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

Napowrimo 26/13

DAY THIRTEEN

JELLYFISH GLUE

From Magaluf to Palma and back to Magaluf again

she said she likes the beach down there

and the sea is so blue and the fresh air is so clean

but you won't catch me swimming with dolphins

Injecting endorphins and jellyfish glue

she'll never be happy until you know who comes

I don't I don't I really really don't know him

who is he is he on his way to save her

13042026

Napowrimo 26/12

DAY TWELVE

TOP EURO

(FOR A PINT OF 

THE BLACK STUFF)

Crazy as flying to a European capital for the day

and perhaps as mad as paying top Dollar

or in this case top Euro for a pint of the black stuff

silly as walking everywhere when there were buses

trains and trams to hop on and off of

(don't think I've ever said 'off of' before)

daft as standing on every other bridge over the Liffey

and only seeing one small boat float under

and it definitely wasn't the Guinness barge

another large Jamieson at a different pub in Temple Bar

a pint of Stout and a short crawl or should I say wobble

up the cobbles to the next hostelry for more of the same

insane stuff where we met Oscar Wilde sitting outside

brazen as brass or perhaps as bold as bronze

much like the regulars inside the rub-a-dub-dub

who all claimed to be related to him phew

12042026 

Napowrimo 26/11

DAY ELEVEN

NINETY NINE TIMES

Ninety nine times ninety nine

tie me to your lamppost

let your light shine down on me

ninety nine times ninety nine

Tether me don't set me free

I want to be alone with you

don't phone somebody new

I won't know what to do

Ninety nine times ninety nine

tie me to your lamppost

let your light shine down on me

ninety nine times ninety nine

Tether me don't set me free

I want to be alone with you

don't phone somebody new

I won't know what to do

11042026 

Napowrimo 26/10

DAY TEN

SQUIRREL NUT JOB

He screamed as the nurse applied the bandage

things could've been worse for him

much worse if the ambulance hadn't arrived

it might've been his head he thought

if he landed on that he could have been dead

maybe he perhaps assumed that his blood was blue

until he fell down a few garden steps of course

banged an elbow and his left knee to buglery

red blood squirting out all over the shop

all over him and the concrete pathway

seemingly gallons of it gushing down the lane

all the way to the busy main road Squirrel Nut Job

the neighbour and his friend came to help him

leaping into action as quick as the proverbial fox

not looking forward to climbing ladders any more

although his roof still needs fixing in many places

and the windows needed cleaning yesterday

blood still flowing like the traffic on Tavistock Road

10042026

Napowrimo 26/9

DAY NINE

STICKY WICKETS

Cricket was never so intense before

then rain stopped play for the rest of the day

Celebrating time but not me nor mine

more like them batting for the other side

sticky wickets et al at Old Trafford

I never saw that many runs before

Keep it simple for my sake big mistake

rules are rules he bowled a maiden over

the silly mid on caught the batsman out

the next ball went to the boundary wall

What you don't know won't annihilate you

films have been around for a good while now

but just for the record I'm keeping score

never mind the ashes it's all old hat

When rain stopped play for the rest of the day

Cricket was never so intense before

09042026

Napowrimo 26/8

DAY EIGHT

MUDDLED AS MUCK

Pew fodder looking at someone's back

the stage up front a million miles away

on with the song the show must go on

wrong right left oh whatever they know

best but I doubt if they thought about it

Brain fuddled muddled as muck

just like the Bailey's curdled

when he mixed it up with Coca Cola

and spilt it down his two tone tonic strides

laugh I could have cried into my soup

Few listen to what I have to say any more

I used to talk nonsense for England and

fly the Saltire at the Edinburgh Fringe but

it's hard to get a word in edgeways these days

I'm like an Aussie bore with a busted plugger

I could redesign the whole cat and caboodle

turn it inside out upside down if necessary

stick the seats to the floor to face each other

so we could see the angelic faces of the saints

instead of someone's bad haircut don't you think

Pew fodder looking at someone's back

the stage up front a million miles away

on with the song the show must go on

wrong right left oh whatever they know best

but I doubt if they thought about it

08042026

Napowrimo 26/7

DAY SEVEN

TALK IS CHEAP

I need to see your beauty face

I need to hear your lips complain

about the two and eight of things

the way you always used to do so please

come home you're driving me insane

Passing ships storms in cups

caffeine will never taste the same

hello ciao auf wiedersehen

whatever was your name Elaine

perhaps you never told me

Although you saw me for a while

much more than enough time

to compile file boxes of memories

of photographs and promises

and keepsakes that you'll never keep

They say that flashing lights

bragging rights and talk is cheap

but gasoline will cost a bomb

and aeroplanes will come and go

fly to fields in lands that we don't know

But that's enough of that for now

because I'm still waiting

for you to return to sanity

you've been holed up in that godforsaken

place for much too long

I need to see your beauty face

I need to hear your lips complain

about the two and eight of things

the way you always used to do

so please come home and be with me again

07042026

Napowrimo 26/6

DAY SIX

ONLY JOKING

Linguistic diversity

they must think

I went to University

with words bigger

than marmalade

on every line

okay joking aside

there's over a hundred

different languages

spoken in the local school

and that's fine by me

and my wife speaks three

and all the kids do too

it's probably just me

word blind that I got

left behind

so here's to the kids

of tomorrow

the future's yours

you can speak

as many languages

as you like of course

06042026

Napowrimo 26/5

DAY FIVE

THE REAL PUPPETMASTER

Putin puppet or puppetmaster unmitigated disaster

Genghis Khan Adolf Hitler all types of Anti-Christ

but not quite the real thing mass murderers one and all

political footballers cliff jumpers heading for a fall

devastation condemnation lambs to the slaughter

anyone's daughter sister mother or grandmother will do

they do the business watch their captives

dig their own graves shoot them push them in

and get the next one in line to shovel the dirt over

another war crime swept under the carpet for now

but how much longer can they live like that

how much vodka do they need to drink before they think

that what they're doing is okay if someone comes to check

or will they run and get shot brown bread for desertion

before they can be court-martialled and sentenced to do time

for their wicked crimes so has the real puppet master got a white stick

05042026 

Napowrimo 26/4

 DAY FOUR

WOULD IF HE COULD

Virtually any or every letter in the English alphabet

is or could be a love letter we all write them

consciously grammatically correct or improperly sometimes

but we all do it and try to say it in the language of love

so who's your favourite Y chromosome and why

was it you who put little x's at the end of those notes you wrote

on school blotting paper and folded into aeroplane shapes

and propelled them across the classroom towards the giggling girls

who wrote happy Valentines with a capital V for Vera

or was it Verruca of course some say Venice

but that would be too romantic for Dennis

he sticks to the phonetic alphabet like Victor would if he could

remember what comes after Alpha

anyway never mind love is all we need to get by if you think about it

and if you don't you probably won't

04042026

Napowrimo 26/3

DAY THREE

IF YOU KNOW YOU KNOW

If you think that I'm writing this about you

then you will also know that I almost definitely am

(writing this about you) writing this for you to read

that is of course without any presumption

that you understand my language

I know that you will know that I am writing this for you

you see there is only you no one else is important to me

as I declutter my minds eye I take care not to erase you

my desire is to be with you not only now but forever

I sanitise my inner being with pure thoughts of only you

tape recordings made on ancient reel to reel machines

have been transferred to digital devices recently

videotape scrambled like rotten eggs has been unravelled

I play them over and over continually in my mind

that's how I know that if you know you know these things too

03042026 

Napowrimo 26/2

 DAY TWO

SOMETHING SPECIAL

It's never been done like this before or perhaps it has

because if the truth were known and it is

for it's written down for all and sundry to see

there is no new thing under the sun comets come and go

some crash land and scar the earth

but many more pass by while we sleep

you see everyone thinks that they are unique

they like to imagine themselves as being something special

so they tell us that they've reached a higher plane and

have an understanding of the universe that we are yet to attain

we can't complain because we too have received something new

the ancient ones and the different ones are all talking about it

so when the ones that think they're something special say

it's never been done like this before they just might have been

talking to the one who makes all things new

02042026

Napowrimo 26/1

 DAY ONE

ALL OF THE DOGS

Talking to strangers enlightening thoughts

who would believe that you could conceive

all of this knowledge in such a short time

Wednesday will prove what Tuesday could not do

She smiled but didn't say a word

until the aeroplane came in to land and then all hell broke loose

she started to scream and when she started to scream

all the babies on board began to cry

and when the babies decided to cry all of the dogs began to bark

and all of their owners began to shush them

and even the pilot couldn't hear himself think

I need a drink get me a drink the Captain screamed

at not one but everyone so the majority on that Trans Atlantic jetliner

started to make their way to the front with bottles of whiskey

bottles of gin bottles of vodka the plane began to tilt drunkenly

before I woke up

01042026

Napowrimo 2026

 INTRODUCTION

Who was it that said 'Time flies when you're having fun'? Well if like me, you enjoy writing poetry at any level, and are up for the challenge of writing thirty poems over the next thirty days of April then NaPoWriMo might well be the thing for you. If it is, the time is already here. I've been doing this for a few years now and it's always a fun challenge to write something each day and publish it on my blog. I won't be doing most of the prompts this year or chasing social media accounts for comments, but I'll try my best to write a little piece every day, one way or another.

My Introductory Poem

VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE

Phew is it really nearly April already

okay then watch this space

one of the things about being old

is that you can look back on your life

and remember people and incidents

that happened way back in the past

probably before most people alive today can remember

In my life I've met a number of very important people

(I didn't know that they were important at the time

but looking back I now realise that they were)

anyway one of these very important people told me

that the more you do in life the more you're asked to do

have you ever noticed that well I have

and at the moment I'm up to my eyeballs in projects

but a promise is a promise is a promise

so I'm back and I'll be writing more of this nonsense

and posting here on a regular basis so watch this space

31032026

Unlucky for some...

 

FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH

Friday the thirteenth who would have thought it

not me of course but her and a million other

superstitious mothers will lose it all if they fall

and many more than you think most probably will

Bazillions of them crawling out of the proverbial woodwork

dicey as lice before their ship sinks without trace

like the Bismark and the Titanic before her

going down on the ocean bed to a watery grave

With their families still waiting for them back home

only who else could it happen to these days

when nobody loses and everyone's an after dinner winner

the last investigation that they want in all the world begins today

Therefore at the final hurdle everything will unfold

the things we have been told and not been told

the story of those poor men and women will be sold

that lost their lives on land or shipwrecked at sea

13032026