"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may" 31 May 2016

Should we regret that youth will go,
Or take delight that memories grow?
Whichever way we view what is,
The years go by. Then ponder this;
Fleet-footed time will ever heed
The human heart's eternal need
To seize the present as it comes
Despite the piling of day's sums.
Put  on your glad rags, Birthday Girl -
Cleave to your partner in a  whirl!

Turning on a sixpence 23 May 2016

My power chair can turn upon a sixpence -
How nimble and how friendly to my needs!
Beware this feature, though, when no resistance
Is offered to emotions wed to deeds
Regretted in the aftermath of strife.
Precipitate reactions prompting panic
Amongst adherents prone to wield the knife
May well result in baleful and titanic
Outcomes, impossible to  rectify,
Which leave a desolation in their wake,
Or shatter dreams imagined not to die,
And all for a charade whose face is fake.

                    

On receiving a first response in verse 11 May 2016

The sweet response you couched in verse,
So apropos, so fresh, so terse,
I'll treasure as the very first
Poetic gem to have been tossed
So playfully into my court,
And these few words are meant in sport
To celebrate for more than long
Your whimsicality of song.

Top Hat 9 May 2016

Oh, what a picture of a marvel new,
Fashioned to dominate in form and hue!
The eye is ravished to behold the view,
The normal frame of mind is knocked askew.

What wonder borne upon a beauty's head
Is here revealed to an astonished world!
It is a hat of visions, boldly fed
By high imagination now unfurled.

See how the parts combine to form the whole
By adding glamour suited to their place
Through interacting to fulfill their role
To grace the head and compliment the face.

Honour the hat and praise it without qualm,
For it alone deserves to win the palm.

Memories 5 May 2016

They dwell in silence as they wish,
And unsuspected keep their peace.
They give no clue that aught's amiss
Till fell time terminates their lease.

Then, slipped unbridled from the mind,
Like trusted friends who need no leave
Deep memories show how their kind
Can bring the wakened breast to heave.

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.

Gravitational waves Feb 17, 2016

Light-years far removed from Earth, two black holes
Performed a cosmic jig in which they merged,
And from the cataclysm there emerged
Sound evidence of gravitational waves,
Which are regarded by the well-schooled mind
As vital for the truth of Einstein's thought,
Being one more stone in that great edifice,
Grand monument of intellect and heart.

Love's cardinal points Version 2 12 Feb 2016

The North of love is where your bosom swells,
The East - where you awake to morning's rays,
The South - where in your smile enchantment dwells,
The West - where with my own I hold your gaze
As each heart sets the other in a daze.

Identity Feb 01, 2016

Essential to the sense of self
Are memories that hold the past,
Bringing coherence to that self,
Lending the strength required to last,
Keeping together as a whole
The vital sinews of the soul.

Love's cardinal points Jan 16 - Feb 7, 2016

The North of love is where your bosom swells,
The East - where you awake to morning's rays,
The South - where in your smile enchantment dwells,
The West - where with my own I hold your gaze;
We have no need of words when hearts amaze.

Recovery of love 16-23 Jan 2016

The ardour, so it seemed, had flagged, grown cold,
And love been smothered by the pangs of guilt
Until, once again, there came that flame of old
Which had been kindled when the fire was built.
Is it that every passion grows then wanes?
Why so? Why - from the nature of the heart,
Which must consolidate the wealth it gains,
Deny the latter any chance to part.
So in the classic game of give and take,
Whose rules, unwritten, yet are eloquent,
The prudent player aims to place their stake
Where love and luck each other complement.
It isn't that I love you any less,
But that I doubt to be so deeply blessed.

Three cuddly cubs who, learning, teach Christmas, 2015

Dedication at Christmas for a picture book of three orphan grizzlies
in volcanic Kamchatka, Russia

Three cubs for Ellie to admire,
Three bred in snow and mountain fire,
Three orphans tasked with life's concerns,
Who show just how the wild heart learns
With help from human fosterers
Enthralled by such cute customers,

Liv joins the fray Late Dec, 2015

Now lovely, lively little Liv
Is adding zest to how we live.
Her contributions every day
Include the pleasure of her play,
The sparkle of her infant eyes,
Her way to find the urgent prize
Of Mummy's breast or Dad's embrace
So she can keep up in life's race
And take fate in her growing hands
On solid ground, not shifting sands.

Nonsense is as nonsense does Dec 15, 2015

Dedication in a book of nonsense by Edward Lear

They talk a lot of nonsense about nonsense -
They say it's just a waste of time, they do!
But what I think is that it isn't nonsense
That sometimes nonsense turns out to be true!

So, Ellie, here's some nonsense to amuse,
In which you'll find there's plenty to enthuse,
And as you laugh you'll marvel at the craft
Of making fun of things by being daft!

Companionship Dec 14, 2015

When lives are with each other twined
They leave their print on heart and mind.
Soul turns to soul alike in kind,
Forever seeking mate to find,
And as the years their pathways wind
Fondness engenders ties that bind.