Tag: Poetry

Give me a break

Do you need a break? From what?

Give me a break!

Cut me some slack!

This stuff again?

Some kind of a joke.

Cut me some slack

It’s too much to take

Some kind of a joke

You’re screwing my head.

It’s too much to take

Can’t take any more

You’re screwing my head

It’s just a repeat.

Can’t take any more

Again and again

It’s just a repeat

You’re doing me in.

Again and again

The same old thing

You’re doing me in

What’s it all for?

The same old thing

It all gets too much.

What’s it all for?

The thing never ends.

It all gets too much

I just need a break.

The thing never ends.

A verse form that sucks.

I just need a break

From writing Pantoums

A verse form that sucks

Some kind of a joke.

Making money from poetry

Come up with a crazy business idea.

A poet bleeds and breaks his heart
Spills it out on paper
The reader spares a passing glance
And treats it like a favour.

All the anxt and heartbreak there
The intellectual labour
Keep your troubles to yourself
Or share them with a neighbour.

Spare a penny if you’re kind
Spare it for a busker.
Nothing for the poet though
Empty words and bluster.

Skip around the mulberry bush,
Dance and skip and caper.
Another poem in the book
Isn’t worth the paper.

Today because we‘re all at sea.. I‘ll take a little time.

What could you do differently?

Today I can write differently

We’re literally at sea;

I’ll try for better poetry

Spend a little time.

I tell myself repeatedly

Not to write so rapidly

Jotting thoughts down randomly

With here and there a rhyme.

It changes things appreciably

Approaching them quite differently

As hopefully you’ll clearly see

When I just take more time.

Today I‘ll write more carefully

Organise more thoughtfully,

Use a structure that’s less free;

Has more consistent rhyme.

So today we‘re all at sea

And there is more time for me

I didn’t write so hurriedly

I tried to take my time.

Sing a song of sixpence – here’s a silly verse

What was the last thing you did for play or fun?

Sing a song of sixpence

Feet are made of clay

None of this is serious

This is how I play.

They should have made me Laureate

I’d have made it fun.

Just write silly poems

Here’s another one.

Should have been a Carol

But Mighty Tom was there

Snow is in the very sod

But there’s no winter fuel

Cousin Rachel’s she’s in charge

She says the cupboard’s bare.

Must have been the other folk

They left nothing there.

Tinsel in the manger

Twinkle little star

Kings can’t get to Bethlehem

They’re old it’s way too far.

Santa’s stuck in traffic

All the roads are jammed

Reindeer mightn’t make it

We hope that Amazon can.

All the girls just blame the boys

The boys all blame the men

Santa’s in his grotto

And it all comes round again.

Hark the Herald Angels

Shepherds in a field

Not much time for all of that

But keep the glasses filled.

This is tripe and nonsense

Silly, senseless verse

It’s my excuse to play around

It doesn’t get much worse.

Spurs are up at Arsenal

Palace down the road

The King is in his castle

The Queen in borrowed robes

Musk is in his counting house

Counting out the money

Down comes a blackbird

And pecks Kier Starmer’s nose.

Stuff your face with Turkey

Lovely roasted spuds

Parsnips, extra gravy

Who wants Brussels sprouts?

If you’re turning vegan

Do not tell your mum!

Baby in a manger

No room at the inn

How’d you dare not stuff your face

We’re celebrating him?

What you doing Christmas?

Will you be away?

They’re slaughtering the first born

So we don’t think we’ll stay.

We’ll head on up to Egypt

Out of Herod’s way

All the world loves refugees

So we’ll be on our way.

Come all ye faithful

Come to Israel

Away in awful danger

They are bombing infants there.

But hey we all recycle

And some stop eating meat

We’re attacking climate change

So guess the world is safe?

So here’s to merry Christmas

Everyone have fun

Forget about the future

The time to play’s begun.

We are all wassailing

And full of Christmas cheer

Forget about the serious stuff

The best time of the year.

I don’t know where this gets us

I just set out to play

I tried to switch my left brain off

And just to have some fun

Here we go round the mulberry bush

It’s just a silly song.

All of that is in the past.

The future’s just begun.

I’ll attempt the lottery – if I can not lose

What’s something you would attempt if you were guaranteed not to fail.

There’s no sense of achievement

If you can not fail

Like those superhero films

Where heroes always win.

You need a chance of failure

To get joy from success

There’s little point in playing games

If you know you’ll always win.

But then again – the Lottery!

A prize you don’t deserve

I’ll definitely buy a ticket

If I know I can not lose!

It wouldn’t be a challenge

But I could live with that.

To use the money wisely;

Challenge enough in that.

There’s surely satisfaction

In helping others out

Some sense of achievement

In knowing who needs what.

So yes ok the lottery

I’ll get that ticket now

Shame for all the other folk

Because the winner’s me!

The hardest goal I set myself I never did achieve

What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?

The hardest goal I set myself

I never did achieve

A marathon in sub 3 hours

Was at one time my aim.

I took it very seriously

Would follow six month plans

Build my weekly mileage up

To sixty miles a week.

I’d study all the training plans

For stamina and speed

Watching what I had to eat

And getting proper sleep.

I had a few attempts at it

And mostly did OK

But 3.15 the best for me

And sadly that won’t do.

I gave up running marathons

When I couldn’t beat four hours

I have gentler running aims

Now I’m seventy two.

I still like to push myself

But have more modest aims

I still aim for 8 minute miles

But now for just 5k.

Believe

Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.

You may think you can

You may think you can’t

In either case you’ Will be right

To succeed in life you have to believe.

If you don’t think you can

Then you won’t.

Maybe’, ‘might’ and ‘I’ll try to’
Are enemies of getting things done
Commit in your heart; say,
‘I can and I will’ and the goal
Will surely be won.

Now you want romantic!

What’s your definition of romantic?

Now you want romantic!

Where do you get these prompts?

If I went for a ‘romantic’ moonlit walks

I’d likely pack a torch.

I’m not one for gazing

Up at the stars above

I just get a crick in the neck

Not much conducive to love.

And I wouldn’t be wasting

my money on flowers.

Flowers just make

me sneeze.

I’m not a one

for jewels and such

Seem such a wasteful

Expense.

I could knock out a poem

Some slushy words

But it’s not my style

I’m sad to say

Just not a romantic bard.

The early morning run

What are your daily habits?

Chief of my morning habits

The early morning run

Fresh morning air

On face and limbs

Bird song on the air.

Out along the river

Cross fields

Or local roads

Like to watch the world wake up

Start upon its way.

Shower and grab some breakfast

Cereal plenty of milk

Couple of cups of coffee

Watching the garden grow.

Tidy up the kitchen

Clear the things away

Now I’m up and ready to go

What’s the agenda today.

Would cut down on washing…

If you were forced to wear one outfit over and over again, what would it be?

It would cut down on washing

But let’s think this one through

Same old outfit over again

How would you make it do?

It has to take me running

Be sweaty and sodden right through

And good for whatever the weather

The sun or the wind or the rain.

I now need a shower

Can put it back on

And get on with what else to do.

So now I’m at the allotment

Down and dirty with plants

Clothes are all soiled

I’m covered in dirt

What are we going to do next?

Now I’m back home

Spreading the dirt

Leaving a trail through the house.

But gracious! Where can I sit?

Then off to the shops

Disowned by my wife

Dishevelled I’m such a disgrace!

But that’s not the end

We’re off to see friends

And what are they going to think??

We can’t go out in the evening

There’s places that won’t let me in.

Here‘s to a quick change of clothing

It covers many a sin.