Tipping Point

Driving in my car I listen to Runrig’s music, on the radio; I am going away from where Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire all meet

So there I am, leaving the brutality of the Pennine Moors for the gentleness of the flatlands; the Wolds, the coast of, peaceful, agricultural, Lincolnshire

So there I am, I am leaving my past and my present behind me, as I head out to my present, and to my future

And with this message in my mind I observe the skies; passing over where Larkin’s Whitsun Wedding train may well have travelled

To the East there is greyness in abundance; I think to email my new found friend, of the frames of our world renowned ‘big skies’

To the West, and South there are pinks, and golds, and fleeting glimpses of that boldest, brightest blue; that oldest blue of love, which is all that I can say of love, in this precisely precious moment

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Optical Confusion

I wiped a tear
Ripened in the field of melancholy
I wiped a tear
Frightened by the fear of yet another Monday morning

I wiped a tear
Enlightened by the sprigs of mistletoe, and holly
I wiped a tear
Heightened, as if near to the deepness that is dawning

Power lines suspended
Between the marching pylons
All my life upended
By the feel of your fear

Grey skies open-ended
Above the motorway escarpments
Passions that descended
Into the flawed life department

I wiped a tear
Forlorn as the raindrops on your brolly
I wiped a tear
Born again, with a smile; o gosh, o golly

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Container

Four crows to a sapling
Autumnal winds thus blow
Ambling through my mind
What brought my eyes to glow

As old thoughts rose again;
That put down by the teacher
As I chose to play the fool

The pressure and the pain
Unexplained absences
Forged notes for the school

Without now of competition
I search out for what I yearn
Not though born of discipline
Rather, it is the love to learn

To learn that I am happy
As I guess most people are
For a moment in the spotlight
Praised from near, and from afar

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Monday

I have a night-light, to share the high-life ethereally with you
Through the skylight, the twilight of stars burn themselves blue

It is absolutely true, that in the swan-song, of our fabulous years
Smiles replace frowns, making us downright free of our fears

With clear paper and pen, and the now and the then, and with zen
We appear set for the journey; with tourniquets behind to impress those dear

Nearby, the Egyptian Cotton, begotten of toil and strife
Laid to rest out a life, our celebrations are denied of all but love

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Major Minor Movements

As you grieve let your tears turn to smiles
As you leave say thanks, as you meanwhile
Step to the side of that thing named fear
Toe to toe, beside doe and deer, my dear
Become courageous, become worthwhile
Become beauty, that walked the extra mile

Beneath the skin we are blood and bone
Beneath the pastures, where you atone
Holding yourself together, as you so dear
Forge the steel, and grind my lenses clear
It is with your love that we build our home
It is with your zest our dreams may roam

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