Category Archives: books

Tree

A tree may in beauty branch,
It’s leaves in the pure air,
Without a care
Dance

Tuneful birds,
Their song more precious than words
May in freedom sing
And solace bring
To the troubled soul.

The goal
Of girl and boy
Is joy.
Yet how easily does the wind of passion
Fashion
The fine tree in the crooked way.

The leaves say
Words
That cause the birds
To fly away.
One or two may stay
And the tree
By slow degree
Twists so it no longer resembles it’s noble shape.

The landscape darkens
And the vulture harkens
To the tree’s word.
Oh, would that it had gone unheard!

Daffodils (with Apologies to William Wordsworth)

Ah, daffodils
That do banish all ills,
By performing a spritely dance.
Oh the romance
Of it all,
But then the rain did fall.
The flowers where beaten down
And the earth did drown
In a deluge most foul
Which made the poet scowl!

My dog did howl
For in my haste
To taste
Nature’s beauty
I forgot his towel
And my duty
To keep both him and I
Dry!

Oh blasted daffodils
And rain soaked hills!
I need my pills
For I feel chills
That will lay me low
So to the good doctor I must go!
Hey ho
I will romanticise it all
For I recall
How my public do adore
Poems about nature’s beauteous store!

How to Promote Your Books

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Free Image Licensed from 123RF Stock Photo – Copyright amasterpics123

How best to promote one’s literary masterpiece, is an issue which exercises the mind of many an author, including my own. In the spirit of reaching out to my fellow authors I thought it was high time for me to set out my thoughts on this most important of topics. Below are some suggestions which will, I hope prove helpful to those who labour over smoking hot keyboards:

1. Climb Nelson’s column and recite passages, from your books with the aid of a loud hailer from that vantage point. You will, no doubt attract a crowd of curious onlookers together with a fair quantity of pigeon droppings for Trafalgar Square is a magnet to which our feathered friends flock. If it’s a nice sunny day you might also wish to don colourful swimming attire thereby further delighting the audience who will be listening, with rapt attention to your every word.
2. Hide behind the bookshelves in W. H. Smiths or some other purveyor of books and jump out on potential readers shouting at the top of your voice, “buy my book, buy my book” and if they are so ungracious as to refuse to avail themselves of your literary masterpiece, belabour them around the head with a copy of same.
3. Remove other authors books from the shelves in public libraries (for they are mere dross when compared to your scribblings) and replace their works wwith copies of your worthy tomes.
4. When talking to potential dates, regail them with chapter and verse as to why they should purchase your books. I find it helps to back them into a corner and (if at all possible) to ensure there is no easy means of exit. You may well not find the love of your life by employing such a stratagem. However your ex date will, very probably buy your book in order to effect his/her escape!
5. Send out automated tweets, every 5 seconds or so saying “please, please, please buy my book”. Your Twitter followers will be so impressed with your efforts they will show their appreciation by purchasing your book in droves or, just possibly deserting you in droves …!
6. If all else fails, repeat and repeat again!

Be Careful What you Wish for

Be careful what you wish for. You might actually get it

—

No harm in wishing
But, if you go fishing
In deep pools
Where fools
Fish,
Then sooner or later you may attain your wish.

A dainty dish
Not meant for the tasting by such as you
Has led many a man to rue
Their wish
For forbidden fish.

The cat sat on a river bank
Desirous to catch a fish.
Stretching out his paws, he obtained his wish
But, leaning too far over, fell into the water and sank.
‘Tis better to stay on the river bank …

Plaything

Hoping against hope
Is a slippery slope.
Will the phone ring
And bring
A temporary release,
A kind of peace?

Hope tenuous as fingers that on the cliff edge scrabble,
And a mouth dry as gravel.
Thoughts travel
Back:
A lack
Of control, Shown by a boy
With a shiny new toy.

The plaything once tried
The child cried
Out once more for the toy
That brought such joy,
But the bauble left
Leaving him bereft.

Should the phone not sound
No lesson profound
Will be learned
For the spurned
Boy
Will batten on a new toy.

Collapse

“For mine own good,
All causes shall give way. I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er”.
(Macbeth: Act 3, Scene 4).

—

The extraordinary and new
Does, through
The passing of the years
Engender ordinary tears.

Although normalisation may not lead to crying
Inside something is dieing,
The soul
Perhaps?
Then, at first unnoticed the whole
Edifice begins to collapse.

Masonry imperceptibly crumbles.
There may be mumbles of regret
And yet
Brick after brick tumbles.

Once a piece of the building has gone
A man may carry on
Down the same path
With a weary laugh,
Though the loss of a single brick
May his conscience prick.