Turning

The year is turning
Switching once more
As one window closes
We open the door

New opportunities
To solve all our ills
If we offer some effort
And focus our wills

We've seen refugees
And more bombing raids
Political posturing
And diplomatic charades

The rich have got richer
All their nests to feather
The poor make do with less
Are we still in it together?

While the climate continues
To throw all it can
To prove that it's changing
And yet still we plan

To burn fossil fuels
To exploit and to frack
The only nature we have
And we won't get it back

But with new beginnings
We always have hope
There's no point in weeping
To hide away and mope

We must use our voices
Stand up and say
Think for the future
And choose another way

We must save this planet
As we must save ourselves
From the hurt we have wrought
And we can't invoke elves

Or Gods to save us
In whatever faiths we hold
There is only us
We must learn to be bold

Why not share an idea
Of peace in our time
Sing it or write it
In prose or in rhyme

And fight for the good
Which we all hold within
Express it, describe it
In a New Year
A new world to begin

Tree

When the seasonal greenery
Struggles to last
It's surely a sign
That Christmas has passed
And if it makes it through
The whole twelve days
It still sits with an air
Of general malaise

You see it browning
You see it wilting
Long arms drooping
And tall head tilting
Losing it's needles
Scatter by scatter
While too heavy baubles
Fall with a clatter

And it almost seems
To be unfair
To put it through
Such arboreal despair
Despite colour in the corner
That it's occupying
Day by day
It's slowly dying

Holidays

It’s the day inbetween

When nothing much goes on

Thegifts have grown boring

The guests have all gone

Still no sign in the air

That there might be snow

Perhaps there’s another sale

To which you can go

But the house is a mess

With the uneaten cake

Still piles of mince pies

And leftover steak

Chocolate wrappers

With wrapping on the floor

And you wonder what caused

That scratch on the door

At least you’ve got work

To go to tomorrow

Though that is a thought

That also brings sorrow

Wouldn’t it be nicer

To have more bank holidays

When the days are much longer

With warming sun’s rays

Overindulgence

A man this Christmas

Ate so much stuffing

When he went for a walk

He was huffing and puffing

A man this Christmas

Ate brandy pears

And as a result

Couldn’t get up the stairs

A man this Christmas

Ate so many buns

That at night he got

An attack of the runs

A man this Christmas

Drank so much wine

He fell and rolled

Down a steep incline

A man this Christmas

Ate so many sweets

He ended up sending

Some embarrassing tweets

A man this Christmas

And his mistletoe kisses

Got him deeply in trouble

With an unhappy Mrs

A man this Christmas

And his overindulgence

Did radiate out

With extreme refulgence

Aftermath

Feeling stuffed

And hungover

Unwashed dishes

And on the stove a

Stain you don’t

Remember making

During the cooking

And turkey baking

Floor is covered

In wrapping and crumbs

And underwear

That could be Mum’s

But at least the kids

Are still asleep

And the toys remain

In a scattered heap

It’s an overindulgence

Full of stress

A surfeit of food

And a crazy mess

So on Boxing Day

Run a nice warm bath

And forget about

The aftermath

Traditions

For some, tradition is an argument

For others it’s a glass of champagne

Many will have gone to midnight mass

A morning lie-in to gain

Many will have turkey for dinner

For others only a chicken will do

Duck, goose and rabbit are choices

But only for a very select few

Some will watch the Queen’s speech

Others make a point to ignore

Some will have drunk so much by this time

That they have started to snore

Do you play charades in the evening

Twister; A jigsaw or two

Are the kids tired out and fallen asleep

Or still making a hullabaloo

Whatever your traditions at Christmas

I wish you love and cheer

With plenty of food on the table

With friends and family near

Hustomten

In the dark morning
Of a cold Christmas Eve
And while you are sleeping
The house elf will leave

A pile of presents
Stacked up by the bed
And nobody sees him
Not even your ted

He'll spirit away
His job done for the year
In a tinkling of bells
Not that you'd hear

He has access to magic
And that's how he knows
Wrapping up what you want
In ribbons and bows

So it's time to say thank you
He'll know if you've not
And the gifts for next year
Might not count for a lot

You must always be grateful
When you're in your play pen
For the care and generosity
Of our Hustomten

City

Christmas tree city
Raindrop reflected buildings
Bauble glistening

Caroling city
Brass band on cathedral steps
Singing energy

Dressed and stuffed city
Sizzling anticipation
A feast for the eye

Fall

Should I pay this charge, they'll wonder
After all they've no one to call
And at their age it could happen at any time
A stumble and an embarrassing fall

But it's not something they've thought about before
But now there is fear in their mind
Whatever happened to the good in the world?
When people were helpful and kind?

It would give them peace of mind if they paid
And they're running out of cash so they're told
But they'll pay for nothing if they don't fall over
An insurance against getting old

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/pensioners-charged-26-falling-fee-7033931

Adeus

Adeus to the special one
His reign is at an end
Culled after a title win
That he could not defend

So long to the operatic one
It's unlikely he'll be back
But he won't be missed by ref's
Objects of many an attack

It's a wave to the tragic one
Thrown in the managerial ditch
He could not raise his team again
To their former fever pitch

Goodbye to Mourinho
Without him the league's not the same
But there's truth in the old adage
That football's a funny ol' game

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34785525

Contempt

Is it the fault of a token treaty
Or is it just their contempt
That national parks are to be fracked
No longer to be exempt

Giving up our landscapes
And our fresh water supplies
On the lobbying of business
Under a pressure jet of lies

Energy won't be cheaper
And with invading drills deployed
Pollution will kill the wildlife
And beauty will be destroyed

But it's not us who'll reap disaster
We'll not be the ones who'll pay
It will be our children's children
With a wasteland in which to play

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/16/fracking-under-national-parks-approved-by-mps-amid-acrimony

Failures

When a planet saving treaty
Can be diluted
Made insignificant
By claims of a translation error
Then diplomatic failures
Are extant

And worst of all
They dress it up
As some kind of victory
Like Chamberlain's
"Peace in our time"
We know how that turned out to be

If we cannot come together
The same species
In our only world
It's unlikely we'll survive
The climatic changes
To be unfurled

The fear and the violence
As we fight
For scraps of land
We'll surely destroy humanity
More than any
terrorist band

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2015/dec/16/how-a-typo-nearly-derailed-the-paris-climate-deal

Though

Though the tinsel is up
And the baubles hung
Though lights scatter windows
And bells are being rung

Though the parties sing
With the happy songs sung
Though people let loose
With all caution flung

I can't help dwelling
On thoughts that have stung
With irritation stuck
On the tip of my tongue

As I stand alone
In the crowds I'm among
A feeling of age
In the world of the young

Panic

We are living in an age
Where truth or deception
Get just as much of
A clamourous reception

From the faking of a death threat
To making up attacks
The media aren't interested
In the banality of facts

But what do you expect
When you overemphasize
Panic, fear and hatred
And the need for a reprise

Where a bearded i-pad userRequires extra scrutiny
Where trusting one another
Is a kind of mutiny

And now the drums are thumping
We see danger at every turn
Every shape and shadow
Is a matter for our concern

It's true that as a country
We are being radicalised
But not quite in the way
Some commentators have surmised

So, sit back and watch
But don't believe all you see
The sounds that you are hearing
Have been tailored perfectly

Keep a lookout for the manacles
And the tightening of the chains
For this will be our future
Unless we use our brains

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35093799

http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/08/tory-mp-lucy-allan-defends-faking-death-threat-over-syria-air-strikes-vote-5552989/

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/muslim-forced-off-tube-after-commuter-complained-he-used-ipad-suspiciously-a3133436.html

Catch

A catch in the throat
Unlocking the boat
Running free on the waves of a crowd

A snort and a cough
With a hat you won't doff
An applause cracks the silence aloud

Sneeze while you wheeze
It's impossible to please
When the loudest are running the show

Like a bug we've all caught
Behaviour peer-taught
The few keep the many on tip-toe

Response

A major leap

Or a stumble backwards

Only binding each other

To fate

Money still talks

And the fossil fuels rule

Politicians spin it all

To inflate

But danger remains

For the small island states

Whose weathered beaches

Wither away

And flood risks

For the low lying lands

Will spell annihilation

Some day

Crops will not grow

And the poor will go hungry

But the richest will never

Go without

Water for drinking

Will grow scarcer and scarcer

As raised temperatures put us

In drought

So, honestly

What have they achieved

Than promises, to promise

To have a look

And all they’ve done

Is to fasten the lid

Of the stew pot in which

We’ll all cook

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/13/world-leaders-hail-paris-climate-deal

Unexplored

A joke upon a string of fairy lights
Strung up like a galaxy of stars
With truth disguised to appeal to all our frights
To scratch away at all our hardwired scars

And assuming gas giant proportions up on high
Then sucked with black hole speed into their world
Until we see their imagination in the sky
Raining down upon us; Death unfurled

If only there was science; Not so much fiction
We could navigate without our bullshit beams
Meet the knowledge void with true conviction
That everything we know is what it seems

Where else but the unexplored will danger loom?
And the asteroid will always spell our doom.

Aggression

Our only response is a knee-jerk reaction

To the civilians killed by a terrorist faction

In a rain of bombs to destroy and to burn

In which we will kill their innocent’s in turn

There are alternative strategies to take

Cut off the money for oil trades they make

And to take away routes by which they are armed

Would ensure that no ordinary people are harmed

Bombs don’t win wars, they’ve not done so before

History is a thing that you can’t just ignore

If anything it steeled the population’s resolve

The spirits of London and Dresden didn’t dissolve

And what is winning, in this situation

There’s no thought to the future Syrian nation

Two years past we were told that the man was very bad

And now we’re coming in on the side of Assad

We’ve not learned the lessons of 2003

When we toppled Saddam with victorious glee

Only to create a vacuum of power

And a situation we’ve caused to turn rather sour

And will we be safer any more than we were

Or will this be a reason they can use as a spur

“They want to destroy us”; “Let’s give them fear”

They’ll be ready to tell whoever will hear

So why not try peace, once and for all

Although this may be an unpopular call

For the hawks of this world whose shout is the same

As if the murder of anyone is nothing more than a game

I’m sad it’s not the outcome for which I have yearned

And that we’ve proved once again that we have not learned

Despite having gone through supposed civilising years

Aggressive reactions end in nothing but tears

Hate

We seem to get better
At subjecting each other
To cuelty, to insult
To hating one another

A chasm is opening
Between each human being
A rift of the species
Which affects our wellbeing

Where are the cards
Which say "You're beautiful"?
Where are the trolls
Who are hopeful, not cynical?

Or is it the media
Who only portray the worst
Ignoring the uplifting
And kindness for which we thirst?

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/30/police-investigate-reports-of-fat-shaming-cards-on-london-tube