Napowrimo 2025/23

 

APRIL TWENTY THREE

HELLO AM I EVEN SOBER

Yesterday was the old fogies trip to Blackpool

I went along on the rickety old Chara

simply to make up the numbers on the bus

we went the long way round via Lytham St Annes

where we stopped for the breakfast cabaret

complete with comedians and lady boys

and a couple of early door pints of extra strong cider

On reaching Blackpool it was straight off to the beach

then the Pleasure Beach and all the rides and side shows

not that I can remember much about them

Some lady I don't know who she was gave me my meds

everything seemed okay for a bit until we went to the pub

where I had another couple of pints of some sort of beer

then it was off on a tram to North Pier and up the Tower

standing on that glass floor at the top I was giddy and dizzy

After a large dinner of fish chips and very mushy peas

it was time to meet up with the old fogies at The Waterloo

for more drinks and another dodgy cabaret before leaving

Hello am I even sober I remember thinking before waking up

23042025

Napowrimo 2025/22

 

APRIL TWENTY TWO

HELLO AM I EVEN

HAVING BREAKFAST

Has thee had thy breakfast Bonny Lad

I think so I tell her then ask if it's Wednesday

Thursday she informs me Blood Pressure day

Oh no not again I hate it when they do that to me

I know I had my breakfast on Wednesday because

it was BEST Bacon Egg Sausage and Tomato

my favourite day I like Wednesday and simple things

but for the life of me I cannot recall what I had today

Memories of long ago things come and go to and fro

my brain works when it wants to but often goes blank

hello am I even having breakfast today or what

I think I know the answer but quickly forget

22042025

Napowrimo 2025/21

 

APRIL TWENTY ONE

SPARE LETTERS

The lines are getting longer than the queue for bread in nineteen forty two every single letter printed on the page becomes swallowed up inside a world of words producing a sentence then a paragraph or three page after page until the chapters engage the reader with thoughts he never knew before take it or leave it tickle me pink with your pen and ink but don't go sketch me with your quill or scratch me from your will and his portrait hangs in the gallery where the party people hang about drumming up trade for the man we never knew that's banging the drum when every other day is long the longest day turns and runs you can hardly tell that to the trees or to the birds and bees that the wind is blowing it all at all and we're spectators like spare letters left on the page

21042025/150

Napowrimo 2025/20

 

APRIL TWENTY

ONLINE

He went to the computer shop

but the store wasn't there no more

it was just a warehouse now

with no one there to help him

Everything's online these days

you place an order and they despatch it

stand and deliver they rob you blind

but you can't kid a kidder can you

All he wanted was a screen for his laptop

no joke he sat on the old one and it broke

but the man in the warehouse told him no

you can't buy nothing here it's all online

20042025

Napowrimo 2025/19

 

APRIL NINETEEN

HELLO AM I EVEN

TAKING THE TABLETS

Hello am I even taking the tablets

if I rattled like that I wouldn't need them

Did you take your tablets today

she asks me for the third time

I finally tell her that I didn't and

that I won't be taking them again

I read the leaflet that came with the meds

I really don't want to take them yet

all those side effects that mess with your head

which I really really don't want to get

You need to take your medication

she informs me - seriously she says

the Doctor knows best doesn't he

they're for your own good you know

Yeah but - I start to explain to deaf ears

she doesn't want to hear what I have to say

it's more than her job's worth to listen

but I tell her my findings anyway

If I rattled like that I wouldn't need them

Hello am I even taking the tablets no

19042025

Napowrimo 2025/18

 

APRIL EIGHTEEN

GOOD FRIDAY

JESUS IS LORD

Jesus is Lord of my day

Jesus is Lord of my way

Jesus is Lord of my truth

Jesus is Lord of my life

Jesus is Lord Jesus is Lord

Jesus is Lord Jesus is Lord

Jesus is Lord of my life

Jesus is Lord of my truth

Jesus is Lord of my way

Jesus is Lord of my day

18042025

Napowrimo 2025/17

APRIL SEVENTEEN

WHAT THEY WANT

She must know it's going to happen soon

I'd put my mortgage on that

but still perhaps later than sooner

The stuff that dreams are made of

I asked her once but she couldn't decide

It's a safe bet that she likes it that way

She's trying to lose those extra pounds

her new outfit won't quite fit

but she'll squeeze into it if it kills her

Some women are like that sometimes

although they always know what they want

because summer only lasts for so long

17042025

Napowrimo 2025/16

 APRIL SIXTEEN

THE MERMAID

Where the whales play with you I've got no beef

further out beyond the barrier reef

Don't leave me when the ships bell starts to ring

I first heard your voice from the rose garden

last time the nightingale started to sing

then the mermaid sang I beg your pardon

If only her imagination could

extend from the seashore up to the creek

Without her memories covered in blood

digging for buried treasure all this week

But to the pure of course all things are pure

ships and yachts and different kinds of sloops

Acrobatic society for sure

throwing themselves whooping through all those hoops

Further out beyond the barrier reef

where the whales play with you I've got no beef

16042025

Napowrimo 2025/15

APRIL FIFTEEN

THE GENIUS

Blowing hot and cold but never sky blue

she was the genius that we all knew

Dreams confuse me sometimes send me loopy

unwanted dreams wake me in the dark night

Why I really haven't got a Scooby

who needs that kind of nonsensical fight

Sweating I awake unable to sleep

not knowing where I am or what is what

They tell me that everything is so deep

this and that yeah but the rest is old hat

Writing for England she was always mint

now people use her titles for their stuff

She would have loved to see her work in print

of course she did sometimes but life is tough

She was the genius that we all knew

blowing hot and cold but never sky blue

15042025

Napowrimo 2025/14

 APRIL FOURTEEN

FINDING GOLD

Dreaming like they were when they sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean like Thor Heyerdahl did on his way to Tenerife and perhaps Jason and the Argonauts hugging the North African coast heading down to Agadir others went before them the stuff that myths are made of Thor thought the ancient pyramid builders passed that way from Egypt en-route to South America stopping at Tenerife and throwing up a pyramid or two but when they were finally excavated it turned out they had been built on a rubbish tip for agricultural use no earlier than the nineteenth century but lets not upset the Freemasons and others who believed and still do that these drywall lava stone structures were strategically positioned to view the summer solstice like finding gold at the end of the rainbow perhaps Jason's Golden Fleece or the Templars Holy Grail

14042025/150

Napowrimo 2025/13

 APRIL THIRTEEN

CHINATOWN

You were

with me in

Chinatown

Manchester

London

and

Manila

Do you

remember it

the way I do

I have the

photographs

to prove it

The videos

you put on

social media

to endorse it

Enforce it

if you will

13042025

Napowrimo 2025/12

 APRIL TWELVE

CONFUSION

Madness comes in droves

goes around in circles

that much everybody knows

Ancient memories of time

we hardly feel much older

even when we're sixty nine

I thought ham and piccalilli

might just be a thing

or is that something silly

They talk about delusion

I don't know what to say

everything is confusion

Wacky as a loonatic

I stumble in the dark

up the apples to the attic

With no one else to blame

pickled as a cucumber

I thought that I was sane

12042025

NaPoWriMo 2025

www.sewina.blogspot.com

Napowrimo 2025/11

 

APRIL ELEVEN

SHE'S MY PEARL

When we start dancing she's over the moon

The audience applaud some of them swoon

So I wrote this little song about you

Someone new with only flowers to bring

I didn't know that my dreams would come true

I thought that you had someone in the wings

Waiting off stage for you to reappear

Don't you know that you're the star of the show

Holding out my hand I wish she was near

But when she appeared we still came to blows

If I had it on my toes would she cry

I know that I for one would miss my girl

Till we met I didn't know I was shy

But she's my girly now yes she's my pearl

The audience applaud some of them swoon

When we start dancing she's over the moon

11042025

Napowrimo 2025/10

 APRIL TEN

ONE HUMP OR TWO

I wasn't looking forward to the camel ride

hanging on for dear life as we trekked through

what looked to me like an abandoned land fill site 

bits of discarded plastic rising up above the sand

The Dromedary walking slowly in single file

me clinging on wishing the two hour session would end

having to lean backwards or forward sometimes sideways

to try to keep my balance on this ship of the desert

Before the end of the tour we saw the pink flamingoes fly

and wild dogs swimming across the river

feral cats and dozens of kittens were sunbathing on the rocks

and a few men and a girl were fishing in the lake

Finally we were able to dismount and stagger to the cafe

the boss man there was a Berber and he served sweet tea

Would you like sugar he asked one hump or two

whilst he told us that Moroccan camels were called Dromedary

10042025

Napowrimo 2025/9

APRIL NINE

SOUND AS A POUND

No escape from Agadir and the Baghdad Brigand Hotel

the Hanging gardens of Babylon and the Tower of Babel

Caine and Abel Adam and Eve everybody knows somebody

who goes there sometime for a sunshine break by the sea

But there's no escape for the staff who work there live in

all found sound as a pound except that they don't get paid

A massive fortified wall surrounds the grounds and

nobody has broken through it as yet

Okay if the truth be known and I have all the goss and inside and

totally reliable information about the situation you see there are

actually two ways in and out of the hotel complex one being

the main entrance the other comprising of the exit to the beach

both of them are closely monitored by armed security guards

not to keep non residents out but to keep the staff from escaping

09042025/150 

Napowrimo 2025/8

 

APRIL EIGHT

PURPLES BLUES AND GREYS

They think they know all my secrets now

now that they have access to my phone

much like the lovers that I never knew

my other lover said she loved me too

If New York is the apple of her eye

why does she persist in taunting me

she says she's only teasing really but

really she's being so unpleasant to me

She sorts my tablets into purples blues and greys

counting the morning ones once twice or thrice

keep away from children prisoners and other patients

it's only my helper that can distribute them to me

08042025

Napowrimo 2025/7

 

APRIL SEVEN

MAGIC CARPETS

Magic carpets don't come cheap

but they do take cash in the Kasbah

although I bet you won't be flying home

on one any time soon flapping in the wind

fighting the vultures and Aladdin and his boys

never mind the forty thieves from Baghdad

the Pirates of Penzance and anybody else

with a magic lamp three wishes and a Genie

up his sleeve of which they tell me there

are plenty of on the Agadir coast

07042025

Napowrimo 2025/6

 

APRIL SIX

NESTING

Love the sun love the sea love the skies

love the birds singing breaking the silence

I think the multitude of birds love it here too

they love it more than me because they've

found their paradise passport and visa free

they know that this place is their place and

there's a number of them nesting in the tree

right next to me right now

06042025

Napowrimo 2025/5

 

APRIL FIVE

THE EASY ONES

Scribbling this with my Sudoku pencil

it's nearly blunt and the rubber has almost worn away

I didn't think to bring a spare one or two

I should have because I bought a new puzzle book

for the flight here I've got it on the table with me now

I'm working my way through the easy ones

(they get progressively harder)

I didn't bring my laptop 'cos I broke the charger

the day before our trip to North Africa

So here I am relying on my mobile thing

ding a ling cell phone call it what you will bring bring

05042025

Napowrimo 2025/4

 

APRIL FOUR

UNDER THE PARASOL

Much too hot to go gallivanting along the sandy beach

so here I am sitting in the shade and still getting burnt

The infinity pool is hard work and my arms are already sore

Even though I'm wearing a daft sun hat my head is peeling

and I'm sweating like a first time tourist under the parasol

04042025

Napowrimo 2025/3

 

APRIL THREE

SCULPTURE

Love the way they trim the trees

at the garden beach hotel

sculpture almost

easy on the peepers

Then there's the lady on reception

talking nineteen to the dozen

in French German and English

to the only Irishman in Morocco from Cork

I said corks float don't they

They stop bottles as well he informed me

when I had a chat with him

over a bottle of Casablanca in the bar later on

03042025

Napowrimo 2025/2

 

APRIL TWO 2025

BREAKFAST

Breakfast for beginners

fromage omelette

olives green and black

two types of pancakes

with whipped butter

and runny honey

oranges grapes

figs and fiddle sticks

strong black coffee

and or peppermint tea

But don't drink the water

out of the tap

I guess that's why

we're sitting outside now

waiting for the bar to open

02042025

Napowrimo 2025/1

 

APRIL ONE 2025

SHE'S DEAD CLEVER

Sitting out in the blazing sun

talking about the nice weather as ever

Where does the sun go down she enquires

Over the sea I tell her

How do you know that she asks

Because the sea is on the west coast I inform her

It's like she doesn't know anything

but she's dead clever really

she can't rewire a plug or change a fuse

but she's a dab hand at ironing and not just clothes

She can sort things out like camel rides

and trips to the Kasbah and the Souk

even buying carpets in Marrakesh

01042025

NaPoWriMo 2025

INTRODUCTION

In recent times I have found myself to be away from home at the end of March until mid April. I have, however, always managed to write a poem a day for the Global/NaPoWriMo challenge. This year we are in North Africa, Morocco in fact, my wife has her heart set on riding a camel which she has already booked, not just for her but for me too. The stuff of adventure, I suppose. I'll probably tell you more about this later, maybe even write a poem, about hopefully not being thrown off one. Anyway, wishing every one of you a wonderful 2025 NaPoWriMo and may your god bless your muse.

FLYING

I'm in flight mode half way up the apples and pears

one step at a time when the dog 'n bone rings

I hate flying and I dislike fairground rides

we've got a plane to catch and everything's coming on top

Drone drone you could moan for England she tells me

the mobile thing is belting out a mad tune good style

and I'm still struggling with her suitcase on the stairs

I don't think we're going to make it to Morocco at this rate

Will we make it to the airport will the taxi ever arrive

of course it will and we'll be flying out of the UK

before you can say boo to a goose or a camel or two

Casablanca Marrakesh Agadir here we come

31032025 

For World Poetry Day 2025

 

CAVEMAN (AT THE ZOO)

I went to see the Caveman at the zoo

I read about him in the papers it was all over the news

Neanderthals and Troglodytes were only fantasy

I went to see the Caveman at the zoo

but they told me that the only Caveman

that they've got looks just like me

I looked for ages in the cages

but the only thing I saw was a dinosaur

and that dinosaur looked just like you

and you're my clone

If the truth was known I was on my own

I was the only Caveman at the zoo

and all those creatures proud and poor were

locked up in that godforsaken place like me

I went to see the Caveman at the zoo

but they told me that the only Caveman

that they've got looks just like me

Neanderthals and Troglodytes were only fantasy

they had all escaped to a better place you see

Hold the front page

what about me

21032025

Pancake Day...

 SHROVE TUESDAY 

PANCAKES
Do they still make 'em in Jamaica
Like me Mamma used to make hers?

Don't you just hate shopping
When you're out of food
Don't you just love cooking
When you're in the mood

Don't you just love pancakes
They're so quick to make
You just batter the pan and
Flip them when they take...

Like me Mamma used to make 'em
With sugar, rum, and bubble gum
Don't you know they're so yum yum
Making pancakes is so much fun

They're easy peasy lemon squeezy
Just like me Mamma used to make 'em... Burnt!
221107/Rewritten03032025

Boxing Day 2024...

 

CHRISTMAS DOESN'T CHIME

The radio blares like the rain non stop

we talk about the weather talking shop

The vinyl whirs and the belt starts to strain

there's no one to blame but it just don't rhyme

poetic license on a forty-five

the headmasters dog barking up the wrong tree

his masters voice or was it HMV

did we say that in nineteen sixty three?

Smashing seventy-eights at summer fair

stashing home made apple chutney in the

Forest School desk

eating spam from a party fork end spoon

drinking cold coffee from Arcoroc cups

sweeping the hair from the barbers shop floor

Christmas doesn't chime with old memories

doesn't rhyme with thyme like time does with chime

play rock 'n' roll in the fifty-five Ford Pop

Wurlitzer jukebox twenty four seven

it's seventh heaven at the record hop

We talk about the weather talking shop

the radio blares like the rain non stop

2501218/261224/150

Does time exist???

Dandelion Day is celebrated on April 5th. Dandelions are a perennial plant with many uses, including as food and medicine. The name comes from the French phrase dent de lion, which means "lion's tooth". 

DANDELION DAY

Winter won't last long

or are some of us dreaming

time doesn't exist

Hills as high as kites

higher ones to spring up soon

buildings that scrape skies

Figuring things out

rain won't wash away the pain

or clean greenhouse gas

and the wellingtons they chuck

at the great unwashed masses

Seasons come and go

summer seems like forever

dandelion day

They talk in whispers

about the awakening

like we're all asleep

but they've got what we've not got

they've got rakes shovels and spades

Heads up in the clouds

no one knows if they will fall

from their mountain high

Pick and mix the past

they shout it from the rooftops

of the mock-tail bar

shake up the unenlightened

no future like the present

Nothing inside us

can cleanse us now it's too late

everything is wrong

Time does it exist

or are some of us dreaming

winter won't last long

12122020/12122024

Madness...

 

Previously published in Poetry Now Anthology

Cowardy Custard's Last Stand (in Salford) Poetry pamphlet

and on my poetry archive bloggage at: www.mcfcuk.blogspot.com

I first wrote this little piece over thirty years ago, and finally it looks like someone has actually taken my advice. It was on the evening news that a church in Torbay is offering cycle repairs...

SALFORD
MADNESS
COMMUNITY
CHURCH
If I was the vicar
of this church
the first thing
I'd do is take
down the sign
that says:
No right of way
to public
No cycling
I'd invite the kids
down to spray
paint the walls
I'd stick up a
notice that said:
Public right of way
Cyclists welcome
punctures repaired
But perhaps there's
a method in their
madness after all.

01091989

Local Election Day

 

LOCAL ELECTIONS OR WHAT?

I wrote the following piece nearly two years ago,

nothing much has changed, although,

I'm not too sure what has happened

to the not so pretty Patel.

GOOSEY GANDER

Priti Patel and Rishi Sunak

they've dealt their way

to the top of the pack

Jokers Jacks Kings and Queens

and now they want to send

everybody else back

If Jesus walked across the sea of Calais he

would be treated like a refugee

bound hand and foot and put

on an air plane to Rwanda

Slave trade in the twenty first century

no human rights or lawyers to fight the might

of the minds that rob you blind and tax you out of sight

It's like you've won the lottery in reverse

with the curse of a free flight to Rwanda

and there's nowhere to hide

for the great and the good that washed up with the tide

They'll round them up and call them Goosey Gander

Priti and Rishi must think that

they've got all the aces up their sleeve

in a sick card game of make believe

16062022/150

24/Conclusion

 

GLOBAL/NAPOWRIMO 2024 CONCLUSION

First of all may I take this opportunity to congratulate everybody who completed, or even attempted, the thirty poems in thirty days challenge this year.

As ever, I feel as if I have failed to achieve very much this year, apart from the fact that I was able to complete the April challenge once again.

So, thank you for reading my posts and liking them, here and there, on FaceBook. Also, a very big thank you to the four thousand plus hits I got on my STG bloggage.

Of course it's never about the numbers, but it is nice to know that there are still a few people out there who do actually make/take the time to have a look at my work.

I would like to try and finish the month by writing another piece for my 'Hello Am I Even Home' collection, I had been thinking about the mechanics (for want of a better description) of writing this piece throughout April, but it just never happened.

HELLO AM I EVEN ESCAPING

Hardly holding onto the safety rail

I made my way down the old concrete steps

I slipped a little at the bottom but

recovering quickly I continued my escapade

Only looking around to see if either of my helpers

had noticed that I was missing yet

of course I had no intention of actually escaping

I simply wanted to find out if they would miss me

Starting to shiver a little I wished that

I had put a coat on over my pyjamas

one of my slippers was already soaking wet

and it dawned on me that I hadn't taken my pills

I was already in the city centre

the hustle and bustle and the smell of coffee

that daily greeted the early morning workers

where am I hello am I even escaping

01052024

24/30

 

NAPOWRIMO 2024 DAY 30

EVEN BIRMINGHAM

They talk like they think that TV is a real thing because they don't know that things can be lost hidden from view or snatched away from them at a moments notice look at Edinburgh and Bristol I go there all the time change buses catch trains and aeroplanes even Birmingham is important to the national bus company I really don't understand why as it adds two hours or more not only to my journey but to anyone who has to travel north from the south west or south west from the north I go everywhere all the time anywhere sometimes places that even you don't know about places that haven't been aired on TV as yet back streets in unfashionable cities where you can only buy bottled water in one and a half litre bottles sometimes it's fizzy but mostly not you need to read the labels very closely

30042024/150

24/29

 

NAPOWRIMO 2024 DAY 29

GABRIELLA

Dented undaunted waiting for someone

She keeps on asking the same old questions

How do I roast potatoes an' carrots

Where is the (something) that you promised me

How old was I when I first tied my shoes

Did you always call me Gabriella

Is it true that the dinosaurs are dead

Why does that bottled water taste fizzy

How can I talk to all my nutty chums

Mum why do you call my friends nutty chums

Do you think I can go to college soon

Why do all my schoolfriends call me Gabby

29042024

24/28

 

NAPOWRIMO 2024 DAY 28

FULL ENGLISH

He looks at the blank page

What's the deadline?

Another day another doubt or two

He scribbles something down erases it

and starts again

Pig soup and Potatoes

Fish 'n' Chips or

Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pud

Lemon Cheese Cake or

Hot Chocolate Brownies

It'll be back to normal tomorrow

Full English Breakfast

with coffee or tea

What's the deadline?

He looks at the blank page

28042024

24/27

 

GLOBAL/NAPOWRIMO 2024 DAY 27

SUNNY BANK LANE

Tumbledown like Jack an' Jill to the beach

everyday they go up and down the hill

The whites blacks and greys of the cobblestones

that they fall down on when they graze their knees

an' like headbangers both of them fall down

Rolling down the hill down Sunny Bank Lane

where they paint the houses in pastel shades

an' where everybody lives by the sea

Vinegar and brown paper bandages

are applied to the heads of the children

to cure their concussion and make them well

Everyday they go up and down the hill

tumbledown like Jack an' Jill to the beach

27042024