Best Peaty Poems

Fingers of light pierced the clouds caressing the moors
with life giving warmth, purples, browns and greens of
heathers mingled, blended, in a union of beauty. Yellow
of gorse splashed in the sultry, hazy spectre of natures
superb canvas. The dry stone walling lay sporadic, lost,
decaying in time and...

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Good poetry is like an Old Master
Crafted with expert skill imbued with soul
No abstracted throwaway disaster
Or a bland undistinguished casserole
Of poor ingredients cooked up faster
And deposited in the toilet bowl
No, it should stimulate the appetite
And explode in the mind like dynamite

Good poetry should stand the...

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A misty Scottish gale blows fierce
From the grey that clouds the hills
I step onto her western way
Desolate, damp and chilled

Her grasses grow brown and lavender
Stretching as far as I can see
While Hill tops and the horizon
Lead me deep into a peaty sea

From the banks of...

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The Swimming Hole


A burbling tuneful peaty burn
Like amber whisky flowing clear
Where darting minnows twist and turn
Is soothing music to my ear.

Between the banks of rushes green
Below the falls a deep dark pool
Where lads who come to swim are seen
Enjoying fun and keeping cool.

I paddle in...

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Atop old Penistone 

From bumpy stony track to peak the summit
No ledges, drops from which to plummet
A quarried mound that boasts sweet heather 
Loyal and strong despite the weather

The climb to top, a meagre stroll
But views abound, sights to extol
Bilberries aplenty on summer day
Rich pickings...

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Shuffling wreck, legacy of a life well spent;
Knees creaking, clicking articulations, a
Spine complaining, shoulder crunching. 
Legs spindly toothpicks beneath a pregnant olive,
A-cups sagging. Lungs afire at the 
Leaping up of stairs, gasping breaths.

A visit to the dungeon of torture, the gymn, 
Where perceptions of self...

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There is a season for sadness
rain darkens and dampens
the mood. Darkness hushes gladness
~
There is a season for new birth
rain feeds thirsty gardens
flowers spring up from peaty earth
~
There is a season for warm sun
rain feels nice to dance in
holding hands with your special one
~
There is a...

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Like so many times when us youngsters reigned
We got up to so much that we forgot to refrain
Instances, confrontations, non immaculate we be
C'mon, c'mon, come at us you'll soon see

Then it went tit's up as we now look back and tell
Bravado at the time, drinks,...

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Tap tap  boom… sheep scattered like shrapnel
Brian Dunn’s instant memorial smoke rose
from his peaty wet death hole, roots
lumps of peat and ling fell like black roses over his body
and the blood splattered fan of shattered gritstone
Three lads Sunday walk, October 1950

Derrick Shaw’s lower arm...

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When It Rains

When it rains
The ghost comes out and smells the water
When it rains
The tree goes small and the baby cries harder
When it rains
The mountain is silent and bears the thunder
When it rains
The fire grows big and I become a gambler

When it rains
The river starts...

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The Strid

Get rid of the Strid with its seething torrent trapped amid the caves
In downward spiral coursing through a web of underwater stone
Oh that the river would have carved a safer way away from occulted potholes
Shame on its dogged passage that prefers the dangerous route
It...

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Make your way through the parlous fog and place your trust in God,
As heather, moss and bracken fern embrace the peaty sod. 
Take the fork at the Roman road that seems the wilder choice,
Then wander down, my bonny lass, and listen for my voice.

Cross the...

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Focus in, on the leaves
Changing colour, changing texture
The way they dance in the breeze
A changing daily show 

Focus in, on the sound
Nut focussed tales from hurrying squirrels
The crunching leaves on the ground
The peaty comfort earthy smell

Focus in, on the branches and bark
First adorned, now bare...

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From Maurus' shore, a tide arose,
not of ocean, but of faith,
and shadowed Iberia's sun-kissed coast.

Moor, a word that held a continent,
a tapestry of Berber, Arab,
threaded with the blackness of the south.

They came with astrolabes and scrolls,
with sciences that bloomed in desert heat,
and gardens that remembered...

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