The Hare - Published Cambridge News 17 March 2014

 

The Hare

 

Ears held aloft like radar dishes

Black tipped with independent swivel

Attuned to catch the faintest sound

Even when he's crouched to nibble.

Unblinking eyes on constant watch

His amber stare alert, aware,

While every hair and every whisker

Is poised to catch the slightest whisper

He scents the air while nostrils quiver

Constantly scanning round for danger

 

Alarm when sensed, this timorous hare

A whiff of scent - a hint of sound

Ears folded flat across his back

He sinks invisible into the ground

So clever is his camouflage

That where before was sitting hare

No eye discerns that he is there

Hugging the earth distinguished not

From ridge and furrow or turned earth clod

 

This solitary creature doesn't share

His company with other hares

Till when spring comes he's out to dance

With other hares he'll gambol and prance

They run and race and circle and chase

And stand upright and box each other

Then scamper again with leap and bound

Brimming with life they abandon their cover

Along they tear, all dangers dare

While all the joys of spring spill over

 



Not-so-Express Delivery... published Cambridge News 13 May 2014 and 25 June 2014



Not so Express Delivery

An order on line should save lots of time

The package will come to the door

A concept that seems to be just fine

Its supposed to arrive between two and four

The 18th thay say, OK that's today

That parcel should now be on its way

It says I can track it as soon as they pack it

I can follow its travels

As its route here unravels

The red icons on screen with roads in between

And that speedy white van with delivery man

Will get here just as fast as it can

I am right here and waiting

To see its approach

But now there's an email 

Saying delivery did fail

No one at home when they rang the bell

*

But that's nonsense - I was watching here just to be sure! 

Parkington Trump and Ride .....Published Cambridge News 17 January 2914

Parkington Trump and Ride

Its easy to drive to the park and ride

Carefully park and note your position

It must surely save a lot of time

And free the centre of congestion

A bus would be good and come soon it should

But the only seat we can avail

When we'd like to sit if only we could

Is a cold slippery skinny steel bumrail

A hygenic gap for easy cleaning

Just at the most convenient height

Allows icy blasts straight from Siberia

To whip around our ankles tight

The one thing we can all be sure of

The colder it is and the worse the weather

Of waiting there will always be more of

And then two buses arrive together

There's still yet one remaining challenge

Wandering round in conditions arctic

In this ocean of cars - can we still manage

To remember later just where we parked it 

Wet Wet Wet... Published Cambridge News 6 February 2014

  

Wet Wet - Wet

Another grey day with curtains of rain

Cascading down the window pane

We cower with open umbrellas and wellies

There's mud that squelches at every step

From ground that's endlessly soaking wet

The horizon a gleaming floodplain

*

The waterlogged fields are deeply soggy

And endless vista that is drearily boggy

Sheets of rain are sweeping the highway

Hypnotic swish of windscreen wipers

With vision obscured by flying spray

And trucks are chucking a bow wave

*

The heavens weep from leaden cloud

Drenching the waterlogged earth beneath

Drops dancing like spinning coins on the road

Twirling across like minature dervishes

Whirling over in wild skirmishes

To culverts that have overflowed

*

There's beauty still with new perceptions

Those sheets of water give glassy reflections

Mirrored picture of tree and sky

In flooded ditch there's a replica hedge

Crystal clear inverted image

That trapped within these waters lie

*

My washing line's slung with a garland of pearls

Each twig and leaf is diamond hung

Delicate globes of surface tension

Each drop holding a tiny refraction

Smooth surfaced puddles are rippled by rings

That outward spread with concentric curves

Celebrity Cooking..... Published Cambridge News 9 January 2014

Celebrity Cooking...

I'm really not so keen on cooking

Although I'm aware that I should be

I find it a bore and rather a chore

If I tried I don't think I could be

First one must look through the recipe book

To find the page of instructions

And hardest of all decide what to cook

Before you can start preparations

There's the peeling and chopping and basting and stirring

It all seems to be so very time wasting

And all the time to instructions referring

When there's so many things I'd rather  be doing

The celebrityj chefs that you see on the tele

Whose creations appear with an effortless flourish

Their panache and aplomb make it all look so easy

Ingenious ingredients with flavour that nourish

They make it all look both simple and fun

They whip or they flame the cream or the game

And say with a smile that that's how it's done

But our efforts don't at all look the same

(Though some chefs do acquire a certain notoriety

Not from the food or glib demonstrations

Of impressively making such slick presentations

But from  a lifestyle lacking a degree of sobriety)

Its all such a fag and rather a drag

And after you've eaten your meat or your fishes

With foods that fulfill all your dreams and your wishes -

The last straw of all is washing the dishes

Rainbow's End - Published Cambridge News 15 January 2014

Rainbow's End

We wake to a sound so relentless and drear

A steady continuous downpour of rain

Pull back the curtains and outwards we peer

At grey and colourless soaking terrain

At inky black clouds from the windows we gaze

And waterlogged fields reflecting the trees

The roads are awash as cars through them slosh

And now its been raining for days and days

Blacker still the sky becomes

With menacing thunder and lightning flash

In lashing gale rain turns to hail

As thunder rolls with deafening crash

A sudden lance of sunlight spears

And blossoming through the lowering skies

An iridescent tiara spanning the heavens

The shimmering arc of a rainbow appears

 

The church will hold that crock of gold

At the close of this torrential shower

A shining vision of ephemeral beauty

The rainbow's end shines on the tower 

Happy New Year..... Published Cambridge News 3 January 2014

Happy New Year

At the New Year the time has arrived

To make our lists of resolutions

Of all those efforts we've contrived

And plan our innovations

Now that Jan 1st has come

With past bad habits we've now done

Not to drive to work each day

But put on our trainers and jog all the way

Work off the backlog of Christmas excess

And make of our job a resounding success

In this new evolution...

To stop eating chocolate

And go to the gym

Not stay up too late

And keep healthy and trim

We will give up the smoking

And give up the drinking

On maturer reflection

It might be much simpler

Just to stop thinking

Remembering my mother's prophetic predictions:

She always claimed that the road to hell

Is paved with good intentions

Oh well - what the hell.....