Forgotten Pleasure

It's a forgotten pleasure in our rushed days, to leaf through a slim volume of verse, perhaps while sitting in a train or when resting by a tree in the city park.

Everyone should keep a book of poetry about their person.

Even to read four lines of Keats while waiting for a friend will enrich your day.

Here is Keats, for example, on the pleasures of red wine:

O for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool'd a long ago in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country-green,
Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth!

What a phrasemaker he was!

Words well chosen can fill your heart with joy.

So reject the empty clatter of the penny dreadfuls and keep a book of poetry on your person at all times.

"Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words."
~~ Robert Frost

I visited Christchurch, New Zealand in February 2019 and my friend Marja and I ventured to Lyttelton for a lovely walk around the bay.

Reading Poetry

It's a forgotten pleasure in our rushed days, to leaf through a slim volume of verse, perhaps while sitting in a train or when resting by a tree in the city park.

Everyone should keep a book of poetry about their person.

Even to read four lines of Keats while waiting for a friend will enrich your day.

Here is Keats, for example, on the pleasures of red wine:

O for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool'd a long ago in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country-green,
Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth!

What a phrasemaker he was!

Words well chosen can fill your heart with joy.

So reject the empty clatter of the penny dreadfuls and keep a book of poetry on your person at all times.

"Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words."
~~ Robert Frost

I was out bushwalking in Cromer, Sydney in April 2010 and came across this heart carved out in a stone.....it made me smile.



I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my very special blogging buddies a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hol­i­days, and Happy Hanukkah! May all of your aspirations be realized. And please take care and stay safe.

Warmest heart hugs
Peggy xxx

You Tell Me

Lately I have been reading some beautiful poetry that different bloggers have written and it reminded me of a book I bought back in 1979 called 'You Tell Me' written by Roger McGough and Michael Rosen.

This book of humorous poems has stayed close by my side all these years. I often share the poems with my friends when they come over and a small group of us can even recite some of them off by heart.......what joy this book have given us.

Here are 4 of my favourites:

NOOLIGAN
I'm a nooligan
don't give a toss
in our class
I'm the boss
(well, one of them)

I'm a nooligan
got a nard 'ead
step out of line
and you're dead
(well bleedin)

I'm a nooligan
I spray my name
all over town
footballs me game
(well, watchin)

I'm a nooligan
violence is fun
gonna be a nassassin
or a nired gun
(well, a soldier)


BUCKET
Every evening after tea
grandad would take his bucket for a walk.

An empty bucket

When I asked him why
he said because it was easier to carry
than a full one

granddad had
an answer
for everything

THE HARDEST THING TO DO IN THE WORLD
is stand in the hot sun
at the end of a long queue for ice creams
watching all the people who've just brought theirs
coming away from the queue
giving their ice creams their very first lick.

GRUESOME
I was sitting in the sitting room
toying with some toys
when from a door marked: 'GRUESOME'
There came a GRUESOME noise.

Cautiously I opened it
and there to my surprise
a litte GRUE lay sitting
with tears in its eyes.

'Oh little GRUE please tell me
what is it ails thee so?'
'Well I'm so small,' he sobbed,
'GRUESSES don't want to know'

'Exercises are the answer,
Each morning you must DO SOME'
He thanked me, smiled,
and do you know what?
The very next day he......

I took this photo at 'Sculpture by the Sea' last week, it evokes what a 'Nooligan' or a 'Gruesome' might look like!