Hogmanay 2012

Again we have surmounted one more year
Of outcomes waning fast or gaining slow
And brought ourselves to where we are more clear
Of which directions point the way to go
To reach a target long of deep desire
Despite obstruction's will to block our path -
For hope will triumph though the fates conspire,
And find recourse to stop misfortune's sway.
When times are dark our fortitude must serve
To take us forward to our longed-for goal.
So count the Old Year's passing and observe
The first day of the New Year start to roll.

Rhyme to order

Now let me write you something just for fun,
So I'll enjoy the doing, you - what's done.
It must be furnished with rich rhyme for you,
For, to your thinking, rhyme's what poets do.
Recalling larks aloft which, as they fly,
Pour melody to Earth from summer sky,
Your poets scribble on the page and bring
To voice a consonance through which words sing
When ordered where they match to make them zing
And utter truth or merely "ting-a-ling".
So here it is, then, fully fledged and done -
Has it attained its aim of giving fun?

On receiving a poet's notebook

You, little book, will serve me as an aid
And be a dear companion on the way
To help me understand how poems are made
And how word after word can sweetly play.

Though small in size, you fill the leading role,
Being a gift that shows a caring heart.
Your mission, first, is aptly to extol
The bonds that hold together those apart

Through circumstance of distance or of time,
Regardless whether willed, or wrought by chance;
While, second, you bring elements to chime
That otherwise would scarce deserve a glance.

So, with your readiness in paying heed,
You bring fruition to creative need.

Possum in the garden

A possum is a seldom one to see
In fading light, snug in a garden tree.
Her habit is to keep remote and shy.
Removed, secluded, from the prying eye.

So why this charming visit by the spa,
When, as she knows, she should be stationed far
Off on a forest branch, where no-one calls,
Or, if they do, retire when darkness falls?

But in the garden, poolside, lights ablaze
Have picked her out where all have turned their gaze.
So now she shines forth in a human scene
And condescends to linger, like a queen,
Till barking undermines her regal poise
And, with disdain, she takes her leave of noise.

She's everywhere!

She comes with wishes from the heart,
Cute Darla of the West,
And we no longer are apart,
Thanks to her joyful zest.

How far the sparkle in her eyes
Releaves the the weather's gloom,
And how the glamour of her guise
Now captivates the room

Where, with her festive merriment,
She twinkles to enchant
And exercises her intent
To woof - for others can't.

Richness shared

Gold ore is rich, and richer once made pure.
Then he who finds such wealth has cause to smile -
Its value is assured and will endure
Though other assets may decline the while.

True love is also based on hidden wealth,
But does not need to be unearthed to shine.
Its worth is not exclusive, won by stealth,
For of its essence love is yours and mine.

Etiquette in ardour

A scorpion must woo his mate with care
And make his play to neutralise the sting
That otherwise she may well bring to bear
And terminate his amatory fling.

Though lacking any weapons on display,
We humans, too, perform a special dance
And, in the rough and tumble of the fray,
We brandish words which further our advance.

The acme of success in this would be
To hear you cry surrender with your smile,
Or that by my demeanour you would see
This plea, which harbours neither feint nor guile:

That you of me should know, and mark it well -
Within me love for none but you can dwell.

Spider woe

Black spider on the wall,
The largest of them all
That we had ever seen,
Or that has ever been.

How rapid was your climb,
With footsteps so sublime
Diminishing the ground
From you to our surround!

Eight legs, it's very clear,
Were good for drawing near.
In bed we had to wait
The outcome of your gait.

Would hairy nemesis
Disturb our night of bliss
Or was there some hope yet
That you might drop the threat?

Such tremblings over chance
You prompted with your dance
But all was put to right
When then you stopped in sight.

No longer did we peep,
But turned instead to sleep,
And by the morning light
You had retired from sight.

Spider on my computer

Oh, tiny spider, junior to a fly,
Marooned within the confines of the screen
Of my computer - what, pray, was the why
That brought you where you never should have been?
Three hours at least you circled round and round
The edge that marked my monitor's extent,
And all the while you laboured in profound
Despair of making good your set intent
To find firm landing on familiar ground.

But when you ventured to the topmost rim
Your legs, a semaphore of hopelessness,
Brought home to me your situation grim
And prompted in me pangs of tenderness.
So then I took you down and set you free
With relish in the change you wrought in me.
I felt revulsion deep within abate
Though yet the total of your legs was eight.

Queen of the Scrabble board

Right at the pinacle of wordy power
You sit and weigh your judgement hour by hour.
Who can forget those tussles in the past
When at the Scrabble board all were aghast
To see the heights to which Krystyna soared
No matter how the the others wailed and pored
Long,vainly over books of words, until
Inevitably bowing to your will
As sovereign lady versed in verbal skill
Whose rule is ever absolute, entire
And forces those less gifted to retire?
Against such proud display of awesome might
No player save a genius would fight

How to proceed

I had a vision of a place of grace
In which peace prospered and all war had ceased
And time, it seemed, had paused to gather strength
To free eternity from human strife,
And, as I gazed upon the prospect dear,
I heard a rising strain of harmony
Begin to banish dissonanace from Earth
By stirring in the souls of humankind
Commitment to the cause of life as one.

Snapshot of our present Earth

Prime source of all life, the Sun
Yet is not the only one -
Our globe, too, has heat to give
Which  determines we may live.

Earth, by molten iron warmed,
Creaks to have its surface stormed,
Split and set adrift by force,
Prelude to a fateful course
Leading to the transient mix
Of our continental six,
Vibrant  with the pulse of life
Based upon attendant strife.

Tectonic shifts, like a tide,
Move the continents aside,
Those that are familiar now
Owe their nature to the flow
Underneath their solid crust,
Which transports them where they must,
While, upon their changing face,
They support the human race.

Africa, compact yet vast,
Once believed in darkness cast,
Now revealed as man's first home
Whence his footsteps far would roam.

Asia, peopled fit to burst,
Prone to hunger, plague and thirst,
In the future scheme of things
Likely to unfold her wings.
In her South - the Indic land,
Battling waves on either hand,
Proffers home to ancient creeds
Catering to soul-felt needs.
.
Europe, finger-fringed around,
Gashed by myriad bays profound -
Long a springboard to the world,
From whose heartlands raids were hurled.

Then America the New,
All but neatly cut in two,
Stretching almost Pole to Pole,
Longest continent  of all.

And Australia, cast away
Where the southern breakers play -
Guardian of a wondrous reef
Wild and rich beyond belief.

Last, Antarctica the Cold,
Frozen land of mountains bold,
Fringed by ice shelves that disgorge
Floating mounds where penguins hide
Safe from danger rife elsewhere
In the seas that they must dare.


Now we prosper as we are,
While not knowing just how far
Future generations can
Stabilize the life of man
Perched upon a whirling ball
Where extinction yet may call.

Little by little

The shaddows that reflect an evening life
Are other than when youth was at its height -
Stood high the Sun or bade farewell.
For then the untried back was firm and strong
And used sky's orb to cast its outline proud,
Whereas a weakened posture tells a tale,
When thrown upon the ground by ruthless ray
Which, without malice, shows a sorry shape.

This is the certain lot of all to tell,
Though narratives will differ one by one -
So life devotes itself to what it can
And leaves its passage hence to certain fate.

The arc of life

Though time amidst the stars was brief, it shone
With superstellar brightness of its own.
Each day was seized upon the very dawn,
Its length filled full of life till it had flown.

With every breath the wind pursues its way,
Which likens to the journey that we share,
In puffs or raging blasts it yields its sway,
While we attempt to grasp the why and where

Of mastery of fate, though there be none -
Yet none, that is, unless a legacy
Remain to mark each sojourn round the Sun
And speak forever to eternity.

Lend me your hand, in keeping, to the end -
Your loving grasp gives me the strength to fend.

African night

Come -  as with your fall the day before -
Night, through which the hunted may endure;
Cause a swift extinction of the light,
Spreading, as you thicken, fear and fright
Over Africa, on whose broad plain
Strength is master and the weak are slain.

Herbivores that feed upon the veldt
Shudder as each threatening roar is felt.
Predators from every side deploy
Senses that their prey do not enjoy -
Piercing vision in the velvet black,
Peerless hearing tuned to swift attack,
Readiness to wield a lethal nose,
Given wind that favors when it blows.

Straining to detect what lurks around,
Anxious ears pick up the slightest sound,
Nothing, though, that of itself makes clear
Whether danger is remote or near.
Lack of clarity concerning place
Lends supremacy to those who chase.

Lift again your cloak of darkness, Night -
Grant the hunted leave to take to flight!

Sentiment and lore of love

Throughout the time of my infatuation
I felt as though I knew my way, as if
I need not entertain the least suspicion
Of having reached the margin of a cliff

Careering steeply down to vile perdition
To leave the soul adrift amidst the mire
And  rob the doubting self of all volition,
Subdue  affection's sway to base desire.

How strongly did conviction cloud  my vision,
Prevent the inward eye's acuity
From seeing in the mist a false division
That wrongly raised a bar to unity.

But now a candid heart has waked true passion,
I tread the realm of love in other fashion.

Rock nostalgia unbound - uh-huh, it's the Manfreds

Onto the darkened stage the band has crept,
The audtorium responds with claps
At first like raindrops, becoming swelling tide
As footlights show a seven from the past
Who now return to visit and reclaim
Their glory time of status as Rock Gods.
So hits of yesteryears are lovingly
Replayed - on stage and in the ardent hearts
Of listeners relocated to a time
And place of youthful joys and nascent hopes.
Hit follows hit, memories are revived,
The present seems but shadow of a past
Which, reawakened, casts a vibrant glow
Of pleasure unalloyed with daily cares.

Such were the days of timeless rock and dance ,
Devoted to the present, while as yet
The veil around the future was undrawn,
Which now are days reborn before our eyes
And thundered in our ears to bring the feet
To tapping and the dancers to the floor,
And all the fun and fury of the past
Delight  the present and defy decay.  

Equinox and sunlit hills

The equinox in fairness with it brings
An equal length to each of night and day.
No preference is given, none received,
And for this while extremes are kept at bay.

No such approach adopts the brazen Sun,
Who now proceeds to fill with warmth each hour
And casts around without restraint his light
Revealing summer's wealth in leaf and flower.

Beneath our wheels the rolling Cotswold hills
Show first a winding lane and then a crown
Of woods atop a summit that now swoops
Towards the vale where nestles Evesham town.

But equinox is calling end to day
And bids us turn at Broadway after tea.
The darkling sky announces autumn's sway,
Bequeathing only twilight time to see.

Mediterranean Odyssey

Great Middle Sea, home of restless wave and fire
Between three continents, whose constant urge
To close together in a rocky vice
And swallow down your content in a gulp,
Will never cease until the time has come
When all the lineaments you own have gone.

What are the the elements that give you shape?
Two basins split by one long leg of land,
Two far peninsulas at either end
And, all around and in between reserved,
The vital bounty of your watery wealth
Whose final confine is the quickened shore
Of Africa, advancing as a wall.

And other walls, great Sea, your shores and
Litorals have borne, indeed, which shaped
Your human past and nurtured in their shelter
Mighty movements round the globe -
Far flung from your abode, and yet your brood -
The walls of cities destined to provide
Each its heritage to humankind.
And now these cities, antique or more new,
Themselves, instead, are turned to cynosure.

The fleets that once upanchored from their gates
To destinations new, in truth unknown,
Have been replaced  by countless pleasure craft
From distant points, carriages of eager
Voyagers, intending now to make their own
Acquaintance on the spot with what they know
Has fashioned in large part their own domains.
And, in this interchange of past and now,
Participants who ventured forth avow
Commitment to the provenance they share,
And carry back a treasured memory
To leaven recollection's waning sway.

Within the shared embrace of culture's trace
The passengers all vary in their state:
Some journey to fulfil a lifetime's dream,
Or to please a partner, or to mend a seam,
While some, a goodly portion, full of hope,
Nurse tender notions of romantic scope.

And, when the cruise ship docks, all such depart
Upon an exploration of the heart.

The scales of life

Upon a bobbing rose a butterfly
Alights. Is she in search of respite from
A raging wind that we esteem a breeze,
Soft airs of summer in a gentle dance?
Or is instead her sole imperative
To launch herself aloft upon the wind
And profit from the widening of her range?

So does the butterfly promote her kind,
Responsive to the vagaries of chance,
And for all other life it is just so -
The cosmic scales condition what may live,
The sizes that will fit the habitat.

Transgressions of established paradigms
Will bring condign perdition in their wake -
But should the habitat become outgrown,
From want of substance or longevity,
The scale must be upgraded to the need,
And life transferred entire to prospects new
Which may entail our most momentous find:
Are we the sole examples of our kind
Or are our equals somewhere to be found,
Elsewhere, elsewhen, extinct or still extant?  

 

Times of grace

When sleep made good its claim I found again
The hill of dreams that first I climbed and topped
When youth was my estate, and childhood past,
And manhood still had not imposed its cares.
What was to come remained as yet unknown,
And no direction ruled by preference.

How slowly flowed the course of ample time,
How quickly moved the pulse from rest to haste!
Years were encompassed in a summer's breadth
And nought was preordained save endless joy.

But then the even tenor was upset,
The fateful choices clamoured to be made,
And what was left of that once timeless space
Were memories recalling times of grace.

The ever-present past

What time we have to spend together now
Calls us to fond remembrance of our past,
Of golden days well burnished by the Sun,
Of languid nights beneath the silver Moon
When skipping breezes, rustling, stirred your hair
And waked our youthful natures to desire,
So gazes turned from heaven to rapt eyes
Where depths of passion welled in mutual trust,
And hearts became entwined in faithful love.

Approaches to the quest for love

They love not well, who love too fiercely close
And put at risk the outcome that they crave -
One chance to pay obeisance to the rose
In cognisance of how the wise behave.

Who almost is too fair must keep apart
In shelter from an ardour that may crush
The nascent beating of a wakened heart
That yearns to burgeon but would err to rush.

With skill and care the fisherman sets sail,
Arriving safely, to the seagulls' cries;
The suitor hasty in his steps may fail
To gain full favour in his chosen eyes.

So should true love love only as is right
To dim not that which ever should burn bright.

Destiny intertwined

We ask ourselves of our ecology
How to survive upon the globe we share,
How to desvise and follow rules of play
That guarantee we meet our need to care
To keep alive our tiny dwelling place
As blue survivor in the black of space.

The hungry heart

A lady or a girl who's seeking love
May treasure this advice all else above -
Pay heed to how his manners others take
And keep your senses sharp and wits awake,
For if you find what in his nature charms
You may be glad to fold him in your arms.

Old man river

Great Mississippi, you vein of Midwest,
Born midst the mists of the lakes and the the trees,
Child of the waters of permanent birth,
Destined for stories of of legend and fame -
Giant of rivers and monarch of all.

Growing from trickle to newly a stream,
Gaining in confidence over the miles,
Constantly swelling when fed from each side,
Doubling your size once Missouri has joined,
Then heading, mightily, down to the sea,
Swinging, at last, in an arc to discharge
Into the Gulf, where your destiny's met,
Into the waters which swallow you whole,
Only, in turn, to replenish your flow,
Looping from ocean to air, to dry land,
Led by the cycles of Nature which reign,
Taking their cue from the Sun and the Moon,
Ceaselessly turning to bring you new life.

The Age of Skype

To touch the lives of one and all
With possibilities to call
Their loved ones any time of day
Without the need to book and pay
Is true achievement of a type
Unknown, until the Age of Skype.

For surely a new age has dawned
When each and every one with fond
Remembrances and wishes dear
Can mark the milestones of their year,
Preserving bonds of family
No matter where the members be,
And forging friendships over miles
By skyping one another smiles.


Alternative final couplets

So can invention work its wiles
To celebrate yet shrink the miles.

So can invention work its wiles
By skyping to surmount the miles.

So can invention work its wiles
By using Skype to bridge the miles.

Intimation

I heard a sound at night, when I awoke
Surrounded by the dark's indifference.
The sound was in a dream of  conference -
And oh! that I could know of what it spoke!

Inevitablility

What once has gone is gone,
Though day will follow day.
What is to come will come,
Though night impose its sway.

And certain is the fact
That all must keep in sight -
Time's arrow faces front
And none escapes its flight.

The road to Stonor

How charming now the Chilterns stand, replete
In summer leaf beneath a clearing sky.
The thunderstorm has left behind its mark
Along the twisting, lifting lanes tight hemmed
By fresh-cropped hedges that direct the eye
To vistas far-flung on the the sun-lit hills
Where field and park-land draw the wheeling  kites
To seek not beauty, but continued life,
While on the ground a pheasant proudly struts,
His consort, more demure, some way behind.

The road proceeds, enticing with its bends,
Showing now a tiny hamlet nestled
From the the winter winds, now an ample fold
Of land in which a gracious mansion rests,
Home to a noble family of firm
Belief  and domiciled for centuries long
That span good times, and those of darker cast
When prejudice maintained its ugly grasp
Until enlightenment undid its clasp. 

Source of constant joy

Source of constant joy and rare delight,
Staying present come the dark or light -
How you prompt heart's fancy of all kind,
Well of deep invention for the mind,
Transformer of what's daily heard and seen,
Mysterious and bounteous Hippocrene.

Night and day

Dark is the night when passion runs its course
Without evincing true attractive force.

Bright is the the day on which initial lust
Finds happy haven in a mutual trust.

Ambition

If you could know the depth to which I feel,
The tenderness with which I yearn to deal
Your every vital need attention due,
Then you would  see the length to  which I love you
As only one devoted to another
Can wish to be far dearer than a brother.
Were you to see this clear, we should begin
To forge a union stronger than mere kin.

I loved you - Version five

What though I loved you as I used to do,
With love that still may flicker in my soul -
Don't let it further cause distress to you -
To grieve you in no way could be my goal.

I loved you silently, with hope at bay,
As modesty and jealousy would move
My hurt, with truth and tenderness, as may
God grant you leave to have another's love.

Encounter with a slug

How far, Slug, have you belly-walked,

While humans in the garden talked,
To find yourself a well-earned place -
Here on the bottle you now grace,
The very one which, days before,
Brought us fine wine from foreign shore.

We each have taken summer's seat
Upon our patio replete
With verdant folio and flower,
Amidst which you had found your bower.
So as we sat here at our ease,
Out of the Sun, but in the breeze,
You came a-waltzing, if you please.
And clambered quick, though leglessly,
On what was put down carelessly,
Next to your unknown sluggy prescence
Which now, we see, is of the essence
And plays its part in Nature's scheme,
Earning its portion of esteem.

Slug! Are you the lesser for not having legs?
Slug! Do you feel envy when I use my pegs?
To you, we are no more than stimulus,
Which makes us think of you as timorous.
This gap between two worlds will ever be -
Our states are what determine how we see.
Your place with us is in your proper sphere,
Remote from our concerns, and yet so near.
Our guests depart, but you with us remain
And repossess, of right, your just domain.
 

A star is born

All persons of assured reflection know
The game of Scrabble is for those who go
Alone, courageous with their random tiles,
In conflict with their rivals' verbal wiles.

Apprenticeship in coalition's nest
Encourages the nestling, but at best
Can only show the iron in the breast
With which the gifted tyro can contest
Himself the long-crowned sovereigns of the board
Whose reigns will finish when a win is scored
By one whose days of shadow will be ended
Once he no longer deigns to be appended.

A point remains concerning how to play,
Essential to the winning of the day -
Newcomers to the solo art of Scrabble
Must bear in mind, above the constant babble,
The rule which is the mojo for success:
No victor can afford to nonscore ess.

On our way

In childhood's rapt embrace our days were timed
To find the elements with which we chimed,
To come to know how others than ourselves
May view the selfsame things as if the elves
Had told them deep within the wiser wood
That what we may think harmful can be good.

These were full days of happiness and joy
With dear companions round the growing boy,
The stage was decked with vibrant sets to show
How youthful energy and hearts aglow
Would find and nurture talent into flower
And demonstrate the promise of its power.

Though much is only memory and - yes! -
A dim remembrance of how more gave less,
Yet in the noble effort of the strife
We found a meaning and a worth to life
Which in the purview of its many ways
 Revealed how some may act while others gaze.

Summer storm

We watched the summer garden by the sea,
All lush , with shades of green the gusts revealed
And hid as storm chased storm across the sky,
Where gulls low down on slender wings swept by
And vanished where the tree's fine supple form
Bent wisely to the prompting of the wind
While lightning stroke preceded thunder roll.
Such was the background to a gentle lunch
In shelter from the reach of nature's force.

Continuum of time

Nowhere is their stasis,
No place can stay untouched
By passage of fleet time
As witness and recorder ,
Observer unaffected
By its presence never missed,
Itself inert as catalyst of change.

The need we share

If all the molten magma of the Earth,
Erupting, could disperse  abroad its fearsome fire,
Destroying in its flow the precious worth
Of air and sea and land in grinding gyre;

And if tempestuous winds, world-wide unloosed,
Could propagate the fury of their power
That in its heedless violence reduced
To rubble humblest home and proudest tower -

Then  we, who now confront a total war
That threatens termination of our kind,
Must strengthen  our commitment to implore
We leave the doomed idealists behind,
And from their failing thought  no more imbue
The teachings that deny our globe its due.

To a Birthday Girl or Boy at a milestone of their life

A word of welcome to the big six-oh,
Where all newcomers count their years and go
From fifty-nine to higher realms of life
Where rising peaks show vistas that are rife
With days of family happiness and peace
Which, in their passing, lend their years increase.

The scales of life

We use our human scale to gauge the rest,
But so the others can alike attest.
The mayfly counts eternity in days,
The tortoise generations of ours stays.
The old look back upon a past of dreams,
The young look forward to what likely seems.
Whenever babes are in their mothers' arms
We wish them vigour to survive alarms.

Rhyme for a new-found scrabble word

The scene is set, the Sun has riz,
The team begin their urgent biz
To paint the ceiling in a day
And send a blemish on its way.
Now hear the brushes slurp, then slop
Their welcome covering on top
Of that disfigurement, that glower
Left over by the errant shower
That flooded on the ceiling bright
And turned to black its pristine white.
The active part is soon achieved
Far faster than at first conceived,
Once the shy Sun reveals his face
To bid the work renew its pace
Until what's left is to retire,
Await the drying and admire.

I loved you - Version four

What though I loved you as I used to do,
With love still not quite faded from my soul -
Don't let it further cause distress to you:
To grieve you in no way could be my goal.

I loved you silently, with hope at bay,
As modesty then jealousy would move
My hurt, as truly and as tenderly
As God may grant one know another's love.

Existence

We strive to capture the sublime,
When compromise would better be.
Our efforts are constrained by time,
Perfection begs eternity.

For day will follow day that fades
And night will claim its primacy,
While cycles will define our days,
Assured of their supremacy.

Dedication, written on a child's present of a book

Dear ...

For stories to delight you and amaze
And, sometimes, put your noggin in a daze,
We recommend this writer, Roald Dahl
Who'll take you on a journey, as your pal,
And nightly send you happily to sleep
With tales of how to make the grown-ups weep!

The lady and her dog

Two lovely ladies
Of the Texan South -
The caring mistress
And her pampered pet -
At home in Houston,
Haunt of Southern charm,
Are always in our hearts,
Though they be far away.

The painted present

It came with Mummy on the plane,
For Dana and for Gordon twain -

A gift from Ellie, all in blue
And white - and wonderful to view!

So vibrant in its movement on
The page, it celebrates the dawn

Of talent to a high degree,
Which soon the World, as well, will see,

And wonder where the deep well lies
That so inspires such youthful eyes.

Aspects of love

Tell me that you love me - I will obey
The promptings and the dictates of your heart.

Tell me you are saddened - I will replay
The melodies that raise your spirits high.

Tell me you are happy - Then will I say
How glad I am to be your source of joy.

Tell me not, though, that I may not love you -
For that alone is what I cannot do.

Spider teases the mind

Long-legged spider on the floor -
Haven't I seen you before,
Hanging, unmoved, on the wall;
Though now you go crawling , and all
But fall into the shower  tray
Newly installed yesterday -
Thus to confound your certainty,
Making your path an eternity
Until the generation
Of next year's spider nation?

One from two

It is because to me you are the dearest,
Because, of all, to me you are the nearest,
That I to you am wedded in our one.
Through you I see my longings at their clearest,
And strive to nullify the merest
Chance of straying from the orbit of my Sun,
For in your absence I would be undone.

The point of it

A life of longing is our human lot -
For love, for laughter and an easeful end,
For lusty health  and lasting loyalty
Facilitating action in the world.

A world of dissonance and strife,
A world in need of harmony and peace
To foster reconciliation's cause
And launch society on freedom's course
Through action striving for the common weal
Of co-existence in plurality,
The stable basis of a new-born  state
That shelters all in justice with good will,
And so enables them to reach their aim
Of meeting hopes and overcoming fears
With dear companions on a way too short
Whose navigation differs for each soul.  

Olympic London

A night-time journey with its ending brings
A view superb that like no other seems.
Our stacking aircraft wheels and banks its wings -
Olympic London close beneath us beams.

Like myriad stars in the firmament,
The brilliant lights, far-scattered, clustered, burn.
A tapestry unfolds, an ornament
Towards whose landmarks eyes in wonder turn.

Thus seen from such a vantage in the sky,
The city shows itself in festive guise,
A place where nation will with nation vie
To win the laurel and deserve the prize.

More often should occasion life enhance
With chance encounters  when the spirits dance.

I loved you - three versions

Translated from the Russian of A S Pushkin

I loved you with a love that may perhaps
Not wholy quite have quit my soul as yet;
But let the anguish that it dealt you lapse -
I have no wish to give you cause to fret.

I loved you, word unsaid, in hopelessness,
With diffidence and  jealousy in turn;
I loved you with such truth and tenderness
As God may cause love's flame for you to burn.


Version two

I loved you with a love which may perhaps
Not wholy quite have quit my soul as yet;
But let the anguish that it dealt you lapse -
I have no wish to give you cause to fret.

I loved you, word unsaid, in hopelessness
With diffidence and jealousy anew;
I loved you with such faith and tenderness
As God may grant another love you true.



Version three

I loved you with a love that may perhaps
Not wholy quite have quit my soul as yet;
But let the anguish that it dealt you lapse -
I have no wish to give you cause to fret.

I loved you, word unsaid, in hopelessness,
As diffidence and jealousy would move;
I loved you with such truth and tenderness
As God may grant another give you love.

On the cosmic scale

On one small planet speeding round a star
Events occured which seem to be unique,
Resulting from progressions over time
That surely may take place repeatedly.

And if they did, and if they will do so,
They mark and spell continuance of life
Somewhere, sometime, however they be shaped,
Despite extinctions scattered throughout space
And punctuated by the lapse of time.

Intellegencies other than our own
May one day be our archaeologists.

Late winter mimics early spring

The sunny corner of our garden glows
From winter's strange attempt at spring's first warmth,
The seasonally awkward Sun outshines
Its normal self, cajoling forth the blooms
Of radiant red camelias by the wall.

Above the patio the red kites plane,
Massing up to five at once, all wheeling,
Taking advantage of their airy perch
To spot a movement beckoning below
And peel away, as warplanes do, to dive,
Revealing how some win while others lose
As Easter, herald of rebirth, draws near.

Sleep closes day till dawn

Come with us, Ellie, in your mind
To where clear, burbling streamlets wind
And lakes of limpid lustre lie
Which, in each face, reflect the sky
When evening with its darkening pink
Announces that the Sun will sink
And, with the ending of the day,
Call children from their place of play
To spend the night asleep in dreams
Until at dawn the morrow gleams,
And Ellie, waking in her bed,
Will see again the morning red.

Momentous meeting

How calm you were, and oh how unaware,
While I, on seeing you, knew I'd awaked
From ignorance of what it means to care
Beyond the point where nothing can be faked.

Before of us the one the other heard
How surely did the gaze bestowed on me
Announce outright, without a single word,
The change from minor into major key.

Then when you spoke I yielded without fear
To that sweet music ever in your voice
And swore allegience to a captor dear,
The guardian of my faculty of choice.

And when, with my reply, I touched your soul,
Love joined our separate parts to make us whole.

Wereda sets sail

Afloat again, the quayside she adorns,
Refreshed, revivified, fresh from the hard,
Once more responsive to her helmsman's touch,
Once more herself - Wereda, mistress true.
Impatient to comply with wind and wave
She contemplates the challenges ahead
And readies all her strength to take up way
To wander wide upon the Carib main.

The weather window calls her to depart,
Captain and crew of one have made their plans,
All three are reunited at the spot
Where she was left a half year of that life,
Which now she strains to share afresh at sea.
As skipper takes command and crew obeys
She slips her mooring, coming under way;
The distant isle will edge to her more near
With every mile the wind bestows as gift.
Resplendent in her livery of blue,
Wereda gathers speed while tossing spray,
And relishes the swiftness of her flight,
Rejoicing in renewed activity.

A fleeting thought alarms her racing mind -
What if the crew should forfeit her respect?
But then vibrations novel calm her fears
And on her journey north from Trinidad
Towards Grenada, tropic isle of old,
She senses and commends a finding new -
That love has now embarked as shipmate three!

All the things she is

Diverting Darla's devious, desparate deeds
Leave legions laughing, living lustily!

Deft Darla's doings doggily define
Bold boundaries between berating beasts.

Determined Darla's dainty derring-do
Disolves, disclosing Darla's dare-not-do,

Where, waiting within white walls, wiley-wise
There threaten thunder-throated trotters three!

Reconciliation

Turn back the clock of history to see
What came before and brought us to this time
Where now mankind's imperative must be
To map a journey to a kinder clime.

So, too, the private must confront the past,
Uncertain of the outcome of done deeds
But sworn to prove that bonds once forged will last
To comort, and to satisfy life's needs.

Rewind the clock we set when we first met
To run ahead in harmony and bliss,
Discord and dissonance occurred, and yet
The heat of passion has distilled us this:

Heed well the promptings of the love god's dart
And grant each solace with a caring heart.

A path too common

Loss of love and surfeit of grief - can those
Two be from that same womb delivered, which
Engendered, nurtured well, the very course
Of happiness, commisioned to bewitch?

The accident of termination was
Not willed, with outcome written in advance -
Two bound in love were torn apart because
Sweet harmony was stolen from their dance.

The music lent enchantment with its air,
But one there was whose ear was surfeited,
While hope was left to counteract despair
And tender aid to one discomfited.

Should circumstance permit or fate allow,
What then I felt for you I would feel now.

Approaches of the heart

The life we live, the loves we win and lose
Can test our thinking and our souls confuse
In absence of the vital bond of trust,
Which is the guarantor of what each must
Supply - an undertaking, heart to heart,
That neither from the other will depart.

The hungry ego and the callous will
Require a counterbalance to the thrill
Of danger and allure of promise vain
To stop temptation on its path to pain.
A prospect that for one has deep appeal
May shatter what for two was once ideal.
Those who take thought to break the ties they share
May learn too late the value of true care.

Underwater drifting

Among,between, above and underneath
The coral reefs we drift along apace,
As briskly we are pushed toward our goal -
The diveboat anchored patiently dowmstream.
No call to check direction as we fly,
The steady current keeps us on our course,
Allowing us to pay no heed to time
Beyond the need to stay within the hour
Upon the lapse of which our dive is done.

No time  to linger where the eye may light -
The luxury to dwell must be denied,
What's briefly glimpsed has soon receded far.
And now a newer scene looms up ahead,
Attention switches to a fish, on fire
With crimson colour, flashing as it turns
And runs along the wall like flame,
Then rises up to vanish overhead
Beyond the arching brow that ends the reef.

And now large rocks of lesser height appear
Someway below in open water, signs
Of safe arrival at our rendezvous.
And, as we finish, one more sight unfolds
Two turtles of enormous girth, asleep
Upon a welcome ledge of ample width,
Scarce other-looking than their ancient kin,
And sheltered in the living stone, which grows
In stature as the lives it nurtures pass.

Inspiration

Come, Muse importunate, and stay,
Come with the closing of the day
When work is stilled and fancies play;
Disburse your gifts of word and lay,
And let invention hold her sway
Till sleep accept the potter's clay
And birthing dawn your child display.

Proposal

The life our love before us lays
Is ours to cherish in our sum of days;
The flame we tend to light our way ahead
Will burn the brighter when we two are wed.

Equality of sorts, varieties of "all"

A jaunty song resounds to keep us gay -
We're all in this together, come whay may.
And what poor people gather from this lay
Is that it's time to to sacrifice and pray,
Except for those who manage not to pay
By salting assets safely well away
To hold the greedy taxman off at bay.

Such are the smart arrangements of our days
Which, through their priceless arrogance, amaze.
.

Destiny

With love we cherish life on Earth a while -
To see it grow more old whith each new mile,
And steps that seem forever to advance
Will one day cease their march, beyond perchance.

The destination is the same for all,
The curtain that was raised will hold, then fall
And with the final act achieve its end -
To show us whole the goal the fates portend
And trust to us the time we have to spend,
Whichever joyful path we choose to wend.

Evanescence

No ornament can add to what you are,
The sum of beauty, cynosure to all,
Nor can comparison provide your par,
When finest fancy cannot fail to pall.

Yet time will vent its ire as in the course
Of waning of the wordly powers of Earth,
Whose dominance must lose its vital force
And leave to others space to stage their birth.

Beauties who hold sway all share the common plight
That there's no gain against time's rule to cry
Rebellion vain, for that would mirror quite
The golden globe that holds in thrall the sky.

Beauty's perfection imitates the Sun,
Whose might is sovereign, yet whose day must run.

Laws and hopes

 After lightning's play, thunder rolls applause -
 Certainty prevails touching nature's laws.

 Even so the heart longs its home to find
 In a place secure, nestled with its kind.

Young and old

One day, I spoke to young and asked her who she thought she was,
And young spoke up with boldness of her plans to change the world.

And then I turned to old and asked her who she thought she was,
And old replied with gladness of  what once, back then, had been.

And then I saw how old had taken young upon her knee
To say that old is what all young - with luck - will one day be.

The natural history of cats

All ginger cats are prone to make one doubt
That cats, as such, are really what they seem.
By day, they move with stealth and prowl about.
By night, it's thought, they haunt with eyes agleam.
And yet the gamut of their lives, we know,
Excludes their actions when beyond our ken.

Our progress in this question is so slow
As renders it but crass conjecture when
We postulate, against the sober facts,
That gingers must exist when they're not seen.
There's nothing cogent here which contradicts
What everyone from history can glean:

Egyptian cats are like their god of old,
Who died come night, and was reborn with day.
So, when it comes to gingers, we've been sold
The lie that when they're not around - they're just at play!

It follows, then, that all cats must enjoy
Recycled life which no force can confine -
Thay's why they have the the habit to employ
 A haughty mien - their lives are more than nine!

The cat that met me

A ginger tom cat cut across my way
And ran to greet me in a rush of fur.
With great delight, I saw he'd come to play
And show his friendship with a winning purr.

To my surprise, he then began to squeeze
Figures of eight between my unclad pins
In silky movements, done with perfect ease
And complemented with sly feline grins.

His bearing had the manner of a king,
Replete with gracious gestures he bestowed -
I realized it had been no small thing
To learn to dance with ginger a la mode!

Darla's duty dawns

Now doughty Darla has a pressing task -
To care for baby in her daily round;
There's nothing that can be too much to ask
To keep sweet Ella safe in peace profound.

Who is this newborn, helpless source of joy
So dearly loved by all who Darla knows?
She plainly needs the skills dogs can employ
In guarding innocents from hurtful blows.

And Darla is the perfect exemplar
Of how to keep all harm at bay -
Her gaze ensures that danger, near or far,
Is banished from the scene of Ella's play.

Each day, when it's required, she's on patrol
Around the boundary, to her so clear,
That marks the space in need of her control
To safeguard Ella from distress or fear.

And should there be occasion to alert
The house to dangers threatening her charge,
She will be ever ready to divert
Them through her efforts, whether small or large.

Times to relish

Oh, let there be those days most asked for -
Those days of carefree children's laughter,
Well spent in tumbling hours of joy
Till grownups must their will deploy,
And sleep her potent charm employ
Once drowsy playmates fold their arms,
Then eyelids close to life's alarms.

Lucklessly enamoured

That lack in me that is the lack of you
Remains as yet a wound that fails to be
Attended by its perpetrator, who,
For lack of motive, finds no crime to see.

Had you been conscious of your unknown part,
Would you have salved the hurt of unmeant pain,
Dear thief and only owner of my heart,
Which hopes from you sweet solace to obtain?

Yet I myself would be as guilty, too,
Should I attempt to force my suit on you,
Whose felony is being unaware
Of what was no concern to someone free
To be enclosed in love's embrace elsewhere,
Evading trial for bringing trial to me.

Ambition

You tell me that I love you with your smile,
Although, to you, there's no such tale to tell
What would I give to let you know the while
That I have spent, enamoured, in your spell!

With magic and with mystery on call,
You bring to mind the music of the spheres
Of heaven's realm, where arcane marvels all
Conspire to govern more than what appears.

The harmonies your tresses wake in me
When breezes blow bring gladness out of time,
And I could wish you were disposed to see
The way in which we with each other chime.

Should you, with grace unearned, accept my love
Earth's globe, as bell, would not exult enough.

Accommodation

Perfection crass should be allowed no part
In acting bully to deny the play
Of healthy harmony of head and heart
That feeds the music of love's deathless lay.

Togetherness of compromise will fare
Most well when founded, as a rounded whole,
On that good will, a prize beyond compare,
That issues from the wellsprings of the soul.

Togetherness of purpose bonds in one,
Amid the reefs the seas of life hold hid,
Those seeking passage as the waters run
Towards the dangers of which none are rid.

Tempests have blown which caused the Earth to move,
None have been known which stayed the power of love.

Winter hills

The annual cycle brings the winter snow,
Which lends the hills allure to human eyes
That, having marvelled at the summer deer
Beneath the sheltering trees, now hope to spy
Them once again when clothed in winter garb.

The exploration starts in modest guise -
A startled squirrel leaping from the road
In swift evasion of our dread approach.
The journey satisfies with charming views
And yields a plump red robin on a verge,
A pheasant, all indifference as we pass,
But nothing to betray the deer, our prey.
Then, some way distant, sits a buzzard bold,
Stock still upon a tree's dead, leafless branch,
And seems to grant us leave to stop and look
As she with gimlet gaze the ground surveys,
Then softly opens, spreads and flaps her wings,
Revealing undersides adorned in white,
On her short flight to find a better perch.

This sighting is surpassed upon a ridge
Where we are greeted by the happy chance
To watch a hunting kite on his patrol.
How long has he been quartering the slope,
As he does now, continuing to plane
And soar on patient wings, first glinting red
Against the pale blue sky, then dipping down
To blend into the matching-colored wood,
Flapping but twice to rise and wheel around,
Scanning the hill, dropping below its brow,
Rising again to recapitulate
His graceful feeding cycle, key to life,
Then peeling fast away toward the dale,
Abandoning the half-snowed, steep-banked field,

Our way leads onward through a tousled tract
Where bare-boned bushes look like coral fans
And hamlets nestle snuggly where the eye
Picks out the destination of the road.
But now the sight of walkers, boys on sleds,
Discourages insistence on our hope,
And we head homeward from the dearth of deer,
Resolved to meet them in some new attempt.

But as the road ascends and traffic glides
At unaccustomed snail pace on the ice,
Two deer appear, intent to take their course
Accross our path. The larger charges out,
Is over in a flash while wheels are braked,
And, in her mute alarm from yards away,
Reproaches us for venturing too close
And pines for her companion left behind.

A kitten's contribution

A tiny kitten in a ball
Evokes deep sighs of gladness from us all.
How sweetly does she touch a tender vein,
In some deep buried, but in others plain,
And come in playful mood when once awake
To entertain us humans for her sake.

Carpe diem

When first I met enchantment in the grace
Which shone upon me when I caught your gaze
And, marvelling at the music of your voice,
Denied my heart its right of sovereign choice,
I wondered at the confluence of choice
That had produced you in its random dance.

How many aeons long without our kind
Did evolution prosper without mind,
Experimenting blindly without plan
Until the brief appearance of our clan?
How many aeons more would then expire
To bring us to the point where we aspire
To step outside the sphere by nature bound
And venture to a place as yet unfound?

For us, whose tiny portion we may wrest
And hold a generation long, at best,
There is no other option than to strive
To fabricate, whatever fate contrive,
A life of harmony which sweetness casts
Amid eternity, which ever lasts.

Though all of time was thus required for this
To bring us to the state that now we share,
Its course is stopped for us in endless bliss
Should we but find the fortitude to dare.

Mortality

All creatures suffer their allotted doom
No matter where their paths of life may wind;
Blown petals signify a dying bloom -
The Earth to which they fall renews their kind.

Universal steps

Oh happy days of unbound youth
Among the uplands of the soul,
When tenderness and honest truth
Made up the content of the whole.

Remembrance sweet calls back to mind
Rapt days of gladness as a child
When consciousness of youthful kind
Was occupied with fancies wild.

Imagination took to flight
And conjured wonders into life,
And when the day turned into night
Dreams brought adventure full of strife.

The senses woke to all around
And found a world of depth and breadth,
Of wafting smells and sight and sound,
A world which changed with every breath.

With play and laughter then the mind
Would seek how best to understand
The world  and, in so doing, find
A base on which to take firm stand.

And oh the heart, the heart that beat
In faster rhythm when the ear
Took notice of those skipping feet
Announcing that fond love drew near.

A love of innocence and charm
Replete with joy, devoid of fears,
Between two children, arm in arm,
Who roamed the fields of yester years.

Years which were destined to include
The growth of self to adulthood
Through nascent longings that portend
The coming storm of childhood's end.

Parameters of love

The provenance of love is not devined,
The governance of love is ill-defined,
The exigence of love is deep enshrined
Within the core of heart and soul and mind,
Yet often is it hid and hard to find,
And, lacking its involvment, all are blind.

Two kittens cuddly kind*

For two who failed to call to mind
A  day of such a unique kind,
Neglecting wholly to remind
Each other of the ties that bind -

We kittens full of jollity
Have come to join your company,
And in good faith we guarantee
To cheer your anniversary!

*From two kittens on a late-remembered anniversary card

A fox to cherish

Across a scarcity of yards
A fox's brush, protruding, shows
A danger lurks within the bush -
But guile and grace and beauty, too:
The guile that he employs with style
The grace that marks his supple form,
The beauty that suffuses all.

What colour can outmatch his rust,
What speeding gait outdo his trot?
No eagle's gimlet gaze outshines
The impish twinkle in his eye.

The fox lacks stature to command,
His numbers cannot overwhelm,
But in his solitary sphere
He reigns supreme in handsomeness.

Fox lore

A fox who has it in his mind
To find a snack of any kind
Will come upon it from behind -
That's how he's always wined and dined.

The creature of a russet hue
Will do just what he has to do
To gather up what is his due,
By taking what belongs to you!

That's why it's useless to persist
In hoping somehow he'll desist -
It is his nature to insist,
For foxes prosper where they list.

Polar panic

As far as I can see,
All polar bears should be
As far away from me
As polar bears can be.

That way, it's very clear,
There is no need to fear
They may draw up so near
As to consume me here!

Birthday girl

Now Ellie's forging on ahead,
Exploring life from A to Z.
A new voice sounds amid the old,
A dear soprano joins the fold,
And soon fond melodies will fall
On ears for which they'll never pall.

So is it with each birthday new
For one so young with much to do,
And memories of golden days
Will form as little Ellie plays.

Time in three acts

The past is ever with us, but the future never so,
The present, as the vital link, completes the three-fold way
On which we all must navigate and shelter as we go,
Creating past from present while the future stands at bay.

We cannot know our progeny past generations four,
Nor trick sly time to ruminate upon what will have been.
Whatever may be possible, there can exist no door
To open and expose to view what has not yet been seen.

Regardless of what may be learned, or of what light is shone,
The future must remain a sphere where none before have gone.

In desert climes

Where deserts bake in broiling heat without a welcome storm,
The denizens who call it home obey a double rule:
Some, waking to the welcome Sun, expose fhemselves, to warm,
While others shun his presence, and seek shelter where it's cool.

The first are those of scaly composition, who must catch
The daily dose of solar rays by which they will survive,
The second - those of fur, whose need that other does not match,
For, come the day, they must avoid the heat to stay alive.

And yet they all may interact beneath the globe that burns
By taking or preserving life upon the globe that turns.

Unconscious parrot

The parrot's unaware his plumage vies
To win the palm, be lauded to the skies,
Defying, as he does, the painter's eye
To capture all its splendours where they lie.

The pride presumed to swell his feathered breast
Resides, in truth, in humans much impressed,
Whereas, among his avian brethern set,
His statenment is with recognition met.

Whenever he displays his finery
He shows himself as he is meant to be -
His soul mate will descry the one she knows
When perched upon the treetops, where he glows.

Donkey

The donkey, we are all agreed,
Is held to be no Einstein bred
And thought to be no match for steed
With valid claim to thoroughbred.

The donkey's ears are far too large
To grace his presence handsomely,
And when he calls his voice takes charge
And sounds uncouth, not winsomely.

Consider, though, that through his ears
Your donkey hears just where you are,
And when he talks he stills your fears
And  marks his spot, however far.

This is his way to show how much
He misses you and yearns your touch.

To Ellie at Christmas*

To darling Ellie come these wishes dear
From far away across the many miles,
For in our hearts you always will be near,
Enchanting creature of a thousand smiles!

Merry Christmas, heart of gold,
Nestling in your family fold -
We thank you for your card so sweet,
Our greatest treasure till we meet.

* On the occasion of receiving a first Xmas card from Ellie, aged three

Rambling for life

Walking on the Cornish path
Really makes you need a bath.

Always going up and down
Renders ramblers very brown.

Finding each new B & B
Is a chore, but - let's agree -
They are needed for the rest
That results in trekking best.

So, then,ever onward go,
Step by step the miles will flow.

Happy  wandering never ends-
Every pathway has new bends.

Reunion

Dear friends, how happy is this day of May
On which we once again become those four
Of old, who rambled through the woods of youth,
Companions in the journey that is life.

While changes there have been in measure full,
The spirit of rapport remains undimmed.
The conversation sparkles as before,
And old concerns reverberate anew
As novel topics jostle  for their place.

And so the  time that's passed since we were four
Seems but an interlude between two acts
Which presage others in a drama, that
Will tell the future as it told the past.    

Solace and strength

In which firm promise given could there be
Assurance of reliability?

In which warm haven could I find repose
In sheltered refuge from the gale that blows?

In which impregnable, unbowed  redout
Would I be safe against the foe without?

In which untaken fortress on the hill
Could I deny the enemy his will?

In what strong bastion, fashioned to repulse
Would I survive while ill all else engulfs?

In these, or others, would what's dire yield space?
In none - were I not in your dear embrace!

Computation of love

Were life amenable to calculation
And subject to arithmetic's approach,
Then all would find the perfect permutation
To match the proper horse to needy coach.

If harmony of head and heart were nought
But tally of the two, done weight by weight,
Then lovers in their dealings never ought
To stumble on their path, or trouble fate.

Such mathematics would commend itself
To one who finds the counting of love's truth
More daunting than the calculus of wealth,
And falters when his worth is not enough.

Yet remedy there is, for love construes
An abacus that fashions ones from twos.

The refuge

With every day the Sun will soar
And plummet with the night,
And I, without respite
Or stop, will seek to find the more

How sure your heart can be approached
And gathered to my breast,
Its place of rightful rest
Beyond the risk of  being encroached.

Love's quandary

How may I know how I may love you best -
With tenderness or passion or with both?

How calm the trapped alarms that flare and flit
Across the hinting windows of your eyes?

How touch you aptly with an aching hand?
How take you in the shelter of my arms?


How lock you tightly in a shared embrace
When indications,whether word or sign,
Reveal not certainty, but yielding doubt,
While yet in this I could not be more sure
That we as one are greater far than two?


Since, in confusion, you have failed to show
How I may use the little that I know
To consummate the union that we crave,
Then I shall love you as I know I may -
With tenderness and passion and with both!

Birthday wishes

As birthdays go, they come unwelcome guests
If they are reckoned as a simple count,
But, when they are considered more as rests
Along the way, the weight of their amount
Is lessened, cast in shade, and they are bright,
Outnumber far the stars that grace the night.

Bruised in inadvertence

A gentle heart and tender will be prone to hurt and harm
And ever must be ready to accept a soothing balm,

And if I knew what I should say to heal a heart so sore,
I'd say it once a thousand tiimes, and then a thousand more,

And if I knew what I should do to win that cherished goal,
I'd do it once, and then again until your heart was whole.

Two faces of the moon

Night moon, resplendent mistress of the realm
Between the whirlng Earth and pacing Sun,
How, with your bearing stern, you overwhelm
The darting planets who there furtive run!

Day moon, so pale against prevailing blue,
Though sailing high now humbled to the role
Of faint companion to a master, who,
Though ceding place, alone can make you whole!

Key lime pie

No better can be said of key lime pie

Than has been put to tuneful verses by

The pantheon of Country's Hall of Fame

Who know how best to fan the potent flame

Lying dormant in the innards of a dish

Designed for the confession of a kiss.

On the cusp between the years

In twenty eleven it's New Year's Eve

Quotidian concerns have taken leave

And jollity displaces gloom and care

While revelers assemble everywhere.

Soon celebrations will begin their course

And voices, in contention turning hoarse,

Continue in their chatter without stop

As hours to minutes, then to seconds, drop.

The clock that tolled our times, both good and drear,

Now takes the stage to mark the change of year,

And as the midnight stroke concludes the day

First dawn is born in infant twenty twelve.