Blog Archives

7 Stars, by Guy Fletcher

28/2/2025

How I wish for a telescope
as I stare with naked eyes
at the wonder of the night sky:
Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Venus,
Neptune, Mercury and Saturn
yet can only imagine the red of Mars
as my gaze takes me far out to the stars.

We are on a giant spaceship
moving through the darkness of space
worrying so much about our petty lives
as insignificant as a grain of sand.
But I'm grateful for this break between storms
and as a plane flickers between 7 stars
I can only imagine...the red of Mars.

For Troubled Times, by Christa Loughrey

21/2/2025

5 Comments

Such devastating pictures fill our screens.
New conflicts rage; old foes rise up, re-arm;
Insurgents mass,
And mounting tensions spiral into war.

But never let today destroy your dreams.
See – former battlefields now rest in calm;
Sand fringed with grass
Is daily cleansed as soft tides sweep the shore,

And poppies cloak the killing fields. It seems
Sweet nature heals old wounds with gentle balm.
Today will pass.
Take heart; we’ll find our way to peace once more.

5 Comments

A Zealous Volunteer, by Jeremy Leariwala

14/2/2025

1 Comment

He, a passionate giver, is now signed out.
Ever deserving a heroes-pat by all means,
Remaining a pillar & an unequalled corner stone,
Our hearts will dearly miss such a man forever.

Kiara, Mzee - the legend, thank you!
I wish I could award medals from this high.
Any prestigious-posthumous-treat befitting,
Really deserving and a unique caring being.

At the time when boys needed resolute moulding,
Roaring Kiara voluntarily & decisively tackled truancy;
Individually dragging rebels & associates to classrooms.
Personally and without a haven, I toed the line.

1 Comment

Metal Work, by Simon Steven

7/2/2025

2 Comments

The mechanical smell lingers until finally, it’s your scent.
A high corrugated ceiling, rusty, dominant, old and bent.
Each lathe has its song — all turning on the gong.

High-speed steel peels to the noise of clunking chucks.
A pedestal drill squeals; the foreman wildly conducts.
The symphony of engineering consumes everyone’s hearing.

We play all morning long with only tea for fuel.
We dance throughout lunchtime never using the stool.
Music has no time for pauses. Great works demand great forces.

The long rhythmic noon soon becomes early night.
Now tired and weary, we gaze at our work with delight.
When the baton finally rests, the flock flies to their nest.

Until the morrow … sleep tight … last one out kills the light.

2 Comments

Tragic Beauty, by Guy Fletcher

7/2/2025

1 Comment

She had the appearance of Helen of Troy
and a voice as haunting as Garbo.
I study footage of Marianne Faithfull
with perennial cigarette in hand
singing the iconic, "As Tears Go By"
yet "Song for Nico" really melts my soul.
Marianne's life spiralled out of control

from being Jagger's girlfriend
with the world at her feet
but this alluring blonde descended from the stars,
poisoned by heroin then becoming homeless,
yet survived covid making it to seventy-eight,
such a tragic beauty in many ways,
remembered for those far off 60s days.

1 Comment

Indomitable, by Mimi Grouse

7/2/2025

2 Comments

They said her speech was brazen
So they made her close her mouth
Then they called her silence sulkiness
And told her not to pout.
They threw her in a dungeon
And nailed shut the door
But they couldn't stop her spirit
From roaming hill and lake and moor.
She broke the chains around her soul
And set it flying, free
To ride the wind, to raise the storm
And infuriate the sea.

2 Comments

7 Stars, by Guy Fletcher

For Troubled Times, by Christa Loughrey

A Zealous Volunteer, by Jeremy Leariwala

Metal Work, by Simon Steven

Tragic Beauty, by Guy Fletcher

Indomitable, by Mimi Grouse

Poetry

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