I Promised Her The Moon…

April 4, 2016April 4, 2016 / Al Lane / 33 Comments

I wrote this for Jane at https://moonworld.co.uk/blog/ , who was the one hundredth person to “like” my Facebook page, and asked if she won a prize for that… Sure, why not! I hope she likes it 🙂

I was feeling kinda cocky,
So sang it like a tune:
Give me just the weekend,
And I’ll give you the moon.

Now I don’t know if you’ve noticed,
But the moon is kinda big.
So instead I wrote this ditty,
And danced a merry jig.

I keep on doing this, you see,
False-promising the sky.
Till my dreams become reality,
I promise just to try.

14113923932_da4336d85e_z

Picture credit: flickr.com/photos/pip0ka/14113923932

Weight of Love

December 11, 2015 / Al Lane / 9 Comments

I thought love would free me:
It only weighs me down.
My yesterdays hang heavy,
Whenever you’re around.

I want to soar and swoop
But can’t get off the ground.
I’m feeling lost and dizzy,
On this merry-go-round.

The idea of love’s a prison
Within which we’re all bound.

Photo: flickr.com/photos/archer10/15939727138

15939727138_078b95da2e_z

The Snail In My Garden

November 13, 2015 / Al Lane / 23 Comments

There’s a snail in my garden
Hiding in its shell
I’m not sure where it’s been
It’s sometimes hard to tell

There is one thing that troubles me
And causes me some doubt.
The answer to this question:
Is it in or out?

flickr.com/photos/venkatarameshkommoju/13923176714

OctPoWriMo #28 – The Challenge

October 28, 2015 / Al Lane / 28 Comments

Today’s prompt for OctPo is headed “do you accept this challenge”?… Here’s my reply!

Knowing when to walk away
And when to play along
Is a skill that I’m still learning.
But today I’m feeling strong!

flickr.com/photos/stevon/3574126257

OctPoWriMo #27 – Something Whimsical

October 27, 2015 / Al Lane / 27 Comments

I come from Planet Poetry
My skin is sunrise red
If similes were sandwiches
You’d consider me well-fed!

Life’s whimsical and wonderful
Down here on planet Earth
With freedom to express yourself:
You don’t know what that’s worth!

I come from Planet Poetry
Words whizzing round my head
If metaphors were magazines,
You’d consider me well-read!

Life’s fantastic and it’s fleeting
On this, my blue new home
So why do you court misery,
Like fleas jump to the comb?

But I come from Planet Poetry
You can tell by my third head.
If I’d said this all in front of you,
I’d hope you say…
“well said!”

OctPoWriMo #19 – Dear John

October 19, 2015October 19, 2015 / Al Lane / 28 Comments

Dear John

We were always wrong, John
Our love was never strong, John
(I know I bought a thong, John
But I’m not stringing you along, John)

We never were a song, John
Just a bing and a bong, John
A clashing of the gong, John
That went on too long, John

I feel our time has gone, John
No need to prolong, John
We just don’t belong, John
I’d like to get along, John…

But frankly, John… You pong!

OctPoWriMo #15 – If I Had The Power

October 15, 2015 / Al Lane / 25 Comments

If I had the power, just for one day,
To shake up the world, re-set it my way
I’d start with the users, abusers,
The back-alley bruisers.

Line up the losels, the lawyers (the liars),
Froth-spewing firebrands casting hell-fire,
Pinheads in pinstripes, pushing round paper,
Washing their guilt, down with a chaser,

Round up the reivers, the rough-riding robbers,
Red-tape bureaucrats, acting the jobsworth,
Bullies and backstabbers. Ballyrags too.
Sweet-talking spinners, selling their view,

Day-dreaming drifters with stars in their eyes,
Death-dealing doctors, donning disguise,
Wheedlers and wastrels with whispering ways,
Pouring out poison, polluting their praise.

If I had the power, just for one day,
I’d shake up the world, re-set it my way.
I’d bring these all in (not heads on a pike):
Just make them “be nice”. To see what it’s like.

Today’s prompt: Imagine if today was the day where you could do anything you wanted… http://www.octpowrimo.com/

Writing 201: Poetry #6

October 10, 2015 / Al Lane / 14 Comments

For today’s challenge, bearing in mind it is a Saturday we were asked simply to say a few lines on a poem that we love, that makes us jealous.

Mine is a poem from my childhood, that I have had the pleasure of re-discovering with my own children. Little Red Riding Hood, from Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes, is a parody of the traditional Riding Hood fairy tale, ending in a decidedly non-traditional way…

The small girl smiles.
One eyelid flickers.
She whips a pistol from her knickers.

She aims it at the creature’s head.
And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead

There are so many reasons I love this. Hilarious use of rhyme. The unexpected twist. The hint of anarchy, using grown up words in a story supposedly for children. That imagery! Words that a child will remember into adulthood…

There is no other section of poetic writing that so encapsulates what I am trying to ultimately achieve with my poetry.

Here’s to trying 🙂