No higher duty

Of all the stars, there is but one, the Sun,
Where life is known to flourish and survive.
Of all the species present on the Earth,
Mankind alone is held to be aware,
Though other mammals, too, may in their way
Have consciousness that centres in themselves.

What seems to be unique to man consists
In being free to to think beyond himself,
But how can he responsibly control
The knowledge that, one day, may spell his end?
And would he leave the world a better place
Without such self-destruction on its face?

Marlow spring

Now Marlow wakes to springtime's swelling sound,
The town adopts a spirit suited more
To birdsong and to blossoms that abound
As people gently stroll by Thames's shore,
In hues adapted to the weather's change,
At last released from winter's numbing gloom,
And in their hearts despondency exchange
For cheerfulness that floods through nature's room.

The hill

There is a slope whereon each is the ibex in its prime,
Alert in resolution and the the master of the climb,
Or like the bounding hare that twists and fleetly turns away,
At home among the tufts and clumps, survivor of the day.

Though culminating high above, resplendent of its kind,
It cannot be the slope is always upwardly inclined,
Its bulk has lasted aeons on an ageless fundament
And those who reach its summit will come down from where they went.

A hill will stand while generations replicate and grow,
And witness from its vantage how the people come and go.

Leveson revised

They called an enquiry and promised to do
Whatever was sanctioned - and speedily, too!
But, now the proposals are there to be seen,
They're changing their tune and involving the queen.

It seems a Royal Charter's the answer they seek
To pander to power and abandon the weak.
How strange  to find latterly that they can be
At home in the house of that pink BBC.

Fantasy of a dream

Once upon a lullaby
I fell asleep - so tired was I! -
And, dreaming, floated in the air,
Commanding vistas everywhere.

Such fun , to view what others do
When you see them, not so they you!
So rare and excellent a way
To spend a  happy holiday
Must surely have been given birth
By someone with a sense of mirth.

I felt my new ability
Would last for all eternity,
That I would meet the lark in flight
Close by the Sun,in regions bright.
But in a while I lost the guile
Of how to fly aloft in style,
So, with a final glance around,
I came to ground without a sound.
  

Together

Those days of youth unbound when life was sweet,
Those nights of dancing to the urgent beat,
Those years of travel to exotic lands
Beneath the burning Sun above the sands,
While off the the beach the ocean's mighty swell
Divulged a violence more than words could tell,
Those hours of splendour spent below the waves
In weightless wonder, deep in coral caves,
And afterwards the journeys under sail
In gentle zephyr or in raging gale,
And then the lengthy rambles over hills
Where cloud the slope envelops as it chills -
Such are the memories we jointly share
That chart the progress of a happy pair.