Category: Poetry

When faced with all that motion
It’s not just hypothetical
Its cold and solid fact

Of course I’m a European.How could I not be?You gave me language,Art, literature, poetry, music,Philosophy, science,Landscapes, food, friendships.It’s in me, all through me.The work of these EuropeansThey made me.Of course I’m a European.How could I not be? That’s not to deny the land I grew up in.The land my parents believed in, fought for,But I […]

The trees will stand together.The forest will endure.There will be peace tomorrow and the bear will be no more. The forest once stretchedfrom the sea to the sky,and the bear was its keeper.A watchman, whose eye would never be swayedfrom his greed and his gain.He dreamed that the forestcould be once again the mightiest kingdom,both brutal […]

In memory of William Blake (1757 – 1827) I wander thro’ each laundered street,Near where the laundered Thames does flood.And mark the shamed and shambling feetThat toil for those that trade in blood. In all the lies of great and good, In all the media spin and feed,  In all the infant cries for food,I hear the […]

“England in 2022” A sad, mad, drunk, despised, and lying leader    Ministers, the dregs of their crazed cabal, who showThrough self-conceited scorn devotion to that fibbing bottom feeder;MPs who neither care nor care to know,But leechlike to their cowering country bleed herTill they drop, blind in blood and filthy lucre, without a blow.A people frozen and […]

The weather is splendidwhat a shame for to wasteso let’s have a partyto the garden, make hastebring all of your chumsand come for a schmoozebut before I forget, will youBring Your Own Booze The PM, the staffersthe interns, the smartiesthere’s plenty of cheeseat Downing Street partiesbring all of your chumslet’s create headline newsbut do not […]

I don’t see any evidenceOf the mess we’ve madeI don’t see any evidence Of the games we’ve played The parties in my houseThe corruption in my partyI don’t see any evidenceSo people, have a heart And see the suffering I bearClinging selfishly to powerHow unfair it is that BrexitWas to be my finest hour And now […]

I recently heard the topic ‘The Art of Losing’, discussed on the Radio 4 programme Just a Minute. It was very funny, but not illuminating on the topic itself. I enjoyed it – it was comedy not an education programme. Can Losing be an Art Form? But, losing as an art form? I thought not. […]

Update 7 February 2022 – Listen to Richard recite his poem in this video here. I stand in the dark, the waves lap the shore.For days now I’ve travelled, how long I’m not sure.But I’m here at last, about to set sail.To start a new life. To begin a new tale In a land without war where I might find […]

The ground is iron,Diamond white,Laced with pearlsOf frozen light. The spiked Holly,A silvered Queen,The winter windA Vixen’s scream. A winter waltzOf ice and glass,A song of leaving.A frozen Mass

Ed: This poem from Martin is part of a collection of poems and illustrations which his wife, Pamela Richmond, has bound as her exhibition entry for ‘A Gathering of Leaves‘, the Designer Bookbinders International Competition, to be held at the Bodleian Library next year. We also show a picture of Pamela’s unique, leather bound Fine […]

Write to us at editor@westenglandbylines.co.uk I’ve walked this way before.Down the steep slopeInto a fog of darkness Where iron-black treesCage my breathWith their un-giving silence. Then I find youStanding besides me.Taking my hand,Intertwining our fingers,We walk together once more. Out through the cutting cold,The drizzle and the dark.Back up onto Harebell Hill Where once, a warmer […]

Write to us at editor@westenglandbylines.co.uk Riff-raff and roughthe folks round hereand we love that stuffwhen we go for a beer riff-raff and roughit’s true, beg your pardonbut do you fancy salt crispsand a beer in our garden? riff-raff and so roughI’m needing a fixin the garden of lovewith a beer, up to six oh, riff-raff and […]

It’s just the colour of my skin.It’s not a coatI bought to wear. I also feel the sun,Smell the earthAnd hear the birds sing. I work and play,Dance and eatAnd hold my child’s hand. I kiss, I love,I smile, I cryAnd if I’m pricked, I bleed. It’s just the colour of my skin.It’s not a […]

A solo song, beneath the starsAnd the falling veil of night.A song of hope, an ode to joy,From the darkness comes the light. It sings in cities and gardens greenAnd besides the lakeside shores,It sings in woodlands full of flowersWhere lovers meet once more. From Place des Voges to Naples BayTo Le Merlat in pretty […]

I feel like a stranger.Living in a strange land. Yet, I was born and raisedAmongst the English Greens.I even sang JerusalemAlthough not knowing what it means. But I mowed my lawnAnd I trimmed my hedge.I read Cider with RosieUp on Stinchcombe Edge. I even played CricketAll dressed in white,I celebrated The AshesAnd drank beer all […]

The Rule of Six, the Gang of FourThree Musketeers banging on your doorPilates Seven, The Yoga Ten?That’s illegal, begone those menthe question dodgers, the clichéd speakersbutter wouldn’t melt, the havoc wreakersI wouldn’t lend you my oldest sneakerslet alone share my chicken tikkas ditch the ones who lie and feudthrow out the boys with attitudeBoris, Michael, […]

EUROPE DAY 2020 – Saturday 9 May Asparagus & spinach need pickinglate crops need plantingimport tightly packed Romanians into Lutonkeep it quiet Genius! Let’s get all thefurloughed workers into overalls& mini-vans before dawn. You’ve tried?keep it quiet The PPE on offerfrom the EU. That’s not PCCan’t go there. The Sun, The Mailkeep it quiet It’s […]

Catching up on Normal Peopleone of those steamy interludesof heightened energy. Who does the sound effects?Overdid the carafe at tea-timePause. Be right back Max the fish man from Grimsbyhauls his crabs to Middle EnglandI see dad clowning in MacFisheriesfilleting a mackerel me aged five. Oh, no doshPause. Be right back, Max Transitioning out of Europenot […]