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Getting to 80

Well, here it is, now looming large
an age beyond my belief
I had always expected my time here
would actually be quite brief.

Around fifty would be right I thought
who on earth needs more?
With greying hair and shorter breaths
and ready for the heavenly tour.

But fate decreed I'd do quite well
in the lottery of life
and I kept on taking forward strides
breasting challenges and strife.

Good luck and fortune 'dogged' me
throughout those golden years
I enjoyed some love and friendship and
the respect of competing peers.

But alas when you approach the mountain top
the heart is a watching sentry
the clearest views are now behind
and hindsight is 20/20.
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Graduation

Were you watching Nanny?
And you, Auntie Phyl?
From your lofty residence
on some heavenly hill.

Did you see our girl get honoured
surrounded by all that history?
She's on her way now, and will cope
with life's unfolding mystery.

The fair haired child you loved so much
has fought and earned her due
the tears in my eyes at her ceremony
were also there for you.

Proud Father 02/07/02
Featured

Gone Away

Oh how we miss those loved ones
who have gone.
We miss them now, we always will
and the memory of them
still lives on.

Some times it's right for the suffering
to leave.
Others are forced early into oblivion by mean Gods
and we who are left here in confusion
can only grieve.

Oh how I miss those loved ones
who have gone.
I miss them now, I always will
and the memory of them
still lives on.
Featured

Thank You Present

I bought you some flowers today,
the idea just popped into my head
I had just passed by my old house
and was glad I lived here instead.

I was lonely in that old place
and the vomit rose in my chest
as I relived the despair for an instant
but soon the pain came to rest.

For now I live in happy chaos
within a surprising peace
for surrounded by love and affection
I bask in blessed relief.

So there you have the reasons
why the idea came into play
to stop at the very first florist
and bring you flowers today.
Featured

A Mother and New York

A one parent boy left with his Mum
By a Dad who never wanted to go
With much financial upheaval
Where the standard answer was no!

Later he knew that against the odds
She had nurtured him with warm feelings
Passed on honesty and unease in equal parts
As war bombs had left more than cracked ceilings.

Twenty years on and the world has changed
When enthusiasm means more than a degree
With seven day working while still in his teens
He started his own firm and was boss free.

Life intrudes and the company must go
But he has talent others thought worth buying
Now shaking important hands at foreign meets
He becomes used to first class flying.

New York was where he always felt close
To his Mother from yester year
To look upwards at the churches to wealth
And know he had earned his right to be here.

To be in this money Mecca
And recall from where he had come
He knew it was only made happen
By the love he had had from his Mum.
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Daniel

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

In Praise of the Brave

To go forward without thinking
To rush in where angels fear to tread
To face danger without blinking
Knowing you may live or perhaps lie dead.

To take true love as your benchmark
And use it well to define your life
Treat all adversity as just a lark
And build new dreams from strife

Oh the many hopes and dreams 
Of courageous men and women
Who don't falter in life's streams
But doggedly keep on swimming.

Who for the noble cause of right
Subjugate the normal human yearning
They bear to stand, cold, in the night
And watch their bridges burning.

Milestones

A birth under bright lights
with unsteady steps to come.
Large new eyes view new sights
while safely held by mum.

A deep breath - and into school
an old hand by the end of the day.
You pay attention or play the fool
make friends and you are on the way.

A first kiss that glows in your soul
with troubled emotions burning.
Lifelong loving is now your goal
and marriage stems the yearning.

Then come child and maybe child
and you find a different sort of love.
The point of being now reconciled
and possibly there is a God above.

Now, your lover and brood have gone,
alone, you brace your mind
to where you were heading all along
and when there, what you will find.

At each step in life we must be willing
to learn what to take, leave, or share.
Probably on balance life's been fulfilling
and the journey worth the fare?

December 2004