The Frivolous Cake

A freckled and frivolous cake there was
That sailed upon a pointless sea.
Or any lugubrious lake there was
In a manner emphatic and free.
How jointlessly, and how jointlessly
The frivolous cake sailed by
On the waves of the ocean that pointlessly
Threw fish to the lilac sky.

Oh, plenty and plenty of hake there was
Of a glory beyond compare.
And every conceivable make there was
Was tossed through the lilac air.

Up the smooth billows and over the crests
Of the cumbersome combers flew
The frivolous cake with a knife in the wake
Of herself and her curranty crew.
Like a swordfish grim it would bounce and skim
(This dinner knife fierce and blue)
And the frivolous cake was filled to the brim
With the fun of her curranty crew.

Oh, plenty and plenty of hake there was
Of a glory beyond compare -
And every conceivable make there was
Was tossed through the lilac air.

Around the shores of the Elegant Isles
Where the cat-fish bask and purr
And lick their paws with adhesive smiles
And wriggle their fins of fur.
They fly and fly 'neath the lilac sky -
The frivolous cake, and the knife
Who winketh his glamorous indigo eye
In the wake of his future wife.

The crumbs blow free down the pointless sea
To the beat of a cakey heart
And the sensitive steel of the knife can feel
That love is a race apart
In the speed of the lingering light are blown
The crumbs to the hake above
And the tropical air vibrates to the drone
Of a cake in the throes of love.


Mervyn Peake.

The Myth of Positive Thinking

With positive thinking you can defeat death
Be happy, be brave , you can do it, you can!
I don’t want to look at your skeleton frame
Shrunk and ravaged by cancer and ready to cark
So don’t shout, don’t be angry, don’t scream at your partner
Retreat to your centre and accept your fate for
we all must die.

No positive thinking can save you from death.
So scream and be angry and rage at the light
that’s dimming before them, the unhappy kids
Who cannot accept that you’re reaching the brink
Of a great new adventure that makes you a star
Recapture your faith and toss away fear for
we all must die.

Myths and Legends

Somewhere between history, present, and past, they lurk,
Just out of sight they lie awaiting animation on my inner eye these
Fables of wisdom, luminosity of ‘otherworld’ and even life itself.
Tales of unrequited love , heroism ,for there is only victor and vanished
Passion, revenge, matricide and children lost as pawns in love and war.

What can they offer us with their glossy patina of truth these
Legends of ‘otherness’ and difference vying for our loyalty?
Power in the tribe, safe within the fulcrum of reality and disbelief?
Somewhere between the thin places, they lie claiming life in invention
In the fulcrum binding myth, legend and spirited grudging acceptance.

An Inglorious War 1914-1918

Eyes blank, bodies shatter- soar in the current of hot air
then flumph into the dirt, broken, weightless flotsam
shared life and death in the unsung coffin of the trench
Unmitigated horror all around in hues of red and black
In the distance,the rat tat tat boom reveals reluctant day
No will to dawn on carnage bloody,brutal, hopeless
hoping none have lived to see theiring horses try to rise -
Disembowelled,entrails oozing sceaming for help but there
Are no words, no living hands to comfort their distress


Evil lives in this place hovers overhead
While Death waits with gentleling arms
For Death has no glorious lustre here
Nor will age weary glorious youth in sacrifice!
No honour in the children’s lives, so cheaply bought.
They lie forever now, entombed in time, beloved sons
beloved men of heart and soul, the flowers of the field,
extinguished forever in war's futililty and gloom of loss.

Beauty and the Beast

The beast lurks within each one of us, but
Beauty brings no measure of safety.
For wearying flesh reveals writ clear
Received myths of beauty, past and present.
Tossed into deepest darkness, our beast is unredeemed
The unfit spotted mirror remind us- all are doomed
Botox,Body Sculpting, lotions foul and pungent
Create doe eyed Bratz and Barbie look-a-likes who
Search deeply their reflection for a glimpse of
Once upon a time true self, acceptance and diversity.