A poem a day - 77 and 78

77

Fuzzy Velcro mind 

Thoughts sticking and knitting close

Forming bright new dreams

78

Budget day blues

I hated the budget when I was wee

It totally messed up children's TV

All kids programmes would be cancelled for a day

So Nigel Lawson could chunter away 

About tax on tobacco and tax on beer

None of which filled my parents with cheer

Now I'm grown up the budget still fills me with rage

Same old politicians strutting about on their stage

Doing nothing to help those who are in real need

Just pushing an agenda of selfishness and greed. 

A Poem a day - day 69 to 76

69

Ruby force of life

Blooms brightly out from my palm:

Freed by accident 

70

Morning 

Slow train crawl, then trundles to a halt 

Hemmed in on either side, by

Bright graffiti sprayed walls

Above us insipid sky

 Evening 

Train rockets along at speed

Through pastel spring sunset

Taking weary travellers home 

To replenishment and rest. 

71

Hidden from view

Silently churning the fog

Hated by some 

But today there is no view

For the turbines to interrupt

I love theses space age wind mills

Elegant aliens milling electricity 

No longer wheat. 

72

Tendrils of mist lift skywards

Like these minutes spinning away from me

As I sit in this conference room,

Through the gauze covered windows

The sky clarifies and solidifies 

As the sun sucks up the fog

But in here our thoughts remain opaque

Rubbed smooth and blurred

By the presentations, key note address

And a feedback session stretching on forever. 

At lunch time I escape 

To a day gleaming like new healed skin

There's a shininess and shimmer to the roundabout

That I sit by, sipping a latte

As drills gurgle from building sites 

London is in a hurry 

But the conference room I'll return to

Will gently snooze through the afternoon

Wrapped in the duvet of grey corporate fluff.

73

Grey cloud,

Fog,

Papery sun

Glimpsed through mist

A day of soft edges

Slow moving thoughts

And stillness. 

  

74

Robin

Perched on the highest branch

Red feathers blazing in the sun

To me his song is a chilly lament 

A melancholy remembrance 

Of lonely long ago winters

Breathtakingly beautiful

But to other robins his vocal acrobatics

Are like a football hooligans chant

A thugs shouted taunts

A landowners growling threat

"You're not welcome round here!

Get off my land!

Stay away from my woman!" 

75

The edge of the flood plane

Sloping sunlight slices through the trees

Their dead leaves rattle, brittle fingers wagging

The land ahead of us has been churned by machine

Made ugly with tracks cut deep in grey mud

What was once verdant now looks desolate

Scrubbed empty by flood waters before the digger arrived. 

76

The empty house relaxes into its self

Walls creaking softly as the heating clucks,

In the kitchen the fridge grumbles 

And the clocks tick slightly out of time. 

I feel the space around me expand

As these quiet usually unnoticed sounds

Fill the space and flourish. 

 

First frappe of the year

Its so lovely and sunny today I've had my first frappe of the year with a mocha frappe from the Surfin Cafe in Biggleswade. Mmmm 

Garden 9th March 2014

Garden 9th March 2014, a set on Flickr.

I've been gardening today in the beautiful sunshine. Apparently it was 20C in London and Kent today. Felt about 18 today in Biggleswade though hotter in the sun. I was mainly planting primroses and pansies today and enjoying my crocuses. The cats as always wanted to help :-)

A poem a day - 64 to 68

64

Human League on my iPod

Zooming synth rockets me back

To my 80s childhood 

Endless yellow edged summers

Like the old photographs

Me in pastel dresses

With ribbons in my hair

deep snow drift winters

Always outside, all weathers

Climbing trees, riding bikes

Running everywhere 

Never time to walk

Time measured in seasons

Tadpole season, conker season

Term time and holidays

Piano practice and Sunday school

Seems so long ago and just like yesterday. 

65

"Old steam train passing"

The train driver told us

Over the PA

We craned our necks 

Expecting what?

Big shiny engine

Chugging out billowy clouds?

Sooty kerchiefed engineers 

Waving from the foot plate?

Dragons nesting in the fire

As more coal was furiously shovelled in?

Or just a rather small steam train

Followed by ornate carriage

Looking lonely on the track

As we rocketed past. 

66

Gathering in the night

The sky folds in on its self 

Revealing a planet

Hanging like a hot air balloon

Waiting, watching a never blinking eye

Of my alien nightmare

Recurring but shifting in nature

Always feeling the same

Wonder and terror in equal measure. 

67

A confection of blossom 

Frothing effortless fecundity

A smothering of bees

And the honey sweet scent drips

Bewitching passers by to stop

Admire your brazenness 

Take pictures of you against

Deep blue sky and marvel

At your delicate, 

Gone in a weekend beauty. 

Flirt 

68

I'm accompanied on my walk by

The larks tinkling feedback loop

Punctuated by the chirps and whistles

Of field birds unknown to me

Then out of nowhere the keen of a gull

Far from the sea but still speaking of it

Lifting my spirits like the white horse surf

Until a grumpy crow gets heavy 

With gruff growling caw caws

Seeing off the gull back to his sea, 

As I turn down the lane I enter garden-bird-land

The blackbird gossips and the bluetits giggle 

From roof tops and blossom trees

Gardens buzzing with bird talk and song

And deep in the hedge a wood pigeon grumbles

That it won't be long until the return of the swifts. 

A poem a day - 62 and 63

Day 62

Bulbs

Emerging 

from soft 

winter beds

green fragile 

fronds feather

towards the light

papery petals 

soaked in 

newborn wetness 

arrive 

violent lips 

framing 

dark mouths 

crying their arrival

demanding attention: 

Look at me! 

Day 63

My mind is like an attic 

An exciting attic of childhood adventures

Old chests brimming with costume,

Button boxes, a dress makers dummy

Draped in exotic cloth,

An old Hong Kong paper parasol 

Eclectic, well loved treasures 

I can simply wear or parade about in

But sometimes this attic feels like a hoarders den

Stuffed to the rafters with bus receipts 

Strewn carrier bags orange and blue

Filled with resentment and resignation

Empty crisp bags rattle with boredom 

I drown amongst the detritus of my life

Swamped in frustration

Worst of all is the nightmare attic

Cobwebs drift, corners shift with shadows

Dust chokes thick as smoke

Rats scurry startling me 

sharp teeth bright eyes

Gleaming through the gloom

As something creaks back and forth

Wheezing out of view. 

I'm trying to redevelop 

Revamp and renovate

Create a space I'm happy in

Full of light slanting 

Cutting through the dust

Turning what was once scary

Into golden shining motes

Cobweb corners into pristine patterns

Of fascination and wonder

Serenity and peace. 

Pancake day happiness

Today Jase made me scotch pancakes for pancake day. As I wasn't expecting them they were a lovely surprise. So I'm including them in my #100happydays challenge! 

100 days of happiness challenge

So it's apparently "an internet craze" to take a photo of something that makes you happy every day for 100 days. I like a challenge and one that helps me seek out the positive in each day. I'll be posting my pictures to twitter but I'll also post some on my blog too. You can find out more and join in here

Anyway here's my positive happy picture for today and the story behind it:

It's a photo of some purple crocuses growing in a plastic pot in my garden. I'm also growing some crocuses in a lovely pottery bowl by my kitchen door but they aren't even in bud yet. I kept thinking - when are these crocuses going to flower? I hadn't even noticed that my plastic pot of crocuses at the back of the garden near the garage were in flower! I noticed them at last today! So the plastic pot is now in pride of place by the kitchen door!

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

A poem a day - Day 61

Stormy Night

Scrabble of rain drops on glass

As the night wraps our house 

And all those around us 

In its glistening blackness

Like polished obsidian.  

Our town's lights glimmer

Through this boisterous night

A welcome sight for travellers 

Creeping along the great north road

As they've done since Roman times. 

    

Roads are slick, paths treacherous

This is a night for highwaymen phantoms 

Ghostly horses with headless riders

And spooky tales by firelight

To thrill and reassure.

So settle in for the evening 

With cat purring on your lap

And tell tall tales 'til bed time,

Then tuck yourself in

for a long dream filled night! 

A poem a day -

Day 57

Sun light blanches my view

Turns scrubby Bedfordshire fields

Into a savannah of beige and tan

Exotic, but the only lions are our pet cats.

Last night when an icy darkness

Slunk over this land, we heard foxes calling 

To one another back and forth 

These aren't urban foxes scavenging by bins

These are mysterious sleek coated creatures

Wary and wily hunting for rabbit and hare.

Day 58

Golden stars bobbing

Amongst slender green daggers, 

Big brutal, spring blooms. 

Day 59

It takes a little while for my eyes to adjust 

And for my ears to get used to the night time

The faintest shush of distant traffic 

The reedy call of an unknown pond bird, 

My gaze is fixed on the north, then

A rolling ribbon of light unravels along the horizon

No real colour to it, just faintest yellowish, whitish, green

But as I spot the aurora borealis the fox sings out

As if greeting the northern lights, telling his mate of their arrival

She barks back excitedly until the whisper of an aurora is over.  

I've seen the northern lights twice before

In Yorkshire utterly unexpected 

We did not know what we saw! 

Then in Canada staged amidst mountains 

To a backdrop sequinned with stars

And a wandering comet 

I couldn't have asked for more!

Biting cold but warmed by whisky

Standing with my head thrown back 

Until my neck became sore with watching the lights

Weaving through the sky, wonder, mystery and delight! 

Day 60

The black dog

Blasted black dog

Bothering Churchill

Bothering me 

And 1 in 4 of us*

(*At some point in our lives)

Growling grizzly beast 

Slobbering with anxiety

Embodying depression 

Looming into view 

Even on the brightest of days

Worrying my thoughts like sheep 

Unwelcome companion 

Untrainable, feral  

Haunting hound of legend

Black shuck bounding 

Unstoppable into my life 

Savaging me and those I love.