Author Archives: tyldesleyboy

Clutterbuck I looked it up today What a name to be landed with Oh what rotten luck But things are not so bad it seems In fact not bad at all The name has Nordic roots A beautiful name withal   The ‘Clutter’ bit means pure And buck is beck a stream The name meansContinue reading “Pure Running Stream”

You remember Grace Millane A lovely girl Went travelling the world Alas alone Brave new world these days You’ve got a phone Instant contact Wherever you may roam   There is danger in this world And you don’t know A Tinder App Will get you in the flow And cosy drinks With someone you don’tContinue reading “Never Walk Alone”

Matthew 20:17-28   A mother wants the best for her sons Power and position and prestige Her timing couldn’t worse Jesus talks about the curse Of suffering that will come And not ease   What is this life he leads The journey taken Engaging all the world by word and deed The way of lifeContinue reading “Cross Purpose”

It’s standing still That little church in Hindsford Though closed up nigh on twenty years I bet it feels the chill By rights they should have knocked it But someone said you can’t do that It’s beautiful it stays And so a preservation order Saved it from the ‘dozers And weather will do what ‘dozersContinue reading “Remember Where You Came From”

Silent chapel silent prayer Silent adoration Outside a dark and busy world Inside this quiet station   Every evening every day Every waking moment Quiet presence of the Lord Acknowledged and unspoken   Mutual presence mutual care Mutual understanding Grow in grace and grow in love For a world demanding   Brian Fahy 6 MarchContinue reading “To Adore”

Trapped beneath high pressure No wind to blow fresh air City coal fires burning Citizens unaware Coal smoke turning toxic Nowhere else to go Into houses into lungs People dying slow   Four days of this agony Fearful awful smell Darkness in the daylight London a living hell Hospitals are crowded Deaths are soaring highContinue reading “London Smog”

How the mighty have fallen We love to see the fall Like the limbs of Oxymandias Who once had stood so tall Broken and buried in desert sand The mighty king of kings And Shelley wrote the poem To tell the way of things   Mighty Reds met mighty Reds At Anfield yesterday Giant versusContinue reading “Only a Game”

To write one perfect poem That’s what she said I’d give up all the things I’ve done The things I’ve seen and heard If I could write a perfect poem If I could find the word   I like it oh I like it The poem is the thing Expressive of our feeling Life’s veryContinue reading “Poem”

Out of this world As far as we’re concerned This story of the Lord The mountainside For we live down below We do not know up there There the air is rarefied Most folk couldn’t care   And the Lord was put to death in the end No song and dance about a rising thenContinue reading “Jesus Transfigured”

In his prison cell he sits and reads Makes notes and sketches Reflecting on his needs Receives and answers letters Always stay in touch Locked away and yet he does so much   He awaits a day of freedom Prepares to write a book A witness to oppression By the stand he took He couldContinue reading “Political Prisoner”

Did something happen to you When you were eleven? Eddie joked a smile upon his face Was I overstating things? Milking it as they say No I wasn’t What happened was a disgrace   I lost my home and family Taken from the fold Put in airy monasteries Forbidding and so cold I lost theContinue reading “Seminary Song”

Matthew 5:20-26   A hundred years ago those houses burned A civil war aflame Downhill House by Ballina Moore Hall the same Torched destroyed and ruined Retaliation’s name For lives destroyed in Dublin The execution game   Downhill now a fine hotel You would not know what’s been But Moore Hall holds the evidence AContinue reading “A Burning Fire”

We take our bearings from the stars Our soundings from the sea Our calculations tell us How near how far we be How deep the depth below us How far our port of call Our bearings and our soundings Define our wherewithal   But on the ocean of this life So many voices call TheContinue reading “Lifeline”

They say it’s human error This rail tragedy in Greece My instinct was to look away It just disturbs the peace The horror of disaster Mangled carnage there Head on crash too terrible Weeping in the air   And Linda Kasabian has died Another tragedy The Manson family madness The Helter Skelter spree Stories ofContinue reading “Take Care”

No airs and graces Willie A plain and simple Scot Minted out of Uddingston See me – that’s what you’ve got And that was why it worked for him The plain and simple truth A brother and a man of God From such a callow youth   No advanced education No marks or high degreesContinue reading “A Religious Man”