Poetry

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Verses to brighten your day.

POETRY

WEALTH’S MEASURE The Wise Man asked, how do you measure? The mob clamoured to reply Some owned the earth, some the stars And others owned the sky With the net worth battle raging on Each trying to outdo The Wise Man sought the quiet one And said, but how do you? The quiet one said…

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POETRY

WORDS, FOR ‘SPANISH ROMANCE’ BY ANON. As I move over the hills where I’ve wandered I wonder about the far valleys and hilltops That stretch into distance, away from my vantage, And vanish in sky that is blue to beyond. Turning away from the east to the sunset And feeling the greyness of clouds drifting…

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Poetry

A MANDARIN – ONCE HUMAN I once knew an economist on his way to becoming a madman. His gaze did not engage with mine but descended with the certainty of one from a master race. His vision was on far-off peaks, global outcomes, oiled by the ideology of materialism, consumerism, supply and demand equilibrium, cause…

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MOONSCAPE Like a name-dropping traveller through the galaxy’s night, The moon dispenses a greater luminary’s reflected light; Locked into an orbit of its colourful overlord, Linked to its master on an invisible umbilical cord. Twenty-nineteen brought a lunar celebration; A golden anniversary for the U.S. nation. Fifty years since those heady sci-fi aims came true;…

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THE BIG PICTURE, C21 The last adults are ageing And leaving politics; The children of the boomers (Those legislating tricks!) Are ruling out the human, To accommodate their kicks. Old soldiers all are fading, Who knew when freedom called; The children of the boomers (Who’ve pouted, stamped and bawled) Know nothing but a play-school ……

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POETRY

September 7, 2019

Sleeping on the Beach A rise of cool sand. We pull the yacht a few feet up the beach and dig the anchor down. The moon is half over, filling the water. Between brown bushes we unroll our sleeping bags. It is probably not too far off dawn. Snug down the sails. A small sound…

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POETRY

August 24, 2019

My Fisherman “The man who is to be a bishop, then, must be one with whom no fault can be found . . .” I Timothy 3:2 A man: not one of the effete, Nor one declined to Sodom’s heat; If virginal, who might have wed – And never slights the marriage bed (Hence trusted…

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POETRY

August 10, 2019

Sonnet on Shrimps A week submerged in summer, and the boat is a green mass of river-weed. Within the hull shrimps flicker and fish glide, threading the full curtains and branches, laces and frills that coat the timbers. A sudden riot of flowering fronds of life on old white-painted boards bobbing in summer sun.…

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POETRY

Your Mother’s Faith You mock her gently in a … loving way This beautiful woman who bore you Patronising wouldn’t be too strong But not a callous superior attitude More one of gentle, patient tut-tutting She really should know better! Blind belief in things so vague So naive, so childish almost How embarrassing to have…

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POETRY AND HISTORY The epic of the White Horse

“Before the gods that made the godsHad seen their sunrise pass,The White Horse of the White Horse ValeWas cut out of the grass.” The Ballad of the White Horse, by G.K. Chesterton, was published in 1911, and is a vast (120 plus-page), sweeping, heroic account in ballad form of King Alfred the Great’s hopeless…

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