Below are some excerpts of my writing from three of the books for sale.
Yellow Jacket – from Give Us A Chance
I’m a cheerful, buzzing fellow
With a coat of black and yellow.
I’m friendly, too,
As long as you
Do not attack
And try to whack.
But, if you do,
Then it is true
That I may sting
And with a zing.
It’s no offence
In self-defence.
So try to look on me as friend;
It all works better in the end.
You see I’m useful in my way.
I pollinate your flowers and prey
On caterpillars that destroy
Your crops; it’s true I may annoy
You when I sting or try to loot
Your homemade jam or fallen fruit.
But think of all the mess I clear,
The pests I eat, the pests you fear.
So do not swipe and cause me strife.
I’m part of the great web of life.
Burning the Past – from Shades of Seeing
We lit a bonfire of our past today,
An artefact of dried autumnal leaves,
Close woven in with beetled wood and hay.
From dark and attic store, we drew the sheaves
Of crumpled dreams, the relics, mould and rust
Of indiscretion’s power that still deceives.
With fingers cold and stiff, we touched the trust
Of letters written long ago with pledge
Of lust, now faded, damp and webbed with dust.
With cautious eyes, we cut the ties, the wedge
Of hard investment lies, that cast adrift
Our lives and drive and pushed us to the edge.
Then kindly notes we found that healed our rift,
Our son’s first sketch of huge and rounded head,
The poems that you wrote and gave as gift,
A photo of my father when he wed.
But all must go; we cannot hoard, turn back,
No space where we are going now, you said.
And so we struck the match that would attack
And straight a flame of Troy blazed out anew,
Fast drawing wood and leaves into its track.
As beams collapsed, upon the glow we threw
Our papered past, unseen, and watched it flare
Defiant in its red against the blue.
Then suddenly, uplifting our despair,
Your scorched and blackened poems broke the shield
Of fire and drifted up like seeds through air.
Away they flew and free across the field,
A future in a past that will not yield.
Losing Things – from Sunlines & Shadow
It’s strange the way things always disappear,
As if they had an inner life their own,
Just when one needs or feels one wants them near.
My mobile phone was in its case right here
Now vanished without message bleep or moan.
It’s strange the way things always disappear.
My wallet’s done a walkabout, it’s clear,
And left me with no option but a loan,
Just when I need and feel I want it near.
My hearing aid has fallen from my ear
Without a trace and now I’m deaf as stone.
It’s strange the way things always disappear.
My glasses, too, have left their case, I fear,
For some more distant, unknown twilight zone,
Just when I need and feel I want them near.
I think that there’s a plot to interfere,
To make me feel my brain itself has flown.
It’s strange the way things always disappear
Just when one needs or feels one wants them near.