Two Tanagas (II – Sunday)

Sunday's come and peace I find
relaxation here, unwind
emptying my busy mind
perfect with this sunshine timed

©Jemverse

Tanaga is a Tahitian poetic 4-line rhyming stanza each with 7 syllables

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Two Tanagas (I – Saturday)

Saturday and sunshine here
Typical for time of year
This summer's child so full of cheer
in these four lines, made quite clear

©Jemverse

Tanaga is a Tahitian poetic 4-line rhyming stanza each with 7 syllables

The sun I find

This time of year with pen in hand
I'll sit down in my garden and
as sunshine warms and shines and does
what in July it will because
this is summer, so will I
sit down and watch as time goes by
and words may come. they often do
reflecting on a whim eschewed
crafted from a poet's mind
inspired here by the sun I find

©Jemverse

Photo – Sally Croucher

Allotted time

Down on our little parcel of land
it's looking quite lovely and fine
the sweetcorn and squash are flowering now
and the lavender's gathered in time
the grass is all strimmed and weeds are at bay
and the pond is topped up to the brim
so we're both quite chuffed and the way it looks now
with everything looking quite trim

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

One thousand days

Today is the one thousandth day
I have published this site
a thousand days of Jemverse
and the poems that I write
consecutive one thousand
I am quite proud of that
something for the repertoire
a Jemverse 'coup d'etat'

©Jemverse

Although I’ve been writing poetry for over half a century, it was only in April 2014 that I started posting daily online via the Jemverse Wordpress blog. Since then there’s only been a few days here and there when I haven’t posted something I’ve written. But, since the start of the pandemic, there’s been no break at all. Here’s to the next thousand!

Youth and music

Part of the ‘Past to Present’ series from Jemverse

Saturdays in the seventies
and me in middle teens
caught the bus oft into Brighton
forty-nine from Southwick Green
then went up to the Clock Tower
through the door and up the stairs
to listen to the music long
on cushions sprawled up there
Virgin Records, ah those halcyon days
for some a misspent youth
but the music that I heard has brought
a lifetime hence of truth

©Jemverse

Photo – from one in the authors’ collection

[Virgin Records moved into the building on the corners of North and Queens Roads by Brighton’s Clock Tower early in 1973. Next door was the old Regents Cinema, by then empty and disused. Both buildings were demolished in 1974 to make way for a new building now housing Boots the Chemist. Curved and on the corner, Virgin Records (the second in the country after London’s Oxford Street branch) was a three-quarters circle with a further semi-circle on a raised level behind. This raised level was covered with floor cushions with headphones for private listening. For a return fare of 20p I could take the 49 bus from the Green in Southwick (where I lived at the time) into Brighton where most Saturday mornings were spent lounging on Virgin’s listening floor cushions simply soaking up the sounds].

Melting Days

The mercury climbed to forty
for the hottest we had seen
records broken everywhere
from what they once had been
and everybody moaned
as no infrastructure here
to cope with extreme weather
when the high is in the clear
Ice-cream sales and paddling pools
brought respite here to some
but most of us just melted
in this gorgeous summer sun

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

Sunshine on Neville Street

Sitting in Newcastle Tap
here on Neville Street
I've had a lovely pizza
and the beer's going down a treat
Outside Newcastle sunshine
though chillier up here
shines as evening shadows fall
and I enjoy this beer
By and by I'll take a stroll
as this time is all my own
so I may as well enjoy it
all these many miles from home

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

That lavender time again VII

I've long had a passion for lavender and
that time of years' here with clippers in hand
my Trug* will be filled with fragrance divine
which I've grown through the year and now is all mine
Sometimes there are casualties, plants come and go
some prosper well, but others (you know)
may give a few flowers then give up the ghost
but that's not too often and thankfully most
at this time of year when summer is high
bring my lavender heaven replete for a sigh

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

*A Trug is a Sussex woven basket made from a handle and rim of coppiced sweet chestnut wood which is hand-cleft then shaved using a drawknife. 

Fields of long summers II (part 6)

Concluding the Jemverse summer 22 series ‘Melting Days) [12 of 12]

Those fields of long summers are here with me still
as though I've grown older I've not had my fill
the adventures have changed but I am far from done
as I'm still looking forward to summers to come

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

This was inspired by verse 3 of ‘Fields of long summers‘, first published here on 7 August 2015