Green City - A poem for Earth Day

The green city
Tree filled and reaching for the sun
Drinking, absorbing; Living
A canopy full of vibrancy and colour
Noise and chatter
Song and spirit filled

The grey city
Glass and sheet metal reflecting the sun
Not absorbing; Dead
Rooftops full of dishes and aerials
Listening devices to capture noise and chatter
Dull and soulless

Nature's city
And the human city
Side by side, but apart
Twinned, but non-identical
One in harness with the Earth
The other attempting dominion

Time To Go

Thank you to Poetry 24 for publishing another of my poems Time to Go

This one also contains a link to hear me read it via Soundcloud.

Dues

This story was recently in the news. A hedge fund manager avoiding paying the proper train fares for a number of years to a tune of £42,000. When he was caught he quickly paid up in an out of court settlement, because he could afford to, and so avoided any public shame. I have written a poem about it below, but you can also hear me read it via Soundcloud.


He never paid his debt
Until the end
Until forced to accept
The dues he owed.

He did not fret
Over getting caught
Honour a concept
Not conceived
He just received
Without giving in return.

But he was relieved
Absolved of blame
And did not burn
In fires of public disdain
If he were poor
There he would remain.

But the rich forgive their own.

Light Up

Strike a light
Illuminate
And tell the tale to be

Light the match
Burn a fuse
And let the truth be seen

Set the flame
Beacons lit
The swans are taking wing

Illuminate
Light the match
For a nightingale sings

Honest Fool

A jester taking morning air
Tells a joke and cries
As clowns scrape off their makeup
The trick inside them dies.

Where Loki walks in hidden prints
And angels fear to tread
A sleight of hand shines through it all
To keep the hoaxers fed.

When honest lies grab every fool
And fling them far away
Then anyone can be a fool
If only for a day.

Forest Dweller

Today is also the International Day of Forests, so once more I couldn't resist...here is a 300 word story.

It disarms me.

The stillness, the mud squelching between my toes and the squashed aroma of sap, moss and decay transports me into the memory of another day.

A blanket spread upon the ground, half in sunlight and half shaded by the arms of an oak tree. Birds are singing distantly. High above they are building their nests from the previous Autumn’s leftovers.

There is life and greenery. Children play amongst the bluebells and daisies, dancing and singing with an infectious joy. Others make collages from the different leaves they find: Ash and Poplar, Beech, Lime and the ubiquitous Oak.

It is a festival of Spring and of nature; a celebration of the continuing cycles of birth, growth and death. Where others pray to silent and unseen Gods in grey and cold constructions, we sit in quiet reverence to the warmth and coloured diversity of the Earth.

No-one who is here believes it could be destroyed.

I am back in the present; back in the bleak landscape of man-made destruction. Where trees once stood are now black holes, lost to the depths of time. All life that relied on them vanished with them. The woodpeckers, the mushrooms, the beetles and the squirrels all evicted. Behind me some of that life still remains, like the past, but ahead of me the world is unrecognisable.

The clogging smell of diesel and brick dust fogs my senses, like a thick curtain, as they prepare to try again. Today, like every other day for the last six months, what remains is due to be ripped up and torn apart.

Our home.

They do not see us coming since they do not know we exist. But today I give myself and add my name to the long list, to ensure the forest lives another day.

World Poetry Day

Well today is World Poetry Day, so, despite the fact that I don't blog on here enough any more I still thought I should make the effort for this...perhaps it will provide me with further inspiration and the rest of the world of course...

A day for rhyme
But not for reason
As we move into
Another season
Passing
The vernal equinox
It's time that we all
Washed our socks

Are nonsense words
Going boonta?
Are traditions terms
Acting like a junta?
But can you get a form
That's quite as free
Or open minded
As poetry?

So celebrate
And coin some phrases
String some verse
Amidst chains of daisies
A sonnet shines
Like a summers day
Ode to Haiku
Far away