Sussex Trug

Got a Sussex Trug on Father's day
an antique one as well
it really is quite beautiful
and though not keen to dwell
it's something I have wanted
for as long as I recall
something made in Sussex
and from local wood and all

Gardening

The garden's gone ballistic
over just the last few days
with branches full of colour
grown in lots of different ways
It's looking like a jungle
so we'll have to see to that
giving it a summer trim
with branches for the hack

Trees have feelings too

A tree jumped out as I walked by
surprise upon its face
I laughed and smile right back at him
as I passed close by his space

He seemed quite pleased to see me
when the shock had passed away
so we had a conversation
on this lovely sunny day

He said it was polite of me
to stop and give him time
as most just passed and never paused
which borders on a crime

And then came the rain

And then came the rain
close after the sun
a deluge which lasted
for days on the run

The gardeners and farmers
were over the moon
but all the sunbathers
said it was too soon

For the weatherman said
that the heatwave would last
but all of a sudden
it's forgotten and past

An Avoiding Marital Tension Limerick

That is NOT how to do it. This is.

Sunshine VII

Thought I'd missed the sunshine
but thank goodness there it was
the sunspot in the garden
in full sun still there because
although we are north-facing
the setting in the West
gives sunshine in the garden
until six o'clock at best

Celebration

In faded denim, rosy blush,
he offers her a polished stone
from water where the rivers rush.
She knows that she is not alone.
In greens and yellow, alpine light,
Today the festive way is bright.

Inspired by two prompts, Eugenia’s Thursday Prompt and Linda Kruschke’s Paint Chip Challenge.

Born to the sun V

Back in the fifties
and born to the sun
a Thursday's child
knew he had begun

Growing up in the sixties
never sun to eschew
this Thursday's child 
was still nearly new

And then cam the seventies
formative years
a teen to his twenties
with joy and yes, tears

Heatwave

It's been one of those sultry days
that summer sometimes brings
when the sunshine burns intensely
with heat haze shimmerings
and though it's now past five o'clock
there's little respite here
so I feel quite contented
to pour a nice cold beer
And with mock orange fragrance
heady in the air
sit here a little longer
the evening sun to share

Modern Semantics of an Archaic Belief System 1.1

White Christian America ended in the 2010s (nbcnews.com)

Blow

Lot didn’t want to leave that day,
but angels dragged them by the hand.
His daughters didn’t understand.
His wife looked back. She’d have to stay.

“I drifted slowly from the way
through sweet deception. What a blow:
I thought I knew; I didn’t know.
That’s why we’re rushing out of there.
We heard the screaming in the air,
but it has stopped. We have to go.”

Ronovan Hester offers the rhyme word “blow” to be used in a C line of a décima having rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC in this week’s challenge. I was thinking about Lot and Sodom from Genesis 19.

The man in the mirror

The man in the mirror
looks back at me
he is a lot older now
He's seen a few things
but still his heart sings
despite the lines on his brow

Maybe he's wiser
and maybe he's not
it's something I'd not really know
but he'll never leave
his own joie de vivre
so he's happy to go with the flow

Al fresco dining

In Shoreham town al fresco
dining now seems to be the norm
which is lovely in the summer
when days are mostly warm
but when they're overcast
or quite windy like today
it's not without a smirk
to see the faces there portray
something of discomfort
as they put on a brave face
yet shiver as they eat their meals
this climate to embrace

In my room

In my room of a morning
when all around's still
and the world's waking up
and the birdsong is shrill
I can find inspiration
in the solitude here
to write words of wisdom
erudite and clear
and craft them to lines
to retain for a while
and maybe to publish
with the curl of a smile

Sufficient to please

I am pleased with all my lavender
and though weeks yet til the chop
I've several plants now on the go
to bring a bumper crop

Still green of course yet now the shoots
here early into June
are good to see and promising
with all the flowers in bloom

Perfect II

Mock Orange and the bumblebees
buzzing in the sun
spreading fragrance in the garden
now the summertime is come

The deepest blue of sky above
the wisp of clouds, the breeze
warm and gentle on my brow
and cool upon my knees

Cabin in the Woods

In fig leaf clothes
I pace the cabin’s floor today.
In fig leaf clothes
I worry in the woods. Who knows
the secret that I’ve lost my way?
But it all shows. I’m on display
in fig leaf clothes.

Linda Kruschke in her Paint Chip Challenge this week invites us to write a rondelet using one of various paint chip words or phrases and titled “Cabin in the Woods”. I chose the word “fig leaf” from the six offered.

Wake

He checks off tasks as they are done.
Tomorrow there’s another wake.
Today he wonders should he take
those profits his investments won?

While counting on the routine sun
productively he wastes his day.
Tonight in Sodom there’s a play.
He’ll miss that wake. The dead don’t mind.
He wonders if he’ll ever find
the reason why. No time to pray.

Ronovan Hester offers the rhyme word “wake” to be used in a B line of a décima having rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC for this week’s Décima Poetry Challenge.

New book, nice pen

I have a new book
to write poems in
it'll last me three months or so
as I scribble away
writing words by the day
to capture what life has to show

And I have a nice pen
which does well for me
so I ensure I have refills to spare
as although contribution
it's no substitution
to write with a pen without care

Garlic Scapes

Amid the crossing linear foliage

I spot them

heads nodding

shyly on slim necks

stems curving

with gestures of

graceful  ballerinas

After the rain II

The sunshine after the rain has passed
makes the garden resplendent and fine
so contented am I to relax in this place
as all of this is Sally's and mine

Abundantly clear

And this morning
the glorious sunshine pervaded
so wondrously
that I was persuaded
though it didn't take much
it the truth be told
as when one is faced
by mornings of gold
it is really and truly
abundantly clear
that June has arrived
and the summer is here

Tri-haiku XXXIII (Heaven)

Afternoon sunshine
in June, deliciously hot
I am in heaven

But it is a place
on earth, as Belinda said
and she was quite right

Nowhere else I would
further be this afternoon
than right here right now

Googolplex

gargantuan grass
germane gnomes
gossamer goblins
grounded grace

Monday lunchtimes

Monday lunchtimes at Al Campo
watching life go past
the windows open to the world
with summer here at last

The sunshine's really hot out there
but no one is complaining
as the start of summers' overdue
from all the Maytime raining

Through the trees

Evening sunshine through the trees
the Warren shaded now
but I still feel the sunshine
so warm upon my brow

It has been one of those balmy days
that only summer brings
and conjures up those feelings
that pull at old heart strings

Loss

In your eyes I saw clear skies
before the rain that day.
All left at once out of the blue,
the sunshine and the sunflower, too,
the hot sauce zest for life I knew.
Our margarita laughing pool
shut down. You went away.

Inspired by Linda Kruschke’s Paint Chip challenge for this week using ten of fifteen offered phrases coming from paint chip samples. Optionally, the theme could be about “someone you love and miss”.

Eye to the sky

Soaring up to deepest blue
the i-360 there
as dwarfed beneath its structure
I turn my head and stare

The 'doughnut' glistens in the sun
high up there in the sky
as tourists take their pictures
as they're taken way up high

Though truth be told I always would
prefer the old West Pier
this is still a fitting tribute to
the Brighton that's still here