Category Archives: Uncategorized

I still go back in memory And sit beside the fire And watch the turf fire burning The sods make it go higher Nanna’s bed adjacent The crocheted quilt across The matriarch of Erris We knew she was the boss   Warmth and light emitting The fire drew us in Cold and dark outside TheContinue reading “Bridget Carey”

‘Fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly.’ (Mark 7:22)   A little girl went missing But she’s found A woman has gone missing And feared drowned A policeman goes to jail For twenty years of crime And a sexual culture in our schools Hurts girls every time   And on TVContinue reading “The Evil That We Do”

I stood on the Embankment Gabardine mac and cap Drizzle fell from a blue-black sky Illumined in its droplets By floodlight lamps on high Bolton were playing Wolves that night I stood and watched it all They beat us off the park all right Better on the ball   Coming out along the road AContinue reading “Mid Week Match”

We stood on the height above the Tay Looking down on fields below When my old school teacher said to me Setting a puzzle so Why do they always put the gate In the muddiest part of the field? Took me a moment to cotton on A smile made my face to glow   AndContinue reading “A Beaten Path”

Terremoto The earth moves and quakes Buildings fall And cover the buried dead And with bare hands we seek to find alive The injured parties Rescued watered fed   Such devastation Seeks the human heart We send our money Try to play our part While Russian bombs explode A heartless kill We seek to helpContinue reading “Earthquake”

Happy Valley Calder Valley Deadpan Yorkshire grit We’ve all got troubles don’t you know Make the best of it   Yorkshire streets and Yorkshire moors Say it like it is Catherine Cawood goes to work Police and family biz   A nation was drawn in to view Each pulsing episode This is how real folkContinue reading “Well Done, Our Sarah”

My lovely grandson Lucas At present only five Is going to get himself a wand To make Grandma Maggie alive He told me quite determinedly He is going to get that wand To bring her back alive again Wouldn’t that be grand!   Is this the murmurings of a child? Saddened at the thought ofContinue reading “The Magic Wand”

Two grandsons in my life Lucas and Noah Names so strange to me At their first sight Now they are five and three Almost four And joy to me they are A heart’s delight   Lucas means the bringer of the light Like early morning brightness Welcome sight And Noah means repose Welcome rest WhenContinue reading “Light and Rest”

  Paris 1919 A shattered world a hundred years ago Leaders meet Countries are redrawn War guilt is assessed and payment set Millions dead Mixing into mud Lost unknown unburied Gone for good   To think that we would do it all again And this time worse More dead A world insane   And sinceContinue reading “A History Lesson”

‘Would some power the giftie gie us To see ourselves as others see us’                                                   Robert Burns     Since 1945 we have looked askance at Russia and Russia has looked askance at the West. We see Russia as a problematic place. We hope that, one day, Russia will be free just as we are.Continue reading “A World At War”

A powerful man Brought low by a dancing girl And by the thought What others would think of him And withal a ruthless tyrant Willing to kill his sons And kill a holy man Tricked by a woman’s wiles   But he cannot suppress his conscience No matter how he tries He hears of JesusContinue reading “Bad Man”

‘Through the intercession of Saint Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from all diseases of the throat and from all other harm besides.’   At the end of Mass people come up the aisle Two candles crossed and tied with ribbon red Laid across their shoulder blades Touching to the throat The blessingContinue reading “Saint Blaise”

The man was forthright That was his great strength Dashing centre forward Scorer of many goals But that same momentum Brought him crashing down Collided with a keeper End of his renown   But Taylor came to cheer him up Let’s carry on the fight In management we’ll try our hand Set the world alightContinue reading “Brian Clough”

We love to have opinions We love to have our say The modern world a talking shop Talking is here to stay But sometimes to our great surprise We find that silence speaks And silence is more eloquent Than all our daily squeaks   It is good to choose your battles In the daily roundContinue reading “Battleground”

I remember the dreaded day 11plus exam results Postman came round the road Delivering envelopes   It marked the end of childhood days It caused such separation Some folk went to clever school The rest to a lower station   And I was picked out from the crowd Boarding school for me A hundred milesContinue reading “End Of Childhood”