Don Holmes says….Wrote this at a recent poetry meeting and we had to imagine the view of life from our favourite tree. So I chose the one that used to stand in Wyndham Park.

TREE IN WINTER CHILL

March, and the frost still lingers

People passing, warming fingers

Staring at the bare dark lines

Of my trunk, looking for signs

That Spring will soon bring shoots of green

Migratory birds that wash and preen

Crocuses and daffodils, bursting into life

A hope to shake off winter’s strife

As noon approaches, the Sun appears

To put some warmth on cold young ears

The Park Keeper begins to toil

Prods and pokes at frosted soil

Hoping that his efforts may

Help dormant seedlings on their way

But as the afternoon wears on

Those early signs of life are gone

As cooling winds begin to blow

Threatening thoughts of fresh new snow

Just a fluttering or two

Nothing much to worry you

But as I watch the flurries start

And covers all my boughs and bark

Then I change colour, white from grey

And Winter will not go away

© Don Holmes (18/05/2022)

This is the poetic view of eight-year-old Oliver, while on enforced leave from Belton Lane Primary School.

We’d meet at the Cow

On most Friday nights

For beers and a few games of darts

Then off up the road

To BmARCO’s we’d go

And look for our new “Queen o hearts”

We’d all sit around

In groups that we knew

Just chatting with drinks in our hand

The boys out for girls

The girls out for boys

Not giving much thought for the band

In those days we smoked 

And nobody cared 

Or thought of the haze in the room

Tonight was the night 

To let your hair down

Have fun, not be worried by gloom

There weren’t many folk 

That we didn’t know

From work or from nights out, and such

We were all very young

In those heady days

And none of us earned very much

If you were lucky

You danced with some girls

And sometimes got “ribbed” by a friend

But times have now changed

And BmARCO’s no more

So sad that it all had to end

© Don Holmes