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poem in a white ribbed vest

~ poems every day of april

poem in a white ribbed vest

Category Archives: poetry

harmony

28 Sunday Apr 2019

Posted by bashfulbadger in age, love, music, NaPoWriMo, poetry, youth

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1964, charles aznavour, Georges Garvarentz, NaPoWriMo, poem, rip

 

the perfect marriage
of the singer to the song
is charles aznavour
with ‘yesterday when I was young’.

Charles Aznavour wrote “Yesterday, When I Was Young” with Georges Garvarentz back in 1964. RIP Monsieur.

make-believe

26 Friday Apr 2019

Posted by bashfulbadger in children's novel, NaPoWriMo, poetry, writing

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alice in wonderland, children, fairytale, NaPoWriMo, peter pan, poem, poem in a white ribbed vest, somewhere over the rainbow, storybook, writing

peter pan

freshly bathed
sleepy eyelidded
bedtime children
navigate their coracles
through choppy seas
of azure, pearl
and storybook
towards the edge
of the fairytale world.
we only wish
we could follow them
into the wonderlands,
down the rabbit holes
beyond the rainbows.
oh to fly straight on
till morning.

yellow wallpaper

24 Wednesday Apr 2019

Posted by bashfulbadger in age, family, NaPoWriMo, poetry, youth

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age, anaglypta, depression, NaPoWriMo, old teddy, poem, poem in a white ribbed vest, sorority, wallpaper, yellow paint

IMG_0392

I touch
with reverent fingertips
my sister’s bedroom walls.
once a brilliant crocus yellow,
vibrant and aflame,
a fresh coat of paint
testament to a new home,
a new freedom,
a new start.

now the sunshine emulsion
is faded to the dusty golden
of a cherished old teddy
in the airing cupboard,
held together by patches and repairs.

beneath the paint
the anaglypta is like
stalks of wheat
waving in the breeze.
but we are a ruined crop,
ungathered, turning
to dust in the wind.

double summertime

23 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by bashfulbadger in age, generation war, NaPoWriMo, poetry, war

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blitz, brexit, double summertime, incendiaries, tailfins, tube station shelters, war

underground

old people,
propped up,
a little wonkily,
in bath chairs on hospital verandas,
remember ‘double summertime’
when the battling british sun
lingered longer in the sky,
a lovelorn boy outside
his sweetheart’s house.

it loitered till almost midnight,
shortening the darkness,
the vulnerable defenceless hours,
when incendiaries fell,
giant hailstones on
metropolis rooftops,
pursued by schoolboys
with shovels and buckets,
after tailfins as souvenirs,
a daytrip to the seaside game
played in deadly earnest
in the bright exploding night,
while time bombs plumbed
the depths of their own craters.

the extended day outlasted
the hostilities, grew into
their necessary normal,
as they toiled
to rebuild after the blitz,
their bloodstained city
in smithereens around them,
empty seats at the dining table
and vacancies in their hearts.

and now,
when twilight descends
and they shiver slightly
in threadbare cardigans,
their legs twitching under crochet,
they are wheeled silently away
from the falling dusk,
into the bland parlours of nursing homes,
all neutral shades and easy chairs,
and pacified with hot chocolate.

they reconstructed
a nation almost from scratch.
trauma, hardship,
homelessness,
bereavement and grief
shrugged from their shoulders,
young and strong then, victorious,
tensile as saplings,
recoiling to upright,
enduring as oaks.

they just got on with it –
relieved to be alive,
determined to survive.
brexit
is something that
holds no fear for them.
they recall an island tribe,
a carefully kept distance,
and want the country
that they fought for back.

Photo of folk sheltering in tube station during the Blitz from University of Sheffield project.

heatstroke

16 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by bashfulbadger in greece, NaPoWriMo, poetry, travel, weather

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greece, haiku, holiday, NaPoWriMo, paxos, poem in a white ribbed vest

paxos3

as if the sun sought
to set the hillside on fire,
a grecian midday.

freeze

14 Sunday Apr 2019

Posted by bashfulbadger in NaPoWriMo, nature, poetry, weather

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cinquaine, NaPoWriMo, poem in a white ribbed vest, snow, whiteout

tree in snow 2018

morning,
undecided
snow do-se-do-s with sun,
weather musters for a weekend
whiteout.

Photo by Belinda Latchford

february

02 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by bashfulbadger in nature, poem in a white ribbed vest, poetry, weather

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frost, NaPoWriMo, poem, poem in a white ribbed vest

caroline frost

indiscriminate
the frost’s delicate
cold hand,
dusting each fence post,
bush and tree,
a fondant icing
on the land,
a picturesque frigidity.

Many thanks to Caroline Sauverin for photograph.

failsafe

01 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by bashfulbadger in NaPoWriMo, nature, poetry

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NaPoWriMo, poem in a white ribbed vest, snapdragons, spring, veseys

 

snapdragons

each and every year
the stalwart snapdragons
steadfast to the last,
push up pluckily
through the exterior walls
of the whitewashed pavilion
and out of the dull grey
blistering tarmac of the path,
old soldiers saluting each other.
bubblegum pink, salmon
and marshmallow, pillar box
red and peach and white,
like a variety of bonbons
from the pic’n’mix of the past.

 

Photo of Rocket Mix Snapdragon from Veseys.

diminishing returns

15 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by bashfulbadger in NaPoWriMo, poem in a white ribbed vest, poetry, travel, youth

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NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Writing Month, nostalgia, poem

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

once upon a time
my happy ever afters
hitched their wagons
to someone else’s star.
my possibilities shrank,
dreams gathered dust
on the cluttered sideboard.
my future narrowed,
narrowed, to the sights
of a gun, a circle of light
and colour in the far distance.
and I still have such a long way to go,
but on a rope bridge of uncertain strength
and to a destination less distinct.

death and the musician

11 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by bashfulbadger in family, music, NaPoWriMo, poem in a white ribbed vest, poetry, US

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blog, death, grant hart, grief, husker du, nostalgia, poem, rip

hearing a certain song now
resonates inside your heart
as if it really held strings;
and your eyes begin to leak the grief
that is drowning you by degrees.
your record collection
a roll call of the dead.

it carries the same unexpected pathos
as the accidental discovery
of something banal or mundane
– a note to the milkman,
for ‘one extra pint, please’,

 a recipe or an address –
in the handwriting of
a deceased parent, so
grant et al
 familiar and now so seldom   seen.
they will never put pen to
paper again.

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age aidan turner alejandro rose-garcia bruce springsteen children's novel emily dickinson family generation war greece love movies music nanowrimo NaPoWriMo nature poem in a white ribbed vest poetry prose rome shakey graves television tennis timothy b schmit travel Uncategorized US war weather writing youth

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‘forget that I remember/and dream that I forget’

  • 1976
  • on fire
  • harmony
  • make hay …
  • make-believe
  • short shift*
  • yellow wallpaper
  • double summertime
  • famished
  • journey ennui
  • residue
  • wednesday’s child
  • wabi-sabi*
  • heatstroke
  • phoenix
  • schoolgirl
  • freeze
  • straightforward
  • gymnast
  • threshold
  • outpatient
  • ex-offender
  • entreaty
  • outdoor
  • twenty-one/for sarah
  • gesture
  • trailer
  • blight
  • february
  • failsafe
  • court yard
  • cloak-and-dagger love
  • ptsd
  • unfinished
  • sundown
  • head teacher
  • primary
  • ornament
  • plain sailing by tracey thorn
  • thistledown

musings on music, tv, tennis and the kinks: bashfulbadgers blog

John Inverdale infected with chronic case of foot in mouth disease

John Inverdale infected with chronic case of foot in mouth disease

‘I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show’: connecting the careers of Ray Davies and the man cast as him in Kinks movie

‘I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show’: connecting the careers of Ray Davies and the man cast as him in Kinks movie

‘He stuns you by degrees’*: Benedict Benjamin at The Harrison

‘He stuns you by degrees’*: Benedict Benjamin at The Harrison

You know what rhymes with happy? A jaded armchair viewer on the sappy Christmas movies blighting the TV schedules this holiday season

You know what rhymes with happy? A jaded armchair viewer on the sappy Christmas movies blighting the TV schedules this holiday season

Celluloid villains and heroes: casting news on the Kinks movie

Celluloid villains and heroes: casting news on the Kinks movie
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