There is nothng funny about the pandemic and what it has done to turn the world and lives of everyone in it upside down. It would be impossible to write a traditional “joke” limerick with a four line setup and a fifth line punchline about it. However, I hope that I can use a touch of humor to send a serious message by slightly altering one of my best limericks where I take possibly the most famous speech in the English language and give it a Texas twist. I had to take a few liberties with the meter to get the message right
The world was riding high in the saddle,
Now, it’s up a creek with no paddle.
Tis nobler in more than the mind
To sit home on your behind…
And help make this Sea of Troubles skedaddle!
There are little yellow flowers
I don’t know what they are
but they always come around this time
and are quite spectacular
Vibrant in the sunshine
they raise their heads and sing
appearing at the end of March
just before the Spring
I sat outside and sunned myself
at the end of March
it was warm out in the sunshine
underneath the larch
It was a little windy
but I didn’t mind a bit
‘Cos I was in my element
and enjoying all of it
Sunshine’s out there bright and high
warm and always shining
So, resolute, I’m joining it and
stopping all the whining
As safely in my garden I can
keep at social distance
yet be outside enjoying life
and sunshine at this instance Continue reading →
Happy Holidays. To all my Christian friends – Happy Easter. And to all my Jewish friends – Happy Passover. Tonight the Jewish people celebrate their escape from slavery in Egypt. Like all Jewish holidays, Passover has holiday specific symbolic food. Matzo, unleavened bread, is the focal point of the Passover food and it takes great cooking skill to turn this edible cardboard into something palatable. But making it easier to go in does not make it easier to go out….. Continue reading →
The short lapping waves come in then recede
incessant and gentle and free
They speak to me softly in whispering tone
what it is to be part of the sea
And I understand fully as this language I speak
having learnt it when just a lad
Its rhythm speaks wisdom of treasure to keep
which over the years I have had
There’s a lot to be said
at the end of the day
for getting out for a while to the beach
A short walk by water
is just what we oughta
do as it’s there in our reach
This time last year I wrote about
a little book I’d bought
in Venice which I’d fully used
for poems as I ought
It was a lovely book so
when going back last year
I purchased two new volumes
to keep handy very near
For I am looking forward
to using them once more
and writing daily in them
which of course is what they’re for
I’m thinking of a song I heard
one that brought a grin
for that is what I need right now
with the state I’m in
I’m trying hard, don’t get me wrong
and I know I’m not alone
as there are many others out there
who like me must stay at home
But it’s hard remaining positive
so I need a helping hand
provided by a favourite song
sung by a favourite band
I don’t ask for much in life
I’m quite a simple chap
Just music and some lavender
will content me, that’s a fact
So enforcing isolation
when we all must stay at home
doesn’t really bother me
and I’ll not gripe and moan
There are few trees up here but still
the view is quite breathtaking
so I don’t mind a bit because
it’s freedom in the making
On our doorsteps here but still
few people get this far
A mystery as up here the view
is quite spectacular
From ‘Three Trees’ on the Beacon
with sunshine in the field
the view is always wonderful
out across the Weald
As you can see for miles
to the hill line way up north
across the scattered villages
as clouds pass back and forth
This place it is idyllic
high up on South Downs Way
made better by the sunshine
on this lovely mid-March day
What an odd boy, they used to say of me.
They’re still saying it.
But I’m a writer, my dear, and not right in the head.
That’s all it is. But I do know how to
take my time and listen,
sitting under the willow tree in the spring as the birds
bring me happy messages from God.
I will take my time with other important things, too,
so lay your curves of water here beside me.
If this pleases you,
You may pay me back with your
gift of second sight,
and tell me where my true nature hides,
where my pain
scuttles unhealed,
my illusions fester.
I will love you all the more for it.
These are gifts we give, freely
and they bind us in profound ways
because they reveal. Continue reading →
Though I am a poem
I am often as a tree
spreading wide my branches
to the winds and fancy free
Sometimes I am majestic
growing strong and very tall
and other times I’m minuscule
insignificantly small
My mother didn’t make it
to see my sixty years
when she passed away in May last year
amongst the smiles and tears
That saddened me (of course it did)
but it’s other times I miss
like the joy of giving flowers
on Mother’s Days like this
Yet the solace that I take away
from all the days I’ve cried
is the ever joyful knowledge
that she’s by my Father’s side
I’ve grown tired of disappointing women.
And of being disappointed in them.
I know that’s too broad a conclusion
from a very small sample.
Don’t care. I need a break,
and Corvid-19 is a convenient excuse.
I’m hiding out from another virus
of my own making,
sheltering in place and
eating frozen vegetables.
Aware this might become permanent.
I had a long life with a woman who died,
a life better than most, I think,
not as good as some.
But still, what do I have to complain about?
Younger people have their difficulties,
stemming mostly from being naively stupid,
but older men and women bring
a lot of experienced stupidity to the bed, too.
(If it ever gets that far.) Continue reading →
Each evening on the journey home
we drive beside the sea
‘neath a big sky that sweeping view
How fortunate are we?
The shingle beach right there beside
the road just yards away
a pleasure bringing fortitude
on each and every day
