Rainbow World

Just Somewhere Out There

Up above, the clouds broke
strolling beside a shimmering brook, I awoke.
The scene took me away to a peaceful place
where all was well, bringing a smile to my face,

then it went, I grabbed at the air,
chasing a feeling that had just been there,
the sky turned to grey, banged the door shut
anxious, lost, a seering pain in my gut.

I turned to ask why, the answer didn't come,
all to see was the blanketed sun.
Surely another time it would return,
But now, an opportunity, a space to learn.

Do We Have Time?

Yesterday was tomorrow only just a second ago,
Rushed behind me somewhere, somewhere I don't know,
Soon I will forget the thoughts behind these words,
Imagine a journey so incomplete as one thousand flightless birds,
And it pains me to admit that at times I have been bored,
With work, duties, the news, with people I once adored.
Morning comes and I miss it, walking through mists,
Mind anywhere but the gardens here, endless streams, perennial lists,
I miss the day all around, especially the one beneath my nose,
No smell from the blooming rose.
It wilts without my connection,
As I bound on with boundless disaffection,
To then be seated to look at the massive café clock
Waiting for service, here, alone, it seems it must have stopped.

Friendship

You know when you've met a true friend,
Because as the candle light fades you know it's not the end.
And your conversations never tire, nor bore
You always want to know about them and it's never a chore.
When you ask after them you care for the reply,
You don't simply ask how are you then just walk on by.
Through them life is given more meaning and is well worth the toil,
When things get so hard they are the first to remain loyal.
I cannot think of a better way of spending my time,
Just me and them being ourselves under our self-made sunshine.

Light Years

Martians had colonized my thoughts,
short-circuited memories, interfered with clarity.
Friend to foe, welcome visitor to enemy,
they danced over my logic and scrawled over my sense of worth,
took me on a journey of fear and paranoia,
away,
away from,
me.

They hid me in secure boxes, with sentry guards,
rationed me on pin-pricked light and whispering voices.
Parcels arrived from them for me,
but addressed to someone I didn't recognise.
They contained photos of anonymous people with
erased faces.

When they fled they gave me the key,
but
I couldn't open the door
for years
I then dragged myself over broken hearts and lost souls
feeling
opening
stepping on murder victims and violated innocences
on
trying to confront the horror that I had missed.
I witnessed how they'd lived in emptinesses, inhabiting
shallow pools and plastic houses,
how they'd lived half a life.
I cried for their efforts
as I began to complete their incomplete jigsaw puzzle.
Still I cried, seeing the image pieced before me
bold and beautiful,
It read out
my name.

All Worth It

Not often
so meaning more
I sense a place
for me to be
a belonging
a calling
a reply to why.

Dawning

The sun yawned its light over my morning,
softly penetrating my window with its calling,
offering a newness never before seen on this day,
sweeping the dead wood of the night away.

It paralysed me from my neck to my feet,
as it covered my face with its powerful heat,
slowly moving down my body to wake up the rest,
shaking hands with my heart and legs like an invited guest.

Up above, my mind began briefly to merge with the light,
hesitating then embracing this wonderful sight,
and with it came knowledge of a world so right,
traversing the extremes of the black and the white.

Then the sun moved on and left me in shade,
but leaving the strong memory of the beauty I had made,
I sat up, stretched, and stood by my bed,
breathing in the morning that the sunrise had just fed.

Fulfilment

To touch the skies with your finger tips,
to drink the oceans from one single sip,
to view the entire earth from an open front door,
to have sufficient and not want for any more.

The Wish

If we never get there but we try to,
if we don't live fully but we strive to,
then we will have spoken,
left our mark,
and our dreams and spirits will have been awoken.

Cherry

I have a dream

Last night I had dreams that woke me,

Astronomer in Search of a Soul

I used to search for my soul with telescopes; Strong lenses pierced dusty atmospheres for light.

at the fork in the road

The one that drives the car with blacked out windows bullet proof skin so thin!

Being Frank

“I just simply can’t relax”, fidgeted Mike, as he slurped hot tea and agitated the mouse.

Birth of a poem

“Where’s the paper, No the computer, Pen, Quick, God, Where are they?”

Brief history of a life so far

I have seen beauty and not known, rather twas revealed through other's faces,

Coming of age

When I grow up I want to be an astronaut a footballer, a fireman a racing car driver, then at the weekends a pilot.

Dawning

The sun yawned its light over my morning, softly penetrating my window with its calling, offering a newness never before seen on this day, sweeping the dead wood of the night away. It paralysed me from my neck to my feet,
Cherry

End of winter

Walking home instead of getting the £20, ten-minute rip-off cab, was now my biggest mistake. I didn't know, how was I supposed to bloody know? Along this route, at this time.

I submit to ABC

two hours of clawing in the grime, the wonder here on my own to share with the world a secret no more

mother

My mother lived a childhood she could've done without then she passed it on to me unconsciously the depths and the bends and the anxiety.
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still waters

Feverish for what I can't give myself, like being caught between two waves
Cherry

Up all night

I was waiting here up all night couldn't sleep try as I might
Poem of the week

what I’m not

I’m not the superficial conversations about the rain

you came to me under a weeping willow

your eyes lost inside themselves spinning on their splintered axes hunting like they were blind

if you only knew

Young mothers await your trace in far away fields fashioning a parade of their colours eager to embrace nature’s call

I have nothing to say

You know those days when you have little to say

My name is...

Because I'm really scared of dying and I wanted to tell you my grip's too strong round the throat my hands are the fear the neck is my life and I squeeze

On the edge of happiness

the light waning coy behind the cloud dragging to the shadows the words I wish to say

portraits of myself

Others painted me brightly

Obsolete

It crept up on me like the subtleties of nights drawing in,

The Sky at Night

Beauty are the leaves in autumn dancing outside in the sun,

the buzz

Who has switched on the light chased away the gloom penetrated the impenetrable made me feel so soon?
Cherry

The Sculptor

He carved a face for himself through milenia by looking at others,

Growing Up

He bluffed his way through it with a thickening beard and no one around him thought it was weird they believed he was growing up, shedding the skins but he was a baby, trapped for his sins
Cherry

On the brow of the hill

I saw him on the brow of the hill. He was as unfamiliar as my direction, but he interested me more than most,

The end of the season

It was only when I lay in the park in the heat of the sun that I allowed myself to forget about the winter for the first time.

No fixed abode

I often long to escape the place I call home.

The written words

I had a feeling for print, not new but urgent. It was ferried by thoughts, cold from being stuck in muds of memories.

The Mystery Stop

It wasn't until I thought I'd stopped that I realised I had not.

Remember me

I used to be a stranger to the face, the water rippling and lapping the features away, distortions hid any discernible trace, of a reunion some day.
Cherry

Nothing to prove

I had a feeling for paper, not new but urgent, It was ferried by thoughts, numbed from being stuck in muds of memories,

Spring Sun

Today I saw myself in butterflies, moving jerkily as if lost, yet having some place to go.

Threads

The dying spring flowers lend meaning to summer, eternity is reigned in so the sun can be felt
Cherry

Freedom

He uncuffed his thoughts, slowly gifting each a merry moment

Late autumn sun

Just after lunch he arrived. Mark had been fidgeting with anxiety, the mind a clutter of questions.

Take another look

Deep within the valleys of every man, under seemingly immovable objects, placed there by centuries of evolution, lies a concealed sun. It burns so bright, and never sets,

Jealous of Trees

A tree is rooted, its path mapped out, Satisfied. Coaxed by the light, its heart colours tips of branches - reaching, Never does it yearn to stray from its beginning.

Journey to soul star

Countdown to zero neurotransmitters firing nudging the nodding pilot turbo charged heart, lifting

Mistaken Identity

But when he was a child they were inseparable, Not a cross word,

Fall from grace

A dug hole, a well, glimmering; mine reflecting in its waters my time

Rain

Sheeting down at my sealed double glazing locked bubble shaking the day with your reign armies queueing behind you, diaries full anti-sun missiles at the ready 'don't you dare try it, squire'

High board

Tom Daley I am not when I take the plunge preferring a belly flop or a bomb just to say I'm there

The thaw

I melted on the peaks one blue skied morning while you were still sleeping trickled under ice heavy from your night's dreams

Scar tissue

I picked at the scars with my racing mind until I felt the pain again

Tangled in my web

Delicate threads, fragile lines
Cherry

Who am I?

Beautiful sometimes as the light scrapes round dusting away the shadows of what I can't tell you

Wish I was a cleaner

That night, I think not of ladders to be climbed rather I slide over 'slippery when wet' floors, freely whistling tunes I thought I had forgotten.

Time for sale

Often I've imagined seeing time 'for sale' in shop windows, draped over a manikin reduced to this

In Exile

Tip- toeing over the shifting sands of my existence, dissolving mists for a guide, I glimpse home again yet remain unseen. But my flame is lit,...

the blind places

Often I am blinded and fail to see when surrounded by lights artificial to me so I take myself out into the blind places and look up and wait for the...

A million miles from here

Image: 
Funny thing is, no one would ever know, never, ever know, that she was a million miles from here.
Cherry

Broken bay

Cherry

witness to a wonder

Your hair caught rides on the gusts

Hidden depths

Man, whose rivers run deep, how frenzied you are stuck in shallow waters

I caught a glimpse of heaven

I caught a glimpse of heaven Tip-toeing on a breeze

Minted mash

She chopped her heart out with a dinner knife
Cherry

Never meant to be together

Your Marlboro Light smokescreens brought tears to my eyes

a memory

the memory of you wriggled away from its axis
Gold cherry

island

No one came but they knocked god did they knock

island (ii)

These are the island's seas, through which I dive in dreams

Tale of a supermoon

The moon is bright tonight, it has sucked up the last dusk light
Cherry

t.v dinners

Our fingers flick across shining screens like front line soldiers bent over and jerky tip-tapping a forgotten password into blank spaces Your t.v...
Cherry

when I was young

I have my dad to thank for these wonderful memories. I hope you enjoy them.
Gold cherry
Story of the week

Spectrum

They’d said it wasn’t far, just off Junction 9, then left at the pub and at the end of the road…Yeah, well, that’s when I switched off. It’s hard...
1 likes

Silk

I stuffed my ears with plugs trying to muffle my leaping voices. I screwed them tight, tighter still, as the light from the dawn forced a path...
Cherry

One summer

One summer my old school mate Tom once said that fisherman looked all the same. I told him that that was rubbish because my granddad didn’t look...
Gold cherry

Trolleyed

After twenty years of separation, the only things they still had in common were the memories. So when they agreed to meet, they lubricated worn out...

Fait accompli

If you'd told me how it was gonna be bullet-pointed my life for me to see relaid the suffering, and the pain I'm not sure I'd have spoken to you...

Curtain call

As I leaned on the bar, with my hair curls flopping over my eyes, a beautiful woman caught my eye. I began to feed her, like one would feed a...
Cherry

Hilltop high

She was fizzing with the same energy I once wasted and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t seize what I had lost back then The curves of her mouth...
Cherry

Spring

Spring pulls up a chair and plants its legs in sodden earth
Cherry

Visiting hours

A short story

Tales of teenage angst

A long piece of dialogue reflecting a teenager's inner world
Gold cherry

Into the blue

I saw you after you had emptied your spring bags one winter (creative commons image)
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daddy come home

Stay with me all night, daddy
Cherry

runaway road

His room was almost his fortress, and it had been since puberty when he discovered Littlewood’s catalogues. Still now he could be found perched on...
Cherry

Ring of roses

Mum cut raspberry jam sandwiches into triangles and put them into Tom's satchel, along with the wooden pencil case grandad had made him, and added a...
Gold cherry

cold tea

Sue craned her neck towards Chris. He was glued to the television. For the last hour she had been pacing about the house pretending she was doing...

Letter to beyond

Short poem for Poetry Monthly (creative commons picture)
Cherry

white horses

A short poem.
Gold cherry

Traces

I looked for you (Creative commons image contribution - share alike 2.0 Generic.)

Waves

I threw you a life jacket
Cherry

Ten feet small

You know when you pick up the recycling bag and the bottom falls out of it halfway across the kitchen? Well that’s how my life used to feel every day...
Cherry

You

Your light licked the corners of my locked rooms (Creative commons image)

Sshhh

No one had the guts to tell the children that their life could be a misery. (Creative commons image)
1 likes
Gold cherry
Pick of the Month

The day after yesterday

...on millpond water, I gripped this groaning mast...
Gold cherry

No way out

I couldn't get out (Wikipedia commons image)
1 likes
Gold cherry

Seeded

(wikipedia commons image)

dawn chorus

Light, you arrive as if invited... (Image rights: my own)
Gold cherry

Take me home

A short story about a boy trying to find his way home.
Cherry

Shift

A short story about the day in the life of a couple. (creative commons image)
Gold cherry

Reflections of You

A short story of 1000 words (Creative Commons image)

A stranger kind of sky

A conversation - a couple reaquainted
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Cherry

Pudding Detective - Chapter 1

Pudding yawned. It was hard work being a dog for even when she was asleep, she was working…
Cherry

Kissing the Sun

Into a garden pond reflection one childhood summer, I gazed
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Cherry

Age concern

You set off just before me, after you switched on the birthday lights
Cherry

Bird song

You clipped my wings when she left you
Cherry

To the sea

I stopped en route, not tired, this is true
Cherry

Only half our own

You and me alone...
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Gold cherry

Witness to a dream

I witnessed you there...
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Gold cherry

Dear Darkness,

I saw you leave this morning...
2 likes
Cherry

The Inbox

There were new messages for him today...
1 likes
Cherry

Rise

We hiked across the hills together that day. (WIkimedia Commons image)

One more time

His name was Martin...
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Winter Trees

A short poem
1 likes
Cherry

forever young

ode to summer fun
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Close to home

I wasn't expecting to find you, not stuck to the muck and the grime

Daddy, come home

The mirror you gave me one childhood
Cherry

Where love is

5 stanzas

Oh wonderful world

A wonderful world whirs awake

Tales from yonder

Do you remember those 80's watches with a calculator on the front?
Cherry

The Everything

In my head I'd packed everything I needed for the rest of my life.

Night-shift

Bed. Late You arrived before me football matches in your ears all irate lights were out stumbling to get in Your back a wall almost touching mine our...

View from my window

I watched the trees from my window, leaves trampolined on kind winds, their honey smiles
Cherry

these mist-covered mountains

I can smell her. It's all over your clothes. I think it's the one I used to wear, the one you used to like before all this began. We sit there...
Gold cherry

the in-between places

Leaving little behind with little to lose...
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Shadowlands

My shadow, weight bearer (Own image)
Cherry

Hush

The room was filled with light...
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sound of summer

I stood here, as if for the first time... (creative commons image)
Cherry

confessions of a social phobic during lockdown

Image copyright - Wikimedia Commons
1 likes
Gold cherry

Days

Dear sun, the clock face, winching, winding, up onto fluffed pillow horizon
1 likes
Cherry

The Child Inside

Sometimes life doesn't give us those things we'd hoped for; sometimes those things are small, sometimes they are big; and sometimes poetry is the only way to do justice to those feelings which emerge from it all. (Wikimedia image copyright)
1 likes
Cherry

To the sea

Whenever I go to the sea, I feel changed. (Wikimedia image)
Cherry

Kid

When he acted up in class at the age of six...
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Cherry

Finding spring

Spring is here, to leaf the mind when dreaming's done...

taken

Picked flower...
Cherry

Life at the care home

They sat hugging the late afternoon...
Cherry

Rocket Man

I didn't always want to be a spaceman.
Cherry

The rats

Rats, an infestation, chewing wires I'd left exposed
Gold cherry

king for a day

In the nursery hours, bright sway of May
1 likes
Cherry

as if my last

have I spent each day as if my last?
Cherry

Smoke

Above the roofs of the new builds, distant smoke emerged that morning...
Gold cherry
Poem of the week

Greenfinch

You always knew how to fly...
3 likes
Cherry

Storm

What if he sank to depths unknown, to rise once more until his dulling sight renewed

mountains

A four line poem
2 likes
Gold cherry

Hope

A three line poem
1 likes
Gold cherry

The mayfly

You are anything but transient...
2 likes
Cherry

Trees

Some trees stand like they just know their roots run through them (Wikimedia image copyright)
1 likes
Gold cherry
Poem of the week

Forever

Forever, we met one childhood...
Gold cherry
Poem of the week

winter trees

Winter trees, I finally found you (a short seasonal poem)
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to the end

A short poem
1 likes
Gold cherry

Beachcomber

I remember a time, thirty thousand years ago, when I felt something.
Gold cherry
Poem of the week

Spring

The weight is over, glass half full upon us, for spring is here...
2 likes