More Recent Thoughts

Obituary To A Friend

“I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, 

than alone in the light.”

Helen Keller

He’s gone now, my friend

Recently deceased

But how he dominates my memory

He understood my whims

And was willing

To heed my complaints about existence

Without too much fuss

Just a gentle comrade in arms

Willing to go the whole way with support

Whenever it was needed

When my wife left me

We strolled together down the streets of loneliness

Each glad of the other

In shared and loyal communion

His glance was enough as i spoke of my agony

No words were needed between us

He was a good listener

Never interrupting

Just quietly understanding and acknowledging my pain

With a wistful smile of compassion in his eyes

I remember one day extremely well

I was indeed distraught

It had been a hard day at the school where I taught

My class had misbehaved more than usual

And the Principal had commented on my lack of discipline

That afternoon when we met

I shared my extreme misery with my friend

He analysed me truly as he always did

Understanding flowing from his demeanour

Then he wagged his tail

As we walked together again to ease the pain

My dog Rex and I

Freedom Of Speech

The global warming alarmists 

are the equivalent of the flat-Earthers.

Ted Cruz, Senator

Washington Post (March 24, 2015)

Freedom of speech is a precious right

You’ll not take it from me without a fight

Therefore I declare that our world is flat

It’s the sun round the earth now fancy that

And if you sail too far out to sea, 

You’ll come to a chasm and be history

Witches all ride their broomsticks well

Black cats are secret agents of Hell

Horse shoes bring good luck it’s true

But a broken mirror’s bad luck for you

Six six six is a devil’s mix

While thirteen is up to its usual tricks

Buildings are safe with no thirteenth floor

While a four-leaf clover is luck galore

Touch wood to guard your cherished life

Fortune cookies will save you from strife

Spilling salt is an evil sign

Break a leg and things will be fine

Bananas bring bad luck to a ship

Whistling will create a storm on your trip

Mermaids are highly dangerous to nab

Kiss the Blarney for the gift of the gab

Water spilt will bring success

Omens prophesy more or less

Sneeze and the devil will score a goal

“Bless you” then will save your soul

The Curse of the Pharaohs is well known

So leave their precious mummies alone

A ladder is dangerous to walk beneath

Foretelling of the cards will catch a thief

O the gift of nonsense is mine forsooth

Thus will I hide inconvenient truth

Love

Love is a whisper from a heavenly breath

Love is the conquest of life over death

Love is the spell that turns harm into charm

When loneliness screams it sounds the alarm

It gently conquers life’s frequent distress 

And eases the pain that leaps out of duress

Passion is a fashion that leads you astray

Love is the sense of a far better way

Love is a giving as a sacred duty

Love makes the mundane wistful beauty

There is no meaning to a world without love

It will lift mercy from below to above

Solitary wanderers will find a true home

When love finds a reason for them not to roam

Love is a refuge when justice cowers

Love is a shelter when angst stirs your hours

Love is a pathway when all hope is lost

There is peace in its outcome at no earthly cost

Time does not hinder love’s final effect

It is a tower forever erect

So climb as you will and encompass the joy

Love is a rampart no one can destroy

Love is a magic that defies the ages

Love of all kinds belongs on these pages

So lovers learn this, when your love arises

And an amorous bond a new life devises

Seize boldly the chance you have found to love

And you’ll grasp the secret of heaven above

Dancer

How wondrously you seem to fly

Like an eagle defying the sky

Barely touching the inanimate floor

Entranced I watch you and long for more

Your mobile figure entrances me

You the dancer I have paid to see

You court me completely with utter devotion

As you slide and glide with magic motion

Cutting the air with a knife not there

Enchanting with dancing, invoking my stare

You defy the norm of the human race

Performing before us with limitless grace

Contorting, transporting, supporting

Yourself in a race that conquers space

You are a puppet sans strings

Bending, extending like a bird without wings

Dancing to an everywhere, romancing, prancing

Twisting, resisting, insisting, enhancing

So far from the norm with your wondrous form

You banish my fear of the mortal storm

Bewitched I am on a flight of fancy

Carried away by your necromancy

As you change the prosaic world I know

With your mystic, enchanted afterglow

Hail fair dancer, queen of life’s portal

Dancing in ways that seem immortal

While here am I with spirits high

Watching your movements with an ancient eye

For I am old, battered and worn

I walk with a stick in a life forlorn

Yet because of you I am complete

And I dance in my mind in this theatre seat 

In Praise Of Science

Science is the friend of tomorrow

Confronting life’s human sorrow

It is not vain or marred by disdain

And will listen if you complain

Reality is its normality

Questioning finality

With an open mind forsooth

Forever seeking the truth

Once long ago when questioning began

There was little science known to man

Then time passing played a different tune

To let some scientists walk on the moon

What is the secret you may ask

What is the shape of a scientific task?

There is but one place where the answer rests

You must base all your wisdom on reputable tests

Observe, reserve, conserve, deserve

Have an open mind and keep your nerve

Submit your findings to colleagues’ view

That is the rigour that applies to you

A pox on the work of the ignorant herd

For whom the truth is an ugly word

Who see reason as too much trouble

And base their views on froth and bubble

Who decry and deny the truth in vain

And follow their mindless paths of pain

Theirs is a land where the greatest treason

Is to base your views on research and reason

So begone dull fools and get thee to a gunnery

Shoot yourselves in the foot and be treated in a nunnery

The Writer

To A Real Person

Your pen is mightier than the sword

How beautifully you share each word!

Your world becomes mine now at least in part

I can almost hear the beating of your heart

My life is now a part of yours

Each phrase you write will open doors

To my troubled, inconsequential mind

That journeys on a quest to find

The full meaning of what you say

Your images and thoughts are magic at play

Bewitching me your reader with a longing

To understand each word belonging

To a world I cannot enter save through your script

A place that I am only just equipped

To visit by the surprising grace of your mind

The mystery is, once there, the things I find

Transport me to another plane of wonder

Where all my schemes are torn asunder

And suddenly I find myself

Like a book of wisdom found on a scholar’s shelf

I begin to understand and most important of all

You teach me the truth without which I fall

Into the prison of despair

But with your writing I am never there

For your words have led me to the higher ground

Where the angels of logic all abound

You give me peace in your inimitable way

So write on dear friend and I will read my ignorance away

To free myself; what more is left for me to say?

royciebaby