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View From the Window

Nature flourishes;
society’s fabric hangs,
this spring, by a thread.

Green fronds of bamboo
peer over our wall and wave
at me through the glass.

Spreading her palms wide,
Fatsia Japonica
plays the drama queen.

A small fishing craft
manoeuvres its way back home
to harbour’s safety.

The black cormorant
with horizontal plumb line
flies directly home.

Billowing white clouds
recall lazy days, laid back,
dreaming, on the grass.

A small patch of blue
parts the clouds high above me,
lifting my spirits.

Cerulean skies,
like a vast ocean without
visible limits.

Pink, turquoise and grey
offer us celestial
colour therapy.

Irrepressible,
waving tamarisk defies
winter’s harsh pruning.

Copying nature,
we wave from our balconies,
applauding heroes.


Julia Duke


Currently Popular Poems:

Tins

Back then, I couldn't understand. Why so many tins, mum? Towers of carrots, beans and soups. Spaghetti in tomato sauce. She was shaped by war and disability. Rations and depletions. Unreachable shops. The anxiety of uncertainty. Now I'm shaped by the virus war. Rations and depletions. Unsafe shops. The anxiety of uncertainty. I understand, now, and worry. Look at my own tin towers. Just ahead of the panic, Stores drying up, fear building. Ashamed of how I mocked. Unable to say sorry, To say that I understand. Complacent no more. by Adrian Image by Ti Wi via Unsplash

Seasons

To each a season: the planets Turn in Kepler's gyre, Swelling the mental weather, Fattening the wealth Of light and dark I weekly Feel in my own solitude. To each a season: a death Of what was hard and cold: A burst of sun to break My hoary sadness And gild the shining tower I build around your smile. But let's not talk of sun But speak instead of life And all the things I feel When living through mortality. The lovely times We feast and meagre times We only feed on memories. I have my seasons. Tim Holt-Wilson

Undercover Marks

Nonsensical marks archiving thoughts and traces of Freedom. A library of blemished Recoveries And rejuvenation Stamps the ideal. Robert

Blue Sky

Blue sky And clouds float by Looking up high I can see why They do fly Blue sky Mavis

Community of Stones & Souls

Timeless, resilient stones; Miraculous creations. Fractured, yet not destroyed; Revealing artistic beauty within. Assembled into a constructive entity; A purposeful community of stones. Timeless, resilient souls; Miraculous creations. Fractured, yet not destroyed; Revealing artistic beauty within. Assembled into a constructive entity; A purposeful community of souls.   by Adrian

Reverse Switches

A faraway thought Eclipse of the Mind Offset against time. Random rotations Of Flickering predictions And reverse switches. An unknown being Offering stability of presence Estimation of existence. A prequel to sanity Essence of age And drifting forecasts. An overhang of tempers Stabilising the vitality And residence of mind. Spectre of sensation Accessing the bleak And uncertain future. Trudge of uncertainty Against unresolved Conflicts of schedule. A fathom of thoughts And sideway glances Broadening beyond reasoning. Iain   

Ready to Spring

Like the gnarly springtime bulbs, dormant in the ground Your demons crouch under the skin, waiting to be found Waiting for their moment, to break through and be seen The pale face of snowdrops, in a vibrant sea of green Emmalene Taylor

Behind Your Smile

Behind your smile, Is a heart that's filled with pain, Behind every gesture There's a walk down memory lane. For yesterday's troubles, Are torments of the soul, It's so hard to be strong, When life takes its toll. With every step that's taken, There's compassion for another, A listening ear always there, Guiding sons, daughters, mothers. Always so much easier, To hold up for a friend, When to go with your feelings, Seems to lead to no end. The whispers locked inside your head, Remind you, you're alive, With pretending and avoiding, You can easily survive. Giving in's not an option, When there are others to care for, So easy to pretend, When there's no help at the door. Depression, like a broken leg , Needs nurturing and healing. Don't treat it any differently, It's normal to have feelings. Out there is the help you need, To help and cope and manage, The troubles burdening your mind, To unload all the baggage. So while right now it seems each ...

Oak Meadow

B anished by force are warmth and sunlight Where we scratch and hack in the undergrowth. Nature’s front line is well entrenched here, In-grown and wiry with brambles and brash. Ages running wild, seeding and shooting At will, snagging, choking and smothering Have toughened her. In self-strangling struggle She scrabbles and claws her resistance – A tortuous mesh of trip-lines, barbs for skin And slips for boots in the mush underfoot. Old, alone and confused, like a geriatric tramp She bristles in layers of shredded sacking. Let’s tease out her bits, put to the burning Barrow-loads of combings; rake up the mess On her breast, sticky with burrs and briars; Open her up to the sun, re-stitch her Seams in woven hedgerows, with patches of Flowers fight back the years. Waken Beauty, Give bees and butterflies her face to love And we too will grow young with the work. Julian Case

Lone Stone

Stone, stone Oh who to be a stone? Don't moan We are all on our own Even as a stone! Josh