How light the space when you're all near
A flight of swans across an evening sky
Who wheel and turn with grace before descent
To mirrored lakes for lovers to admire.
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THE FASHION SHOW
To conclude our show we leave you with a dream
For every woman, place and time
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I see her face in strangers as they pass
A silhouette, a turn of hand
Momentarily a pause confusing time
Whilst hope is captured yet again
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LOVE POEM 2
I saw your portrait in the pool
Where autumn blossoms float
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IN PRAISE OF MODERN WOMEN
“There is truth in wine, ” claimed the Romans
Those ancient imbibers should have known better
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She curls on the couch
Tears stain the cushion
streak down her cheeks
Wide open window
...
Images of dew shaken down by wind
Marvel of engineering line and brace
The builder crouches to defend
As my form looms gigantic
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Mirror mirror on the wall
Who is least fit of all?
Watch that muscle straining by
Chasing rainbows in the sky
...
How unsightly by day
Those old telephone lines
Back in the nineteen forties
Erratic moirés of copper
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If I sing aloud in the world
Will my song be heard?
To the tone deaf all songs are flat;
If I never raise my voice
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Singing water running swiftly
Flowing downward to the valley
Spraying off intrusive stone
Cataract plunging to the bottom
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An extract from a poem written for my grandchildren to Brahms Lullaby
Sleep; little mice sleep
Mother will watch over you
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Policemen kindly stay away
Unless of course you wish to pay.
Hey ho mother runs a knocking shop.
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Four years on the dole
Four years in the queue
The shops full of goods I can’t buy
Or bring myself to steal
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When mother Eve
Lay with proto man
To beget us all
Did either consider
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The grass dried up and blew away
the ground is cracked and bare
we can't get renewal on our loan
who'd be a winging farmer.
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'Get him out, ' Mum said
ten am on Sunday and it's time
three nephews and two nieces
never needed much urging
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i Mother, Mother shining bright
how did you stand the terrors of the night
pressed down to fit a symmetry.
...
Four tens of years plus one
Doh Ray to Me and go
Oblivious to all but inner tune
Through minefields on the way
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A Word About Love
How light the space when you're all near
A flight of swans across an evening sky
Who wheel and turn with grace before descent
To mirrored lakes for lovers to admire.
If you loved yourselves as lovely as you are
Then pursuit of love would never cause you pain
Which I share when the world turns away
Unable at times to say what I might feel.
Recall the words of Propertius
'Love could recall beauty where none was.'
When you took up these lowly creatures
Reason called you were still embracing frogs.
Know I love you all in my own way
Even when you deserve some feathers plucking
Or at least a friendly scolding at the waste
Of time and effort on the undeserving.
I'll give you metaphorical roses instead
Deepest red naturally
If you could in return; please
Search under a better class of rock.