Long Tyne Poems

In homage to the waters around the UK and all those who sail them...


Late at night and early dawn
Like clockwork - every day are heard
Those dulcet tones “set fair” to warn
With poetic, most prophetic words
What...

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FOG   HORN   ON   THE   NEVA

Fog horn on the far off  Neva  dock
A  canal  bridge to open and  unlock:
Today I heard  its...

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GOING     BACK



It  was not an endearing place, a storybook place
With little cottages and
Loaded fruit trees from which apples could be casually filched, 
Nor were there  sparkling streams for pushing...

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When poet Tennyson was very young,
He was a handsome tiny son, 
Who loved playing tennis under the sun.

When in his teens,
Tennyson excelled at his studies 
So much so that he won the admiration of 
Adorable...

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NEWCASTLE  UPON  TYNE,    ENGLAND

Half-Scot,  half-English  and  ill at ease with the past,
Newcastle is sooty black from its coaly drama, 
And  the breathless town was always ...

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Hakaris HaTov
Recognizing the Good,
Be aware of what’s already there,
Mind that abundance is our spine,
Dire news presents a raincloud,
Blinding, warping focus of our blessing,
Making all seem dark, a piercing tyne,
News allures: Life or Death, it’s to...

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Introduction..  An excerpt from a speech by Mr Keith Campbell 1969,  On the need of a referendum on joining the 'common market' the people are discussing it up and down
the land every day,...

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GOING  HOME  IN  GATESHEAD  1952


Boy and mother walking home.
Sounds  muffled,  closed  intimate silence.  It was snowing.

Street  lamps’  light of warm orange   blazed a...

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Caerphilly is a small town
Famous for its cheese
Has a castle looks like its falling  down
With a Moat around with geese

Outside now stands a large Statue, 
It needed to be big he would boast.
Thats what the nature...

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CHASING THE SUN

Standing on the beach outside the Spanish City at Whitley Bay we would see the PO ferry on the horizon, and the chase was on, legging it like mad down to Tynemouth to...

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UNCLE    JOHN

Uncle is hardly an adequate description 
For a man who in practically every way 
Acted as my father when I was small.
I have even started to look like him as I...

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This photo was taken in St James Church Graveyard, Benwell, Newcastle, 
Tyne & Wear, England, UK,

I just thought the tree stump resembled a Gargoyle, hence Gavin got his 
new name, on the close-up photo you...

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Newcastle-upon-Tyne Dackel  was nine
                          He sniffed the breeze for...

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GATESHEAD    MUSIC



Not a storybook place of rhymes and chimes of bells 
My childhood England was dark  and dirty, 
And instead of the skirl of bagpipes or the weeping fiddle, 
There were...

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The shame was relished
when met with wanting eyes
How I longed to be held
and open up for sexting blighs

When every thought I had to have was..
trust for shaming eyes
When ever trust I knew to see
was faith...

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SUNLESS    IN   NORTH   SHIELDS 


It’s painful when the sea wind 
Drives  rain into the eyes
At the end of Yeoman Street, 
Where I waited so long for that...

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Surrounded by the glitz and frippery
the ribbons, bells and stars all meant to warm you,
on the mantelpiece, parading with the cards
the one that silently ' regrets to inform you'.
Muffled merriment, jaded joy 
from those who...

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Six minutes to six.  I’m ready for tea,
The forecast for shipping – what is in store ?
My chair is a vessel far out on the sea,
Rain, moderate or good, occasion’ly poor.

There’s warning of gales...

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SUBMARINE

It was Navy Day on the River Tyne*
I can remember I was about nine.
Four big grey warships to be seen
And a small black submarine.
The big ships were truly splendid 
With  flags and lights. They...

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GATESHEAD  1954


My home’s  between vinegar factory
And a small-time scrap metal dealer
This town   is  an ugly and  grimy
Industrial place - and it doesn’t get any realer

Like rich woman next door...

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Intrduction -Byron’s Sonnet

If I can say the lines that make her mine,
and stay from speaking trite words she would hate,
but rather play her praise of golden weight,
then homage I would make gods so divine.
For weeks...

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NEWCASTLE    -   NORTHUMBRIAN   CITY

 
Half-English, half-Scot:  martial roots in the past,
Newcastle   -  once dark from its coaly drama -
A breathless place ever ready for...

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ONLY TWENTY  YEARS 

Who  can know the future of  twenty years
And discount the dim offerings of Gateshead?
What  12 year old can imagine
The emptiness of prairies in Montana
Or  smell from fifty...

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TRAM   BELL



Steep streets everywhere you played,
Where your football would roll away forever;
And sawdust spilt out of the butcher’s onto the steep sidewalk 
Among the feet of the tram queue,
All listening keenly to hear...

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Please dad,
please don't cry,
it's selfish for me to say,
cause dad you gave me breath,
the breath I breath today.

A strong man,
always the family fed,
dad you gave us so much more
than our want and our
daily bread.

Dad you...

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