I love this image taken outside Beijing
last year (October) during my walk along the Great Wall.

It is so hazy and misty and vague our mind tries to make some sense or shape of it.

What do you think?

Stiil love this nearly a year after Beijing

Lyrics | Katie Melua lyrics - Nine Million Bicycles lyrics

Moths trying to escape

Michael wrote this when he was nine

' 19 june 2007 me and my dad were happy in the garden shed.
i am writing by the light of the hurricance lamp and the lightningh is
flashing and the rain is hammering on the roof, but we knew were safe
there were two moths trying to escape'

(During a torrential thunderstorm in the garden)

Daily Zen

A single moon

Bright and clear

In an unclouded sky:

Yet still we stumble

In the world’s darkness

Get your Daily Zen here !

If a man can write a better book

If a man can write a better book,

preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap
than his neighbor, though he builds his house in the woods
the world will make a beaten path to his door.

Waldo Emerson

I can't promise you a book , how about 10 mins live poetry?

18 July EDEN Shopping Centre opposite Mothercare from 3pm

see www.rrrants.co.uk or hear it here www.poetryinpubs.blogspot.com

This Year's love

What you seek..

What you seek you will never find.
Let your every day be full of joy.
Love the child that holds your hand.
Let your wife delight in your embrace.
For these alone are the concerns of humanity.

from The Epic of Gilgamesh

Cooke centre stage

Trust a Cooke to hog the limelight. Son Michael with his runner up medal for the Under 11's junior league promotion. Nice one son!

He said What?

Hi Mervyn,

I always feel that Irish writers should be handicapped in some way - perhaps made to end each stanza or paragraph with a word ending in the letter Z.

So comfortable are the Irish with rythm and cadence however that i sdoubt een this would prevent their pre-eminence with language.

Let's face it, even George best was a poet!

You have probably gathered that i am wholly impressed with this poem. it has the elusive haunting quality that all 'eminscence' poetry must attain - but so few do.

I look forward to reading more in this series.

Best wishes

sbeckett

Feedback

Thanks for sending your poem, “And I dreamt…”

" As with your previous poems, this really conveys strong images of childhood and of the natural world. I love the way your poems seem to draw the reader in straight away – the imagery you use is very powerful and I could really imagine being there. I particularly liked the description of the sheep, the ‘keepers of the mountain’ - their lively characters contrasting well with the harsh image of the dead crows in the next.

The description of the blue bottle in the last verse, desperate to escape, is great and emphasises the peace and stillness of the room really well. I really like the way your writing conveys meaning so effectively and conjures up such strong imagery! "

" I really enjoy your poems - they have the magic of childhood and their particular time and place. We all have different experiences of childhood but your poems make the memories live for people who have not experienced them.

... I enjoyed your alliteration - those crows and the sheep. I like the way (think it called 'personification') you describe the sheep as 'keepers of the mountain'. I like the unexpected ways you use words, 'tidy death of flies', 'sunday afternoon sleeping uncles', 'sun spilled, living room'. Lots of visual and sound imagery.

" What can I say - a dreamy long lost time and I wish I could have been there, it sounds so wonderful and warm. The only thing missing is hearing it with the proper accent."

Poetry in motion

OK - today, despite the blanket news coverage of English football promotions struggles (WYCOMBE YEAH HEY HEY PROMOTED),

in a quiet corner, in a quiet bar, the unveiling of

POETRY IN PUBS took place unbeknown to the landlord and owner.

Take poetry to the masses......so I stuck a few of my misguided thoughts on the walls of the Wendover Arms.

Tonight Saturday 2 May First class band playing form 7.30 pm

Sunday 3 May Comedy evening from 7.30 three first class acts, plus an ' unannounced young poet from Ireland reading for first time in the UK (did I say/ think 'the world'?)

FIRST EVER READING UNDER THE POETRY IN PUBS franchise.

Hey, what more can this blog bring you....?

If you want contemporary poetry in your workplace, restplace or, even on your bog wall, you just got to call me....or email...

Tune for Today

Stop a while and listen

In Memory of Patrick

IN MEMORY OF Patrick Gilmore 06-02-1976 - 23-01-2009

" ....... so clearly, I cannot understand time. It is eternity now. I am in the midst of it. It is about me in the sunshine;

I am in it, as the butterfly floats in the light-laden air. Nothing has to come; it is now. Now is eternity; now is the immortal life.

Here this moment, by this tumulus, on earth,now; I exist in it.

The years, the centuries, the cycles are absolutely nothing; it is only a moment since this tumulus was raised; in a
thousand years it will still be only a moment.

To the soul there is no past and no future; all is and will be ever, in now. "

(from The Story of my Heart - by Richard Jeffries)

China - window on the world

Once in a lifetime something happens that changes you, something happens that changes your outlook on life, that changes how you relate to people, to yourself, to one another.

Having been privileged to have the opportunity to travel to China, thanks to your donations, a window opened and I saw with my eyes, felt with my heart and touched by the warmth, generosity, charm, courtesy and spirit of the Chinese people....

From people in the TianTan park ( Park of heavenly peace) at 7am in the morning doing Tai chi, to the Mongolian Wall seller, to the man at the corner shop, to the waiter, to the bicycle repair man on the street, to everyone we met, there shone through the indomitable spirit of the Chinese people.

A blaze of colour, reds and yellows, swept through the countryside, an order, a chaos, a cacophony, a silence, a beauty, a shyness, a fierceness, a tenderness, an unfamiliarity, a friendliness. One stranger meets another.

I dived into China, at the deep end. (I can't swim) I came up gasping for air. I struggled to the side and a stranger said , " you are my brothers and sisters'.

.... to be continued...

Writing

There is a book in all of us, waiting to be written.

I went to a recently formed Writing Group so they could critique some of the stuff I had written.

Well frankly I was gobsmacked on their comments on two of my so-called 'poems'

It just goes to show that if toss your pebble in the pond of life, ripples come back.

They may take time, but they do come.

So if there is a book in you , get writing!

Who U spending your money with?

Times are tough, suppport your local company.

Here are a few I have come across and would recommend.

At the end of the day they are just blokes like you and me keeping family & kin together.

1. Buckinghamshire Chinese Language School
Evey Sunday 10-30 - 12.30 Bassetbury Manor, Bassetbury Lane, HW HP11 1QX
Contact: MaiSim Merry 07976 835968
www.bucksinfo.net/buckschineseasso

2. Buckingham Hotel/ Wendover Arms
156 West Wycombe Road, HW 01494 474747
Contact: shaf@buckinghamhotels.co.uk
www.buckinghamhotels.co.uk

3. Berkeley Chauffers - maybe u have a prom coming up?
Contact: 0845 423 8975 (Ian) admin@berkeleychauffers.com
www.berkeleychauffers.com

4. Bloc 3 - 4 Cornmarket , HW HP11 2BW
David Jones runs Bloc Brazilian coffee/sandwich bar in HW and Henley on Thames and Wallingford. All FAIRTRADE coffees. All freshly made sandwiches/cookies on premises.
David: 07812 101604


Bythe way, I should be publishing a book on Ireland in the 1960s - Recollections..let me know if you want to see it and let me know what you thinkbefore the rest of the world gets its hands on.
it.

Manzou - Chinese for take care.

Three Men in a Boat

Redundancy affects us all in different ways.

Once many years ago when I was first made redundant, the wife wasnt talking to me, I had crashed the car and they called me in that same morning to give me my P45.

Talk about waiting for buses and three come along at once.

Meet Bob, one of the Shotokan black belts at High Wycombe dojo

"Bob Davis, 35 years in PCB design, specialist in PADS and Cadence, looking for permanent, contract or sub-contract design work".

Meet Brian, my neighbour an iSeries Technical Support Analyst.

Meet Chris, my son's football coach, a materials scientist/engineer

Do you know anyone whoworks in their business sector?
Do you know anyone recruiting at the moment?
Do contact them if you can help - click on the column on the right (CVs) and open up the Word document, or drop a comment below.

Thanks.

For Cousin Carol

Carol Royle 1950 - 2009 a much loved sister, cousin, wife and friend

We said goodbye to Carol today. She chose this poem to be read.

Dry Your Tears

You can shed tears that she is gone or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she’ll come back or you can open your eyes and see all she’s left,

Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her or you can be full of the love you shared,
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday,

You can remember her and only that she’s gone or you can cherish her memory and let it live on,
You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back, or you can do what she’d want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

Chinese New Year

My inspiration comes from people I speak to; people I know, people I don't know, in the latter case they are a fount of stories and life experiences.

So, talk to someone you normally wouldn't talk to , go to a different shop, bar, coffee shop.

This is Chinese New Year so go up to a Chinese person, clasp your hands and say - SHIN KNEE-N HOW!

Attached is a Chinese Event in Wycome this week-end if you are
wondering what to do in Wycombe this Sunday. 1 st Feb.

Saludos to my Uncle Jim In Canada, the most mature blog reader and Lin for her New Year Card. And for all your feedback on some of the stuff I have written.

All I can say is..in these difficult times - take a different perspective.

Embrace the poor, embrace the dispossesed, embrace the homeless, embrace the jobless
For in their despair, in their longing, in their grief
We find ours. We find ourselves.

Look to the weak and not the strong.
Look to the humble and not the mighty.
Look on the face of despair and not the fair of face.
Look to the wind-wise willow and not the stiff stout oak.

For in our weakness and humility, in our despair and yielding we find ourselves.

Gong xi Ba cai

Boys and boats

We'd run and skip and jump
Past rocks and cow pats and muddy bits
To find the place, the point to put
Our boat in ,
our stick
our flower
our blade of grass.

And watch it bobble and burst
And bounce and dive and sink
And disappear beneath a bridge
and catch sight

Where, where, where?
A joy, a shout, there it is!
it’s in front
Mine's first
Mine’s winning!

And as that brook bubbled and burst
past boy-made dams
and time-worn barns
We ‘d rush to the edge and stop!

Barbed wire keeps little boys out.

To catch one
last glimpse,
one hope,
one fear.
Our little boat of hope disappear
Over the edge of the world

I look up and scan the mighty sea
How will it fare over there,
that little boat of hope?