Space photos

The lunar earthrise
was a revelation
but Voyager's blue dot
beyond imagination.

Not a poem ! But . . .

He found a dead bird in the water butt, presumably one of the young sparrows that had been foraging in the garden. Even as an adult he was upset by the death. Then his daughter came to see what he was doing. She smudged a tear in her eye but wanted to hold the dead rag of feathers.
"I suppose we'd better bury it." he said.
"No, Dad. Birds belong in the air not underground. I don't want to soil these feathers with earth."
"You're right." he said.
Together they perched the featherweight corpse high up in a bush facing the white clouds in the blue sky where it should have been flying.

Too many potholes, too many bikes,
too many signs and traffic lights,
too many cars and too many lorries,
too much pollution without a solution !
Enough of excuses. Too many 'Sorry's.

Too many houses, too many shops,
too many dangerous tower blocks,
too many towns and congested cities,
too many species going extinct.
Not enough guilt and too many 'Pity's.

The Earth is warming we're all aware
though some dispute it because they don't care.
We poison the planet with carbon and plastic
unable to curb our drive to consume
except by means unacceptably drastic.

We all know the problems but who's to blame?
We choose the culprit as if it's a game -
politics, business, who can it be?
Well, it's actually you as well as me -
just too many people !  QED

Special Offer !  Special Offer !
Here is a once in a lifetime chance
to see the world as never before -
the people, animals and plants,
the lakes and mountains, winds that roar
across the oceans and the plains . . .
Hurry ! Quick ! While it remains !

Only for a limited time
more wonders than you could conceive.
See how mankind has conquered Earth
with knowledge that you won't believe.
Be amazed at how, since the birth
of science, the puny human race
has claimed this speck of dust in space.

A bargain that you can't refuse
is what's on offer. You may find
romance and, if you're lucky, love.
Emotions will expand your mind
to dream of sacred heavens above.
This experience you must not scorn !
And how to book it ? Just be born.

Love at first sight ? ?

Opinion versus science - in this case
love at first sight v. brain research apace.
Electric currents alter mental states;
can these determine people's loves and hates?
Which neuron pulses set our hearts on fire?
Which lobe controls elation, which desire?
What biochemical strange elixir flows
when glands secrete infatuation's dose?
Is love no more than chemical imbalance?
Perhaps infatuation is but talents
take time to surface and much time must pass
before two personalities merge fast.
Love needs much more than one sight, wisdom chides;
it's what remains behind when chemistry subsides.

The local allotments

Easy gardening, plant a tree

right at the edge of your allotment.

It may not leave the pathway free

but for some that's not so urgent.

Crazy gardening, plant a tree.

Little work to get some fruit

but years to wait and will you be

the tenant still when harvests suit?

Lazy gardening, plant a tree.

Your bank account won't be tortured.

But do we really want to see

the allotments become an orchard?

Scientists aren't the only ones discover what is true;
lots of people find out things that no-one ever knew.
Teenagers for instance are very pleased to vex
their parents with discoveries of alcohol and sex.

"I love you" he said quite out of the blue.
Stunned I replied "And I love you"
For men of my age with thinning grey hair
such declarations of love are rare
and jewels to treasure, hopefully true
at innocent three "And Grandma too"

Gender Identity

While weeding a border, I dug up a worm
and as a polite sort of bloke
not wanting to seem rude ignoring it
but not pally enough for a joke,
said "I don't want to hurt you, Mr. Worm"
and gave it a friendly poke.

But it wriggled with what seemed embarrassment -
did I say something not right?
I'd got myself in a predicament
by trying to be polite
not knowing what word is pertinent
to address an hermaphrodite.

Which Roman emperor inaugurated
that almost universal human gesture ?
(Perhaps to keep the volatile crowd placated
with their favourite defeated lest their
anger led to riots on the street)

His name would be remembered ever after
more fittingly than fiddling while Rome burned
or making his horse a senator with laughter
at dull conventionality so spurned
or any other weird imperial feats.

He never could have thought it credible
that such a simple gesture now outlives
his mighty empire and makes possible
communication across language boundaries
with a Thumbs Up to the stranger that we meet.