A friend of a friend of a friend

(The recent comments of a random selection of Facebook friends)


After our morning paddle
and a thumbs up from Alfie
we played with cut-out paper dolls.
This is what makes me very British,
me too,
bah humbug!
it’s only taken two years.


© Graham Sherwood 11/2014

Koan on Water

(Zen on rain and tears).

the copper bark shines
driving rain and moonlight
slick rivulets
confuse my eyes
helix to puddles below
I think of someone weeping
in a storm


© Graham Sherwood 11/2014

Ice and Dust

(Comet landings).

An obelisk and a stone
a tiny island on the Nile,
the need for understanding
and clarity of times long gone,
unfathomable, undecipherable.
Then we learn
and keep on learning
knowledge, sense, distance, time
but still the hazy cloak
and that ever-present question
where are we from?
Now men think in googled numbers
four and a half billion years
four billion miles
two billion euros
one billion heartbeats
Philae and Rosetta
all spent for 67p.



© Graham Sherwood 11/2014

Far South One2Five

(absolutely no idea where this came from whilst driving).


I suddenly feel the chill

On the moonlit landing, blue
light through the frosted pane.

And then I notice the penguins,
two, standing close to me
like bookends, waist-height, forlorn

I glance down to my shoeless feet,
the large egg balanced on my toes
which I subconsciously sock juggle
left to right to left.

Looking up, my arms have embraced the birds,
as little brothers under my wing,
neither appear very keen,
hotch and begin to chortle, in unison,
also in penguin.


© Graham Sherwood 11/2014

Owenesque

(An exercise in non-plagiarism).

Feelings return with a shudder
and with consciousness, blurred sight clears
buttery sun becomes bedside flowers
the blinds scrape the glossed sill.
Nurses' voices, measured, hidden,
roll like gentle waves across the polished linoleum
insects skirt a water glass
help me!


© Graham Sherwood 11/2014