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
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
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
Then rain stopped play for the rest of the day
Cricket was never so intense before
09042026
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
WHAT SHE EXPECTS
She sends photographs of her boat race most days
Occasionally she poses in various stages of undress
Each picture accompanied by a threatening letter
Don't you dare look at another woman she writes
Sometimes her handwriting is hard to read
Especially when she scrawls her words in blood
I really don't know what she expects of me
I'm chained to a cold damp prison wall
Rats the size of Aussie Joeys bounce around my cell
I beg the Guards to stop giving me her letters
Ignoring me perhaps to torture me
The Screws continue to post them through the bars
11032026
Here's a little thing I wrote in 2007
and updated this time last year
PANCAKES
Do they still make 'em in JamaicaReworked:
BATMAN AND CARRUTHERS
Who can tell what spell will unfold this New Year if we mistake it for something unpleasant will we even make it some of us won't that's for sure the way the clock trickles down like the toxic tears of a clown another season for all and sundry to live life to the full foolish as it may seem it's a dream for some of us what's your New Years resolution gonna be the same as last year I bet but you'll keep it this time or will you start on February the second like me so long as it's a Tuesday and the weekend is over I hear you say Carruthers and remember what you said about Christmas when I asked what day it was on you said I'm not all that bothered Batman as long as it's not Friday the thirteenth upstairs downstairs or in your ladies chamber
30122025/09012026/Reworked/150
Original piece:
BATMAN AND CARRUTHERS
Upstairs downstairs or in yer ladies chamber
who can tell what spell will or won't unfold
New Year-ness less we forsake it mistake it
for something or other unpleasant or not
Will we even make it some of us won't
that's for sure the way the clock trickles
like the toxic tears of a clown tic tock down
for another season another reason
for all and sundry to live life to the full
Foolish as it may or may not seem
it's a dream for some and a necessity for others
What's your New Years resolution gonna be
the same as last year but you'll keep it this time
or will you start on February the second like me
So long as it's a Tuesday and the weekend is over
and well and truly behind you Carruthers
Remember what you said about Christmas
when I asked you what day it was on
You said I'm not all that bothered Batman
as long as it's not Friday the thirteenth
Who can tell what spell will or won't unfold
Upstairs downstairs or in yer ladies chamber
30122025
NOVEMBER THE SIXTH
National Poetry Day 2025
HELLO AM I EVEN ALLOWED
They don't tell me things until it's too late
What's going on where did I go so wrong
If we meet in the park is that a date
I missed dinner I didn't hear the gong
I looked at the map but I couldn't find you
All of those stations and nowhere to go
Then if I do catch a train or a tram
The real life Adams family will turn up
Nightmare on a Saturday afternoon
Everybody else is going somewhere
Hello am I even allowed to go
No I'm stuck here waiting for my tablets
02102025
MAY ONE
NaPoWriMo 2025
CONCLUSION
You can read all of my entries from this years April Challenge and sixteen previous years of NaPoWriMo on my StraightTalkingStreetTalkingSweet bloggage at SEWINA.BLOGSPOT.COM
Okay, congratulations to all who have completed or even attempted this years April Challenge.
I've been doing this for a few years now and as ever I'm not very happy with the result of my effort. However, I have managed to write one or two pieces towards collections of poetry that I started many moons ago. Perhaps, I will never be able to finish them, but any progress is valuable. What you must realise is that whatever you write, on a poem-a-day basis is only ever going to qualify as a rough first draft, unless you are very lucky or extremely skilful. On that basis I am fairly happy with the work I have produced and I know that I can improve upon each poetic slice in the future.
Finally I will now publish my conclusion poem below:
SOONER OR LATER
Pedestrian as a Zebra crossing
Jaywalking on a Scalextric chicane
Drinking for England but not to get high
Don't wait for the last bus get this one home
Football was never like this in the park
Drunk and disorderly for beginners
Cricket wickets down for goalposts again
Up in court not for the first time surely
Who told you that everything is okay
Sooner or later you will know the truth
Upsetting as it may be to tell you
Nothing is going to change very soon
01052025
APRIL THIRTY
DIGGING FOR GOLD
Iconoclast least of the last
don't you know which way is sideways
You've been there for the longest time
subtle changes don't do much
How I wish I had been there too
those days can never be re-made
What you did in the past stays there
unless you reinvent yourself
Of course nobody knows you now
incognito shout it out loud
The crime of couplets that don't rhyme
little songs that no one can sing
Hands of cards that never seem right
aces hidden up someone's sleeve
Hearts and diamonds as good as gold
clubs you should never trust to dig
Mutton dressed as lamb for one night
what the Eccles cakes does that mean
You think that everything is fine
all that Argan perfume and stuff
Agadir smelly such an' such
splash it on all over lady
Camels fighting for the next thing
digging for gold that isn't theirs
Nobody really knows what's what
the more you pay the more you lose
No one will tell you the best deal
ask and you shall receive something
30042025
APRIL TWENTY NINE
GAMBLER
Nothing's fine shoe shine
Once before I talked to you
Maybe twice or more
The one arm bandit
At the amusement store
Took all your money
You're a gambler
You'll wager your vehicle
Your mortgage or rent
What's what Pearly Queen
Done that gave it all away
Up the Frog and Toad
The gee gees the dogs
Every dollar every cent
Dominoes or cards
The more that they bet
The more that they lose for sure
There is no safe bet
All their candy spent
They're addicted to the core
but they still want more
29042025
APRIL TWENTY EIGHT
THE SEMI FINAL (ON TV)
Watching the FA Cup semi final and some of the pundits must have been at a different game City were two nil up and Forest couldn't hit a barn door if they were standing on the latch they hit the bar and the post but unless it hits the back of the net you might as well have stayed at home but what worried me was the bias from the TV commentators before during and even after the game they not only fancied Forest to win but against every statistic in the book they claimed that the mediocre side from Nottinghamshire should have won if only they had done such and such and not missed this or that regardless of the yellow cards that each side received they wanted to send Grealish off for a high kick however the Forest manager conceded after the match that the best team won
28042025/150
APRIL TWENTY SEVEN
One of the NaPoWriMo prompts was to write a poem using the end line rhymes of a Shakespeare sonnet. I have done a few of these over the years and had a go at his sonnet 148 today, I hope I haven't made too much of a mess of it.
Here's mine:
APRIL TWENTY SIX
HOSPITAL
I went into hospital for my third operation in four months
I had had a benign tumour removed and something had gone quite wrong
I think I first knew when they made a mess of taking out my stitches
The second procedure was as lengthy and scary as the first one
When it came to Christmas and I couldn't walk I was rushed in again
This time they said that I had a blood clot on the brain which they removed
I was left with a six inch concave scar right on the top of my head
The Doctor said I could have another operation to fix it
He wanted to install a titanium plate to normalise me
26042025
APRIL TWENTY FIVE
SALE PARK
At the Broad Road entrance to Worthington park there were two bowling greens
Then there was an almost circular field of grass where the trees are now
We played most of our five a side football there in the school holidays
There were lawn tennis courts there in those days also a golf putting range
Then there was the famous lion of course that every child sat on
Near the playground with the witches hat and swings there was an aviary
Remember the Roly-poly field at Sale Park we played football there
We would put down coats and jumpers or sometimes cricket stumps for goalposts
The other game we played was our version of one kick in the bandstand
25042025
APRIL TWENTY FOUR
THE SCOOT
The budget backstreet scooter skids off the road
Kids these days the car driver mutters and drives on
The electric scooter and a teenager left bungled into the thicket
trapped like a wild animal caught by its horns
Mum will kill me thinks the lad and Dad will confiscate the scoot
what will I do he wails how will I get to school or anywhere now
I hate going on the bus and walking is out of the question these days
with all those gangs out to get your phone your money and your life
The kid drags his badly damaged scooter out from the hedge
brushes himself down and starts to walk back home
dragging the tangled wreck of an electric machine behind him
a useless piece of equipment now surplus to requirements
My pride and joy he thinks the thing that I saved up for for so long
hoping against hope that someone can repair it for him quickly
24042025
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
