Winter Love

BY LINDA GREGG

I would like to decorate this silence,   
but my house grows only cleaner
and more plain. The glass chimes I hung   
over the register ring a little
when the heat goes on.
I waited too long to drink my tea.   
It was not hot. It was only warm.

Violin

by Nikki Wallschlaeger

I had the passion 
but not the stamina
nor the discipline, 
no one knew how
to discipline me so 
they just let me be,

Let me play along,
let me think I was
somebody, I could
be somebody, even
without the no-how.

Never cared one bit 
when my bow didn’t
match the rest of the 
orchestra, I could get 
their notes right but 
always a little beyond,

sawing my bow across
the strings, cuttin it up
even if I wasn’t valuable
even if I lacked respect
for rules of European
thought and composure.

A crescendo of trying
to be somebody,
a decrescendo of trying 
to belong, I played along
o yes, I play along. 

Us

by Zaffar Kunial

If you ask me, us takes in undulations –
each wave in the sea, all insides compressed –
as if, from one coast, you could reach out to

the next; and maybe it’s a Midlands thing
but when I was young, us equally meant me,
says the one, ‘Oi, you, tell us where yer from’;

and the way supporters share the one fate –
I, being one, am Liverpool no less –
cresting the Mexican wave of we or us,

a shore-like state, two places at once, God
knows what’s in it; and, at opposite ends
my heart’s sunk at separations of us.

When it comes to us, colour me unsure.
Something in me, or it, has failed the course.
I’d love to think I could stretch to it – us –

but the waves therein are too wide for words.
I hope you get, here, where I’m coming from.
I hope you’re with me on this – between love

and loss – where I’d give myself away, stranded
as if the universe is a matter of one stress.
Us. I hope, from here on, I can say it

and though far-fetched, it won’t be too far wrong.

Thursday

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

And if I loved you Wednesday,
Well, what is that to you?
I do not love you Thursday—
So much is true.

And why you come complaining
Is more than I can see.
I loved you Wednesday,—yes—but what
Is that to me?

She Sells Seashells

T, Sullivan, 1908

She sells seashells on the seashore
The shells she sells are seashells, I’m sure
So if she sells seashells on the seashore
Then I’m sure she sells seashore shells.

The Apollos

Penny for Your Thoughts

by Diane Ferlatte

No Hopers, Jokers & Rogues

by Fisherman’s Friends

Come all you no hopers, you jokers and rogues
We’re on the road to nowhere, let’s find out where it goes
It might be a ladder to the stars, who knows?
Come all you no hopers, you jokers and rogues

Leave all your furrows in the fields where they lie
Your factories and offices, kiss them all goodbye
Have a little faith in the dream maker in the sky
There’s glory in believing in
And it’s all in the beholder’s eye

Come all you no hopers, you jokers and rogues
We’re on the road to nowhere, let’s find out where it goes
It might be a ladder to the stars, who knows?
Come all you no hopers, you jokers and rogues

Turn off your engines and slow down your wheels
Suddenly your master plan loses its appeal
Everybody knows that this reality’s not real
So raise a glass to all things past
And celebrate how good it feels

Come all you no hopers, you jokers and rogues
We’re on the road to nowhere, let’s find out where it goes
It might be a ladder to the stars, who knows?
Come all you no hopers, you jokers and rogues

Wash in the sea of our own vanity
We should rejoice in our individuality
Though winds, gail force
Will stear our course to insanity

Come all you no hopers, you jokers and rogues
We’re on the road to nowhere, let’s find out where it goes
It might be a ladder to the stars, who knows?
Come all you no hopers, you jokers and rogues

Come all you no hopers, you jokers and rogues
We’re on the road to nowhere, let’s find out where it goes
It might be a ladder to the stars, who knows?
Come all you no hopers, you jokers and rogues

Many Stories but One World

by Diane Ferlatte

Keep Hauling

by Fisherman’s Friends

When love just seems so far away
Keep haulin’, keep haulin’
The tide will flood your heart someday
Keep haulin’, boys

When your guidin’ star’s in cloudy skies
Keep haulin’, keep haulin’
You’ll find your way to the bright sunrise
Keep haulin’, boys

Keep haulin’, ho!
Rouse and raise your voice
Hold your course and don’t let go
Keep haulin’, boys

If you gave your best and your heart stayed true
Keep haulin’, keep haulin’
There’s only one thing left to do
Keep haulin’, boys

If you fought so hard and you lost your hold
Keep haulin’, keep haulin’
Remember fate rewards the bold
Keep haulin’, boys