Pat-a- Cake Pat-a-cake

Pat-a- Cake Pat-a-cake

Pat-a-cake Pat-a-cake

Dancing down the street oblivious to the flak

Scorning gas mask and tin hat

High on life

Pat-a-cake Pat-a-cake

Reading for hours with me on her lap

Nursery rhymes on tap

Mother and wife

Pat-a-cake Pat-a-cake

Cycling to market with me on the back

Ice-cream and sweets never any lack

Giver of life

Pat-a-cake Pat-a-cake

Rummaging round all the jumble sales

Finding bargains never fails

Planning the afterlife

Pat-a-cake Pat-a-cake

Pat-a-cake Pat-a-cake

Pat-a-cake Pat-a-cake

Opher 7.10.23

Thinking back to my mum a series of memories came flooding through. I can remember sitting on her lap as a little toddler and her playing Pat-a-cake  Pat-a-cake baker’s man.

Fond fond memories

As a teenager in the war she danced back down the street, going home from the dances, no tin hat, as the bombers flew overhead and Big Bertha, the antiaircraft gun on the railway fired up at them. In the morning the road she’s danced along was covered in shards of metal from the exploding shells.

She’d play with me all day with nursery rhymes and actions. She’d take me to the market six miles away, in the seat on the back of her bike, so I could see the sheep, pigs and cattle. She’d buy me an ice-cream and a bag of sweets.

Her hobby was jumble sales. She collected clothes and useful things to give to poverty-stricken families.

Her other interest was the spiritualist church.

She was my mother.

Today’s Music to Blow My Mind – Roy Harper – McGoohan’s Blues

One of the greatest songs ever written. Life, love, the futility of society, religion, politics and purpose against the backdrop of nature and eternity.

Always blows my mind.

McGoohan’s Blues (Remastered) – YouTube

Give It all You’ve Got.

Give It all You’ve Got.

All the laughs,

                All the love,

                                The agony

                                                And loss.

Will be forgotten,

                Count for nothing,

                                With nobody

                                                Counting the cost.

In the darkness of forever

It won’t matter

That we went for it

                Hell for leather.

All we have is

                A brief moment in time

In which

                We love and shine.

Though it won’t matter a jot.

We’ll still give it all we’ve got!

Opher – 25.6.2022

I often feel that life is a gesture, nothing more.

It is testimony to man’s essential nature that, despite knowing that it is all meaningless and destined to end, we still strive to create.

Pointlessness does not matter.

In the moment we attempt to understand, to express and to raise our puny flags as if staking out eternity.

In this moment there is no death, no aging; no such thing as futility. In this moment all things are possible.

In this moment we can experience everything, fill ourselves with bliss, understanding and love; we can live. Only in this moment.

That is what makes life worthwhile.

Poetry – The Power of Laughter

The Power of Laughter

Laughing and joking

When times are rough;

That’s the way to do it

Even when the going’s tough!

Economic mayhem

From the blind man’s bluff

Death stalks a handshake.

That ain’t funny stuff!

Opher – 28.4.2020

At times of stress or sadness the British always turn to humour as a way of dealing with the fears!

In this time of great uncertainty, worry and fear it is humour that will help us through – Oh – as well as a choccy biscuit, a cup of tea and a nice cuddle!

Poetry – Searching for Paradise

Searching for Paradise

I’ve been searching for paradise.

Under a blue sky with warming sun

I’ve hunted for where it might be.

I’ve asked my many friends;

Travelled over green hills and mountain peaks,

And through many a grove of trees.

Taking my love by the hand

We’ve wandered through magnificent lands

In the hopes that we might see.

I’ve read a thousand books

And heard a million heart-warming tales

With which I thoroughly agree.

I’ve looked through microscopes and telescopes

At crystals and planets,

Magnificently huge and exceptionally twee;

I’ve studied multitudes of wondrous creatures,

Beautiful blossoms,

And many a restless sea.

I’ve read gurus, poets and philosophers

But none of them agree

So I’ve come to accept that what will be, will be.

I think that finally,

I’ve come to understand

That paradise

Is always close at hand.

19.4.2020

Isn’t this life wonderful?? It has such a range of wonderful experience.

All we can do is dive in and sample it all, lap it up and try the full gamut.

Why limit yourself?

Launch yourself at everything!

Search for what is important.

Search for beauty.

Search for love. It’s all out there!