Daisy River - Published Cambridge News 19 June 2014

Daisy River

 

With warming sun and sudden showers

The garden is overflowing with flowers

Snapdragons, poppies, pinks and peonies

Sweet hesparis and columbine

Love in the mist and foxglove towers

Honeysuckle's blooms entwine

Clematis tendrils that mingle with roses

Mock orange and elder their scent combine

But best of all - though humble and small

My lawn has a river of daisies

Thoughts of May - Published Cambridge News 28 May 2014

 

Thoughts of May

 

Breaking dawn with shrilling of birdsong

Saluting the upsurge of spring

While deep in hidden hedgerow nest

Those precious eggs their new life bring

Hawthorn blossom's heady perfume

Mingles with fragrant beanfield's bloom

 

Delicate ferns unfurl their fronds

In shady dell within the trees

Where bluebells share with orchid rare

The murmurous hum of honeybees

The moorhen chicks dart on the ponds

And ducklings creep among the reeds

 

Fluorescent squares of rape in flower

Patchwork the land with hi-vi yellow

Lurid against an angry sky

As cloud shadows go sweeping by

And silvered fields of barley ripple

In rays of sunlight clear and mellow

 

Clouds billowing up in turbulent tower

With indigo sky and chilling breeze

Eclipsing sun in sudden shower

Cleansing foliage with sparkling leaves

Then sun breaks forth with dazzling ray

Air keenly scented with elderflower

 

Great towering chestnut's massy boughs

Are laden with blossoming candelabra

In golden buttercups beneath

Contented cows in meadows drowse

And as they doze at daylight's close

The birds are singing their late sonata

 

From heaven above the lark pours down

His liquid exaltation

The darkling sky with starlight's glimmer

This atmosphere of jubilation

Fulfilment of nature's celebration

May opens the gateway to summer

 

 

Postscript

 

Perhaps May wasn't the gateway to summer

After all it appears that was a bit premature

As the rain continues we get glummer and glummer

And yet there is still more to endure

But the clover leaves are sprinkled with moonstones

And the air is freshened by ozone...

 

 



Evening Serenade - published Cambridge News 9 May 2014

 

Evening Serenade

 

The first bird's voices are heard in the morning

Beginning with a tentative trilling

Then just as the sun's first rays are dawning

The garden is ringing with triumphant shrilling

 

They herald the day with exuberant chorus

Crescendo of joyous avian alliance

Are they really singing and carolling for us

Or is it just territorial defiance?

 

The blackbird, the chaffinch, sparrow and wren

The robin, the pheasant and pigeon

From every hedge and treetop den

Filling the air their voices are legion

 

With evening comes a gentler rendition

Approaching twilight's calmer cadence

The blackbird's fluting benediction

Crooning into silence

 

As the final daylight wanes

The blackcap's song and robin's tweedle

We hear the music's fading strains

Thrush sounds the last post on the bugle

 

 

 

 



A Mother's Sons - Published Cambridge News 9 April 2014

 

A Mother's Sons

 

As I look at these three young me

My heart within me aches with pride

As babies I bore them and learned to adore them

Now they tower over me at my side

 

It was on my milk they grew and throve

As at my breast I tenderly fed them

I held their hands as they learned to stand

Through those first uncertain steps I led them

 

Delight at seeing that first smile

As I gazed at their eyes and saw them respond

So rewarding to watch them emerging

Between mother and son an unbreakable bond

 

Tiny, helpless and on me dependent

Swift hand of time then took its toll

From toddlers they changed to bony kneed boys

Abandoning me for their world of school

 

The challenging years of teenage fears

Rebellious, sullen or loving by turn

Rollercoaster of joy or strife and tears

At the end of the day they called me mum

 

I taught them to ride a bike and read

They grew tall and strong and I watched them thrive

Then each in turn they were ready to leave

But not before I taught them to drive

 

I gave them love and I gave them life

Together we crossed each bridge over water

But now each is a man in need of a wife

I must give him to another mother's daughter

 

The empty rooms, abandoned toys

The clothes outgrown, now men, not boys

Unflinching, unstinting, a mother's love embraces all

So handsome and tall - were they really once so small?

 

 





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