24/12

 

GLOBAL/NAPOWRIMO 2024 DAY 12

THE NATIONAL SPORT

Went to the basketball arena here

it's the national sport and man can they play

they can hit the basket from the centre circle

running up and down like a troglodytes uncle

sweating for Quirino like there's no mañana

It was the Mayor's cup and each Barangay

played each other in Saguday at four o'clock

or so they told me but the first game kicked off at six pm

after the beauty contest and the fashion show followed by

all the introductions then prayers from the Pastor

a couple of speeches from the Mayor then more of the same

until the first two teams started warming up

These guys were spot on

Harlem Globetrotters eat your heart out

these guys never missed a shot

from anywhere on the court

when they started all hell broke loose

More noise than a jumbo jet

more kidz than a kindergarten

more goals than City on a good day

More baskets than a weavers cottage

more fans than Real Madrid

more miles than Timbuktu

More motorcycles than the Manx TT

more scooters than Easter weekend

more tricycles than a school playground

More hot dogs than the Charcoal pit

more hamburgers than MacDunky's

more Filipino's than a boodle fight

More rice than a paddy field

more gas stations than the state of Texas

more parasols than umbrellas

People to see knowledge to acquire

other fish to fry

Cock fighting

used to be the thing

but this is the biggest spectator sport now

12042024

24/11

 

GLOBAL/NAPOWRIMO 2024 DAY 11

JUGGLING CASH

Baby it's not the way

things ought to be

eating for England

lost in the orchard

Dreaming of warmer days

to share with her friends

she wears bin liner aprons

to carry her fruit home

It was freezing

in the greenhouse today

juggling cash cards

to pay off the gas bill

Walking to work

to help save the planet

pushing up daises

before long for sure

11042024

24/10

 

GLOBAL/NAPOWRIMO 2024 DAY 10

WISE WORDS

The wise words the little boy said

Let me explain something to you

Day after day I've been looking for you

longing for you to come home

you gave me everything except your love

but I love you you can't take that away

Day after day time and again

if you chose to we could have made music

you played your guitar so sweet

and I wrote the words for you to sing

Day after day where have you been

I'm looking upstairs and downstairs for you

money ain't the be all and end all

there's always dreams for us to explore

Let me explain something to you

the wise words the little boy said

10042024

24/9

 

GLOBAL/NAPOWRIMO 2024 DAY 9

ANYTHING YOU WANT

Speechless health wealth and happiness personified

breathless seven thousand islands and counting

Some people are masters of stating the obvious

politicians and religions are like that sometimes

Living in a country where they have everything

anything you want for a fraction of the UK price

There's two types of hamburger they tell me

the ones you eat and the ones you don't

the ones you don't eat are the ones that

prevent you from gaining weight

The weather is guaranteed hot all year round

nothing is too much trouble for the Philippino's

by and large the majority of them speak English

what more could you want it's a wonderful place

Breathless seven thousand islands and counting

speechless health wealth and happiness personified

09042024

24/8

 

GLOBAL/NAPOWRIMO 2024 DAY 8

'HEY JOE'

Just when you think it's finished they start again

the Spanish have this knack of making a small town

look like a big city you could be absolutely anywhere

in those two or three back streets in some small place

somewhere but everything looks like Manila or Cebu

sometimes if you wait a minute or two the traffic dies

down and you can head out of town ahead of the tricycles

Don't you just love the way those Jeepney's stroll

the kids going home from school on the roof and old blokes

hanging off the back rolling cigarettes with one hand

everybody's shopping is more important than anyone else's

and if there ain't room in the back you need to squeeze up

'Hey Joe, sit in the front with me' the driver tells me thinking

I'm a senior citizen and can't squash up on the bench in the back

Cities are never finished they keep on rebuilding them over and

over again they'll demolish a perfectly good building if they can

get a skyscraper on the same footprint never mind the heritage

money and politics talk louder than public opinion and good sense

that's not to mention the intrusion into the countryside and the way

that villages and smaller towns are assimilated into the city plans they

supply the water the electric and the metro and they've got them hooked

08042024

Napo 24/7

 

GLOBAL/NAPOWRIMO 2024 DAY 7

WHAT A FLIRT

Everyone that knows her says

butter wouldn't melt in her mouth

Falsetto for beginners

Stiletto heels as high as stilts

eyeliner cheesecloth shirt

I bet she stinks quite funky

like dippy making monkey

What a flirt she can be with that

baseball bat at the drop of a hat

I never thought that she would be

the kinda girl that you would see

grooving down the street with me

Everyone that knows her says

butter wouldn't melt in her mouth

She's got no bread and honey but

she's got bandy legs and dusky knees

and shorts so short you wouldn't believe

Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth

says everyone that knows her

07042024

Napo 24/6

 

GLOBAL/NAPOWRIMO 2024 DAY 6

MATCHSTICK MEN

Naïve as a Sunday artist he stands atop the building

screwing up his eyes he looks down at the gardens below

mums and dads out for a weekend stroll with their kids

dogs and cats seemingly running wild in the little park

kid's buggies perambulators go-carts and bicycles

wheelchairs scooters and motorcycles trundle on by

at a stretch from his vantage point he can sketch them all

from that distance the figures look like matchstick men

06042024/3

Napo 24/5

Napowrimo 2024 Day 5

THE ISLANDERS

After five hundred years they abandoned the island

it really could have been anywhere they had no clue

as to where they lived in relation to the mainland

or to any of the other islands in their archipelago

Clueless as to why they left and unable to understand

their strange language the governor of the mainland

chose to set them to work digging canals to transport

coal and peat to the city for fuel

The Islanders as they came to be known built little houses

for themselves beside the canal tow paths

meanwhile similar houses that they had previously lived in

on the now abandoned island had new occupants

Penguins as numerous as the grains of sand on the sea shore

had taken up residence there any thoughts of going back

to the wind swept isle would have to be shelved

as the whole island had now returned to nature

05042024/4/150

Napo 24/4

 

GLOBAL/NAPOWRIMO 2024 DAY 4

CAT FISH

Sitting on an island surrounded by sand

bystanders - hangers on - fishing for something

cat fish - they tell me - shut up or shove off

Upstairs in the bedge things aren't looking good

peeling wallpaper stuck back with paint

damp around the edges - a feint smell of wet rot

Keep the idiots outside where they belong

selling little bags for money - cross my palm with silver

they sliver slaver all over you rubbing their grubby hands

Who do you trust on Tuesday or any other day for that matter

not that it matters - fit to bust - I must trust - in something

someone anyone - maybe I trust them - but do they trust me

04042024

04042024

Napo 24/3

GLOBAL/NAPOWRIMO 2024 DAY 3

FLYING

Flying ain't for the feint hearted

anything can happen when

runways come up to meet you

at five hundred miles an hour

These things happen more often than you think

they go unreported in case of confusion

Disillusioned? you will be if you keep on flying

How many times have you you been hit

by onboard turbulence flatulence it's not

the clouds and the mountains are out to get you

Apprehension on take off panic on landing

not many atheists on board the last flight I took

everybody was crying out to their god

after a bumpy touchdown at Ninoy Aquino

If the wings touch the deck we're done for

I heard one punter scream crying out to god for help

bless the pilot bless the plane forgive me god

I won't do that naughty thing again he said

almost convincing those in earshot

but most probably not his god

03042024

27032024/150

Napo 24/2

GLOBAL/NAPOWRIMO 2024 DAY 2

THE SANDS OF TIME IV

They post things (online) every day

but not to me - nothing much arrives

in my inbox except for spam

or through my letterbox these days

apart from advertising leaflets and utility bills

lots of them demanding money

informing me of the latest price hike

nice of them to let me know that it's

the governments fault and not theirs

Of course everything is taxed to the hilt these days

stealth taxes and hidden taxes that we can all see

take VAT surely we shouldn't pay that post Brexit

as we're not in the EEC and what about the BBC

and the controversial licence fee - but who put tax

on biscuits and cakes things that we all need

chips and chocolate and fizzy drinks 'carb free'

carte blanche dream on you still have to pay

Nothings free these days even fresh air sun and sea

walk the sands of time and see

02042024/1/150/Day 2

 

Napo 24 /1

 

GLOBAL/NAPOWRIMO 2024 DAY 1

NEVER MIND

Pews discarded like an ancient church hall

more Pastors than an Italian menu

they sing the hymns and bang the tins

like Oscar Wilde in Reading Gaol

Sadly there's no room left for Easter

It's religious to celebrate they say

sacrilegious as church on Sunday

scoffing they disregard Christmas too

Never mind the weather the beer is cool

Where do you come from? England I tell them

They pour Red Horse litre after litre

until it comes out of my ears

01042024

NaPoWriMo 2024 Introduction

 INTRODUCTION 2024 GLOBAL/NaPoWriMo 

Hi Everybody, anybody, somebody perhaps?

This will be my sixteenth year of taking this challenge of thirty poems in thirty days during the month of April. You should be able to read all of my previous entries by scrolling down the right hand column of this blog.

Again, I will be away for most of April in the wonderful Philippines, so we'll have to see what I can come up with this time.

Also as it is World Poetry Day today, I thought I might kill two birds with one stone, and give you a little taster of what may or mayn't be to come.

WORLD POETRY DAY

METRO MOON

Did you hear the news?

If not you'll hear it soon

a Filipino space ship

has landed on the moon

The tricycles and Jeepney's

will follow very soon

from a villa in Manila

to a capsule on the moon

They're going to colonise it

cause more are coming soon

they'll plant a flag and claim it

and call it Metro Moon

21032024

Haikuish

 

THE TREE

The brain of the tree

is in the grain of the bark

Spring green leaves fall brown

12022024

Christmas poem 2 and 3...

 

TO THE KING OF KINGS

Wise men from the East Astrologers at least come to feast their eyes upon the King bringing gold frankincense and myrrh to the City of David at the centre of the earth where a virgin blessed by God has given birth to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the Saviour for all sinners who believe for He proclaimed that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life for God did not send his Son into this world to condemn the world but to save the world through him Wise men from the east Astrologers at least come to feast their eyes upon the King bringing gold frankincense and myrrh to the City of David at the centre of the Earth where a virgin blessed by God has given birth to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the Saviour for all sinners who believe

24122023/1/150

CHRISTMAS EVE

Can you believe

it's Christmas Eve today

Mush mush and

Such and such

Slush slush

Slush slush and

Such and such

Mush mush

I don't know much about

Reindeers and snow

but I suppose that they're

out there somewhere

It's Christmas Eve today

can you believe?

24122023

Christmas poem one 2023

 

ON THE CYCLICAL SCALE

Compliments of the season to one and all

Maid Marion, Robin Hood (and his merry men)

They tell me that Christmas is for Kings

donkeys wise men shepherds and sheep

others say that Christmas is for puddings

turkeys with or without all the trimmings

One man said it's for feeding the homeless

another said you're either ruthless or roofless

these days, and no one really cares that much

how cynical is that on the cyclical scale

We won't be giving many presents this year

there'll be one or two and they'll cost a packet

you'll know it's yours if the carrier bag rattles

if it doesn't it'll be leftovers for the microwave

Maid Marion, Robin Hood (and his merry men)

compliments of the season to one and all

19122023

250 or Bust...

DREAM NINE

The ancient bus stutters to a halt, I get out and start to run up the hill. It’s raining hard and someone’s chasing me. I hate running and I hate rain, but most of all I hate hills. I can hear a man behind me, he’s shouting and he’s catching me fast. I reach the top of the hill and jump over an old stone wall, big mistake I realise, as I reach out and grab the overhead electric railway cable to break my fall. Just then I sense a train coming towards me, without thinking I let go of the cable and land on top of the speeding locomotive. I lie flat, clinging on for dear life, I’m soaking wet now and it’s still pouring with rain. After a few minutes the train pulls into a country station and I manage to clamber down onto the platform. I make my way outside, and board a waiting bus. The driver looks familiar, but I sit down near the back and hope the heater will help me get dry. The bus starts to move, but I have no idea where we are going. It creaks and groans as it begins to wind its way up a long wooded road. We overtake a cross country runner; I know I've seen him someplace before, but when and where? The bus is making a horrible gurgling noise now, and it all comes flooding back to me as the ancient bus stutters to a halt.

051214/250

From 2018...

 

Something I wrote in 2018...

PURPLE HAZE

He beats and bangs her drums until she comes

And flaps his wings and flies around the room

His winkle-pickers tapping to the tune

He introduces her to rock 'n' roll

He strips and bares his soul and starts to sing

Some people do seem to have such strange ways

When she begins to weep his guitar plays

Some people say this world is just a maze

He tells her that there's nothing much to do

And we're all living in a purple haze

Friday like any other Friday but

It's Friday the thirteenth and that means that

Strange things happen even stranger things are

Forecast ask Hitchcock and Castro et al

Don't listen to the things that people say

And all the Different Ones born on that day

He beats and bangs her drums until she comes

Backflips and flaps his wings and flies away

130418

Recent trips to Paris and Dublin...

Dublin collection

BOTH BANKS OF THE LIFFEY

Dublin at first glance the same as last time

and the time before that that I was there

kicking myself now that we didn't go

to see the Molly Malone sculpture this trip

but made up for it by discovering

a new Oscar Wilde figure plonked on a bench

outside Kennedys pub at Trinity College

We walked along both banks of the Liffey

crossing bridges several times in the heat

oh yes it was September but it was warm

I perhaps almost nearly forgot

to mention that the weather was extra hot

In sight of the Phoenix Park Obelisk

the Wellington Monument we turned back

Christ Church Cathedral Dublin Castle and

Saint Patrick's where Jonathan Swift is buried

The GPO on O'Connell Street and James Joyce

looking tired standing in the shadow of the Spire

Full Irish Breakfast at The Boxty House

Guinness straight from the river Liffey

Oyster Stout at the Temple Bar Porterhouse

More churches than the Vatican

more distilleries than Cognac in France

More singers dancers thinkers and drinkers

more writers than a library full of books

More trinkets than Las Vegas Bonanza

more poets musicians and song writers

More pubs than Greene King

07092023/Dublin

Paris collection

THE TRAFFIC FLOWS

The Eiffel Tower mellows magnificently

lit up in red and golden yellows

Above the rooftops in every arrondissement

her searchlight sweeps the Parisian night

Clockwise and counter clockwise all day long
relentless the traffic flows on the Peripherique

likewise on Rive Gauche and Rive Droite

the cars go hell for leather hammer and tongs

The Sacre Coeur Basilica whiter than white

appears ivory when lit up at night

The Bateaux Mouches cruise up and down insane

from Pont de L'Alma on the river Seine

And Paris sleeps but doesn't sleep at all

Croissants Brioche Baguettes and Pain de 'Epi

all need to be made to feed the morning crowd

Yawning we head for the Metro - Airport bound

30082023/Paris collection

Secret Poetry

Here's something I first wrote in 2009, but this is a slightly different version...

MY SECRET

I go to my secret place in the poetry garden

not many people know about that

but you know all my secrets anyway so it’s okay

It's my poetry patch really where I grow poetic things

my favourite poems are the weeds

I cultivate them ad hoc in my mind

But they (other poets) grow theirs naturally

as nature does sometimes

I will cut an edge perhaps prune a word or three

mostly I just watch things grow

climb up the poet tree

and sit atop the branches

where the fairies swing is tied

to watch them mirror dancing

(they only tire at sunset)

When I come back down to earth

this is the poem that wrote itself

it told me to write it down like this:

Making monkey mayhem

funky madness

sitting up the poet tree

writing down every word that she whispers to me

the secret of the ages of the rings

the way the wordy wordy wordy sings

everything she brings from where she comes

where she goes nobody really knows

she recites her wordy words to my world

my world doesn’t hear a thing she says

(the wind blows her words whispering to me)

She sister she secret society she says silently – hoping I can hear

110409/06052023

15/Conclusion

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/Conclusion

Amazingly we've reached yet another end to the napowrimo challenge of thirty poems in thirty days. As usual may I take this opportunity to congratulate each and everyone of you who completed it this time.

We had a little distraction mid way through the project as I had to go to Poland for a few days. Fortunately I was still able to write something each day and post it from there which reinforces not only the power of the internet, but the global appeal of napowrimo these days too.

The next setback for me was that after returning from Poland my wife came down with Covid and I followed her two days later. I'm still suffering with the dreaded lurgy as I write this, but somehow, all these possible disasters, only ever seem to give me more material to work from.

Finally, here's a little something to conclude this years challenge and to set myself up for what lies ahead.

STORMS

Streams of consciousness

Violent storms and sunny days

Bursting off the page

01052023

Thank you for reading this, and congratulations again for taking the challenge this year.

15/30

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 30 The last day.

THE LOVING KIND

The way that I feel about you

is still the same as yesterday true

Stay hands up down town

I'm coming up I'm coming up

I'm coming up down town

I want you to stay

with your hands in the air

and your mind on mine

cause you're the loving kind

There ain't no confusion

or two bit illusion 

the way that I feel about you

is still the same as yesterday true

Stay hands up down town

I'm coming up I'm coming up

I'm coming up down town

There ain't no confusion

or two bit illusion

30042023

15/29

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 29

THE LONGEST NIGHT

They said that it must have been the morphine talking

when I told different people what had happened that night

in the hospital after my operation

but you couldn't make these things up I know what I saw

and I'm sticking to it that seems like a long time ago now

but I remember it as being a very long night

forcing myself to keep awake convinced that they would kill me next

if I even fell asleep for a few minutes

In the distance I could hear a woman screaming in the corridor

and what sounded like steel trays being bashed about her bonce

it was impossible for me to move I had to lie flat on my back

with a drip in my arm

I also had two young nurses sitting at my bedside

studying a computer screen

that may or may not have been monitoring my brain

Of course the problem didn't start until the young nurses

were asked if they wanted to stay to watch the filming

or if they would like to take a break they chose to take a break

and I never saw them again the filming was absolutely mad

the rest of the staff on the ward having dressed up in outrageous costumes

in various states of dress or undress were now filming each other doing mad things

I'm sure they were taking credit card customers requests over the internet

Anyway that night was nothing compared to last night

which truly was the longest night I can remember

I had come down with the dreaded lurgy a few days previously

and had been shivering and coughing and overheating then shivering again

but last night I came down with the whole thing and I was delirious

and sweating like a pig I started to imagine that I was going completely mad

I kept on seeing a video of a disaster playing in my head

And try as I might I couldn't let it go I woke up sweating

went back to sleep wringing wet woke up again

and couldn't get the disaster movie out of my head

I was absolutely totally confused about my situation

I felt like I should call a doctor for help but that's impossible

these days as the phone rings out three or four times and then rings off

anyway I had the advantage of knowing that I had the virus

And that despite me being completely flummoxed by it

there would actually have been nothing much that a doctor could have done

so I had gone to bed at nine pm which is really really early for me

as I often don't retire until way past midnight

of course after I went to bed the bad dreams turned into chaotic nightmares

and I began sweating and shivering and tossing and turning

until I became a gibbering wreck I can't say too much more about this experience

apart from the fact that it was the longest night of my life

29042023

15/28

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 28

THE DREADED VIRUS

Had the lurgy last year

but nothing as bad as this

sweating like a troglodytes uncle

overheating then shivering like a bin dog

lots of fluids no alcoholic drinks

until further notice

sneezing like an alley cat

nose blocked up to buglery

eyes watering continually

throat like a bag of nails

coughing up united all over the shop

feeling rotten

I'd forgotten what it was like

but this time it's much much worse

the dreaded virus chapter and verse

28042023

15/27

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 27

IF YOU KNOW YOU KNOW

You can't get it twice can you I asked my specialist desperately

You can only get it twice if you've already had it previously

Came the swift reply from one of Britain's finest virologists

My online guru said lightening never strikes in the same place twice

Shivering and flu like symptoms don't mean you've got the virus

So the sore throat lurgy that you dread might only be in your head

What do they know about my feelings and the two and eight of things

Avian flu is doing the rounds and free range eggs are laid in barns

And there's no such thing as a free lunch the horror scope bunch tell me

We all try to beat the system or eggs sometimes for omelettes if we can

Like the Joker with an Ace up his sleeve or on his face book status

He'll love you until his house falls down flat like a stack of cards

If I know my audience you know you know that I'm talking to you

If the world is a stage like Shakespeare said then some are spectators too

Fanatics sometimes I don't know how you feel but we are all players

27042023

15/26

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 26

LOVE BIKES

I love bicycles but I don't ride them much these days

I have a shed full of the two wheeled machines

eighteen or more in different states of disrepair

and a room full of tools and bits and bobs out there

Love like lovers comes and goes

you won't need a guru or a demi god to tell you that

And I've got an Indonesian rickshaw that I really like

which I was going to turn into a cargo trike

Don't you just love bikes I know that I do

but only pre nineteen eighties or there a bouts

the ones that have cotter pins to attach the pedal shanks

I really dislike those new fangled cranks

Of course I wouldn't say no to an electric assist

especially when I live on the edge of Dartmoor now

I had the privilege of testing one once at Coalville

they must've thought I was Action Man at Bardon Hill

26042023

15/25

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 25

INTERNETINTENTIONALLY

Tables are like people sometimes

wooden or perhaps more like horses

sometimes pigs if they don't have wheels

I've not seen many three legged pigs

Who are you talking to I asked her

I'm not talking she replied I'm listening

Who are you listening to I asked

Myself she answered staring into her phone

If anybody needs a selfie stick that girl does

digital creator influencer call her what you will

she'll love you if you like her and follow her

not literally of course but internetintentionally

25042023

15/24

 Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 24

THE SANDS OF TIME

I

Snookered but not necessarily on green baize

can't see wood for trees springs to mind

not unlike crocodiles and piranha fish

but don't bite my hand off for telling you

II

The secrets of the inner mind unwrapped

they say nobody knows how these things work

lost beneath the sands of time somewhere

no escape from the fictional brain

III

You wouldn't want to complain about things

all's fair in love and cricket said the silly mid on

as the bowler chucked a maiden over

before the wicket keeper caught the last man out

24042023

15/23

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 23

SANDS OF TIME AND TIMBUKTU

Another few dollars for another days work

when she wakes up it's all said and done

Sleeping for England in a four poster bed

she thinks about the weather

imagines that it's raining

turns over and goes back to sleep

Like false teeth chattering on a marble slab

the aeroplane hits the tarmac hard then

relief as it straightens up and comes to a halt

the chattering turns to clapping and cheers

Holidays and holiday makers

making for the sands of time and Timbuktu

business trips planned and unplanned

happy as Lazarus up from the grave

When she wakes up it's all said and done

another few dollars for another days work

23042023

15/22

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 22

THEIR TABLETS OF STONE

They think that hosing it down

won't make it wet but

they've been wet behind the ears

for a long time now

They're more naïve than an optimist

facing a firing squad

it's a dead certainty that something

is going to go terribly wrong

They take the subway train because

they think it's safer than walking

they hate buses don't like overcrowding

shopping in Oxford Street isn't their thing

They say the electricity won't go down

like it did in nineteen seventy four but it will

then all their computers and mobile things

and even their tablets of stone will be silent

22042023