ONLY A FOOL

By Charles Robert Lindholm

Only
A Fool
Denies The Facts,
And Believes His Own
Opinions 

THE BUTTERFLY YOU WERE MEANT TO BE

By Charles Robert Lindholm

Let The Hard Work You Did In Your Caterpillar Phase,

Let You Fulfill Your Dreams And Become

Lighty-up-Llama

Last year I got a llama
for my birthday just for fun
it lights up of an evening
powered daily by the sun
And then glows different colours
as the evening takes a hold
from red to green to purple
and blue to yellow gold
At the bottom of our garden
it makes for cheery sight
as along with many others
it glows throughout the night

Cloud to sea

Ethereal with whimsy
it hung up in the sky
as we arrived at sunset
and really caught our eye
Across the English Channel
the white caps smaller now
as with the calm of evening
the wind had dropped somehow
Almost a mirror image
from sky to blustered sea
it caught imagination
as we wandered there, us three

More Summer

It’s miserable out there
so I think today I’ll stay
cosy here inside my home
and simply have a play

The wind is blowing boisterous
and the sky is full of rain
But it’s summer and July so
the sun will come again

A Grimace and Bear It Limerick

A friend put up a Facebook post with the tv commercial for this

A “Your Vote Counts The Same As One Rich Person’s Vote” Limerick 1.2

I was writing political limericks during and soon after the 2016 election, but I was overwhelmed by the change in the political climate and the events that came with it. I couldn’t keep up with it. And, I felt that it might even be dangerous to continue. You never know who is reading them and keeping score.

41

The suit I’d purchased for twenty-five quid
all I could afford at the time
just after my twentieth birthday
my life waiting there on the line

The tie was one of my fathers’
as were the shoes on my feet
His passing was five years too early
to see his son’s wedding complete

Now forty-one years have surrendered
themselves to the life we have led
since that day way back in seventy-nine
when Sally and Jeremy wed

Speckles and Patches

Title: Speckles and Patches

To see where I hide

I have a small corner
with a chair and a cushion
Comfortable, it is a place to hide
albeit in plain sight
It is here that I escape into music
to while away hours lost to rhythm
safe in the knowledge
that this is my place
My sacrosanct
My place to hide
And dream
And breathe

Together

We all went up to Bignor Hill
the six of us as one
It wasn’t actually raining
but there wasn’t any sun
Yet none of us we cared one jot
as this was perfect weather
for a long walk in the countryside
the six of us together

Dream

How purely does the heather bloom
With humble, purple praise.
Delight in sunshine on the hill.
Distant clouds do as they will.
Dreams refresh our days.

 

A “Fourth Of July” Limerick

In the Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers made a statement that is the heart and soul of our great country, a statement that makes America the greatest country in the world –

Simply back

Simply back together again
the six of us once more
was absolutely all that
we’ve been really waiting for

‘Normal’ is a word that I
think has lost its meaning
at least now here in context
and the way the world is leaning

But the chance to re-unite
our family – six as one
brought us all a joy which
is second here to none

Simple Pleasures

Writing in my little book
really brings me pleasure
just crafting lines of poetry
to hold and yes, to treasure
I just can’t stop myself I find
I simply have to write
be that in the daytime
or late into the night

A stone’s throw

A stone’s throw from the hillside
and a stone’s throw from the beach
Gosh! I am a lucky fellow
to have this in easy reach

And what’s more I have a river
from the sea into the hills
so if I tire of either
I have that to bring the thrills

First XI

11 of 12 in the Jemverse ’12 months III’ series

We’re half way through the summer
but I hope it won’t go soon
as now it is first of July
and fades the month of June
The sun at least has been a friend
for weeks now it appears
helping to dispel the dread
that grows from Covid’s fears

So I really hope the summer
stays with us for a good while
as it warms the cockles of our hearts
and certainly brings a smile
And yes the social distancing
on the beaches is a thing
but who can really blame them
when the sunshine has a fling

Hot III

I thought I’d write a poem
but my pen was really hot
I’d left it out in sunshine
so the poem it was not
At least for just a while
til the pen it had cooled down
then I could write the words
on this page without a frown

Atoms

Is matter
What matters?

or

Is what matters
More than matter?

Oh, Child

Dear child, do not ask me why(?)

this, I can not explain,

why hate haunts every corner

and a president fuels the flame

but this, this I do know

the hate must clearly go:

Hug me before nightfalls…O’Prunty 6/2020

Virtual hugs

What I wouldn’t give
for an actual real-life hug
but that’s not to be so when
we meet we smile and shrug
throw wide our arms as always
for a virtual one that’s best
under these cruel circumstances
Covid’s given us to test

My Field

I have a field I go to
every Friday night
It’s mine to run around in
and there’s no-one else in sight
I’m also fairly certain
that no other dogs go there
I’ve certainly never seen one
and I don’t think they would dare

This Glorious Passage

Photo by Roger Levien

My past is as implausible as
the tale of a frail
butterfly that flies from Mexico to Canada.
Why? How? To what purpose?

Here and now, I’m between
million-year-old mountains
and the damp, salty shores of
one of an ocean’s quiet, protected bays—
where the fish and the plants and the chemistry,
change day by day, but where the whole is eternal,
where a thousand centuries is as a day.

An ocean and mountains
show us who we really are,
Mere children pretending to be
some heroic captain,
braced on a stormy quarter deck
defying the gale,
the rocks too close.
But the ocean knows it
has swallowed many like us before,
and will take many more.

Bliss IV

It was really quite hot
but the colour right there
showed me one thing
that the sun had a care
For it with the rain
when that comes gives us this
a garden that’s lovely
for joy and for bliss

Kites

The sea is full of surfers
they’re dancing in the air
catapulting off the waves
that pound the beach down there

A rainbow full of colours
skimming ‘cross the sea
kite-surfers in their element
applauded here by me

Here

The green, the breeze
the sky, the sea
here on the beach
and then there’s me
Grinning wide and
laughing loud
as living here
it does me proud

In the 11th Year of the War

The Oracle of Delphi didn’t predict it’s own ruin.

And the 11th spring of the war has stumbled into summer.
The rains fall as normal. The birds seem oblivious to us.
And look! There goes a pretty young woman
with sandals and legs and curly hair.
I want to call out, say hey,
my heart, I have the wine and cheese,
let’s remind ourselves how precious
is this brief life.
But I don’t.

Disease and insanity stalk the streets.
I thought my old age would be different.
I thought my people were better than they are.
The line between good and evil runs
Through the center of the human heart.

Sometimes it twists in one direction,
sometimes the other. The same person
is capable of great evil and great good,
but who would cut their own heart in half
to root out the evil?

A Science and Conscience Limerick

The world has been through times like this before and mankind has survived. That said, I am a baby boomer who could have never imagined what is happening in the world today.