A Deathday poem to the eternal poet 23 April, 2016

Shakespeare! As we salute you on this day
When your dear soul was forced to yield to fate
We recognize a debt we cannot pay
For something which consumption cannot sate.
,
We stand in awe, yet more in gratitude
To have in our possession, ever sage,
A treasure of surpassing plenitude
Whose riches grow in value with each age.

Were we to seek an eon long and more
We should be not one step the nearer to
A talent able to achieve a score
Worthy to equal that enjoyed by you.

For though you have been dead four hundred years
You live by words that move our hearts to tears.

Estuary shore, afternoon at Whitstable 19 - 22 April 2016

The inexperienced and the young, the old
And the infirm negotiate the paths
Where strollers by the pebble beach converge
And part again in human waves
Mirroring springtide's motion on the sea.

The clement day has welcomed to the shore
The townsfolk and their guests, who at their ease
Reflect upon the surface and the deep:
The warming rays, the bracing air, the call
Of passing gull to gull aloft,
While to the eye whose vision's turned within
The scene ingested feeds the inner view.

Three new friends for the move 10 April 2016

Who are we as a family?
We're Mum and Dad and Babe makes three!
We're furry and we're frisky, too,
Just dying to make friends with you -
So when you see us gazing down
You're sure to smile and lose your frown.

Written on a house-moving card picturing
two adult meerkats tending a juvenile

Ellie's first move 9 April 2016

Our house this day is other than
The place we were when it began.
We've moved our stuff, the cats and us.
The work was hard, but worth the fuss,
And now that it at last is done,
We'll spend our days in having fun.
Let many be the days of old
Whose happy histories are told!

Spring time in the hood 3 April, 2016

While squirrels through the branches romp
And Peacocks strut with stately pomp
At spring time in the waking yard,
The human heart is urged to play
That age old game which song and bard
Promote for ever and a day
Through well considered note and word
Whose sweet conjunctions charm the ear
To such perfection, being heard,
That souls are brought within love's sphere.

Thank you and farewell 2 April 2016

I wish I could have come to say goodbye
And be with you to bid a last farewell.
Instead, I must content myself with words,
Though, happily, they are my stock in trade.
So here's a few more puffs of air to show
How much you touched me with your moving thoughts,
Already shifted to a space apart
Where days recalled regale the musing heart.