I love soft fruit
Laminate flooring
Is only flooring
It is not a cosy nest
Your skin touching mine *
Butter meets warm potato
I melt into you
You orbit my thoughts *
Home planet, so far away
How will I reach you?
Words
Once there was nothing
Then there was everything
It's called the Big Bang
Once there was nothing
Then there was everything
It's called my love for you
What weak words
Describing the indescribable
Take these instead
Melt them by your fire
Then at least you would have
A speck of dust in the Universe of my love.
Star snow swan
Church bells chime
Summer mist dreams
Garden hugs hope
Skip
I love you
(Please add your favourites)
If Ever
If ever words were not enough
Then today is that day
If ever the words
“Never in your wildest dreams”
Had any meaning
Then they do now
For today
No words could be wrung from such happiness
And I could never weave a dream
To match such treasure
If ever words were not enough
Then these are those
I love you.......
Moments
Moments make and move the magic of the day
Some shine and sparkle
Others softly fade away
But most precious of all
Are those that linger and enhance
Soaring forever in the hallowed hallways of our hearts
Cats Chorus (Song)
Walking down Bromley Road
Passed number 33
Skinny legs and pony tails
A back street refugee
Up the alley down the park
Is where it all began
Knock down ginger, car less streets
With Beyrl and the gang
But as he played on the piano
Just as he practiced with the scales
Hidden behind the hedge we’d jump up
That’s when the gang began to wail
Mrs Smalley pickled eggs
Locked in the small room
London’s burning tots on trains
Don’t cry you’ll be home soon
But as he played on the piano
Just as he practiced with the scales
Hidden behind the hedge we’d jump up
That’s when the gang began to wail
CATS CHORUS CALLING
Father says ‘Get back inside’
You know it’s time for bed
Racing to the tennis courts
We’ll play forfeits instead
Memories of bygone days
How the time just flies
Moments that still linger
In the twinkle of an eye
(Bridge) Don’t turn out the light
Don’t you know I’m frightened of the dark
And when I can’t breath
You’ll never leave my side
So turn out the light
When you are near
The fear
Subsides
But as he played on the piano
Just as he practiced with the scales
Hidden behind the hedge we’d jump up
That’s when the gang began to wail
CATS CHORUS CALLING
shopping CAN be fun
I've seen Venice on a star filled night
Walked the streets of Kathmandu
But there's no place I'd rather be
Than shopping next to you
I've spent Christmas on a Fiji beach
Seen Niagara crash and spray
But nothing would make me happier
Than some fruit and veg to weigh
I've seen the Taj Mahal at sunrise
Surfed a Bondi Beach rip tide
But the best place in all the world
Is a trolley by your side
a quarrel with my best best friend
was it yesterday or a million years ago
When I full of summer said
‘We can do whatever we want if we want to enough’
Just words
But they worked within us
Wrenched our hearts
Left a bitter taste
Which only years and friendship
Could wash away
But did I lie?
It surely seems that way today
As dreams and hopes
Words and wishes
are torn by an inner voice
That calls to all of us
‘You are older you are wiser'
And how time flies
Where does it go
But I did not lie
The gold is there to be grasped
But by a stronger hand than mine
Take it
Be proud and bold
And never listen
To the saddest words in the Universe
‘What if’
‘If Only'
They are not for you
Lost
I was lost
Lost in your smile
Lost in your words
Lost in your touch, warm as sunlight
I was lost in London
As we sipped mulled wine
And watched the stars, sparkle on the river
Close, close, closer
I was lost, not in the music
But in you, in all of you
And as you turned
Smiling
Snow falling from your hair onto gold
I knew I would never be found again
Red (Song)
There is a magic
I feel it in you
It tingles and sparkles
Turns old into new
Make a winters night into spring
A poor man becomes a king
There is a magic call it Red
There is a feeling
A magic in you
It shatters the senses
It turns grey skies blue
Makes the shrouded sun shine through the clouds
The softest heartbeat seem loud
There is a magic call it Red
There is a moment
It's there in your eyes
Unspoken out soaring
Unsure as a sigh
Did your face launch a thousand ships
For you love was a poison sipped
There is a magic call it Red
For all our lives
For all of time
Those magic moments
Stay in mind
Warming hearts
And making smiles
Star light memories for a while
But above all else
In this stuff of dreams
A golden moment gently gleams
And with a breath of summer spreads
A magic moment
Call it Red
Morning
Dozing dreaming
Of you
Wrapped in your night shirt
Cocooned in the covers
Birds tweet and play
The sun shines a white line between the curtains
The clock tick tocks
Slowly for once
A perfect morning.
My hand moves to find its home in yours
And I remember
Only you make the morning perfect
