RobertHaigh's Saved Poems

The scene is all set: I'm sitting outside
With a giant jigsaw called, "Passion and Pride."
On it are scenes from my life, past and present,
And also future projections, quite...

Four large stone lions guard Leeds Town Hall;
They sit with poise and style.
No-one sees them move at all,
Though children see them...

My wife has gone out
with a girlfriend for the day,
so I sit and read
some of my favourite poems
out loud. Really loud!

Reading a poem out loud
brings out the musicality
of the...

I hate cold lies
And sad goodbyes,
But life can sometimes deal you those.
No matter what
You think you've got,
It can be bogus, I...

Fair weather clouds beat fair weather friends
Squaring the circle does not make amends

Jesters are telling us what we should do
When evidence shows they don't have a...

Being me is something you don't really see,
Just as
Being you is something I could never do.

~*~

We are all different bottles lined up on the wall.
In time
We'll fall, when we receive that predetermined call.
...

Nothing seems to matter much
when you are a child.
You want to play, the livelong day,
and can't be reconciled
with, "Bath and bed, you sleepy-head!"
But that's the life that this man led,
when he was a child!
...

Winter shakes his robes of white
And storms around the stage,
As Spring waits calmly in the wings,
Observing Winter's rage.

The skies, like lead, are heavy now,
And not about to lift.
For Winter's tale is far from told,
As snow begins to...

I swim alone in shark-infested waters,
trying to reach a distant, safe shore.

Barbed arrows, disguised as wise words,
are shot by enemies masquerading as friends.

When allies turn out to be snipers,
you begin to question the order of...

If I'm a bee, you're the honey.
If I'm a bank, you're the money.

If I'm a plant, you're the flower.
If I'm a clock, you're the hour.

If I'm a bottle, you're the wine.
If I'm a sprinter, you're the...

I watched the wind having wicked fun today
Stripping leaves from trees and hurling them like confetti
Forcing flowers to frantically dance to any old tune
Sucking up grit and spitting it in unsuspecting faces
Snatching hats from the heads of hapless...

You compromised on those dreams of old;
The ones you thought were silver and gold.
You traded them in
For copper and tin,
And only did what you had to do.
You'd see it through — that much I...

The man inside my head keeps telling me
Some things are not the way they ought to be.
He says I should be happy with my life,
Instead of courting misery and...

It's been a long time coming,
But I've found love at last!
The sad song I was humming
Is now part of my past.

I'm singing songs of happiness,
Of wonder, and good cheer!
I tell you (though I'm sure you'd guess)
True love is finally...

Isabel met an enormous bear,
Isabel, Isabel, didn't care;
The bear was hungry, the bear was ravenous,
The bear's big mouth was cruel and cavernous.
The bear said, Isabel, glad to meet you,
How do, Isabel, now I'll eat you!
Isabel, Isabel, didn't...

PINK CAT

I once saw a cat that was pink.
Someone had dyed it, I think.
It walked down the street,
Looking quite sweet,
And no, I'd not had a drink!

*** *** *** *** ***

GOLD...

Inspiration came
into my mind
and into my hands.
Through my mind
and through my hands,
inspiration came
and quickly left again.

Inspiration came
as the clock struck
eleven.
It was already leaving
by the time I had
pencil and paper
in my...

Oh dandelion you are a weed!
Much despised when gone to seed!

We may curse you in the ground,
But myriad uses can be found.

Culinary and curative,
You have benefits to give.

And your beauty's plain to see,
Loved by beetle, bird and...

The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of...

Cut grass lies frail:
Brief is the breath
Mown stalks exhale.
Long, long the death

It dies in the white hours
Of young-leafed June
With chestnut flowers,
With hedges snowlike...

A nightmare haunted me last night;
It filled my mind with dread;
An eerie sound, an awful sight,
Right there inside my...

A portrait of the man I might have been
Hangs in a darkened room within my mind.
A different me, the world has never seen,
In subtle shades, with brush strokes...

Chaos ruled OK in the classroom
as bravely the teacher walked in
the nooligans ignored him
his voice was lost in the din

'The theme for today is violence
and homework will be set
I'm going to teach you a lesson
one that you'll never...

it is the only
thing
between you and
impossibility.
no drink,
no woman's love,
no wealth
can
match it.
nothing can save
you
except
writing.
it keeps the walls
from
failing.
the hordes from
closing in.
it blasts the
darkness.
writing is the...

Uncle Dan wrote out his will,
All legal-like and proper.
He knew he'd not much time to kill
Before he'd come a cropper.

He'd truly lived a merry life
And led us all a dance.
He never took himself a wife,
But loved a good...

NIGHT SCENE (Haiku)

The moon sets her sails
to navigate the night sky
with great majesty

Stars twinkle and shine
in a deep velvet backdrop
as dreamers dream on

*** *** *** ***

MAN IN THE MOON...

It's never quite right, he said, the way people look,
the way the music sounds, the way the words are
written.
It's never quite right, he said, all the things we are
taught, all the loves we chase, all the deaths we
die, all the lives we live,
they...

I looked for a perfect pattern within my life,
Thinking everything should always make perfect sense.
But then I learned that fate can cut just like a knife,
Taking things away, without any...

This poem is heading south
As it drips down the page
Letters pool into words
But they make little sense

Ideas and emotions
All swirl around my head
But words refuse to speak
And the verse remains...

Millstones and mishaps all mess with my mind.
I have no idea of what I might find
Tomorrow, next week, or even next year;
Yet freedom is one thing that I hold...

My lady can sleep
Upon a handkerchief
Or if it be Fall
Upon a fallen leaf.
I have seen the hunters
kneel before her hem
Even in her sleep
She turns away from them.
The only gift they offer
Is their abiding grief
I pull out my pockets
For a...

I walked along the boulevard,
But everything looked strange.
The traffic lights were stuck on red,
With voices out of range.

I dreamed that I was dreaming,
And woke to find the truth:
An everlasting nightmare
Had robbed me of my...

I know you search for your rainbow's end;
I hope you find it soon, my friend.
I settled right here — no rainbow in sight,
And time will tell if I got it...

She flew into my life out of the blue;
A lost angel, looking to start anew.
With sunlight in her hair and in her smile,
But with rainbows in her eyes, all the while.
I never asked about her troubled past.
I loved her, but knew our love could never...

He's an ordinary man who lives an ordinary life.
He works a mundane job, but has a very pretty wife.
Just what that angel sees in him he'll never understand,
But true love and devotion he always gets,...

I stand by my window,
looking out at the night sky.
Silver stars twinkle in harmony
on a clear, velvet backdrop,
as the crescent moon
sings a silent serenade,
six hours before sunrise.
Such a beautiful, peaceful night;
yet sleep evades me.
This life...

When God created mothers
He made them stronger than all others
(including fathers, uncles, nephews and brothers).

He gave all mothers nerves of steel
To cope with young kids who squeal
And older ones who argue a great...

With devils riding high, and angels flying low,
Some wonders of this great big world I guess I'll never know.
Most things that pass for modern art don't do a thing for me.
I'll stick by the old masters, whose greatness I can see.
...

Where does my shadow go
When I'm asleep?
Does it rest till daylight?
Or does it creep
Away, to live nine lives
Out on the town?
Meeting other shadows —
Getting it...

are always asked
to understand the other person's
viewpoint
no matter how
outdated
foolish or
obnoxious.
one is asked
to view
their total error
their life-waste
with
kindliness,
especially if they are
aged.
but age is the total of
our doing.
they...

To give life you must take life,
and as our grief falls flat and hollow
upon the billion-blooded sea
I pass upon serious inward-breaking shoals rimmed
with white-legged, white-bellied rotting creatures
lengthily dead and rioting against surrounding...

the poems go into the thousands you
realize that you've created very
little.
it comes down to the rain, the sunlight,
the traffic, the nights and the days of the
years, the faces.
leaving this will be easier than living
it, typing one more line...

Rescued from the wreckage of of a loveless marriage,
She rode with her lover in his horse-drawn carriage.
It was back in the year of 1907
When everything changed, and she found her own heaven!

*** *** ...

Let me die a youngman's death
not a clean and inbetween
the sheets holywater death
not a famous-last-words
peaceful out of breath...

People say that love is blind,
With thoughts and feelings kind.
But words to me seem jagged,
While rolling through my mind.

I tried to write a love song,
But somehow it went wrong.
The words were sharp and jagged,
And they did not...

On leaving the house you'd best say a prayer
Take my advice and don't travel by train
As Tarzan said to Jane, 'It's a jungle out...

You are
the ghost
of a memory
from the
distant past

I turn a
cobwebbed
corner
in my mind

And suddenly
there you are

Long forgotten
it seemed;
but your memory
refuses to die

Should I laugh
or maybe...

waste of words
continues with a stunning
persistence
as the waiter runs by carrying the loaded
tray
for all the wise white boys who laugh at
us.
no matter. no matter,
as long as your shoes are tied and
nobody is walking too close
behind.
just...

I saw a little elephant standing in my garden,
I said 'You don't belong in here', he said 'I beg your pardon?',
I said 'This place is England, what are you doing here?',
He said 'Ah, then I must be lost' and then 'Oh dear, oh...

I tried to write a cheerful poem,
But much to my surprise,
The poem began to change my words;
It told me they were lies!

I tried my best to stay upbeat,
With verses full of joy.
The poem soon rejected those,
As part of its weird...

I like my own company;
some of the time.

Sometimes I live in a world
with a population of one.

A part-time loner
who never gets lonely.

I can do what I want;
whenever I want.

But don't feel bad, my friend.
You are always welcome...

Now, I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do ya?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah...

On longer evenings,
Light, chill and yellow,
Bathes the serene
Foreheads of houses.
A thrush sings,
Laurel-surrounded
In the deep bare garden,
Its fresh-peeled voice
Astonishing the brickwork.
It will be spring soon,
It will be spring soon —
And I,...

Never to walk from the station's lamps and laurels
Carrying my father's lean old leather case
Crumbling like the register at the hotel;
Never to be shown...

Past days of gales
When skies are colourless
The corn falls,
Dies; so for this space
Autumn is motionless.

Because the sun
So hesitates in this decay,
I think we still could turn,
Speak to each other in a different way;
For ways of speaking...

canaries were there, and the lemon tree
and the old woman with warts;
and I was there, a child
and I touched the piano keys
as they talked —
but not too loudly
for they had things to say,
the three of them;
and I watched them cover the canaries...

The poet said, "I'll write no more!
Erato has walked out the door!
Love has left, and nothing does remain!

"She was my Muse, my love, my life!
Without her, all has turned to strife!
Now all I hear is lost love's sad...

Armed with pencils and reams of paper,
I'm hunting for poems inside my head.
Nothing gets written throughout this caper;
No poems are found. Perhaps they're...

Mindful of my newfound mindfulness
I awoke to the infinite possibilities shimmering
in the exquisite web of interconnectedness.

As soon as my feet touched the floor
I knew it was going to be a good day.
'Today will be a good day,' I...

I hear the heartbeat of the moon
Above the ocean's roar.
I feel the pulse of every star
As we walk by the shore.
I hear love's voice upon the breeze
Whisper, "Mi...

When songs of angels reach these mortal ears,
I cease my daily toil and listen well.
Such glorious sounds can soothe away all fears,
And every lingering doubt they will...

Long lion days
Start with white haze.
By midday you meet
A hammer of heat —
Whatever was sown
Now fully grown,
Whatever conceived
Now fully leaved,
Abounding, ablaze —
O long lion...

In the field, two horses,
Two swans on the river,
While a wind blows over
A waste of thistles
Crowded like men;
And now again
My thoughts are children
With uneasy faces
That awake and rise
Beneath running skies
From buried...

It has been well said that quietness is what a Grecian urn is the still unravished bride of,
And that a door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.
I may add that a sachet is what many a housewife's linen is fragrantly entrusted to,
But...

I wrote a love poem
For you
On a steamed-up window
On the bus
But it soon evaporated...
Just like "us"
...

The girl on the corner is flashing her legs.
The drunk at the station is down to the dregs.
I try not to answer each question that begs,
And I long for a train back to...

New brooms sweep clean
Old brooms can't be fussed
New brooms are mad keen
Old brooms can't stand dust.

New brooms are young bulls
Can't wait to get their teeth
Into the kitchen carpet,
Up the stairs and...

My wife is such a light sleeper
That when I come home late
After a night out with the boys
I always remove my shoes
And leave them at the bottom
Of the...

I never really understood
what he said
but every now and then
I find myself
barking with the dog
or bending with the irises
or helping out
in other little...

I'd know you if I saw you,
Although we've never met.
I see the ones between us,
With more to come, I'll bet!

Love is such a dismal dance
Without you in my arms.
I date the ones between us,
Whilst dreaming of your...

My fellow man I do not care for.
I often ask me, What's he there for?
The only answer I can find
Is, Reproduction of his kind.
If I'm supposed to swallow that,
Winnetka is my habitat.
Isn't it time to carve Hic Jacet
Above that Reproduction...

A child need not be very clever
To learn that "Later, dear" means...

People expect old men to die,
They do not really mourn old men.
Old men are different. People look
At them with eyes that wonder when…
People watch with unshocked eyes;
But the old men know when an old man...

Her eyes,
her very eyes,
would have lit up my room —
and my life —
if she had
cared to enter.

But she looked away,
and our eyes were destined
never to meet again.
...

So fair is she!
So fair her face
So fair her pulsing...

What are days for?
Days are where we live.
They come, they wake us
Time and time over.
They are to be happy in:
Where can we live but...

I called for Cupid's help today to melt your icy heart.
But he would not (or could not) even play his part.

His quiver was quite empty, with not one arrow left.
He shrugged his dimpled shoulders, leaving me...

Ben was kinda rough around the edges,
But Sally didn't care.
He came without promises or pledges,
But at least he was...

When words have wings, and each line sings,
The writer should take pride.
Woman or man, each poet can
Bring forth that magic ride!

Words combined can woo the mind
To make us laugh or cry.
Artistic bent, with true intent,
Can lift us to the...

they come
these guys
grey truck
radio playing

they are in a hurry

it’s quite exciting:
shirt open
bellies hanging...

I loved to go to grandma's house
When I was very small.
Those big old empty rooms upstairs
Always seemed so tall.
I'd play up there without a care;
With just one chair, that's...

Through every nook and every cranny
The wind blew in on poor old Granny
Around her knees, into each ear
(And up her nose as well, I...

not bother the beagle lying there
away from grass and flowers and paths,
dreaming dogdreams, or perhaps dreaming
nothing, as men do awake;
yes, leave him be, in that simple juxtaposition,
out of the maelstrom, lucifugous as a bat,
searching...

She said, "Please write a poem for me."
I told her I would try.
But soon she sailed across the sea
And left me high and...

Night is calling and dreams are falling,
As elephants dance inside my head.
Serried hedgerows and herds of rainbows
Are closing in as I lie on my...

Did the winds and waves obey
All good wishes
On that fateful, "goodbye" day?


Did you reach that distant shore?
And did you find
Whatever you were looking...

go to sleep on all fours
ready to pounce
on any dream
in which you might appear
Claws withdrawn
i want you live
the image fresh as meat
i want you live
the memories flesh to eat
Every nightmare its the same
prowling through forests
growling your...

Behold the duck.
It does not cluck.
A cluck it lacks.
It quacks.
It is specially fond
Of a puddle or a pond.
When it dines or sups,
It bottoms...

There's no free lunch in this mean town, my friend.
You have to play the game, and learn to bend.
It's quid pro quo, or shiver in the cold.
Just do as I say and you'll hit pure...

Yes, he was a hammer, seeking a nail;
She was a sweet girl, so precious and frail.

It seemed like a mismatch; one forged in hell.
But strange things occur when love casts its...

My father had a moustache,
But not his father or his brothers
I am very tempted

In the new hotels
The elevators are often so dark
The mirrors are useless

(Like this...

You were the last young woman
to look at me that way
When was it
sometime between 9/11 and the tsunami
You looked at my belt
and then I looked down at my belt
you were right
it wasn't bad
then we resumed our lives.
I don’t know about yours
but mine...

I can't break the code

Of our frozen love
It’s too late to know
What the password was

I reach for the past
Keep coming up short
And everything feels Like a last...

When lady luck has turned her back on you,
And nothing seems to work, choose what you do,
You still keep on believing things will change.
You know deep down your goals are within range.
You find a way of riding out the...

- 'I concur
with everything you say,'
smiled William.

'Oh yes
I concur with that.
I agree.'

' If that's the general feeling
you can count on me.
Can't say...

The sword-swallower
stabbed his unfaithful
wife to...

Rain is drumming hard on the old tin roof. The kids
Are restless, and just about to flip their little lids!
They both want to be out there, playing in the sand.
I tell them it's too wet, but they don't...

I was always working steady
But I never called it art
I was funding my depression
Meeting Jesus reading Marx
Sure it failed my little fire
But it’s bright the dying spark
Go tell the young messiah
What happens to the...

Consider the auk;
Becoming extinct because he forgot how to fly, and could only walk.
Consider man, who may well become extinct
Because he forgot how to walk and learned how to fly before he...

He's an aging road musician,
Still playing his guitar;
His fingers gnarled and stiffened.
Too late to be a star.

He's restless and he's rootless;
He'll never settle down.
The road goes on forever,
From town to dreary...

These paths and lanes I've walked along
So many times before.
They've barely changed throughout the years;
Still steeped in days of yore.
Old memories cry out to me,
And tales of family...

Groping back to bed after a piss
I part thick curtains, and am startled by
The rapid clouds, the moon’s cleanliness.

Four o’clock: wedge-shadowed gardens lie
Under a cavernous, a wind-picked sky.
There’s something laughable about...

I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
In time the curtain-edges will grow light.
Till then I see what’s really always there:
Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,
Making all thought...

Suspended lion face
Spilling at the centre
Of an unfurnished sky
How still you stand,
And how unaided
Single stalkless flower
You pour...

That Whitsun, I was late getting away:
  Not till about
One-twenty on the sunlit Saturday
Did my three-quarters-empty train pull out,
All windows down, all cushions hot, all sense
Of being in a hurry gone. We ran
Behind the backs of houses,...

It's not easy being a poet nowadays.
Especially if you wander away from the desk
and pick up a newspaper, or listen to the radio,
switch on the TV, or be drawn into...

roaches spit out
paper clips
and the helicopter circles and circles
smelling for blood
searchlights leering down into our...

there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I’m not going
to let anybody see...

In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms,
I labour by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But...

Say Bazonka every day
That's what my grandma used to say
It keeps at bay the Asian Flu'
And both your elbows free from glue.
So say Bazonka every day
(That's what my grandma used to...

A mind badged and barnacled
by the many vagaries of life.
Finding his own perspective
on fate's uneven hand.

A mosaic made of a thousand
broken pieces. Each fragment
relevant and valuable,
in its own intrinsic...

Maveric Prowles
Had Rumbling Bowles
That thundered in the night.
It shook the bedrooms all around
And gave the folks a fright.
The doctor called;
He was appalled
When through his stethoscope
He heard the sound of a baying hound,
And the acrid smell...

Simon Danz has come home again,
From cruising about with his buccaneers;
He has singed the beard of the King of Spain,
And carried away the Dean of Jaen
And sold him in...

With Annie gone,
whose eyes to compare
with the morning...

Belinda was an artist
Who painted things from life.
She'd be there at her easel,
With brush or palette knife.
She always looked so calm,
With not a hint of...

pleasures of the damned
are limited to brief moments
of happiness:
like the eyes in the look of a dog,
like a square of wax,
like a fire taking the city hall,
the country,
the continent,
like fire taking the hair
of maidens and monsters;
and...

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle...

In his black armour
the house-fly marched the field
of Freda's sleeping thighs,
undisturbed by the soft hand
which vaguely moved
to end his exercise.
And it ruined my day —
this fly which never planned
to charm her or to please
should...

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion...

May I join you in the doghouse, Rover?
I wish to retire till the party's over.
Since three o'clock I've done my best
To entertain each tiny guest;
My conscience now I've left behind me,
And if they want me, let them find me.
I blew their bubbles, I...

I know. I know.
they are limited, have different
needs and
concerns.

but I watch and learn from them.
I like the little they know,
which is so...

I once bought a toy rabbit
at a department store
and now he sits and ponders
me with pink sheer eyes:

He wants golf balls and glass
walls.
I want quiet...

Life keeps trying to knock me down,
With problems thrown my way.
It makes me wear a fitful frown,
As blue skies turn to grey.

I've taken knocks all through the years,
But still I battle on.
Pleasures often plagued with fears
Are what I feed...

She entered my foot with her foot
and she entered my waist with her snow.
She entered my heart saying,
"Yes, that's right."
And so the Body of Loneliness
was covered from without,
and from within
the Body of Loneliness was embraced.
Now...

He stood up for Nietzsche
I stood up for Christ
He stood up for victory
I stood up for less

I loved to read his verses
He loved to hear my song
We never had much interest
In who was right or...

You never liked to get
The letters that I sent.
But now you've got the gist
Of what my letters meant.

You're reading them again,
The ones you didn't burn.
You press them to your lips,
My pages of...

When I was a lad summers were longer.
Families were closer, and somehow stronger.
There were surely more birds and butterflies
That flitted and fluttered and filled the skies.
I could be wrong - but I'm...

They say eyes clear with age,
As dew clarifies air
To sharpen evenings,
As if time put an edge
Round the last shape of things
To show them there;
The many-levelled trees,
The long soft tides of grass
Wrinkling away the gold
Wind-ridden waves— all...

Lonely in Ireland, since it was not home,
Strangeness made sense. The salt rebuff of speech,
Insisting so on difference, made me welcome:
Once that was recognised, we were in...

On short, still days
At the shut of the year
We search the pathways
Where the coverts were.

For kindling-wood we come,
And make up bundles,
Carrying them home
Down long low...

Be careful not to cross the gander,
A bird composed of beak and dander.
His heart is filled with prideful hate
Of all the world except his mate,
And if the neighbors do not err
He's overfond of beating her.
Is he happy? What's the use
Of trying to...

Unwillingly Miranda wakes,
Feels the sun with terror,
One unwilling step she takes,
Shuddering to the mirror.

Miranda in Miranda's sight
Is old and gray and dirty;
Twenty-nine she was last night;
This morning she is...

Praise the spells and bless the charms,
I found April in my arms
April golden, April cloudy,
Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy;
April soft in flowered langor,
April cold with sudden anger,
Ever changing, ever true —
I love April, I love...

At Atri in Abruzzo, a small town
Of ancient Roman date, but scant renown,
One of those little places that have run
Half up the hill, beneath a blazing sun,
And then sat down to rest, as if to say,
'I climb no farther upward, come what may,'--
The Re...

You do not come dramatically, with dragons
That rear up with my life between their paws
And dash me butchered down beside the wagons,
The horses panicking; nor as a clause
Clearly set out to warn what can be lost,
What out-of-pocket charges must be...

A - Appreciate what you already have.
B - Believe in yourself, or no-one else will.
C - Consider all options, wherever possible.
D - Don't be quick to judge. No-one is perfect.
E - Eat healthily to promote holistic well-being.
F - Family and friends...

man on the veranda
outside, giving coppers
to the old tramp and
feeling good isn't me.
I am the veranda.
I could have been
the tramp or even
the coppers. However
I choose to be the
veranda and it is
my poem. Such is
the power of...

English Teeth, English Teeth!
Shining in the sun
A part of British heritage
Aye, each and every one.
English Teeth, Happy Teeth!
Always having fun
Clamping down on bits of fish
And sausages half done.
English Teeth! HEROES' Teeth!
Hear them click!...

There was a porter
who had ideas
high above his railway station
always causing righteous indignation

he wanted to be
giant amongst men
saviour come again to earth
but his teachings only met with...

I have outlived
my youthfulness
so a quiet life for me

where once
I used to ...

They're at it again
the wind and the rain
It all started
when the wind
took the window
by the collar
and shook it
with all its might
Then the rain
butted in
What a din
they'll be at it all night
Serves them right
if they go home in the morning
and...

Cousin Nell
married a frogman
in the hope
that one day
he would turn into
a handsome...

Cousin Daisy's
favourite sport
was standing
on...

One perfect summer's day I walked o'er field and
  country lane.
The sights and sounds of nature in her glory filled me
  fain.
Strolling through these environs would lighten any load,
So on I went, till presently I found a winding...

Twas midnight in the schoolroom
And every desk was shut
When suddenly from the alphabet
Was heard a loud "Tut-Tut!"

Said A to B, "I don't like C;
His manners are a lack.
For all I ever see of C
Is a semi-circular...

Two children (small), one Four, one Five,
Once saw a bee go in a hive,
They'd never seen a bee before!
So waited there to see some more.
And sure enough along they came
A dozen bees (and all the same!)
Within the hive they buzzed about;
Then, one by...

If you're attacked by a Lion
Find fresh underpants to try on
Lay on the ground quite still
Pretend you are very ill
Keep like that day after day
Perhaps the lion will go...

Born screaming small into this world-
Living I am.
Occupational therapy twixt birth and death-
What was I before?
What will I be next?
What am I now?
Cruel answer carried in the jesting mind
of a careless God
I will not bend and grovel
When I die....

Young are our dead
Like babies they lie
The wombs they blest once
Not healed dry
And yet - too soon
Into each space
A cold earth falls
On colder face.
Quite still they lie
These fresh-cut reeds
Clutched in earth
Like winter seeds
But they will not...

Elephants are contagious!
Be careful how you tread.
An Elephant that's been trodden on
Should be confined to bed!

Leopards are contagious too.
Be careful tiny tots.
They don't give you a temperature
But lots and lots - of...

I whispered our secrets to the north wind,
Little knowing they would reach other ears.

I dreamed we had an everlasting love,
But those dreams turned out to be illusions.

Opposites attract, but some opposites
Are too polar to accommodate...

He is an armchair critic
Who likes to watch the news
Staring at his old TV
He mumbles as he views
And when the politicians speak
He almost blows a...

Was it really that long ago?
Where the years have flown heaven only knows

We think about him often
As the nights close in and the whisky flows

O the wit of the man the yarns he could spin
About Cambridge and...

How distant, the departure of young men
Down valleys, or watching
The green shore past the salt-white cordage
Rising and falling,

Cattlemen, or carpenters, or keen
Simply to get away
From married villages before morning,
Melodeons...

To write one song, I said,
As sad as the sad wind
That walks around my bed,
Having one simple fall
As a candle-flame swells, and is thinned,
As a curtain stirs by the wall
— For this I must visit the dead.
Headstone and wet cross,
Paths where the...

The mirror that hung in the hall
Posed problems, for you and for me.
Although it looked chic on the wall.
On that point we both could...

crow knows
exactly where to sit
on the yellow bench

the wave
exactly where to break

the jaw that will not
unclench
is fastened perfectly
to the writer's skull

future generations
come like clockwork
under the damp
cement...

The pen picked a fight with the paper
The four walls looked on in disdain
The pen broke its nib in the caper
But inflicted a horrible...

Sitting alone, as one forsook,
Close by a silver-shedding brook,
With hands held up to Love, I wept
And, after sorrows spent, I slept.
Then, in a vision, I did see
A glorious form appear to me:
A virgin's face she had; her dress
Was like a spritely...

takes
a lot of

desperation

dissatisfaction

and
disillusion

to
write

a
few
good
poems.

it's not
for
everybody

either to

write
it

or even...

shoes themselves
would light my room
like many candles.

she walks like all things
shining on glass,
like all things
that make a...

I join the queue
We move up nicely.

I ask the lady in front
What are queuing for.
'To join another queue,'
She explains.

'How pointless,' I say,
'I'm leaving.' She points
To another long queue.
'Then you must get in...

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.

I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no...