When I’m free

Friday comes and here I find
myself in pensive mood
so it would be a sacrilege
and bordering on the rude
not to seize advantage of 
a day when I'm not working
and use it to fulfilment
not of squander or of shirking

I'll write a while whilst words they come
the paper there receptive
and wait for morning sunshine
then, and not to lose perspective
sit out there a while with
the warm rays over me
things to fill the time I have
on Fridays when I'm free

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

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Settling in

We're settling in to Autumn
as the summer is now done
daylight fades at teatime
and there's more rain now than sun
But still some strength there sometimes
when the bright one gets its way
so we're not prepared to throw the towel
just yet, least not today

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

Mouse repatriation

We'd heard scampering for several days
and the evidence was there
crumbs in all the cupboards as 
our food they'd come to share
But really they weren't welcome
so we brought some humane traps
and tempting them with biscuits
we caught the little chaps
Then one by one I introduced them
to the garden there to learn
the repatriation one way trip
and never to return

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

Mapping the past

No.15 in the ‘past to present’ series from Jemverse

Found an old map in Emmaus
worn and dusty and old
thought to myself 'I'm having that'
went out of the shop with it sold

Familiar but different
there are things long gone away
a past the history books have claimed
from our quaint yesterday

And yet there's still a memory
from distant childhood time
places gone, remembered still
with part of them still mine

©Jemverse

Photo -Jempics. Taken from the 1946 map itself. An original 182 Ordnance Survey of Sussex from 1933, it’s significant as it’s pre-Shoreham flyover (1970) – so there’s no blot on the landscape, pre-Beeching (1966) – so the whole of the old Guildford line is marked with all the now long-gone stations, and it’s immediately post-WWII – so the Brighton & Hove Municipal Airport at Shoreham is there but not marked as such. (Emmaus – btw – is a second-hand bric-a-brac and furniture store run by a homeless project).

The morning after the mourning

It's the morning after the mourning
the official period done
and though not forgetting Majesty
she's now radiant in the sun

Her long reign now is over
and with Phillip and the rest
she's Queen now where in heaven
everything is just the best

Long live now King Charles the third
a new era for our land
our only wish, continuance of 
his Mother's loving hand

©Jemverse

Photo – Google images

[Queen Elizabeth II was queen of the UK and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her passing on 8 September 2022. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days is the longest of any British Monarch and the longest recorded of any female head of state in history. At the moment of her passing the throne accessioned immediately and without ceremony to her eldest son Charles, former Prince of Wales. At 73, he’s the oldest person ever to assume the British throne, a record previously held since 1830 when William IV acceded at age 64].

The happenstance of precipitation

We didn't get much for most of the summer
which for farmers and gardeners
was a bit of a bummer
And we attest to that fact with good claim
as nothing much grew
which was quite a shame
Yet now in September in buckets it's falling
almost as if it had heard
all our calling

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

Something from nothing

It doesn't look like much I know
but the satisfaction wrought
from half an hour of crafting
inspired by a simple thought
is pleasing and in fact replete
a sense of job well done
working with just what you find
whilst having lots of fun
And that in fact's the essence
of what this allotment brings
to each of us as time we spend
down here whilst growing things

©Jemverse

Photo – my rough and ready yet purposeful composting area, Ham Field Allotments, September 2022 – Jempics

Soaked

Just before the thunderstorm
yellow in the sky
as heavy black clouds gathered
ominous on high
And then the heavens opened
and from it buckets came
as underneath the waterfall
we got soaked by rain

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

Of oak leaves, glass and talented soulmates

Fresh out the kiln for autumn
oak leave inspired glass
bound for the stall in Lewes
purchased by those who pass

All crafted by my soulmate's hand
I'm hoping one will find
its way into my study
as I am that way inclined

Tactile as they are lovely
hung up to catch the light
these crafted glass creations
make for a lovely sight

©Jemverse

Inspired by oak leaves found in a Sussex field to which we go regularly, these glass ‘light catchers’ are the latest batch to emerge from my soulmate Sal’s studio. 

Juxtaposition

We found it there neglected
and sadly overgrown
bindweed and brambles covered it
forlorn and on its own

But that did not take long to go
and banish it for good
the thing to do and done because
we really knew we should

So the purpose of what once was
and what is there right now
show what a little work can do
when you and me know how

 

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics