LOOK AT THEM

 

They appear morning

Noon and night

They swell and grow

Rise and fall

And dissolve and shrink

They are sometimes thick

Sometimes thin

They are sometimes dense

Sometimes transparent

They move fast and slow

They cross treetops and fields

Lakes and seas

Homes and factories

Deserts and swamps

Tropical rainforests

And arctic tundra’s

They are beautiful and familiar

Strange and dramatic

They are myriad in form and shape

A face, a mountain, a fish

They are brown and gray

Steel blue and black

Yellow and gold

Lilac and pink

But mostly clouds are white

WHERE EAGLE’S DARE

 

Over mountains up on high

A lonely Eagle had to fly

For years he had been alone 

In the mountains on his own

Mostly he was a happy lad

But sometimes he got sad

So decided to fly down below

For some “company” you know

 

It wasn’t a very long journey

Before he reached a leafy tree

Where he met a Tit called Tina

And there the Eagle had her

Then after he had had his way 

He bad farewell and flew away 

So after the deed was done

And the Eagle had had his fun 

Tina said, “I am a little Tit

And I’ve had a little bit

And I liked it”

 

Over mountains up on high

A lonely Eagle had to fly

For years he had been alone 

In the mountains on his own

Mostly he was a happy lad

But sometimes he got sad

So decided to fly down below

For some “company” you know

 

It wasn’t a very long journey

Before he reached a leafy tree

And he met a Dove called Daisy

Where the Eagle had her easily

Then after he had had his way 

He bad farewell and flew away  

So after the deed was done

And the Eagle had had his fun 

Daisy Said, “I am a little dove

And I’ve had a little love

And I liked it”

 

Over mountains up on high

A lonely Eagle had to fly

For years he had been alone 

In the mountains on his own

Mostly he was a happy lad

But sometimes he got sad

So decided to fly down below

For some “company” you know

 

It’s journey wasn’t very harsh

And soon he reached a marsh

Where the met a Duck called Jo

And the Eagle had her just so

Then after he had had his way 

He bad farewell and flew away 

So after the deed was done

And the eagle had had his fun 

Jo said, “I am a little Drake

And he made a big mistake

But I liked it”

A PASSING CIVILIZATION

 

Fast food packaging

Hits the ground

As a car passes

Paper cups dance

In the artificial breeze

As a lorry passes

In the shrubbery

Tin cans and wrappers lie

As a pedestrian passes

Tickets, receipts, cartons

Bottles, tins and old refrigerators

Each successive piece surpasses

But nature will overcome

Our laziness and contempt

When our tenancy passes

THE GIANT ATTRACTION

 

In captivity Panda’s suffer

Great indignity

They’re sexual failures

On display for all to see

I WANT TO LIVE

I want to live

Where you can see stars

In the night sky

And it actually gets dark at night

 

I want to live

Where the riverbanks

Are grass and reed

And the dominant colour is green

 

I want to live

Where the animals

Outnumber cars

And I know all my neighbours by name

 

I want to live

An idyllic country life

In a village or on a farm

In a chocolate box paradise

WIND

 

Wind is a wonderful thing

Invisibly it makes the leaves dance

And trees gyrate as if shaken

By an invisible hand

Water is pushed before it

Rain and snow are driven by it

It ripples through cornfields

Whispers in the grass

It whistles through canyons

Whines like a tortured spirit

Or scream like a banshee

It is a fickle force

It can be silent like a mouse

Or roar like a lion

Its gentleness can caress your cheek

Its awesome power

Can toss you like a rag doll

Or snap you like a twig

Its power is to be respected

It’s uncompromising and indiscriminate

A force to be reckoned with

Whether from the frozen north

Or a bitter easterly

A stormy westerly

Or a vengeful tempest from the south

BENEATH AUTUMNAL SKIES

 

Beneath autumnal skies

The suns strength diminishes

With each passing day

Then foliage turns slowly

From green to gold

And finally to red and brown

Before fluttering to earth

The gentle late summer breezes

Make them dance

And when breeze turns to raging storm

They’re sent swirling

As if court in some frenetic snow globe

The lucky ones escape this chaos

And ends their short lives

Trapped Beneath hedgerows

Or blown into quiet corners

The rest whirl like dervishes

Hither and thither

Until the winter rains

Turn them to mush under foot