Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts

Saturday, 29 April 2017

The World's most comfortable Chair


The World's most comfortable Chair


Designed in 1962, a symbol of its time
With wings enclosing whispered secrets in your ears.
The ultimate in comfort, ahead of its time
Buttoned down but free thinking, it withstood the years.
Bloefeld and the white cat gave Bond a hard time
Rock and swivel, like a supervillain, the keeper of your fears.
Iconic, ironic, renamed simply the Sixty-Two
Retro, metro, acclaimed and strictly brand-new.

By Linda Prince

Friday, 28 April 2017

Test your Survival Skills Here


Test your Survival Skills Here


What unspoken words do you whisper in my ear?
Why are you calling me loud and clear?
Why do you draw me in to your summit
For that one brief moment when I call you mine?
What ancient magic delights to goad me on?
Why risk my life, Everest high or jungle Amazon?
What brave new world do I seek to conquer
For one solitary instant I can say I have won.

I have considered the rules of three: air, water, food and shelter.
I have frozen crossing the ice or migrating over dunes did swelter.
Foraging for food and wilderness navigation,
Lost, mind paying tricks, high temperature and starvation.
Panic? No - prioritise. I need to beat the elements.
A debris hut or nature’s cave, before mind game developments.

What unspoken words do you whisper in my ear?
Why are you calling me loud and clear?
Why do you draw me in to your summons
For that one brief moment when I call you mine?

By Linda Prince

Friday, 21 April 2017

Death in Dorset

Death in Dorset

30th March 2017 an ex-Dorset council employee is killed
By her husband aged 62.
March !3th 2017 and the Dorset Echo headlines says ‘Ethiopia
Death toll reaches 62’.
January 9th just two years ago and a cyclist is killed near Dorchester
By a driver aged 62.
October 15th 2004 and man, aged 62, attempts to kill his neighbour
Who is also 62.

But then – there people pass on by and reach eternal slumber
And many don’t reach 62 or any other number.
 

By Linda Prince

Sunday, 9 April 2017

Out of Date


Out of Date


1720 and it’s the 13th of June and the first Duke has earned his ermine.
Previous Earls, Barons and a Marquess or two glance down upon the vermin.
A spirited Celt, a Saxon Fair and some Romans who landed at Poole harbour
Are looking on and looking down, sighing in the shady arbour.
Alas, alack their reign was short and gone they were in a blink
Like fellow Pliosaurs from Weymouth Bay, the line became extinct.
From 155 million years ago or in 1843 in verdant Dorset they briefly did flourish
Families of dusty dinosaurs or progenitors the lovely county did nourish.
An asteroid hit or reptiles caught cold, a peer dies without his wish,
It is hard to chart events that might have snuffed out gentry or fish
Anachronisms now that once were fashionable wave ‘au revoir’
To a glorious family motto ‘Either never attempt, or accomplish’.
A family motto, the simple maxim they lived by
and both dinosaur and man join the extinct Dorset Society Alumni.


By Linda Prince
 

Tuesday, 4 April 2017

T-Minus

Almost Midnight



T-Minus


10. Backward counting to ignition and launch
what goes through your mind?
What goes through theirs? What if all goes wrong?
In seconds I could be atoms free floating through the universe.
9, 8, 7 skim by with relentless speed. It’s like New Year but all alone.
Backwards counting.
The home plate umpire calls the balls and the strikes
And life looks different from the pitcher’s perspective
Everything reads backwards today.


T-Minus 6. Too late to abort and run for the hills.
What if the can blows up?
Too late to argue balls and strikes and get ejected from the field of play.
T-Minus 2. Counting backwards I count you in
I don't remember him
I don't remember .. did some Muse throw me a life line?
An epitaph or a voyage?
And somewhere in the distance an outfielder says ‘we have lift off’.
But they don’t. They are rooted to the earth whilst I, yes, I have lift off.
A home run in flight, heading out of the park.
Another hundred fingerprints I hear but they grow ever dimmer
And the black void beckons.
T-Minus 6. T-Minus 2.
Counting backwards. Happy New Year to you.

By Linda Prince 


image obtained from:
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=152537&picture=almost-midnight 

Monday, 3 April 2017

T-Rex


T-Rex


As old as the hills, Jurassic in fact.
A star of stage and screen.
The tyrant lizard from the reptile age,
Extinct but no has-been.

I can beat a sprinter, with Olympian thighs.
The largest land carnivore of all time,
With terrible teeth to tear you apart
As you fight to escape your primeval slime.

Mock the length of my arms, the size of my skull,
how long to change direction,
but I’ll break off your limbs and bite off your head
and then we’ll discuss natural selection.

Call us Sue or call us Stan, don’t think that you can mock us
I see you quaking with my binocular vision.
The name is T-Rex and I smell you and your fear
You can’t beat me only using derision.

I will crush your will, make your heart rate soar
As I thunder up, hover over you in the famous stoop.
There is no escape from a mouth agape
So go back to your primordial soup.

And leave the powerful to roam the imagination
And pay the king of the dinosaur age due respects.
Most feared. Most revered. Oppressive and cruel
But none more famous than T-Rex.

By Linda Prince

Sunday, 2 April 2017

The Ice Cream


The Ice Cream


Stir it up. Swirl the colours: cream, pale yellow or dainty pink
Stir it up. Gyrate the streaks, earthy brown or black like ink.
Spirals agitate, a geology of Neapolitan dessert, different but with a link.

The spoon excavates the ice cream, making whorls of flavour
Gently, imperceptibly the patterns fade and die, but savour
The chill, the thrill, a summer’s day, a rest from daily labour.

The dog runs free across the bay, splashes in salt water the colour of Turkish delight.
The ice is melting, a vortex of sweetness, gone the shades of the traffic light
One creamy muddle, round and round, a sundae whirlpool ammonite.

Ketton cream or German brown, oolitic pink cliffs formed in ice,
Sedimentary streaks of colour, volcanic ice cream bombs sprinkled like silver rice,
Rocks that shine, or glint or fragment, or metamorphic gneiss.

Wandering aimlessly along strata, ice cream tub sticky, lost gradation
The Jurassic Coast looms large against aquamarine sky, white jewelled encrustation.
The dog, in joy aloud she barks, the ice cream drips and breaks the contemplation.

Striations of history, rock striped through and through, keeping us safe and watertight,
Pillars of rock brooding and towering down, awe and inspiring Heritage Site
Jurassic cliffs that have stood the tests of time, keep us safe by day and by night.

By Linda Prince 

Saturday, 1 April 2017

The View

The view from my bedroom.....



The View


The blue grey mist is an opaque veil across my eyes,
I know the valley is there, I have walked the hazy hills.
Today, cock-crow early, the blurred picture still forms
Countryside is waking slowly from its sleeping pills.

The orb in the sky tries breaking through obscuring fog
And for brief second the dale appears
An illusion, a temperate rural soft mirage
Concealed behind nature’s tears.

The pitter-patter raindrops relax, less tense,
A fracture in Mother Nature’s smoke screen
A golden fissure separates glistening shroud
The summit, the farms, a picture box scene.

The schism is working, sunlight breaks through
And the View hoves into eye-line at last
Bright colours of country, radiant rain on a leaf
The View cheers whatever weather forecast.

Ink black night, no street lamps here
Along ribbons of valley roads comply.
The View enfolded in darkness once more disappears
But tomorrow and tomorrow it waits on stand-by.

Dawn chorus is waking in the Cathedral of nature,
Fox pricks up his ears strolling down country lane.
Somewhere, out there, my View is waiting
To reveal itself, through my window pane.

The View has been there for ever, an eternal life line,
Shared by villagers and visitors but is always just mine.

By Linda Prince  
 


Thursday, 12 March 2015

New Beginnings

It's been a busy time, 2015 seems to be rushing by and I don't know where the time has gone. We have a number of new books to place in our store and Linda and Caroline are preparing for NaPoWriMo 2015.   Each author is publishing a poem a day for the whole of April and we will then compile them into a number of smaller collections to publish during June 2015.

We are also about to publish a new book,  "A Dickens Of A Murder" by Peter Stevens within sideLINES, the branch of the company that supports new authors to put their work into Epub format ready for distribution via the internet.  If you are interested in publishing a book under our branding then please contact us for further details.

As a small company we have been getting our heads around the new VAT MOSS regulations and now feel confident that for the next year at least we will be able to manage the new books by eliminating the automatic delivery of purchased downloads.  This might mean that there will be a 24 hour delay in downloads being released to our customers until we have refined the process.  Please bear with us as we sort this out.

Although I am charged with completing the less creative aspects of LINES Publications, I have been challenged to try to write a book of my own in 2015.  I really must get started on this otherwise there is going to be a major rush to fit everything in this year.

I look forward to sharing the poems with you over the month of April and contacting some of our favourite photographers and illustrators to source illustrations to accompany the poems. 


Saturday, 3 May 2014

Post poetry month

Well, April, Poetry Month, is over and LINES has published the required 'poem a day' and is was really enjoyable - we hope you enjoyed reading them. We took three themes - the first was Trees (our whizzy JJ had taken some pictures of trees in North London which provided the stimulus for a set of poems), the second was related to World War 1 and our thoughts and memories about it and the last set was just a mixed set of things. JJ is now going to publish all three sets as 3 booklets (as we did last year). We hope you like them.

Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Lest we Forget


Lest we Forget


A quarter of a million underage young British soldiers
Fought in World War One.
Each one, one in a million – each one gone.
Journalists arrested or outlawed at the front,
Threatened with execution
For publishing unpatriotic pollution.
Over a quarter of a million women working on the land,
An army in the landscape.
Each one, one in a million – a new role taking shape.
Nurses arrested and executed saving other’s lives.
Medicine in its early days,
Moving into another phase.
A million horses sent over to the trenches,
Mules and dogs on guard.
Each one, one in a million – a life that is scarred.
Objectors, pacifists, those with different views.
Too old, too young, or simply disinclined -
Labelled by society - some heroes, some maligned.
Disabled, grannies or mothers waiting for the news,
Scientists and engineers expanding knowledge and the mind,
Shop-keepers, farmers, all those who were left behind.
Over 37 million casualties – civilian or in uniform -
Statistics are unclear.
Each one, one in a million – but each one someone dear.
And dear the cost to one and all
Will we ever the lesson learn?
Do not forget them, one and all
For each is our concern.


 By Linda Prince

© Charmaine Harrison @ http://charmingphotography.weebly.com/     

Tuesday, 29 April 2014

The Office


The Office

The Calendar changes from day to day
And the gossip drives me mad.
I tidy up my desk
And the others think I’m mad.
They come with coffee in paper cup
And they never do a thing.
I clearing tyrannical emails,
They let the phone just ring.
They watch the time and go to lunch
But they never seem to return.
I take down endless messages
And for freedom I yearn.
The Calendar is flipped over
Pretending as they feign
When the boss walks by, the bell rings
And tomorrow we’ll do it all again.


By Linda Prince

Monday, 28 April 2014

The Roundabout


The Roundabout

It came about in a roundabout way,
I was hoping to go round clockwise,
But then I found it went the other way
I’m sure you can imagine the surprise.
Cloc’ or anti-cloc’? That is the question -
Is this North London or abroad?
Is this a result of Continental obsession
Or just another April fool fraud?
Round and round and in and out – will they ever get it right?
Round and round and up and down – it’s just another blight.


By Linda Prince 


© Richard Wilson


Sunday, 27 April 2014

The Windhover


The Windhover

Light soft breeze, he faces the West.
Ruffled feathers stationary, hovering still.
Patience personified, he waits for the probable guest.
Lavender evening meets lilac heath,
Enters a chill in the turbulent air.
Unsuspecting visitor scurries beneath.
Violet clouds hide violent ending.
Flashes of another hue streak down
Beyond gravity hidden, blending.
Bright eyes, nimble agile bird of prey
The Kestrel shivers and glides away.


By Linda Prince

Friday, 25 April 2014

November the 11th at 11am


November the 11th at 11am

Hostilities will halt but they fought right to the end.
I lost a young soldier, a lover and a friend.
As I stand in the field and survey the watery golden sun
I wait and watch the landscape, a battle fought and won.
There’s an eerie silence, expectant and hushed
That rings in my ears, the foe it is crushed.
The breeze ripples by and is turning
To a murmur of cheering, longing and yearning.
The hands on the watch reach eleven exact
And the signatured agreement becomes an act.
Battles stop and the guns now cease,
Emotions and tears, not bullets release,
And there is peace.


By Linda Prince 


 

Thursday, 24 April 2014

Wembley Way


Wembley Way

Today’s the day
We’re on our way.
We’ll shout for us
And boo for you.
Today’s the minute
It’s really great innit?
We’ll cry for us
And laugh at you.
Walking down Olympic Way (but no one calls it that!)
I’m breathing in the atmos’ -
We’ll knock you into a cocked hat
Unless game you boss.
Today’s the place
Glory or disgace.
We’ll clap for us
And jeer for you.
Walking down Wembley Way (everyone calls it that!)
I’m taken in by the quiet
Before the crowds descend for combat,
Snaking in a coloured riot.
Whether you’re a red, or maybe a blue,
Or a team that sports a different hue,
If you are wearing yellow or perhaps a purple shade
Your heart skips a beat as you walk the footie parade.
Today’s the Cup
Thing are looking up.
We’ll hope we win
And you will lose.
But whatever the outcome, it’s only a game
And we will be friends always the same.
Our hearts will leap
We’ll joke or weep
Down Wembley Way.

By Linda Prince

Wembley Way © Linda Prince

Wednesday, 23 April 2014

Nurse


Nurse

Unaccustomed as I am to hospitals, I’m sure I can help the effort.
Unaccustomed as I am to workers, I know that I won’t be caught short.
I mean how hard can it be?
Unaccustomed as I am to hardship, I can put up with a roughing it a tad
Unaccustomed as I am to foreign lands, of course it’s not a fad.
I mean what is there to see?

One has to support the war effort
So I’ll serve King and Country as a VAD
As a field nurse helping young men,
Walking wounded, shelled shocked and sad.
I’ve had three months training and I’m ready for the trench
Though I haven’t seen a dead body as it rots within sickening stench.
But they tell me I am ready and I’m cut out for battle nursing
And I volunteered, so there’s no reversing.
I mean - how hard can it be?


By Linda Prince

Tuesday, 22 April 2014

Rose, my Rose


Rose, my Rose

Christmas Eve, nineteen seventeen,
I think of my Rose, just seventeen.
The tenor croons, the first little song of love.

In Picardy roses are blooming.
In Piccadilly my Rose is blooming.
The tenor swoons and our roads may be far apart.

Enlisting for France the Tommy singing,
In Petty France baby Tommy is singing,
Lambert Murphy on record in my heart.

Rose humming our song full of memories and bygones
Rose, my Rose remembering our love that is gone by
The song is the last little song she hears.


By Linda Prince

Monday, 21 April 2014

Grandad abroad


Grandad abroad

From Tonbridge to Bombay,
From Quetta to Afghanistan
Grandad had his day.

Another brave young boy
Who fought for God and King.
Another one to deploy.

But Grandad was a fighter,
In grim conditions battled,
But with moments that were lighter.

We cannot pain measure
As he fought for his life abroad,
But we remember him with pleasure.

For the family will always say,
‘Do you remember what Grandad did
That terrible, fateful day?’

‘Twas in the 3rd Afghan War
He took his rifle standing proud
And was hear to shout and roar.

“Who goes there?” his nerves on edge.
But the assailant answered not,
And Grandad had made a pledge.

Raising his rifle battered and wonky,
He shot, the silence riven
Standing over the fallen donkey.

How do we tolerate war without glory?
Stomach killing and pain in war?
If not through a comical story.

Grandad never told of slaughter
In battle weary lands
Across the divided water.

But the story makes us smile
And we mention aloud his name
And he is back with us for a while.


By Linda Prince 



 

Sunday, 20 April 2014

Goodbye to all that


Goodbye to all that

War of the World, ravaged belligerents in conflict
Eyeing up territory, offensives transfer power as boundaries change.
And weakened states humiliation inflict
And imperial empires fall as borders re-arrange.
The map of Europe redrawn, territories lost or won
What did we achieve, after all is said and done?


By Linda Prince