A little lad I never knew Born to a life of hell This busy fat world just went on And the watchers did not tell. You were starved of love And rifled bins for food Your own mother broke your arm Then silenced you for good. Did no one see the bruises? Or note your half age weight? You were tortured daily but It was noticed when far too late. Oh my heavens how I weep For it always is the same You lived - you died - we never met But I feel I am to blame. Daniel Pelka, died March 2012, aged 4
Summer
Dancing shadows, rushing streams Bring on, bring on, my summer dreams Muddy green seas only sometimes blue A red sky sunset for me and you. Harvested cornfields, shady trees Horse with flies and foxes with fleas A giggle of children running nigh bare Hazards abound but they don't care. Summer thoughts and summer highs Pull us through winter's pallid skies We who dwell in this hemisphere Need the summer every year. June 2004
Summer is on the Way
Ah Skylark, Skylark It's March and yet you sing So early this time - So what will summer bring? The warm and sunny days Will burnish your happy song Fields and ponds and leafy lanes Will surely sing along. For you are the harbinger Of English summer times, And as the world warms and changes You will be busy in these clines. The sound of your call freezes My troubles old and new For one blissful moment I fly up there with you. April 2004
A Box of Stones
I have a young daughter who has always collected stones. She gets them from the seaside and carefully takes them home. I must have moved a ton of stones from beaches near and far. They seem to appear everywhere - mostly in my car. I must admit it irritates and sometimes I get mad. I did when she proffered another crop "Can we take these home dad?" "Why collect more stones?" I yelled. "We have loads everywhere! If we gave some to all your friends We'd still have lots to spare." Her explanation was disarming irritation drained rapidly from me. "I like to keep a box of these." she said "Then I can always smell the sea."
Thanks for the Show Lord
Greetings God omnipotent Who would have us forever on our knees? If you gave us the seas and mountains Then you also gave us flies and fleas. If you give Africa the water Which saves a dehydrated mite You also include the cholera Which kills that child in the night. Mankind falls prostrate to your glory Everyone blinded to your sins You preside over wars most gory And allow grotesque nature the wins. Aren't tsunamis splendid? Such power on display A ruinous earthquake in Pakistan Means the devout clear more bodies away. It can't be said you only send Fine rains and blessed sun When there's genocide and torture While you simply just look on. You watched while we mere mortals Strove for religious accord When always the cost was people Wantonly put to the sword. The ace you hold in your godly hand Is that we are frail and simply made And inevitably always turn to you When we are lonely or afraid. Don't you think we have had enough? Of great things heavenly and earthly Hey - thanks a lot for the show Lord Now demonstrate your mercy.
Frank
Always ready to help a friend With a hand upon the shoulder A daft mistake took your life And stopped you getting older.
Strings Attached
He was given a guitar when ten With a book called 'Play in a Day' He learned rock and blues and skiffle Some neighbours moved away. He maintained a daily practice And developed an accomplished skill Got missed by local street gangs And then his mum fell ill. There was just him and a distant aunt At the cemetery near the shop One bunch of flowers on the coffin And a guitar tied on the top. He now was young and rudderless And cried inside without sound His two most valued things in life Were both now in the ground. He fled the council hostel And took to the roads and hills Hid from societies officials And poured Vodka on his ills. A publican in the country Trusted him enough To let him work collecting glasses And give up sleeping rough. Now fifteen, the lonely boy Made the bottle shed his home Slept on an ex-army camp bed No need any more to roam. The whole village knew he was there But told no-one outside They let him come and go at will And quietly felt their pride. One day the village held a sale Selling stuff some folk could spare The vicar saw his longing look At a red guitar hanging there. So proffering money this worthy man Paid the asking price The boy stammered his thanks and ran Lest he showed the tears in his eyes. Alone in the bottle shed it all came back And his fingers found the frets His mum was at his shoulder then And away fell his sadness and regrets. Every moment he wasn't working He played and played yet more Slowly his expertise was great His bleeding fingers sore. He started playing with visiting bands And was held in high esteem People came from miles around And he slowly dared to dream. He saw himself on a rock stage With London as the Hub He would travel widely but his Home would always be the pub. He signed with a management team And travelled near and far He bought the pub and rebuilt it And bought a shinny yellow car. The saloon bar was crowded One foggy Friday night When down the lane came a car With a flashing bright blue light. The village people filled the church The coffin borne from the car And on top mounted amongst the flowers Was a gleaming red guitar.
Passing the Curlew
May I hear the Curlew as I pass away?
It's been part of my life for so long.
The nesting chortling on the marshes
has become my favourite song.
If I sit still on the seawall
as the sun fades away to the west.
The bustle across the mud and beach
is the sound that I love best.
Because the Curlew endures so
and will always remain
I know their cries will reverberate
within my dying brain.
Sooty
We collected her from a puppy farm Where she had really earned her keep Giving the owner many Labs to sell She now needed to rest and sleep. We collected her, all of us together Then took her for her very first roam Her given name was Sooty and She gladly embraced her new home. Her first day and night with us Had her shaking within her fur She needed the reassuring touch Of someone sitting close to her. But once she knew she was staying She fitted into family life She built much loving loyalty Steadfast through our joys and strife. She watched over us always Checking our way was clear Putting herself between us And any stranger who came near. Came the day when she had to leave When her fourteen years began to tell We were there when the needle entered And swaying slightly she gently fell. These animal friends are just on loan And we owners know it well But the pain is deep when they go And for a while - we are in hell.
Standing on our Own Feet
Let's try and fool the angels And take the promise of heaven in our stride By good example negate all religions And cast our differences aside. The cancer you get is your own And the babies die because of us Kneel if you think someone listens Beyond the incense and ceremonial fuss. In the end there's just us people We come and we go alone The facts speak amply for themselves But in fear we invent an unknown. So let's all try and fool the angels Stop the wars, take the hungry and feed them We could do it alone you know - And could tell the angels we don't need them.
As I See Things 