RobertHaigh's Poems

Taking My Time

I'm taking my time with chores still to do;
I don't like to rush them at all.
I'm painting the kitchen a delicate hue,
And driving my wife up the...

– by Robert Haigh

Dark Horse

I ride on a dark horse
through the canyons
of our past.

Far away from
the desert island of our
disaffected here and now.

I catch glimpses of you
on a high bluff,
looking down at...

– by Robert Haigh

A Love Story

Till I met you I never knew
What love could mean; what love could do.
It seems so simple now,
But you, girl, showed me how.

My life was empty till you came;
I thought that love was just a game.
You opened up my eyes,
And made me...

– by Robert Haigh

Tick Box Tourist

She is a tick box tourist,
Trotting round the globe;
Totting up her air miles,
But she's a xenophobe!

She likes to say, "I've been there!"
(Wherever 'there' may be.)
She's bought the T-shirt too;
A form of...

– by Robert Haigh

Sing Your Song (Villanelle)

Sing! Sing your song for all of us to hear!
A song well-sung will brighten any day.
Play! Play that song so full of warmth and...

– by Robert Haigh

Aubade

Birdsong hit the morning air
As sunrise kissed the sky.
Lingering stars reduced their glare
And softly said goodbye.

Wispy clouds turned red and gold,
While trees stretched out and yawned.
Rabbits scampered by the fold;
Another day had...

– by Robert Haigh

Your Eyes

Your eyes
  are bluer than the skies
  of summer. They shine more brightly
  than heavenly stars that sparkle...

– by Robert Haigh

The Day I Lost Your Love

I heard the south wind call your name,
And my old pony pulled up lame.
The western sky was all aflame,
The day I lost your...

– by Robert Haigh

Early Summer

Early summer
and the garden smiles brightly.
Two sparrows dance on the lawn
while a bee scribbles an unfathomable
message in the air.
I try to read my book
but the sights and sounds of nature
pull me away from the page.
I sigh,
and I close the book,...

– by Robert Haigh

The Muse Said Write

The Muse said, "Write!" and so I raised my pen,
Not knowing quite just what to do, but then
I found myself within a forest, tall,
Where all the leaves were words, both great and small.
I looked around in wonder, and in awe,
At all the...

– by Robert Haigh

Dreamscape

Drifting in a field of dreams
with an ever-changing
backdrop, and
Magritte's Lost Jockey
riding, riding, riding.

Floating under a spacious sky
with barely a breath
of wind, and
Coleridge's albatross
gliding, gliding,...

– by Robert Haigh

Moment of Madness

A moment of madness came today,
When you said you were going away.

I begged to differ, and told you so,
And in the end you did not go.

It was up to me to change your mind;
I did it well, I think you'll...

– by Robert Haigh

Birthday

I blow out the candles
and make a wish,
as I enter a new decade
with mixed feelings.

Too old to die young
but too young
to die today (God willing).

But I am now
officially old;
no escaping that...

– by Robert Haigh

Silence

Silence has a golden tongue,
And silent songs are best unsung.

Saying nothing can be good,
To some of us that's understood.

Sometimes words get in the way,
Were I to speak, that's what I'd...

– by Robert Haigh

Legacy

Dusty roads and hazy sun;
Another journey has begun.
All good memories I shall keep;
Time to laugh and time to weep.
Down life's highway I'll walk on,
Till my earthly days are done.
Love, I found, was worth the pain;
Nothing ventured, nothing...

– by Robert Haigh

First Day at School

A millionbillionwillion miles from home
Waiting for the bell to go. (To go where?)
Why are they all so big, other children?
So noisy? So much at home they
Must have been born in uniform
Lived all their lives in playgrounds
Spent the years inventing...

– by Roger McGough

Indian Boyhood

What happened to the boy I was?
Why did he run away?
And leave me old and thinking, like
There'd been no yesterday?
What happened then?
Was I that boy?
Who laughed and swam in the bund*
Is there no going back?
No recompense?
Is there nothing?
No...

– by Spike Milligan

My Sister Laura

My sister Laura's bigger than me
And lifts me up quite easily.
I can't lift her, I've tried and tried;
She must have something heavy...

– by Spike Milligan

Winter Complaint

Now when I have a cold
I am careful with my cold,
I consult a physician
And I do as I am told.
I muffle up my torso
In woolly woolly garb,
And I quaff great flagons
Of sodium bicarb.
I munch on aspirin,
I lunch on water,
And I wouldn’t dream of...

– by Ogden Nash

Song of the Open Road

I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree
Indeed, unless the billboards fall
I’ll never see a tree at...

– by Ogden Nash

My Dream

This is my dream,
It is my own dream,
I dreamt it.
I dreamt that my hair was kempt.
Then I dreamt that my true love unkempt...

– by Ogden Nash

Of You

The day is old, but you are young,
And now your praises must be sung.
Outside it rains, but you look fine,
Held close within these arms of...

– by Robert Haigh

Rhyme

There is more to poetry than rhyme,
And I don't employ it all the time.
I'm using it here, right now, it's true,
But it isn't something you have to...

– by Robert Haigh

I Think of You

When the sun hits my window on a morning,
And I wake up, slowly stretching and yawning,
  I think of you.

When I see a girl on the street with black hair,
And she walks by, looking like she doesn't care,
  I think of...

– by Robert Haigh

Please Tell Me

Please tell me why you look so sad;
I'll lend a friendly ear.
I know the worries that you've had
Have made you shed a tear.

Life can run short on tenderness,
And often isn't fair;
But talking can relieve the stress;
I know, for I've been...

– by Robert Haigh

Dream Lover

I dreamed last night I was
Jacqueline Bisset's lover.
We were both young and beautiful.
I called her Jackie and I was
besotted with her. She called me
darling, though I doubt she
ever loved me. We visited
art galleries and dined
in fancy...

– by Robert Haigh

Toads

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life?
Can’t I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off?
 
Six days of the week it soils
With its sickening poison —
Just for paying a few bills!
That’s out of proportion.
 
Lots of folk live on...

– by Philip Larkin

The Sun Wields Mercy

the sun wields mercy
but like a jet torch carried to high,
and the jets whip across its sight
and rockets leap like toads,
and the boys get out the maps
and pin-cushion the moon,
old green cheese,
no life there but too much on earth:
our...

– by Charles Bukowski

Oojah-Ka-Piv

The people who live
On the Oojah-ka-Piv
Stand around in bundles of...

– by Spike Milligan

Orstralia

Orstralia – Orstralia
We think of you each day
Orstralia – Orstralia
At work or at play.
We think of yew in the morning
And in the evening too
We even wake up at mid-night
So that we can think of you.
Orstralia – Orstralia
We love you from the heart...

– by Spike Milligan

Emptiness

I've learned mine can't be filled,
only alchemized. Many times
it's become a paragraph or a page.
But usually I've hidden it,
not knowing until too late
how enormous it grows in its dark.
Or how obvious it gets
when I've donned, say, my good...

– by Spike Milligan

When I Suspected

There will be a time when it will end.
Be it parting
Be it death
So each passing minute with you
Pendulummed with sadness.
So many times
I looked long into your face.
I could hear the clock...

– by Spike Milligan

Same Kind Of

Same kind of
C
l
o
u
d
Same kind of
R
a
i
n
Same kind of
D
a
r
k
n
e
s
s
Same kind of
P
a
i
n
Same kind of
L
o
v
e
Same kind of
T
o
k
e
n
Same kind of
L
i
f
e
Same kind of
B
r
o
.
.
.
k
e
n
...

– by Robert Haigh

Wrong Shoes

Well, I must have been wearing the wrong shoes.
They took me where I didn't want to go.
A poor excuse, you tell me — yes, I know.
Most humans have the wherewithal to choose
A general direction in which to head,
But those shoes took me somewhere else...

– by Robert Haigh

Grandpa's Little Helper

Grandpa's going to rake the lawn
And gather up the leaves.
Can you come too? Why sure you can,
But not in those short...

– by Robert Haigh

Coastline

We lived there,
on the edge.

The jagged coastline
of our love.

We weathered
many a storm,

and yet,
we parted peacefully.

Still friends,
but still a mystery.

Where does love go
when it disappears?

Does it really die?
Or does it move...

– by Robert Haigh

Scarecrow

I stand my ground, both day and night,
Within this field of grain.
My job, to scare the birds away;
With little thanks and zero pay;
In sunshine and in...

– by Robert Haigh

When the Snowmen Came

One cold winter's day the snow came down;
A blanket of white covered the town.
Children streamed out and started to build
With snow, and soon the gardens were filled
  With...

– by Robert Haigh

Two Hearts

Your heart was in the lost and found,
But I could not see why.
I knew a heart like yours was sound
And none should pass it by.

I took it home and cared for it,
With tenderness and love.
Then pretty soon your heart felt fit
Enough to rise...

– by Robert Haigh

Love Songs In Age

She kept her songs, they kept so little space,
The covers pleased her:
One bleached from lying in a sunny place,
One marked in circles by a vase of water,
One mended, when a tidy fit had seized her,
And coloured, by her daughter -
So they had...

– by Philip Larkin

Like The Train's Beat

Like the train's beat
Swift language flutters the lips
Of the Polish airgirl in the corner seat,
The swinging and narrowing sun
Lights her eyelashes, shapes
Her sharp vivacity of bone.
Hair, wild and controlled, runs back:
And gestures like these...

– by Philip Larkin

Wants

Beyond all this, the wish to be alone:
However the sky grows dark with invitation-cards
However we follow the printed directions of sex
However the family is photographed under the flag-staff -
Beyond all this, the wish to be...

– by Philip Larkin

Skin

Obedient daily dress,
You cannot always keep
That unfakable young surface.
You must learn your lines -
Anger, amusement, sleep;
Those few forbidding...

– by Philip Larkin

Mcmxiv

Those long uneven lines
Standing as patiently
As if they were stretched outside
The Oval or Villa Park,
The crowns of hats, the sun
On moustached archaic faces
Grinning as if it were all
An August Bank Holiday...

– by Philip Larkin

If Hands Could Free you, Heart

If hands could free you, heart,
Where would you fly?
Far, beyond every part
Of earth this running sky
Makes desolate? Would you cross
City and hill and sea,
If hands could set you...

– by Philip Larkin

Going

There is an evening coming in
Across the fields, one never seen before,
That lights no lamps.

Silken it seems at a distance, yet
When it is drawn up over the knees and breast
It brings no...

– by Philip Larkin

Modesties

Words as plain as hen-birds' wings
Do not lie,
Do not over-broider things -
Are too shy.

Thoughts that shuffle round like pence
Through each reign,
Wear down to their simplest sense
Yet...

– by Philip Larkin

Home is so Sad

Home is so sad. It stays as it was left,
Shaped to the comfort of the last to go
As if to win them back. Instead, bereft
Of anyone to please, it withers so,
Having no heart to put aside the...

– by Philip Larkin

Wild Oats

About twenty years ago
Two girls came in where I worked—
A bosomy English rose
And her friend in specs I could talk to.
Faces in those days sparked
The whole shooting-match off, and I doubt
If ever one had like hers:
But it was the friend I...

– by Philip Larkin

So You Want To Be A Writer

it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched...

– by Charles Bukowski

Jigsaw Puzzle

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...

– by Robert Haigh

The Sound Collector

A stranger called this morning
Dressed all in black and grey
Put every sound into a bag
And carried them away

The whistling of the kettle
The turning of the lock
The purring of the kitten
The ticking of the...

– by Roger McGough

Legend of the Leeds Lions

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Reading Poetry Out Loud

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Are You Drinking?

washed-up, on shore, the old yellow notebook
out again
I write from the bed
as I did last
year.
will see the doctor,
Monday.
"yes, doctor, weak legs, vertigo, head-
aches and my back
hurts."
"are you drinking?" he will ask....

– by Charles Bukowski

Beguiling

She is so beguiling
That when she beckons
I can run a mile
In twenty...

– by Roger McGough

Cold Lies and Sad Goodbyes

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Fair Weather

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...

– by Robert Haigh

A Flea And A Fly In A Flue

A flea and a fly in a flue
Were imprisoned, so what could they do?
Said the fly, "let us flee!"
"Let us fly!" said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the...

– by Ogden Nash

Common Cold

Go hang yourself, you old M.D.!
You shall not sneer at me.
Pick up your hat and stethoscope,
Go wash your mouth with laundry soap;
I contemplate a joy exquisite
I'm not paying you for your visit.
I did not call you to be told
My malady is a common...

– by Ogden Nash

Being Me, Being You

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.
...

– by Robert Haigh

Child's Play

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!
...

– by Robert Haigh

Spring Must Wait

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Sharks, Snipers and Snakes

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Look At All Those Monkeys!

Look at all those monkeys
Jumping in their cage.
Why don't they all go out to work
And earn a decent wage?

How can you say such silly things,
And you a son of mine?
Imagine monkeys travelling on
The Morden-Edgware...

– by Spike Milligan

Mirror, Mirror

A young spring-tender girl
combed her joyous hair
'You are very ugly' said the mirror.
But,
on her lips hung
a smile of dove-secret loveliness,
for only that morning had not
the blind boy said,
'You are...

– by Spike Milligan

No Middleman

I never tried to see your face,
Nor did I want to know
The details of some lower place
Where I would have to...

– by Leonard Cohen

Hospitality

cognac

with the old man –

......his exquisite hospitality

in the shack by the river –

that is, no hospitality

just emptying the bottle into my glass

and filling my plate

and falling...

– by Leonard Cohen

Good Advice For Someone Like Me

the pain
someone is rejoicing

behind the torture
there is love

who's going to buy
this...

– by Leonard Cohen

The Sweetest Little Song

You go your way
I'll go your way...

– by Leonard Cohen

Mercy Returns Me

A woman I want -
An honour I covet -
A place where I want my mind to dwell -
Then Mercy returns me
To the fretboard
And the problems of the...

– by Leonard Cohen

You Have Loved Enough

I came to You with sorrow –
You said,"Come to me with bread”.
I could not make a living –
You employed me with the dead.

I chose the marble chambers –
But You sent me down below.
You kept me from believing
Until You let me...

– by Leonard Cohen

Never Expected

Never expected
to be loved at all
for salvaging Sex
and blunting the Fall

for salvaging Sex
from out of the books
(the authors perplexed
by Love´s ravaged looks)

for salvaging Sex
from all kinds of blame
and giving it back
it´s very good...

– by Leonard Cohen

The Goal

I can´t leave my house
or answer the phone.
I´m going down again
but feeling no pain.

And that´s the great change
and mercy to boot ---
the enemy´s dead
and I don´t have to...

– by Leonard Cohen

Sicily Café

And now that I kneel
At the edge of my years
Let me fall through the mirror of love

And the things that I know
Let them drift like the snow
Let me dwell in the light that's...

– by Leonard Cohen

Love By Any Name

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Copper and Tin

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Hooligan Wind

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...

– by Robert Haigh

You and I

I explain quietly. You
hear me shouting. You
try a new tack. I
feel old wounds reopen.

You see both sides. I
see your blinkers. I
am placatory. You
sense a new...

– by Roger McGough

Nothing To Be Said

For nations vague as weed,
For nomads among stones,
Small-statured cross-faced tribes
And cobble-close families
In mill-towns on dark mornings
Life is slow...

– by Philip Larkin

Beasts Pounding Through Time

Van Gogh writing his brother for paints
Hemingway testing his shotgun
Celine going broke as a doctor of medicine
the impossibility of being human
Villon expelled from Paris for being a thief
Faulkner drunk in the gutters of his town
the...

– by Charles Bukowski

The Man Inside My Head

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Long Time Coming

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Standing Room Only

This population explosion
Said Peter to St. Paul
Is really getting far too much
Just look at the crowd in the hall.
Even here, in Heaven
There isn't any room
I think the world could do with less
Much less fruit in the womb.
Thus Heaven is...

– by Spike Milligan

The Dog Lovers

So they bought you
And kept you in a
Very good home
Cental heating
TV
A deep freeze
A very good home-
No one to take you
For that lovely long run-
But otherwise
'A very good home'
They fed you Pal and Chum
But not that lovely long run,
Until, mad...

– by Spike Milligan

Welcome Home

Unaware of my crime
they stood me in the dock.

I was sentenced to life....
without her.

Strange trial.
No judge.
No...

– by Spike Milligan

Requiem

There was a young belle of Natchez
Whose garments were always in patchez.
When comment arose
On the state of her clothes,
She drawled, When Ah itchez, Ah...

– by Ogden Nash

The Germ

A mighty creature is the germ,
Though smaller than the pachyderm.
His customary dwelling place
Is deep within the human race.
His childish pride he often pleases
By giving people strange diseases.
Do you, my poppet, feel infirm?
You probably contain...

– by Ogden Nash

The Grackle

The grackle's voice is less than mellow,
His heart is black, his eye is yellow,
He bullies more attractive birds
With hoodlum deeds and vulgar words,
And should a human interfere,
Attacks that human in the rear.
I cannot help but deem the grackle
An...

– by Ogden Nash

Adventures of Isabel

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...

– by Ogden Nash

Antique Song

Too old, too old to play the part,
Too old, God only knows!
I’ll keep the little silver heart,
The red and folded rose.

And in the arms of someone strong
You’ll have what we had none.
I’ll finish up my winter song
For you. It’s almost...

– by Leonard Cohen

Three Light Limericks

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Goodbat Nightman

God bless all policemen
and fighters of crime,
May thieves go to jail
for a very long time.

They've had a hard day
helping clean up the town,
Now they hang from the mantelpiece
both upside...

– by Roger McGough

Mrs Moon

Mrs Moon
sitting up in the sky
little old lady
rock-a-bye
with a ball of fading light
and silvery needles
knitting the...

– by Roger McGough

Soil

we've ignored eachother for a long time
and I'm strictly an indoor man
anytime to call would be the wrong time
I'll avoid you as long as I...

– by Roger McGough

Inspiration

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Dandelion

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Mr Bleaney

This was Mr Bleaney's room. He stayed
The whole time he was at the Bodies, till
They moved him.' Flowered curtains, thin and frayed,
Fall to within five inches of the...

– by Philip Larkin

Best Society

When I was a child, I thought,
Casually, that solitude
Never needed to be sought.
Something everybody had,
Like nakedness, it lay at hand,
Not specially right or specially wrong,
A plentiful and obvious thing
Not at all hard to...

– by Philip Larkin

The Trees

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

– by Philip Larkin

Triple Time

This empty street, this sky to blandness scoured,
This air, a little indistinct with autumn
Like a reflection, constitute the present --
A time traditionally soured,
A time unrecommended by...

– by Philip Larkin

The North Ship (Legend)

I saw three ships go sailing by,
Over the sea, the lifting sea,
And the wind rose in the morning sky,
And one was rigged for a long...

– by Philip Larkin

New Eyes Each Year

New eyes each year
Find old books here,
And new books,too,
Old eyes renew;
So youth and age
Like ink and page
In this house join,
Minting new...

– by Philip Larkin

Wedding Wind

The wind blew all my wedding-day,
And my wedding-night was the night of the high wind;
And a stable door was banging, again and again,
That he must go and shut it, leaving me
Stupid in candlelight, hearing rain,
Seeing my face in the twisted...

– by Philip Larkin

Next, Please

Always too eager for the future, we
Pick up bad habits of expectancy.
Something is always approaching; every day
Till then we...

– by Philip Larkin

Why Did I Dream Of You Last Night?

Why did I dream of you last night?
Now morning is pushing back hair with grey light
Memories strike home, like slaps in the face;
Raised on elbow, I stare at the pale fog
beyond the...

– by Philip Larkin

The School In August

The cloakroom pegs are empty now,
And locked the classroom door,
The hollow desks are lined with dust,
And slow across the floor
A sunbeam creeps between the chairs
Till the sun shines no...

– by Philip Larkin

I Have Started To Say

I have started to say
"A quarter of a century"
Or "thirty years back"
About my own life.

It makes me breathless
It's like falling and recovering
In huge gesturing loops
Through an empty...

– by Philip Larkin

Money

Quarterly, is it, money reproaches me:
  'Why do you let me lie here wastefully?
I am all you never had of goods and sex,
  You could get them still by writing a few cheques.'
 
So I look at others, what they do with theirs:
  They certainly...

– by Philip Larkin

Cut Grass

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...

– by Philip Larkin

From Dusk to Daylight

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

– by Robert Haigh

The Man I Might Have Been

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Cake

wanted one life
you wanted another
we couldn't have our cake
so we ate...

– by Roger McGough

The Time I Like Best

The time I like best is 6am
when the snow is 6 inches deep
which I'm yet to discover
'cause I'm under the covers
fast, fast...

– by Roger McGough

The Trouble With Snowmen

The trouble with snowmen,'
Said my father one year
'They are no sooner made
than they just disappear.

I'll build you a snowman
And I'll build it to last
Add sand and cement
And then have it...

– by Roger McGough

The Lesson

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...

– by Roger McGough

Writing

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...

– by Charles Bukowski

Uncle Dan's Will

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Thousands

Out of the thousands
who are known,
or who want to be known
as poets,
maybe one or two
are genuine
and the rest are fakes,
hanging around the sacred precincts
trying to look like the real thing.
Needless to say
I am one of the fakes,
and this is my...

– by Leonard Cohen

2 Flies

The flies are angry bits of life;
why are they so angry?
it seems they want more,
it seems almost as if they
are angry
that they are flies;
it is not my fault;
I sit in the room
with them
and they taunt me
with their agony;
it is as if they were...

– by Charles Bukowski

For the Foxes

Don't feel sorry for me.
I am a competent,
satisfied human being.

be sorry for the others
who
fidget
complain

who
constantly
rearrange their
lives
like
furniture.

juggl ing mates
and
attitudes

their
confusi on is...

– by Charles Bukowski

Cut While Shaving

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...

– by Charles Bukowski

Poem Heading South

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...

– by Robert Haigh

First Child... Second Child

FIRST...

– by Ogden Nash

Morning Prayer

Now another day is breaking,
Sleep was sweet and so is waking.
Dear Lord, I promised you last night
Never again to sulk or fight.
Such vows are easier to keep
When a child is sound asleep.
Today, O Lord, for your dear sake,
I'll try to keep them...

– by Ogden Nash

Lost My Voice in New York City

Lost my voice in New York City
never heard it again after sixty-seven
Now I talk like you
Now I sing like you
Cigarette and coffee to make me sick
Couple of families to make me think
Going to see my lawyer
Going to read my mail
Lost my voice in New...

– by Leonard Cohen

Japanese Quartet

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Prime Time

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...

– by Robert Haigh

I Love Me

I’m always my own best cheerer;
Myself I satisfy
Till I take a look in the mirror
And see things I to...

– by Ogden Nash

A Word to Husbands

To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut...

– by Ogden Nash

Perfect Pattern

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Unto Us...

Somewhere at some time
They committed themselves to me
And so, I was!
Small, but I WAS!
Tiny, in shape
Lusting to live
I hung in my pulsing cave.
Soon they knew of me
My mother —my father.
I had no say in my being
I lived on trust
And love
Tho' I...

– by Spike Milligan

My lady can sleep

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...

– by Leonard Cohen

Nightmare

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Send Me a Postcard

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...

– by Robert Haigh

A Piece of Empty Sky

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Ordinary Man

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,...

– by Robert Haigh

Insomnia

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...

– by Robert Haigh

God's Great Masterpiece

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Get Ready

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.
...

– by Robert Haigh

Shadow of Doubt

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Dublinesque

Down stucco sidestreets,
Where light is pewter
And afternoon mist
Brings lights on in shops
Above race-guides and rosaries,
A funeral...

– by Philip Larkin

Maturity

A stationary sense… as, I suppose,
I shall have, till my single body grows
  Inaccurate, tired;
Then I shall start to feel the backward pull
Take over, sickening and masterful -
  Some say,...

– by Philip Larkin

Introspective Reflection

I would live all my life in nonchalance and insouciance
Were it not for making a living, which is rather a...

– by Ogden Nash

I Didn't Go To Church Today

I didn't go to church today,
I trust the Lord to understand.
The surf was swirling blue and white,
The children swirling on the sand.
He knows, He knows how brief my stay,
How brief this spell of summer weather,
He knows when I am said and done...

– by Ogden Nash

be kind

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...

– by Charles Bukowski

as the sparrow

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...

– by Charles Bukowski

as the poems go

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...

– by Charles Bukowski

Edwardian Drama

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!

*** *** ...

– by Robert Haigh

Let Me Die a Youngman's Death

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...

– by Roger McGough

Jagged

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...

– by Robert Haigh

If I Could Write Words

If I could write words
Like leaves on an autumn forest floor,
What a bonfire my letters would...

– by Spike Milligan

There was a young soldier called Edsar

There was a young soldier called Edsar
When wanted was always in bed sir:
One morning at one
They fired a gun
And Edsar, in bed sir, was dead...

– by Spike Milligan

Can a Parrot

Can a parrot
Eat a carrot
Standing on his head?
If I did that my mum would send me
 Straight upstairs to...

– by Spike Milligan

Porridge

Why is there no monument
To Porridge in our land?
If it's good enough to eat,
It's good enough to...

– by Spike Milligan

It's a Jungle Out There

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...

– by Roger McGough

Ghost of a Memory

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Where is My Mother?

Where is my mother in all these poems?
Good question. My father, who wouldn't
thank me for it, is outside the school railings.
And there in the backyard failing to teach me
how to box. But don't point, you'll embarrass...

– by Roger McGough

The Python

The python has, and I fib no fibs,
318 pairs of ribs.
In stating this I place reliance
On a seance with one who died for science.
This figure is sworn to and attested;
He counted them while being...

– by Ogden Nash

The Romantic Age

This one is entering her teens,
Ripe for sentimental scenes,
Has picked a gangling unripe male.
Sees herself in bridal veil,
Presses lips and tosses head,
Declares she's not too young to wed,
Informs you pertly you forget
Romeo and Juliet.
Do not...

– by Ogden Nash

The Poem That Wrote Me!

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Goodbye S.S.

Go away girl, go away
  and let me pack my dreams
Now where did I put those yesteryears
  made up with broken seams
Where shall I sweep the pieces
  my God they still look new
There's a taxi waiting at the door
  but there's only room for...

– by Spike Milligan

Jumbo Jet

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...

– by Spike Milligan

Big Small World

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Hallelujah

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...

– by Leonard Cohen

Coming

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,...

– by Philip Larkin

Negative Indicative

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...

– by Philip Larkin

Past days of gales

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...

– by Philip Larkin

the harder you try

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...

– by Charles Bukowski

for they had things to say

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...

– by Charles Bukowski

Fall and Rise of a Poet

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Hunting for Poems

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Mindfulness

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...

– by Roger McGough

I Hear the Heartbeat of the Moon

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Songs of Angels (Sonnet)

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Long lion days

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...

– by Philip Larkin

Winter

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...

– by Philip Larkin

A Dog's Best Friend Is His Illiteracy

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...

– by Ogden Nash

Temporary Art

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

– by Robert Haigh

Back to You

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...

– by Robert Haigh

New Brooms

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...

– by Roger McGough

Light Sleeper

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...

– by Roger McGough

Roshi

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...

– by Leonard Cohen

The Ones Between Us

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...

– by Robert Haigh

À Bas Ben Adhem

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...

– by Ogden Nash

Old men

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...

– by Ogden Nash

Grandpa Is Ashamed

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

– by Ogden Nash

Angel Eyes

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.
...

– by Robert Haigh

So Fair Is She

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

– by Spike Milligan

Days

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...

– by Philip Larkin

Cupid Doesn't Care!

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Sally and Ben

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

– by Robert Haigh

When Words Have Wings

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...

– by Robert Haigh

the trash men

they come
these guys
grey truck
radio playing

they are in a hurry

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

– by Charles Bukowski

Grandma's House

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Granny

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...

– by Spike Milligan

beagle

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...

– by Charles Bukowski

She Said Please Write a Poem for Me

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Dreamland

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...

– by Robert Haigh

I Wonder...

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...

– by Robert Haigh

tigerdreams

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...

– by Roger McGough

The Duck

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...

– by Ogden Nash

Quid Pro Quo

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...

– by Robert Haigh

A Hammer Seeking a Nail

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Elevator Mirrors

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...

– by Leonard Cohen

Apparent Turbulence

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...

– by Leonard Cohen

I can't break the code

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...

– by Leonard Cohen

Riding Out the Storm

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Good Old William

- '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...

– by Roger McGough

The Perfect Crime

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

– by Roger McGough

Happens to the Heart

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...

– by Leonard Cohen

A Caution to Everybody

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...

– by Ogden Nash

Cabin Fever

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Road Musician

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...

– by Robert Haigh

These Paths and Lanes

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Sad Steps

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...

– by Philip Larkin

Aubade

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...

– by Philip Larkin

Solar

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

– by Philip Larkin

The Whitsun Weddings

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,...

– by Philip Larkin

That Poem You were Writing

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...

– by Roger McGough

in a neighborhood of murder

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

– by Charles Bukowski

the bluebird

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...

– by Charles Bukowski

In my craft or sullen art

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...

– by Dylan Thomas

Bazonka

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...

– by Spike Milligan

Mosaic

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Maveric

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...

– by Spike Milligan

For Anne

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

– by Leonard Cohen

Belinda

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...

– by Robert Haigh

the pleasures of the damned

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...

– by Charles Bukowski

Do not go gentle into that good night

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...

– by Dylan Thomas

The Fly

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...

– by Leonard Cohen

Children's Party

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...

– by Ogden Nash

my cats

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...

– by Charles Bukowski

The Look:

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...

– by Charles Bukowski

Life Keeps Trying to Knock Me Down

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...

– by Robert Haigh

Body of Loneliness

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...

– by Leonard Cohen

Irving and Me at the Hospital

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...

– by Leonard Cohen

The Letters

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...

– by Leonard Cohen

I Could Be Wrong — But I'm Not!

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...

– by Robert Haigh

I Woke Up in a Painting

I woke up in a painting
Hanging on the wall,
Not really understanding
The meaning of it all.

A dream within a dream,
Or life beyond the veil?
I could not comprehend this
Frightening...

– by Robert Haigh

Long Sight in Age

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...

– by Philip Larkin

The Importance of Elsewhere

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...

– by Philip Larkin

Gathering Wood

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...

– by Philip Larkin

The Gander

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...

– by Ogden Nash

A Lady Thinks She is Thirty

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...

– by Ogden Nash

Always Marry an April Girl

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...

– by Ogden Nash

To Failure

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...

– by Philip Larkin

A-Z of Good Thinking

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...

– by Robert Haigh

the power of poets

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...

– by Roger McGough

Teeth

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!...

– by Spike Milligan

Kyrie

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...

– by Roger McGough

Scintillate

I have outlived
my youthfulness
so a quiet life for me

where once
I used to ...

– by Roger McGough

Storm

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...

– by Roger McGough

Cousin Nell

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

– by Roger McGough

Cousin Daisy

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

– by Roger McGough

One Perfect Summer's Day

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...

– by Robert Haigh

The ABC

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...

– by Spike Milligan

Two Children

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...