National Poetry Day 2026...

 NATIONAL POETRY DAY 2026

Theme – Wonder

NOT MANY BARBERS

I wonder where we all would be

if everything was left up to me

you see life is not as simple as you think

there's always someone better

or worse off than me

I've got a tin roof over my head

and it goes at seventy miles per hour

on a good day with the wind behind me

but watch out for roadworks

Traffic jams and congestion charging

can ruin your day if you let them

not to mention numberplate cloning

driverless cars mobile phones delivery drones et al

I can't get a word in edgeways sometimes

but it don't matter much these days because

not many barbers or fishmongers agree with me

there's definitely more questions than answers

More religions more denominations than ever

fair-weather friends beware things are changing fast

there's always someone better or worse off than you

power to the people if only democracy was that good

Who knows the end from the beginning God does

and who else knew that I was born in the barber shop

on Royal Oak Road all those years ago I wonder

or that my great grandmother was a fishmongers clerk

01102026

Another Little Song...

 

Here's a Little Song I wrote four years ago but didn't publish here:

OUR LOVE

(AIN'T MADE IN HEAVEN)

If only we could try to fly

You tell me lies to make me cry

I know you look the other way

Can't bear to be too close to me

No matter what I do or say

There's no future that I can see

They say that love won't be for us

If our love ain't made in heaven

Despite how much I faff and fuss

If our love ain't made in heaven

What happened to the mega crush

Don't think of searching back again

All hell fell out of such and such

Why did you try to change me then

You tell me lies to make me cry

If only we could try to fly

10032022

Napowrimo 26/Conclusion

NaPoWriMo 2026

CONCLUSION

It's been a busy time again this year, but congratulations to everyone who completed or even attempted the thirty poems in thirty days challenge. I don't feel I made any significant breakthroughs this year with my writing, however, I did manage to add a few pieces to my 150 word challenge collection and a couple of numbers to my Shakespeare's end line rhymes collection. So happy writing, have a wonderful summer and who knows, we may all be back here again next April.

LAKE FISH

She always ate five courses for dinner

sometimes at lunchtime too

Bread and red wine was always her starter

antipasto with olives and cheese

Her next course or first course as she called it

she would order carbonara

Then for her secondo or her main course

it would always be fresh fish from the lake

Lake fish everybody loves that she said

wolfing it down with a side salad

For her sweet pudding dolce or dessert

she always chose tiramisu

01052026

Napowrimo 26/30

DAY THIRTY

IF COFFEE KILLS

Don't you just hate killing

all those creepy crawlies

Even vegans swallow spiders

what must our insides look like

Flowers are really smelly but

yellows are pretty right now

Even bad things come to an end

if coffee kills it probably will

The conversation falls flat

when your friend spills the beans

Your mutual friend won't be able

to attend the reunion dinner

30042026

Napowrimo 26/29

DAY TWENTY NINE

MISTAKES

Somewhere in the back of my mind

beyond the barbiturates and the alcohol

there's a storybook about a boat

but it's sinking fast like the last gallon

of beer I threw down my throat yesterday

something's telling me that that won't wash

it's more likely something to do with the

Kon-Tiki expedition and Thor Heyerdahl

I hate making mistakes all the time

and I really hate being wrong about anything

but we all are and we all make them sometimes

29042026

Napowrimo 26/28

DAY TWENTY EIGHT 

DAY TWENTY EIGHT

HER TREASURE

Everyone is searching for her power

But nobody can be sure of the hour

Whoever dealt the last card won't show it

They'll plant it on the table and grow it

Thumbscrews will tighten like ruin to wrack

When she has finished she'll straighten his back

Then they will say they've never seen such skill

Things will get louder when she starts to kill

The smile on her lips whispering pleasure

And everyone knew he was her treasure

It hardly matters who you want to be

Because she will tell you that she owns thee

28042026

End line rhymes loosely based on Shakespeare's One hundred and twenty sixth Sonnet  

Napowrimo 26/27

DAY TWENTY SEVEN

PASTEL DE NATA

Where the Eccles cakes is Cadiz and how far is it from Albufeira and the pastel de nata questions like these rattle in my brain and sometimes I can't shake them the more I think about them the more they rattle me they steamroller me like scrambled eggs with the shells intact how mad is that and I'm not talking to the man next door over the garden wall any more things are much too complicated for that these days there's no such thing as a quick fix all I wanted was a transfer from Andalusia to Porto and a bottle of the local fortified wine to sip with my tapas at lunchtime instead they offered me fizzy lager and paella which turned out alright as it happened because the beer was freezing cold and the rice dish was so tasty that I went back for seconds or maybe thirds

27042026

Napowrimo 26/26

DAY TWENTY SIX

BIRDS

I like big birds with long legs like flamingos

and small ones with red breasts like robins

I wouldn't call myself a pigeon fancier

but I once fell in love with a white dove

I was wearing a budgie jacket at the time

when she kissed me on canary wharf

I used to have an emu but she was too tall

and a girl I knew said she had a racing pigeon

I'm sure she did I bet she had three or four

don't you just love parrots like the pirates do

you can buy them online from any zoo

but they want a bare pic of you to vet you too

26042026

Napowrimo 26/25

DAY TWENTY FIVE

THE WOLVERHAMPTON FIASCO

When I saw a private hire taxi registered in Wolverhampton on the streets of Manchester I thought he's on a good fare but I saw several more over the next few days so there must be some loophole in the law that allows private hire vehicles licenced in other boroughs to ply their trade in Manchester and driving around I spotted cars with taxi plates from Oldham and Rochdale a few from Knowsley in Merseyside and others from Hyndburn borough council operating in Manchester how daft is that I ask you but not as mad as the Wolverhampton fiasco where one plate was numbered eighty nine thousand and odd they must be handing them out like confetti which means therefore that there is one private hire plate for every three people in you guessed it Wolverhampton and I bet they still struggle getting a ride home on a Saturday night

25042026/150

Napowrimo 26/24

DAY TWENTY FOUR

HER FINANCIAL SITUATION                   

Speculation intimidation what comes next I ask her she hesitates before replying then suddenly her mouth starts to quiver and she tells me that some things hurt her really bad like having no money to buy things from the supermarket and the thrift store or even the charity shops on the parade in the town square sometimes she says the shopkeepers tell her that her credit card has been declined but she knows that she has money in the bank from her part time job and the allowance that her ex sugar daddy deposits into her account every month so what's the flummin' problem she shouts back at the woman in the store thinking that the woman knows the ins and outs of her financial situation but just wants to make her look silly in front of the other customers in the shop why and what for she'll never know

24042026/150

Napowrimo 26/23

DAY TWENTY THREE

SUCH HEARTFELT LOVE

Only since I found you have I been free

Don't let me go I know that you love me

Who could ever think that I would be thine

The angels proclaim it must be God's will

That you alone were destined to be mine

Whoever you choose I will be there still

No one but you could ever set me free

All lovers know you are the loving kind

And everything you've done you've done for me

Such heartfelt love that only you can bind

Make no mistake no other would I take

With anyone but you I have no use

So hold onto me tightly for my sake

In true love like ours there is no abuse

Don't let me go I know that you love me

Only since I found you have I been free

23042026

End line rhymes from Shakespeare's sonnet 134 

Napowrimo 26/22

DAY TWENTY TWO

SHE LOVES ME

And she loves me yeah she loves me alone

You might toy with my joy but we are one

Briefly you came into my life with grief

And even though I so loved you dearly

Could rhyming slang for grief be wailing chief

Clearly yea or nay it must be nearly

We all have sinned so I will excuse ye

Although you love her true I too love her

If it amuses her to abuse me
It doesn't really matter I love her

The pain of losing you is my love's gain

There is no sense of losing more than loss

If you and her find love I lose both twain

Therefore for my sake please spare me this cross

You might toy with my joy but we are one
And she loves me yeah she loves me alone

22042026

End line rhymes from Shakespeare's sonnet 42

Napowrimo 26/21

DAY TWENTY ONE

ANCIENT ALIENS

Things aren't always

what they appear to be

Cycles come and go

sometimes in circles

Better than everything

that went before

Anything that they told you

will bounce back

Ancient aliens and

other spacemen

Artefacts that we

should never have found

Buried deep down

with the coal underground

Some submerged

in lakes of gases and oil

21042026

Napowrimo 26/20

DAY TWENTY

THE PHOTOGRAPH

They stood still in time in nineteen nineteen

and they're still standing there

At Chorlton tram terminus in the picture

that came from the pub

The photograph now on my wall in monochrome

black and white

But that's all right they won't change

they'll always be there

Long after I've gone they'll still be

standing on that photo

In that same frame large as life looking into the

twenty first century through the glass

20042026

Napowrimo 26/19

DAY NINETEEN

SOUNDBITES

I haven't got all that I need to keep on going and

she doesn't seem to care she must think I'm like her

She punishes me laughing like I'm not really there with

soundbites that I can't hear and others aren't listening to

Appointments aren't worth the paper they're printed on

everyone's on strike apart from me and my loved one

Things get cancelled at the creak of a cricket bat

as hospitals and Doctors sink without trace

19042026

Napowrimo 26/18

DAY EIGHTEEN

SOMETIMES

(WHEN SHE WANTS TO KISS)

She's got what she thinks she's got

when she wants it

Where am I going wrong and

does she really want it

Her face changes with each and

every smile makeup or not

So what's what in the scheme of things and

who really cares

Sometimes her eyes smile

much more than her painted lips

Does she get what she thinks she's got

when she wants to kiss

18042026

Napowrimo 26/17

DAY SEVENTEEN

BALONEY

Dressed up with nowhere to go no one to see

But who knows we've all been wrong a time or two

Those who care will ask How are you today and

Do you need anything is there something I can do

The whole apartment is a mess and sinking fast

Her face painted so white but Snow White she ain't

Nursery rhymes don't work for big girls like her

Fairy stories are baloney when all is said and done

17042026

Napowrimo 26/16

DAY SIXTEEN

THE WEST POLE

Everybody's ears are different

look at Mister Spock

But whose ears are twitching

like the curtains now

Whose ears are burning red

with envy and malice

Which way is the Laundromat

and the blanket wash

Who is going to change the way

that things ought to be

Why are so many people

in two minds about the same thing

And where the Eccles cakes

is the West Pole anyway

16042026

NaPoWriMo 26/15

DAY FIFTEEN

THESE DAYS

Nearer to the sun and stars

than we are to the moon these days

And who can complain about

the atmosphere or the lack of it

The space shuttle and

the sky rocket are pocket monsters

Beyblades were never like this

or am I misinformed

Dissatisfaction with everything

they don't understand

It won't be that long now

until we land

15042026

Napowrimo 26/14

DAY FOURTEEN

LOVE IS RARE

There's nothing on the shelves that can compare

In supermarket heaven love is rare

My love is my night light but not my sun

She always paints her lips more rouge than red

But when she comes she comes more dull than dun

From every tippie toe up to her head

Rings of roses in purples reds and white

And too much powder she wears on her cheeks

My love is still my night light my delight

And when the morning comes that's when she speaks

Her wisdom goes before her this I know

But pound the streets and find another sound

Cos no one ever saw a goddess go

And when my baby walks it's on the ground

In supermarket heaven love is rare

There's nothing on the shelves that can compare

14042026/Shakespeare sonnet 130/end line rhymes