Ten!

                             Not me!

JENNY MATLOCK

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com.au/

letter 'T'

We are told that a rule of this blog is to comment on the work of ten other writers!

TEN!

I simply cannot visit TEN! Visiting three's my limit!

That order will take my enthusiasm, and, very efficiently, dim it!

I visit about ten blogs a day, pursuing poetic themes!

That would make a hundred! Not in my wildest dreams

Could I find time to comment on a hundred blogs a day!

I'm too busy writing poems to spend my life that way.

I also have a house to clean and 'him indoors' to feed!

Domestic bliss would disappear very fast indeed

If I spent all day commenting! And how could I run my group?

(We put on plays and travel round as an entertainment troop.)

I get about six comments each day, with which I'm satisfied,

So anything in excess of that is duty multiplied.

So, if your 'Ten' is a serious rule, with which we must comply,

I'll simply have to write these words.....'Thank you and goodbye'.

I can only promise that I'll do my very best

To comment on three writers and simply skim  the rest. 

I hope I'll get dispensation and be allowed to be

That odd woman from Australia who only comments on THREE!

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WALKING BACKWARDS

A little house with blue paintwork on a friendly Australian street.......

I'll take step one into the city, Newcastle, hard to beat.

I'll retrace my steps to the immigrant ship which, long ago, brought me here;

It will take me back to South Africa, a country I hold dear.

A further step takes me to the ship I worked on, with fun on every hand

And back to the years in Rhodesia, then a green and pleasant land.

Now back to the bustle of London, where I first spread my wings,

Then  to my college in Brighton, and 'firsts' for so many things.

From thence to a beautiful village, full of historic charms

Then a further step into Wartime, with all its many alarms.

I'm very nearly home now, I'm at school, by the sea;

Back to the much-loved cousins and the joys of  family.

Then back, back, back to the cradle, with a sister, now long gone,

Yes, I'm back in Margate. What a lot to look back upon!

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Walking backwards is pleasant; taking stock of each used-up year.

But I know where I'm happiest.....

It's here,

Right here.

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PS

Malcolm and I had a lovely day out with Max and Harry, our two young grandsons yesterday. We had a ride on the ferry over to Stockton and we enjoyed a lovely pizza lunch over there before ferrying home again. Summer suddenly arrived with a temperature of 31 degrees. October heat always exhausts me; I get used to summer as time goes on. But a lovely breeze was blowing off the river so it wasn't too bad.I was pleased with some of the photos I took of the two boys.

  

Waiting for the Ferry

Harry looking sultry.

Playing on the old anchor.

Cheeky as usual.

Max and Harry tree-climbing.

Here comes the ferry to take us home.

Love-Hate

POETRY JAM
http://poetryjaam.blogspot.com.au/
asks us to consider something we both love and hate.

LOVE-HATE

This one's easy! I love and hate modern technology!

I love the fact that we're all together in one society.

I love the fact that the world has shrunk into a little village,

Even though there are still remains of tribalism and pillage.

I love my old-fashioned computer and the way my typing mistakes

Are very quickly obliterated, in just a couple of shakes!

I love keeping in-touch with relations who, otherwise, would disappear

Except for the standard Christmas letter sent dutifully each year.

I love to delve into Google whenever I need advice
And I love looking for hotel rooms and instantly knowing the price!
But most of all I love the fact that all my little rhymes
Now have an instant readership, not, as in long-past times,
When they languished on scraps of paper read by only me
And were utterly ignored by all, even my family!
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But I hate that foreign voice I hear and I hate pressing Button One
When I phone for personal treatment and find that there is none.
And I hate the fact that tricksters are lurking in cyberspace
Ready to steal my details, with motives that are base.
And I hate the fact that riots can be organised on the phone;
Facebook advertises sprees, though it doesn't throw a stone.
And I hate the fact that I'm ignorant when it comes to understanding
The ins and outs of computing; the whole thing's too demanding.
I'm left feeling washed-up on life's shore because my generation
Was born too early for it all and it's all a complication.
I hate the fact that children, now, enjoy a virtual game
Instead of climbing real-life trees; I think that's a shame.
It's Ying and Yang, it's yes and no, I'm ambivalent to the core
And, if I live much longer, I'll feel love/hate even more!
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                           Beach

MOTHER, MAY I....?

'Mother, may I....?' antique words,

One could say they're for the birds.

Nowadays a little child

Is rarely quite so meek and mild.

'I'm gonna!' are the words we hear,

Loudly shouted in a parent's ear!

But days of old were not so fine,

When children had to toe the line.

Fatherly love was rather frigid;

Rules were set in stone and rigid.

The happy medium is the best,

But how many parents pass the test?

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