Poems
7 years old
Poem about the emotional turmoil of bringing up a small child. Why do we end up screaming at each other?
A time of change
A poem attempting to look at the political roots of 9/11.
Aid Tourist
A silly poem about tourists who travel for charity but who really only want alittle adventure.
Alien
A humorous childrens poem about an alien landing in the playground.
Although I cry
A sonnet on how thinking badly of others only hurts myself.
Baby hedgehog
A starlit night in summer and a baby hedgehog emerged ....
The Bank was Big
An amusing poem about how banks somehow never seem to be in the wrong.
Bat
This short nature poem explores how even in suburbia we're close to the lives of wild creatures.
Beauty has the coldest heart
A sonnet about avoiding beautiful but poisonous women
Belinda
Daft children's poem about a girl who boasted she was best at everything.
Blackberries
Poem about childhood memories of gathering blackberries.
Blackbird
A very short inspirational poem about a Blackbird's song, and a very short all-purpose prayer
The Book
A short strange poem about being absorbed in a book.
Change
A formal poem about a desire for self-change. A slightly mystical poem.
Child
Memories of my child as a baby and the powerful love that I felt for him. This poem says that when a baby grows up their beauty and innocence only remain as a memory.
Child in its dreams
This poem looks back impressionistically at the feelings of childhood, and the timeless wonder of it all, even within the pain of loneliness.
Christianity and Islam
Decent people of any religion get along - this is a sonnet about religions and true, genuine spirituality
Come, stranger!
Imagining the soul walking off with death
Conform! Conform! Conform!
A poem about being forced to conform by culture and by other people's expectations. The only way out is to find yourself a dream and follow it.
Cooking
I HATE cooking!
The Curse
A dark and sinister poem about a curse that travelled around the world bringing death and destruction.
Death Squad Heaven
The CIA's back in town and murder is once again on the agenda in this sardonic poem.
Democracy
A mocking poem describing how Western democracy has been built on other people's sufferings
Dogs
I don't actually like dogs that much, as this short and sarcastic poem makes plain.
Dragon Flying Test
A short childrens poem about a Dragon taking its flying test
The Drumbeat Poem
This poem wis intended to be a bit of fun for children, teaching them the basics of rhythm in a silly way
Eating Chestnuts
As a child I used to cycle down to some chestnut words with my family and this poem describes how we'd spend an hour or two in the sharp air finding chestnuts.
Environment Agency
This is a mocking poem about an essentially pointless government agency, since there's nothing that we humans can do in the face of Mother Nature.
Every morning, every day
A short humorous poem about the mad dash to school every morning.
Eyes in the back of my head
A poem that looks humorously at bringing up children, and the many and varied hats that the parent has to wear.
The false teacher
Sarcastic look at dodgy teachers in a certain field of endeavour.
Feline Fandango
A poem celebrating cats (I used to like cats more than I do now - I've got children)
The Fence Crowded In
A short poem about feeling trapped and stressed-out and seeing no escape
Ferdie was a pit bull
A sardonic poem about a Pit Bull eating a child. Dangerous dogs are fundamentally dangerous underneath no matter how much the owner says, 'He won't hurt you!'
Fire
A poem about fire, and how it can seem small and welcoming but at any moment can devour!
The Frightening
Poem looking out of a window on a dark night and wondering what lies beyond in the fields
Gift
Sometimes it seems to me that a real present for my children would be a structure in their lives - this poem explores that.
God bless America!
Not quite sure how some Americans believe that God loves them above all other people, but there we go, most nations have a similar ego-driven self-delusion.
God I wish I was an ignorant lump of meat
This poem wishes that I was a bog-standard unquestioning person.
Height came down from the spirit world
A weird poem about height, imagining how it transformed 'mass' and made life possible
How to create a ghetto - a dish for one community
This poem imagines the creation of a ghetto as a recipe, where you throw certain 'ingredients' together (amorality, racism, poverty to name a few) and wait for the finished result
Human bomb
What creates the suicide bomber? This poem imagines what it must be like to live in extreme despair and poverty and how sensible and logical the choice of suicide might seem
Hunt
Humorous poem looking at hunting from an oblique angle - what if it wasn't animals being hunted?
I am
Sonnet about identity, and how fragile and foolish I am.
I am no stranger to these people
Sad poem about never communicating with all the people I meet very day, people who I walk past in the street
I am the Guardian of treasure
Protecting my children from bad influences - a poem about trying to keep my children growing up straight and true
I can walk on clouds
A poem about dreaming of escaping the mundane and touching the stars
I had a hope, I touched a dream
Overcoming despair and achieving a goal, a poem about following a dream and intuition
I have a fog that clouds my feeble brain
Regrets at not having a razor-sharp brain - a sonnet about feeling limited intellectually
I know what men are
A humorous poem about men and their many positive attributes!
I'm a rich adventurer
Another rich fool treks to the North Pole or wherever - a short and silly poem about all those Randolph Twykenum-Smythes looking for purpose to their lives
I'm not racist BUT ...
The beginning of a sentence that makes your heart sink before they then tell you how racist they really are ... a poem
I watched the whole miracle
A short poem about how I watched a child's life being saved - unknown to anyone
I want a nuclear powered wotsit
Silly poem about a child demanding attention from his father
In this the passion of our embrace
Sonnet about making love
Is he bright enough they said?
Poem about useless lecturers at college and the nonsense they tried to cram into my brain
It's boring being a monster
Silly children's poem about monsters
Jihad
Too many Jihads led by too many unhappy, shrivelled-up old men - a poem
Life in Urdu-land
Living in a Kashmiri street
The Little Hedgehog
Silly poem about a baby hedgehog becoming roadkill
London Calling
After the London bombs - poem contrasting our suffering compared to Falluja's
The Lords Prayer
A dark poem trying to get inside the minds of those who committed atrocities after the break up of Yugoslavia
The Marine and the Terrorist
A poem comparing and contrasting the soldier and the terrorist
Me and my video recorder
Humorous poem on intransigent video recorders and technology in general
Men of night
The shadows of the past in a nation that's turning into who it most condemns
Mister Cat
A cat cruelly kicked out into the snow for no reason at all
Mrs. Conservative
A mocking poem about Conservative womanhood
Mrs. Flippin'
Politics - some of these dodgy guys just keep getting promoted
Nan's Funeral
A very personal poem on the funeral of my Nan
My understanding
A different reality
NEWS!
Endless news
No hour can call itself itself alone
We make out own fate
No, not I
A poem about not giving up, of bloody-minded determination
My Understanding
How reality changes with the slightest bit of education - I went on a painting course and saw the world in a new light
Oh Queenie
The Queen Mother was much mourned apparently, but not by me.
Old times
Short poem about the end of a relationship
On silent trees
Contemplative poem, imagining sitting under some trees
Out in the darkness
A short frightening poem for children about an imaginary bear roaming around outside the house
Peacenik Gun
When you want to shoot peaceniks, you need a special 'no fault' gun
Plane Trees of France
Rather than stop drinking and driving they preferred to blame the trees
Polar Bear at Bristol Zoo
A polar bear driven insane at a zoo
The Princess and the Pea
The alternative version
Prisoners
A poem about a play
Rain
Brrr ...
Relic
A bitter old woman
Round Robin
Those mass-produced letters from someone you barely know or hardly ever see ...
Sea
An exercise in word play
See, on this summer's ripple of love
A poem remembering watching my child on a beach on a hazy, lazy summer's day
Seventy two virgins
Heaven - what the hell is it, actually?
Shall I search and seek forever?
A poem about trying to touch God
Short children's poems
Short cynical poems
Short inspirational poems
Short sad poems
A selection
Short sarcastic poems
Short silly poems
More short silly poems
Short thoughtful poems
Slug
Nature poem about the miracle that is a slug
Smile
A sinister poem about a destructive smile that roams around the world
Some hours we sing and must make merry there
A poem about living life at your own speed and in your own way
Song of expectation
Primary School Assembly
Sport
Bit of a piss take on watching sport on the telly
Stairs came alive
Stairs can be frightening at night time
Strange
Very short poem about soldiers' deaths in Deepcut
Suicide nation
Any nation can dehumanise another nation but in the process destroy themselves
Tap tippetty tap tap
Temptation pulls
A poem about s*x and the force that consumes us
Terrorism
Maybe there's a cause for terrorism, and that's deprivation.
The ThermoBARBARIC bomb
Somebody, somewhere, must have thought this was a beautiful bomb
There's a little patch of outer space
Humorous poem about a messy house
This leaf now
A slightly sad poem about life and how brief it all is
They said there's no such thing as God
Sarcastic anti-science poem - rational minds see a rational universe, which doesn't mean that there is a rational universe.
This is my house
A poem about attitudes towards immigrants
This painted breath
A sonnet about people who lie
This is where I live
A description of my home town
This woman
A poem about a woman who walks down my street every day
Through the dust of emptiness
A poem mourning a child growing up and leaving its parents
Toddler Tantrum
A child's tantrum ...
Toilet
Sinister - a toilet that sucked and sucked ...
Tumour
Short poem about cancer
Twin Towers
Immediately post 9/11 as the mob inferno in America grew and someone to kick (anyone) was sought. A long, cynical view in a very formal style
The War
A poem imagining the after-effects of a cataclysmic war
We banished Nature
We've nearly got rid of Nature now
Welcome to Tanzania
Politicians and amorality in the UK
When in the winning hour
Modesty is a virtue, but inside you can still celebrate!
Where troubles play
A poem about spiritual change
Why temptation must I give in to thee?
A sonnet about succumbing to temptation
Wild-winged poem
A poem about writing poems
Witches cats
A halloween poem
Woomera
An Australian prison camp for immigrants
The Workaholic
Poem about frantic workaholics
The World was her world
Cynical, sad poem about an ex-girlfriend
Won't you be my Valentine ?
Mocking poem on experience of sending a Valentine's card