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/Intro

 

Introduction

This is my fifteenth year of taking the napowrimo/globalwrimo challenge of writing thirty poems in thirty days and publishing them on my Straight talking street talking sweet... bloggage.

So what will I write this year? Well right now, I have no clue, and very little idea of how I want to proceed. This of course could be a good thing, for some people, but having a little scaffolding to hold the structure up may well be a better plan.

I'm thinking that, perhaps I could add some pieces to my Plymouth collection which I actually started during napowrimo 2018, or maybe not. Anyway, they're for me to write and for you to read, although, I actually stopped soliciting comments on my blog several years ago.

LOVE PLYMOUTH

Pity the buses don't come on time

such a shame to have to wait and wait

and then to walk in the wind and rain

but I bet that you won't complain

Love Plymouth hate the hills

mad as Marsh Mills if that's a thing

maybe it is perhaps it ain't but

it has a good ring to it don't you think

31032023

2021 #23

 

Napowrimo 2021

Day TWENTY THREE

NUMBER SIX

Voices are difficult to disguise

accents even harder

Where do you come from

they ask me constantly

I know your voice

recognise your accent but

I can't place your face

You're not from around

these parts they say

when I order a cream tea

saffron cake or a pasty

The thing is nobody is

these days apart from a few

the chosen few that think

that anywhere past Exeter

or Bristol is up the line

No worries they say

when I mention the Senior Service

Proper job perfect that's ideal -

and the Players Navy Cut

cigarettes that I used to smoke

Those were the good times

coughing my guts out

upstairs on the Red Dragon 

Back in the smog filled days

up the line at Number Six

Who are you they ask me

over and over again

23042021

napowrimo 2020 #20 coronavirus 25

LIES MORE LIES

Mundane Monday the government

spokesman chokes he's another mug

he screams and shouts it out

we have been guided at all times

he cries lies more lies to cover up lies

blinded by science scientific advisors

don't blame the dog that guides you

hark at him barking up his own tree

there is a better way to live these days

without lies more lies to get by

for he knows not what we want

or how to separate the need from the greed

whatever happened to the PPE

I saw them squirming on the BBC

lies more lies to cover up more lies

Who's the lady with Mundane Monday

dressed much the same as yesterday

she smiles and everything seems fine

from Mannamead to Mutley Plain

for her to cover up lies with more lies

Boys and girls husbands and wives

stay home protect the NHS save lives

blast it from the rooftops baby

political lies surprise more lies

Mutley Plain is much the same

20042020

Coronavirus 2

SIDEWAYS AIN'T UP

Uncertain uncertainty

insanity believe me

no one knows 'cos

the answer ain't here

Welcome to the global village

that's too tired to sleep

Leap up and down

(in your dreams)

and celebrate the street

take a walk in the forest

but watch out for those Gestapo trees

Cuckoo as the Stepford Quintet

experimental triangulation

with a pinch of Tippex (Strikethrough) sex

Now nobody can go anywhere

unless they've got some place to go

Ironically chronically

de ja vue we've not been this scared

since nineteen eighteen

Emotionally unstable

the insatiable appetite

of the super bitch

sadists masochists

and the extremely rich

To King Karloff and his phoney cronies

sideways ain't up

23032020

Coronavirus

COLD OR BEEK

cyrus virus

the sparrow's beak

corona pop the saxaul's peek

at lonely girl

bubble and squeak

is isolation cold or beek

up the paddle

without a creak

as silent as a lonely leek

when she went up

atop the peak

the tide was turning in the creek

no one was there

oh what a weak

and helpless thing timid and meek

so far apart

things look so bleak

pray she gets better by next week

cyrus virus

the sparrow's beak

corona pop the saxaul's peek

at lonely girl

bubble and squeak

is isolation cold or beek

22032020

At the Cool Specs factory...

CLOCK WATCHING

Wall washers clock watching at Dicks and Becks

the factory where they make cool specs

then one day shock horror

the clocks were changed for mirrors

now the shirkers look at one another cold

clock watching themselves grow old

230618

At St. Aidan's

TAMERTON LAKE

One scene I painted time and again

my only picture to make the school wall

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

Then in my seventh decade I saw her

my picture from 1962 - Tamerton Lake

come alive and stand for me to view

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

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

160618

Day Twenty-Seven

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN

DEVON IN

THE MOVIES

Above the trees

the lake looks like

it's floating in the sky

And dawn's delayed

until Plymouth awakes

I'm walking these

steep asphalt hills

with rivulets of rain

streaming through my

shoes am I talking to the

wrong side of my brain

Omnibuses Charabancs

and Horse drawn Trams

all been there before me

why should I complain

And as the Gas Lighter

snuffs the last lamp out

the Barbican will sleep

until the tall ship sails

Cracked concrete hills

rivulets of (acid) rain

Devon in the movies

on a day like this
Ambrosia it's not

270418

Day Twenty-Five

DAY TWENTY-FIVE

ON BARKERS HILL

The clouds they move

like juggernauts

across the sky

each one represents

a different world

they all have names

like Merrivale

and Transit Way

On Barkers Hill

behind some

distant ones

the sun appears

to light the day

An Orange Flash

bus or bust

then nothing more

then rain...

250418

Day Twenty-Three

DAY TWENTY-THREE

JUST BEFORE DAWN

walking in Central park

half the sky is red

but hardly by the time

the world gets out of bed

the canvas half repainted

mixed up messed up blue

I'm coughing up my guts

climbing these great hills

feeling like I'm stuck

inside a big balloon

hoping that it's tethered

to a firmly planted tree

I don't want it to pop

and fall back down to ground

I need to get a little closer

to the moon if only to confirm

that daylight comes sometime

just before dawn long after dark

230418

Day Twenty

DAY TWENTY

BIG BIG SUN

High and low clouds sandwich

the Dartmoor hilltops sweet

floating hills in a multi-coloured sky

Our Isambard might well have seen

the same sight from Saltash too

building bridges the only thing to do

Thick as thieves the unseen gold

that paves the mythical streets

at their feet the missing rainbow crows

The sun still waiting to breakthrough

to break another record all time high

for April since nineteen forty-nine

Then when the sun arrives to dominate the sky

the hills and clouds turn yellow tainted blue

big big sun big big sky blue sky

200418

Day Nineteen

DAY NINETEEN

AS DAY BITES

Orange streaks across the

sky blue city sky

in broken lines

The hill tops behind

still dark and not quite dawn

Putty cats and China

dolls on Dartmoor

If only chalk could talk

without those hands...

Christian Mill and will

this weekend bring a bitter pill

It's sunshine Daffs and Daisies now

and at Crownhill as day bites

the crazy orange streaks

have turned to white

190418

Day Eighteen

DAY EIGHTEEN

LATE AGAIN!

It's not just waiting for (buses) it's waiting on buses too

Just when you think you can get an early bath

(laugh) they stop at Tesco or Asda and make you wait

Late again! You just can't win the bus lottery

When you're three (buses) down and stuck outside Home Park

You might as well get a season ticket and call it a draw

Then you'll really suffer like all the other barbers there

Up the Pilgrims! - Argyle argie and all that razzmatazz

180418

Day Seventeen

DAY SEVENTEEN

EMBLAZONED ON THE YELLOW FLASH

Standing here waiting at the cold stop for the bus

you end up hating every car that passes by

Who took the public out of transport?

Who took the ting out of waiting (for the bus)?

Lifting one foot in front of the other

it's often easier to walk

Talking about brick walls and falling on deaf ears

shouting the odds don't/won't get you to work on time

Ting – it's my stop next – if the barber lets me off...

The thing (ting) perhaps about Plymouth buses is that

they/I/we don't understand what they mean by

the statement emblazoned on the Yellow Flash

Up to every fifteen minutes! What does that mean?

They only run every thirty minutes at the crucial time

when people are trying to get to and from work and...

I have to get three buses with a fifteen minute wait

between each one – ha! Maybe that's what they mean!

170418

Day Sixteen

DAY SIXTEEN

DON'T ASK HARRY

Barking like a Bandish Harry

he's yelling on somebody else's corner now

selling the same stuff but mixed down plenty

twenty going on forty-five fifteen years inside

plenty of candy immoral as Mandy

bubble gum he's not and it ain't much fun

aniseed for the munchy minded crunchy

Slowly giving Mutley a bad name

one wrap and Harry's got you hooked

cooked up on a silver platter

stitched up like a kipper nippers beware

if it sounds too good to be true

it almost definitely is don't ask Harry

there's no such thing as a free lunch...

160418

Day Nine

DAY NINE

MAYFLOWER OR ARMADA

Overheard at Royal Parade

On the back of the forty three

Alright John? Alright Tom?

Who's harder Mayflower or Armada?

What about the Southway bruiser?

Ernie (will) settle with West Park

If they still want to fight tonight

Never mind the winner who's the loser?

Back to school tomorrow John

Back to school tomorrow Tom

Who's harder Mayflower or Armada?

Dream on John dream on Tom

090418

Day Eight

DAY EIGHT

TO BUDSHEAD CREEK

The angry Troglodyte motorbike gangs

with their flailing chains of steel

Pull wheelies on the forest track outback

and slip slide towards the creek

They live in caves on the housing estate

not a million miles away

On sunny days we walk along the path

to Tamerton Lake and watch

The little boats that only seem to

go bobbing on the ebb and flow

At the bottom of the garden the forest

dips down to Budshead Creek

080418

Day Six

DAY SIX

FRIDAY MORNING

(NEAR TAMERTON LAKE)

The weekend starts here and the neighbours are up with the lark out in the garden mowing the grass trimming the hedge painting the fence cleaning the pool they must have nothing better to do – and I'm up in bed with a contagious bout of the flu sweating streams one minute and shivering like a troglodyte the next and now that I've started to cough my throat is really getting sore – the neighbours are at it again they've just come back from the tidal creek with fish and foraged mushrooms and fallen tree branches to fuel their barbecue tonight it's not even a sunny day but they're out there shouting the odds the radio blaring and the dogs barking and the kids crying what am I going to do?

060418

Day Four

DAY FOUR

STANDING HERE WAITING

Waiting here at daft o'clock crazy

for the bus 'cos I love my Baby

To the factory gate to earn some dollar

it's better than being out of collar

A drop of rain on my swede don't faze me

some of the things you do amaze me

So I'll keep on taking those purple pills

'cos the Doctor says they ward off ills

I love the City buses but I hate the hills

you couldn't walk far like Jack and Jill

It's a pity that they always hang a trout

to make me late for any shout

Swizzles not Matlow but I mop the decks

on the factory floor of Dick's and Beck's

Love hearts for my Baby 'cos she's so sweet

everything I do's to give my lover a treat

040418