Share Your Dream

If you share your dream
I'll lend you my thoughts
I'll mark my crosses
Against your naughts

I'll give you half
Of my quarter of sweets
I'll watch with you a sunrise
When night and day meets

Give me poetic licence
I'll pay you with amour
Shame we don't speak French
Like Frances de la Tour

If you give me a break
I'll put you back together
When you have nothing to say
I'll talk about the weather

There may be only two of us
But we can make a great team
Glad to have lent you my thoughts
Thanks for sharing your dream

Dead Poets Walking

Too many poets' stars rise
After their earthly demise
Planted words dormant
Waiting and waiting
Waiting for history to nourish their legacy
Flowery language of redundant words and phrases
Blooming into view
An exotic edge alluring
To the ear of modern parlance
Love and marriage
Body and soul
War and peace
Timeless material for the creative scribe
In spirit, dead poets' words live on
Many living poets' recognition
Will only come to fruition
When they too are long gone

An Unlovely Bunch

Racing white Audi's with black leather seats
Overpriced apartments and penthouse suites
A sickly smell of success mixing with ill-gotten gains
Steroidal meat-heads mixing with talented brains

In the south of the city runs a shallow stream of consciousness
Eating and bleating with an air of pretentiousness

Using both barrels of their double-barrelled name
Patronising, condescending and lacking in shame


The clamour of materialism, I want, I get, i-Pad
Swaggering past the homeless, a sight so sad
Many are privileged sons and daughters of the rich
I'm sure he's a bastard and she's definitely a bitch


A low paid workers week's food spent on a throwaway lunch
They may have the money but they're an unlovely bunch

Homelessness

Today I spoke to Michael.

Michael is currently homeless and was sitting sheltering from the rain in my local shopping precinct. I had never seen or spoken to him before. He was just another "beggar", "druggie", "alcy" or whatever other derogatory term the populace may wish to use for him as they walk by. The thing is, Michael is none of those. I stopped and told him I was getting a hot drink and would he like one too. In a pleasant tone he said he would be very grateful. I returned a few minutes later to hand him the drink and to ask if he was getting help and support.

He told me a bit about his life (he's around 40) and explained he spent some of his youth backpacking and has held jobs in the past but due to unforeseen circumstances he is now without a home of his own and is waiting for the local authority to find him accommodation. He has recently been sleeping on friend's floors and occasionally on the street. He was clear-eyed, articulate and sober. He was not begging as he was not asking passers-by for change and had no receptacle or sign asking for money.

Michael went on to tell me how in recent weeks in this same spot, he has had youths spitting at him and other members of the public verbally abusing him. He said that ultimately he understood that it was his responsibility to get himself out of the mess he is in but didn't deserve this abuse. He explained how what happened to him could happen to almost anyone which most people are unaware of.

I wished him all the best and returned home. A home my wife and I have worked hard for but one in which I also count my blessings every day. This brief conversation re-focused my mind and puts the daily petty annoyances we all encounter into perspective. This may sound trite but it's also a truism. The next time you see a "Michael", be grateful it's not you.

Missing "U"

Don't you spell colour with a "u"?
Maybe you could do
Don't you spell labour with a "u"?
Without the "u", there's a letter too few

Don't you spell neighbour with a "u"?
Without the "u", the 'hood seems bl(u)e
Don't you spell flavour with a "u"?
It tastes much better, between me and you

Don't you spell harbour with a "u"
The extra letter calms the storm
Don't you spell saviour with a "u"?
To some it's just the norm

Don't you spell valour with a "u"
Go on, try it! "oh you are" so brave
Could you savour writing English English?
Or does it belong in a language grave?!