Tchaikovsky's Fourth.

They telecast Tchaikovsky's Fourth last night,
That masterpiece of hesitance and fright.
I watched a beauty playing a bassoon.
How cheerfully she sat and blew her tune!
What thoughts were  those that passed across her face,
What feelings caused that air of languid grace,
What promptings raised the tempo of her heart
And took her to a place a space apart
Where circumstances gathered to dictate
The self must cede its destiny to fate?

An appreciation

Be with me now at this my eventide,
Which dips towards that time when none can hide.
How brief a while to be contemporary
There is! Then treasure in your memory
A single dear remembrance of our past
Which, lodged securely there, will ever last.

Delight in imperfection

The less than perfect is my true ideal -
To aim beyond that disregards the real
From which derive the harvests that we reap,
The only bounty we may hope to keep.

Then I shall celebrate the partial whole
Which I am proffered by a kindred soul
Whose generosity brings me delight,
Whose absence would engulf  my own in fright.

Birthday thoughts

This Birthday is a special one -
You're Daddy now - enjoy the fun!
Your days will have a different cast,
Some will be tiring, some a blast.
And through it all, as Liv grows big
And starts to sing and dance a jig,
Her presence in your saving arms
Will fill your life with cheering charms.

As ever present

 The years may pass, yet you are in my heart,
 As ever once you were, companion dear
 Who with a tender smile would cause to start
 A mood to lift the spirit and make clear
 How with your presence life was made complete,
 Days turned to years with happiness replete.
 For warmth we wrap ourselves against the cold -
 Against death's thieving grasp there is no fold.

To G...

I have been urged not to desist in this,
Which is  the distillation of the lived -
And this is my reply to that kind urge.
Of course! I shall endeavour to persist
To crystallize the not-yet-formed within,
To make that sparkle which before was dim,
And, doing so, bequeath a heart-felt hymn
To what the mind can formulate and keep
Upon the sullen vastness of the deep.

Hail, hail rock'n'roll

Just no-ones, burning to achieve their goal,
The hungry rockers lent their music soul
Enough to captivate each eager heart
That longed to beat to a rhythm apart.
And now they rock on far beyond that guise
In which they first appeared before our eyes -
Rapt eyes that ran the scale from young to old -
And as they took their place in ways untold
The stars of rock awoke in fans devotion
Which was their due through passion and commotion.
How many plaudits justly they have earned
Ascending to the fame for which they yearned!

Pluto discovered

Pluto, you have been discovered twice:
First a wandering speck, now a wondrous world;
And furthermore, indeed, discovered thrice -
We find it's clear the moon with which you're hurled
And spun in fact is no mere satellite,
For as around the Sun you jointly trip
You one the other tug as requisite
And each the other hold in common grip
To justify the name of binary
Wherein you dance in dual finery.
What further marvels yet do you portend,
Presiding pregnantly where planets end!

Birthday party incomers

We are ambassadors of zest,
Gate crashing is what we do best.
So, yes, we heard the party news,
And here we are to pay our dues.
We catch the tail of every chance -
Crank up the volume, folks - let's dance!

Love's every day

Where humankind is frail, love most abounds,
Responding in a fashion that astounds.
The sick, the victims, all who are oppressed,
Turn beneficiaries of the best.

Within a world of strife and imperfection
New hope is offered by the selfless soul
Which seeks and finds and follows the direction
To where of many parts is made one whole.

Name day recurs

This day of extraordinary kind
Is yours to spend exactly as you find.
It is a day of high significance,
A day which brought a new magnificence
Whose sparkle has been destined to adorn
A world too sunk in grey till you were  born.

Happy Birthday, Amy

The Earth has sped and spun to reach this day -
The celebration of dear Amy's birth.
So let the clouds disperse and sunbeams play,
While seconds fill the dancing hours with mirth,
A mirth augmented by a newcome voice,
Bidding the ever-grateful heart rejoice.

A collage from Ellie

Your precious present, packed with childhood's charm,
Is safely with me, sure against all harm.

How brightly with its firy rays the Sun
Illuminates the landscape Ellie's done,
Prompting the heart to multiply its beats,
Responding to the power of youthful feats,
Feats which are evidence of talent rare
Ready to flourish under tender care.

The airborne butterfly of red attire,
Intent to flutter upward ever higher,
Parts company from all the pretty blooms,
While some strange insect opens up and looms
Aloft, impossibly large, not to scale -
A portent, surely, of an untold tale.

Forever present

As I awoke I felt a hand in mine
Which, though my own, would once have been of yours.
Flow healingly, if ever, now kind time
To serve as salve for me who knows no cures.
Your course reveals the absence of one dear
Which, though I must accept, I cannot bear.

To Darla

Sweet Darla of beguiling ways
Who with your charms have graced our days,
Would we could find a  remedy
To turn your pain to memory!

The boundless courage deep within
Your ailing body, now grown thin,
Attest your vital will to live
Until, perforce, your frame must give.

Throughout our lives we meet heart's loss
And learn to tell what's gold from dross.
The gold we keep alive in mind
And so perpetuate love's kind.

First impressions

A baby girl explores the world
And marvels as it is unfurled.

Now Liv is finding as she goes
How little of this life she knows!
It certainly is for the best
To stay in place by Mummy's breast.
Yet sometimes, though, it's far from easy
To find a way of not being queazy
When Nature fills her face with frowns
And sends a batch of ups and downs.
But wait - it's well worth while, on balance,
To greet the fun of each day's challenge!

Easter time

All hearts rejoice at Easter time
When nature wakes and poets rhyme.
Dull Winter turns to vibrant Spring
And birds their vibrant chorus sing.
The Sun  heats up the lengthening day
While in his rays the children play
And by their side, in fur and fluff,
The Easter bunnies flop and puff.

Mr Turner

See him threading through the viewing artists
In the hanging room - Mr Turner, scalpel
In his hand! Before his own marine
He stops, and boldly lays a crimson charge
Upon the waterscape of ship and sea -
Then turns in satisfaction and retires.
The company he leaves is in amaze
To see the desecration he has wrought -
But, as they wonder at his aim, he's back,
And with his thumb produces from his daub
A heaving buoy afloat upon the main,
Which underscores the drama at a stroke
And shows how genius may work its way.

A patriot new

You read the information whole
Then took the test to reach your goal,
With confidence that in no wise
You might have failed to gain the prize.

Congratulations! You have won
The status of American.
Enjoy the welcome consequence
On each and every incidence
When from the lofty sky you sink
And smile contentedly to think:

"Much simpler now to come and go,
Avoiding where the lines are slow
For all those folks who must confess
To being merely non-US".

This much the better do you stand
When you alight in your new land.

Looming for pleasure

Loom - a pass time kit for kids and adults to fashion ornaments from flexible plastic rings

To loom or not to loom - is there a question?
What child would not have time to build a fat
And cuddly hippo or a hanging bat,
Or any other thing, upon suggestion?

First give the loomers all that they will need -
Materials and hook and tablet, too -
Then watch how they enthuse and buckle to,
Producing on their frames a plastic tweed.

The crafty kit is good for having fun
By making what's desired from colored rings
Which finish up transformed to other things,
And signify the looming has been done.

Lines prompted by a Greenpeace postcard, picturing a mother polar bear with her two cubs

Three bears appear at once,
Challenge and censure the dunce
And show what we shall lose
Unless we stop and choose
To counter those whose goal
Neglects the dreadful toll
That greed, when uncontrolled,
Exacts, with grief untold.
Give, then, the Earth our care,
And hasten its repair,
So life unique remains
To justify our pains,
And recognize anew
The cosmos has its due.

As a dedication

These lines are made to bring delight,
To please the day and charm the night.
Whatever mood you may be in,
You need but look to find its kin.

Continuance

The other day I came across a book
Which had been one you thrilled to as you read,
And once again I saw that happy look
Steal soft across your face as you were led
Into a different world of others' deeds,
Imaginings, events now fast now slow.

How many ways the soul confronts its needs -
How hard it is, so hard, to let you go.

Ruby red for forty wed

Time does not halt, though heart be stopped by heart,
But measures out its pace eternally.
The years advance and leave behind their trace,
Experiences multiply, now sweet,
Now sad, now kept in mind, now quite forgot.
And of these years a pregnant one is caught
Within the clasp of memory's embrace -
That year from which succeeding ones are told
Of which the fortieth has now arrived
To mark the anniversary of when
Two young enamoured pledged to pass their days
Together in the state that love decreed.