2019/10

Global/NaPoWriMo 2019

Day Ten

SHOP AROUND

THE CLOCK

Seven – Eleven

Seven – Eleven – Seven

Twenty Four Seven

10042019

2019/9

Global/NaPoWriMo 2019

Day Nine

THE BAMBOO KUBO

III

We/you/they rent this

place/space/kubo

by the hour or part

thereof see page three

paragraph two article four

sub-section twenty seven

or if you've got very good eyesight

or super specs simply read the

small print at the foot of each

page anyway after twenty four

hours give or take a few seconds

they took the Karaoke machine away

followed by all the tables and chairs

and then finally the beds disappeared

09042019

2019/8

Global/NaPoWriMo 2019

Day Eight

THE BAMBOO KUBO

Hot as a troglodyte's carbuncle they

were up running down the beach

swimming in the sea at

something before six breakfast at

eight fish more fish and rice

would you like more rice uncle

no thank you I tell them

would you like another coffee

yes please the coffee comes sweet

as heaven two types of sugar

white and brown what other sugars

have you got I ask them joking

they go to try to find some but all

the cane sugar has been fermented

and distilled into vinegar no worries

I'll just drink the coffee as it comes

they tap a coconut tree and fill a placky

bottle with the sticky water It'll be wine

this time tomorrow they tell me all thirty

of them plus children staying at the Bamboo Kubo

08042019

THE BAMBOO KUBO

II

Five four three four one

I don't know what's going on

everybody else takes it in their

stride Pied Piper style the sand

is so hot it's burning my feet

Apart from that the games

have started how do you confuse

a basketball player put him in a

volleyball court and tell him to

take a kick (of the football)

They rabbit in several different

languages at the same time

if it sounds like Spanish it

probably isn't it could be Tagalog

or Taglish or really bad English

They change direction as often

as I change hats not that I do

change hats very often that is

but I'm sure you get my drift

my shirt is sticking to me now

I went fishing this morning and

caught a piece of driftwood well

if the truth be known I stumbled

across it walking up the beach

you can't beach driftwood can you

Love the bamboo Kubo thirty

of us plus kids staying here

right on the beautiful beach

they've got a well pump in the

shaded courtyard and a little shop

The shop sells ice cold pop Red Horse

Ginebra and apple juice so what's what

it's nearly twelve noon the games will

resume again soon no time for football

we have a programme a schedule to keep

I gave the kids a togger ball to kick around

they picked it up and booted it rugby style

over the beach volleyball net you can take

a horse to water but you can't make him think

they think soccer is an Americano TV show

Hello Joe they say when they see me Wanna

drink San Mig or Gin come and sit with us

I try my sixty-five words of Tagalog but they're

hell bent on practising their English I worked

in Hong Kong for ten years one man tells me

Do you speak Chinese Mandarin I ask him

No everybody speaks English he says and

all my china plates speak Tagalog anyway

what were you doing over there I ask him

earning money to support my family he says

The minutes morph into half-hour segments

even the Karaoke Machine is quiet at mid-day

everything is a subsidiary of something else

these days I'm waiting for Peaches and Cream

to come on again I know the words to that one

I can smell the fresh fish cooking on the bamboo

grill the rice is cooking too and It'll soon be time

to eat again I think I'll go for another walk on

the red hot sand I got stranded earlier with bare

feet standing on my towel a local rescued me

Don't you just love flip-flops or slippers as they

call them down this end there's always a means

to an end and this is no exception the moral of

the tale is wear protection or get your tail burnt

shorts and tee shirts are better than burning up

08042019/1

2019/7

Global/NaPoWriMo 2019

Day Seven

GOING TO THE BEACH

We are all dead dead excited sitting

here standing around eating drinking

just waiting for the jeep

to take us to the beach

three generations maybe four

cousins brothers sisters lovers

mothers fathers aunties whatsit -in-

laws uncle Tom Cobley and all

a couple of tricycles are packed

with water beer and rice and beans

I guess we'll buy the fish when we

get there like we did the last time

Short Interlude (beer rice and veg)

Everybody's dressed in shorts

of sorts tee shirts T shirts and

basketball uniforms de rigueur

only brand name trainers will do

they say the mosquitoes only bite

after four pm and before six am

but I've got a whole colony of ants

climbing up my legs and a 

multitude of flies licking at last

nights bites

I'm still waiting for the jeep to come

but everybody else seems to have

settled back into the usual routine

eating drinking telling customers

that the Carinderia is closed 

because we are going to the beach

at Dinadiawan

07042019

2019/6

Global/NaPoWriMo 2019

Day Six

HELLO AM I EVEN HERE

Nothing much changes but they

Skype each other now and post

to Instagram and Twitter

whatever that means

Apparently they've got

accounts there – I used to have a

bank account so I think I know

what they mean

They'll be coming soon to take me

to the park – I think it's a park it's

got lots of trees and Iguana's

running up and down the walls

do parks really have walls or are

they just telling me that

They tell me what they think I want

to hear or perhaps what they want

me to hear – Hello am I even here

They're late this morning or maybe

it's night time and I'm getting confused

like they told me I was last time I thought

night was day or something they

didn't really explain it to me properly

Anyway I don't mind being left to my

own devices I can watch cricket on the

radio if I want to and drive cars and motorbikes

all day long in my imagination -

dream on do you really think that they

would let me do that

Take your medication she said and when

you wake up we'll take you to the park

when she nipped outside for an e-cig I

spat the nasty tablets down the sink I think

I hope it wasn't the tropical fish tank

06042019

2019/5

Global/NaPoWriMo 2019

Day Five

HOG ROAST HOT

Perfect looking into your eyes crazy

beauty comes in stages babe pero not me

even though It's mega degrees daisy

waking beside my lover sets me free

If I was rich with plenty of money

goodbye hello which way lady tonight

waiting for you to come find me honey

alright lover it's much too much goodnight

Funny as the weather when the sun shines

sitting here burning up crazy baby

laughing like a bottle of mango wine

one more drains the day down slowly maybe

Saguday gets hog roast hot too lady

can't find anywhere but you that's shady

05042019

2019/4

Global/NaPoWriMo 2019

Day Four

CONTROVERSY

Multinationalisation hasn't that been tried before

Colonisation empire building internal feuding

The clocks were ticking till the hour came and went confusion

All of the money spent on pay rises for the gentrified

Sit down order in the Commons chaos in the House of Lords

Missus Mayhem and your Oxbridge party chums boohoo uproar

Never mind the rough sleepers the disabled the job seekers

The unwaged and the working poor keep them begging on the floor

Okay if the leavers really don't know what they voted for

What about a referendum a general election

Some cast their vote upon the moat and it came back soaking wet

Let's have a vote for those that didn't bother to vote at all

Let's put the cat amongst the pigeons show the dog the rabbit

Chuck a Welly or three throw the boot in sideways hobnails up

Or should we turn the other cheek as the towers rise up high

Power mad they want to scrape the sky above our city streets

The ill gotten investment still pours in from banks in Brasil

Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong so what's so wrong with tinned corned beef

Fair trade coffee that some tea leaf said was free but where's the bread

The tainted bread and honey for the Tulip from hamster jam

The self-serve check-outs at the local store and that one world faith

Controversy of religiosity by the back door

04042019

2019/3

Global/NaPoWriMo 2019

Day Three

WILD DOGS

Chaotic from

sun up to siesta

only motorbikes

a few tricycles

wild dogs and Englishmen

venture out barking mad

in the mid-day sun

The delivery trucks

and Jeepney's still

come thundering through

and the main road

to nowhere never ceases

At night the crickets

drive you crazy pero

that's part of life in

this little bit of paradise

03042019 

2019/2

Global/NaPoWriMo 2019

Day Two

THE WEDDING

As a little girl drags her dog

leap-frog in the mid-day heat.

Saguday – Diffun Quirino

to the wedding we have come.

The Tricycle with the aubergine

side-car wins the first race.

02042019

2019/One

Global/NaPoWriMo 2019

Day One

WHAT'S WHAT

Lilliputian's only cause confusion when you mix them up with Troglodytes life isn't as simple as some would have it tax and insurance hikes put paid to that don't you get that feeling sometimes that things some things and/or everything is out of your reach up in the air or way too expensive and that no one really cares just bung it on a credit card and pay for it later get it on the never never whatever really you think that that is what's what

01042019/1

Global/NaPoWriMo 2019 Introduction

2019 INTRODUCTION
Hi, I know I said that last year was going to be my final year of doing the NaPoWriMo challenge of thirty poems in thirty days. However, I'm sitting here in The Philippines thinking about the global aspect of the challenge and I really want to get a few thoughts down in this bloggage and elsewhere online. I won't be posting to any of the prompt sites or doing any of the prompts (although, never say never).

CHARIOTS
Chariots race 
up and down
like worker ants 
from town to town
01042019

Absolutely nonsense...

SUPER SOMETHING

Super-nature-ritualistic-absolutely-nonsense

even though it sounds aloof

it's just a load of rubbish

when they shout it from the roof

it still sounds really sluggish

Super-nature-ritualistic-absolutely-nonsense

Da-da-de-dum-da-da-de dum-di

da-da-de-dum-da-da-de dum-di

da-da-de-dum-da-da-de dum-di

da-da-de-dum-da-da-de dum-di

No matter what they try to say

it comes out really bad

I really think they've lost their way

I think that's really sad

But then one day I heard a word

that made me really mad

if looks could kill without a sword

a super something fad

and this is how it goes:

Super-nature-ritualistic-absolutely-nonsense

even though it sounds aloof

it's just a load of rubbish

when they shout it from the roof

it still sounds really sluggish

Super-nature-ritualistic-absolutely-nonsense

Da-da-de-dum-da-da-de dum-di

da-da-de-dum-da-da-de dum-di...

261118

Daylight saving time...

TURNING BACK THE CLOCKS

In Manchester in London and in Brum

super-rich are backing each-way horses

Invest in building skyscrapers for fun

and the working class are joining forces

Does Mrs Mayhem even know the score

therefore who's changing who's minds now kapiche

With boarders at our borders what a bore

still Ireland stands to put things out of reach

In Luxembourg in Brussels and in Bonn

they really don't like turning back the clocks

Frozen cons prose and pro's and non non non

a square kilometre of crooks and crocks

Brexit hey should we leave or should we stay

it doesn't really matter either way

271018

At the Cool Specs factory...

CLOCK WATCHING

Wall washers clock watching at Dicks and Becks

the factory where they make cool specs

then one day shock horror

the clocks were changed for mirrors

now the shirkers look at one another cold

clock watching themselves grow old

230618

At St. Aidan's

TAMERTON LAKE

One scene I painted time and again

my only picture to make the school wall

(at St. Aidan's before I was ten)

Then in my seventh decade I saw her

my picture from 1962 - Tamerton Lake

come alive and stand for me to view

Now I see her every day in blues and greens and grey

who said that you can't paint a dream come true

160618

Limerick attempt (again) ...

SHE VOLLEYS

She volleys the puck like a man

return it to her if you can

Don't use an ice pick

with your hockey stick

If you are a true Penguins fan

130518

As submitted to Mad Kane's Humor Blog for Limerick-Off Monday - Rhyme word : CAN at the end of any one line. (MadKane.com) 

Here's one for our Frank

Here's one for our Frank:

THE OLD OAK TREE

They say that squirrels birds and bees

all make their home in different trees

and juicy steaks hang off the branches

of meat trees and one guy that owns a

ruff and tumble biscuit tree says that's

the way the cookie crumbles then there's

the apple tree with two hundred and fifty

varieties grafted on one tree but there's

no end to creativity carnivore what a bore

there's always something more to see and

one man takes first prize for me it's not a

cricket bat he's growing on his willow tree

it's a chair and not just one he's got a field

of them growing out there and crab apple

tables to top it all and crafty beer trees

growing all types of pale ales the forest

is getting closer and the mushrooms are

taking over soon we'll all be in the Amazon

up the tidal creek without a paddle you see

or climbing up the old oak tree like me

030518

NaPoWriMo 2018 Conclusion

NaPoWriMo 2018

CONCLUSION

This was my tenth year of taking the challenge of thirty poems in thirty days, so I now have three hundred NaPoWriMo poems in the bag. As I have said before I only tend to get two or three decent pieces from each challenge and this year was no different. I did however, write several pieces about Plymouth and therefore I now have the beginnings of a Plymouth collection. I also managed to add a few bus poems to my pet hate collection, so all in all it was a successful month. May I leave you with a fun one?

ON THE RING AND RIDE

We're on the Ring and Ride and

the driver's fishing for compliments

checking the whether (or not) forecast

in the horror scope section of the Local Blag

All that can wait but we can't we're going to

be late for Coronation's treat and East pretenders

so please Mr Bus Driver give us a break and

put your Wellie to the floor and get us home

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