MR GLISTEN COMES TO TOWN

 

The snow has come its falling fast

It’s time to dance about and cheer

Soon it will be time to build a snowman

I build the same one every year

 

When the snow is lying deep and fresh

I go to the cupboard in my room

Where I get his hat, gloves and scarf

And of course his birchwood broom

 

Mum says “don’t you stay out long”

But she knows that I don’t listen

She knows that it takes some time

To build the perfect Mr Glisten

 

I always start in the same place

And make the body large and round

For his head I roll a smaller ball

Rolling it on the snowy ground

 

Soon he stands up taller than me

Rising up from the fallen snow

Each year it takes a little longer

As like me each year he grows

 

Down his front go pebble buttons

From his neck down to the floor

His stick arms wear his gloves

Which don’t really fit him anymore

 

Then I put on his scarf and hat

His birch broom stands by his side

Marbles to make his eyes shine

And a stick mouth smiling wide

 

Last the carrot nose goes in place

And I step back and a moment spend

Gazing at the happy snowman face

Then I say “Hello my old friend”

IT’S A SNOW DAY

 

The motorway is closed

All the schools are shut

It’s a snow day, it’s a snow day

The kids can stay and play

 

The buses aren’t running

The car won’t start

It’s a snow day, it’s a snow day

We can stay and play

 

The gritter’s never did the job

The salt’s still in the bin

It’s a snow day, it’s a snow day

No work for us today

 

It’s bad for the economy

For us all to stay at home

It’s a snow day, it’s a snow day

Hip, hip hooray

SNOWFLAKE

 

What a perfect creation

Are the snowflakes

Beauty and geometry

Each precisely fashioned

 

They float to earth

Filling the air

Like cotton in a mill shed

Haphazardly drifting

 

Individual and unique

The crystals fall

Like pieces in an Impossipuzzle

To make a perfect picture

THE SILENT DAWN

 

The six o’clock alarm

Breaks my slumber

I swat at the clock

Like an unwelcome bug

A single gesture brings silence

And I lie in the quiet hush

Silence! Why is it silent?

Where is the traffic noise?

The clinking milk float?

The boy racers?

The early morning bussle?

I leap from my bed

And rush to the window

I pause for a moment

Hold my breath in anticipation

Then pull back the curtain

And what a sight to behold

Snow! Snow! Snow!

As far as the eye could see

A vista of pure virgin white

The whole scene cloaked

In a deep shroud of snow

Shapes rose up here and there

From the thick carpet

Disguising what lay below

I search the scene for signs of life

And found none

The snow was fresh and unsullied

Just lying there, waiting

I turned and dragged the duvet

Off my sleeping wife

And responded to her protests

Saying “Snow! Snow! Snow!”

Half an hour later

We were fully dressed

And on the way out of the door

Thirty seconds we were back

We had forgotten to wake the children

THE STORM FRONT

 

The gulls screech and scream
Swooping above the cliff top
While white horses ride the waves below
As the tidal surge is broken to a stop

Fishing boats appear to dance
Driven by weather to the south
And make slow progress in the swell
Bobbing towards the yawning harbour mouth

As the weather quickly closes in
The gulls desert the cliff top
Making their way inland to safety
Waiting patiently for the storm to stop 

A WINTER NIGHT

 

Like a ribbon that's spun

Of the purest of silk,

The road crossed the cold bleak dale

It appeared that the frost

On the wintry panes

Was embossed with images from beyond the pale

And the winter-sky,

Lit with the moon and the stars,

Made the icicles glow in the night-

And the beauty of all

Of that December view

Was perceived in the essence of light-

And deceived by the soft...firelight.

IF DECEMBER ICE

 

If December ice will bear a duck

Thereafter will be slush and muck

But grab the duck off the ice

And Christmas lunch be very nice