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Best Poems Written by Gary Radice

Below are the all-time best Gary Radice poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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Miss Amelia Havisham's Garden Shed


between the plant pots and the trays
the cobwebs had seen better days
and for all the wood and damp and soil
the smell was one of paint and oil 
as flies and wasps lying in state
were curled up past their fly-by-date
and nails and screws and metal hooks
shared space on shelves with brewery books
beneath a clock with broken hands
where time stood still amongst the cans
and jam jars full of pip-like seeds
stood next to things that no one needs
and while her tears had stained the glass
that looked out on the unkempt grass
upon the floor amid the mess
..a letter 
and her wedding dress.

Details | Gary Radice Poem

The Kissing Gate

‘far from the madding crowds’ and cars
this ‘green and pleasant’ land of ours

conceals behind its dry stone walls
secrets, streams and waterfalls

where stepping stones that gather moss
‘shine forth’ and tempt us both across

to distant fields of eighties’ skies
now clouded through autumnal eyes

where sheep still bleat as we both pass
along old paths of weathered grass

rekindling thoughts as each track weaves
of first love, hope and burning leaves

that once infused a simpler air
but linger still inside somewhere

to guide us on those wistful miles
through woods, past farms and over stiles

in search of where we sat and spent
time dreaming dreams of dreams we dreamt

over the hills and far away
inside a world called yesterday

and where we’d stay ‘til light turned late
in fields beyond the kissing gate

where now through gentle smiles and tears
reflecting on those forty years

it feels like time has flown so fast
since young love asked if love could last.

Details | Gary Radice Poem

Vincent Van Gogh: Cafe Terrace At Night

from beyond his
vibrant palette
that bore all his 
lifelong scars

is what I see
beneath his sky
and myriad
of stars

a scene of shades
and silhouettes
formed by the
yellow light

that hints at
The Last Supper
at that café 
in the night?

Details | Gary Radice Poem

The Stanzas By the Sea

I: In Rhyme

when the world had no headsets
the sunbathing crowd
fell asleep to the sounds of
transistors played loud
while the deckchairs and windbreaks
kites, beach balls and more
formed the stripes, lines and circles
that painted the shore
and the longer I walked
on the sand to that sea
the more the sea seemed
to get further from me
and the crunch in my mouth
was that one grain of sand
in the sandwich I ate 
with my sand covered hand
while the lemons and melons
and plums I'd watch spin
would stop short of a cherry
one click from a win
and the postcards we sent
from the end of the pier
were of blue skies and donkeys
and "wish you were here".


II: In Free Verse

from the end of the pier
through the stiff breeze
and spindrift
I can still hear the tunes
of the promenade bands

and I can still see the stripes
of the deckchairs and windbreaks
and the box kites
and beach balls
that painted the shore

and I can still taste
the butter
 - warm like the canned ham
and the crunch of that sand
in the sandwich I had

and I can still hear the djs
laughing and talking
spinning hits of the sixties
from transistors
played loud

and I can still smell the onions
frying wild in the fairground
to the sound of the claxons
and the lemon. click. orange. click. melon.
click. click.

and I can still breathe the deep smoke
swirling in sand dunes
from the benson and hedges
and 
player's no.6

and I can still see those grown ups
staring at mirrors
 - their bodies distorted
like the dreams
they once had

today on the pier
the rain that's now falling
falls from a same sky
on a same sand 
and same sea 

and a

same 

me

 - yet this air

this air
is not the same air
as that air I
once 
breathed.

Details | Gary Radice Poem

Catch the World


to walk in early morning's still

to see the silence through the chill

to smell the rise of dawn from night

to hear the sky's unravelling light

to taste the distant fields of grass

to breathe the dry stone walls that pass

to touch the earth's pure pristine air

to catch the world - and hold it there.

Details | Gary Radice Poem

The Dog On the Beach

I watched a dog fight back the sea
to chase a ball thrown on the surf
it sensed no danger unlike me
when I chased young dreams on this earth.

at some point in reality
against those waves I lost my nerve
I blame my personality
respecting nature's tides since birth.

and now that dog's just running free
 - its ball retrieved with canine verve
despite a law that it should be
restrained by harness round its girth.

Details | Gary Radice Poem

What Was

when all the words
inside your head
become those words 
already said
and places that
you dreamt you saw
are places now 
you’ve been before
is it that time 
to call a day
on all what was 
and walk away
or is it time 
to take the view
that you should stay
to start anew
and use the past 
to build upon
what’s gone before
before it's gone?

Details | Gary Radice Poem

The Very Weird And Wonderful World Of Place Names (UK And US Editions)


I: THE UK

Poling, Patching, Nether Wallop, 
Matching Tye and Droop

Plumpton, Lickfold, Puddletown, 
Westward Ho! and Throop.

Hoby, Shoby, New Invention,
Boghead, Bath, Cat's Ash

North Piddle, Staines and Pen*stone,
Wash Dyke, East Breast and Flash.

Six Mile Bottom, Mudford Sock,
Wetwood, Wetwang, Hose

Catbrain, Assloss, No Man's Land, 
Didling, Lower Rose.

Blubberhouses, Giggleswick, 
Sheepy Magna, Splott

Climping, Crudwell, Lickey End, 
Queen Camel, Picklescott.

Bareleg Hill and Sh*tterton,
Spital In The Street

Coldwind, Weeford, Feltwell, Pant,
Wideopen, Nob End, Fleet.

Barking, Homer, Fingringhoe, 
Ugley, Crackpot, Beer

Mudchute, Catholes, Shaggs, Prickwillow, 
Bunny, Jump and Fear.

World's End, No Place, Bishop Spit,
Land Of Nod and Hyde

Tedstone Wafer, Flesh Shank, Helstone,
Weedon and Tosside.

Brokenwind and Cockermouth, 
Crapstone, Pity Me

Wig Wig, Bi*chfield, Ramsbottom, 
Marsh Gibbon, Chemistry.

Little Snoring, Titty-Ho,
Upperthong and Send

Booby Dingle, Bushygap,
Great Bottom, Dull, Witts End.

Ynysybwl and Cwmystwyth,
(pronounced: Un-niss-uh-bull, and Cum-uss-bwith)

Eowyn, Abersoch
(pronounced: Aye-o-wen, Ab-u-sok)

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. 
(pronounced: clan-vye-pulth-gwin-gith-go-gerra-quin-drobber-clan-tiss-ill-ee-o-go-go-gok)

Hell Peak, Nasty, Fattiehead,
Beggars Bush, Brown Willy

Backside, Bell End, Butt Of Lewis,
Coldwind, Cocks, Caerphilly.

Boggy Bottom, Fanny Barks,
Pill and Scratch A*se Ware

Jeffries Passage, Donkey Town
and Weston-super-Mare.

Bicester, Hunstanton,Teignmouth, Wisbech,
(pronounced: Bis-ter, Hun-stun, Tin-muth, Wiz-beach)

Godminster and Beaulieu
(pronounced: Gum-ster and Byoo-lee)

Wymondham, Holborn, Happisburgh,
(pronounced: Win-dom, Hoe-bn, Haze-buh-ruh)

Frome, Gateacre, Cholmondeley.
(pronounced: Froom, Gat-a-ker, Chum-lee)

Upper Dicker, Lower Dicker,
Snodland, Chard and Goole

Shepherd's Bush and Killiecrankie,
Leek, Eye, Diss and Poole.

Curry Mallet, Castle Rising, 
Bonkle, Milton Keynes

Lower Swell, T*att, Isle Of Muck and
Barton in The Beans.


II: THE US

Mystic, Bangs, Peculiar,
Kill Devil Hills, Three Way

Scratch Ankle, Concrete, Evening Shade,
Fries, Ketchuptown, Okay.

Slaughter Beach, White Pigeon, Pinch,
Fluffy Landing, Bleak

Santa Claus, What Cheer, Ding Dong,
Uncertain, Toad Suck, Eek.

Bald Knob, Flasher, Possum Grape,
Shangaloo and Uno

Kickapoo, Dry Prong, Smackover,
Funk, Buttzville and Disco.

Bad Axe, Bald Head, Intercourse,
Last Chance, Valentine

Cotton Plant, Sweet Lips, Mianus,
Tightsqueeze, Porcupine.

Greasy Corner, Monkey’s Eyebrow,
Popejoy, Coward, Pink

Looneyville, Blue Eye, Blue Ball,
Belcher, Hooker, Ink.

Forks Of Salmon, Nothing, Nowhere,
Somewhere, Hog Eye, Morse

Satan’s Kingdom, Hell For Certain,
Accident, Dead Horse.

Skaneateles, Worcester, Mobile
(pronounced: Skinnee-at-less, Wuss-ter, Moh-beel)

Poughkeepsie, Sequim, Boise
(pronounced: Puh-kip-see, Skwim, Boy-see)

Arkansas, La Jolla, Riga
(pronounced: Ar-kuhn-saw, Lah Hoya, Rye-guh)

Des Moines, Sault Ste. Marie
(pronounced: Duh Moyn, Soo-Saint-Mah-Ree)

Rough And Ready, Cut Off, Nameless,
Cut and Shoot and Coochie

Jot Em Down, Earth, Hoop And Holler,
Money, Chattahoochee.

Sandwich, Oblong, Ninety Six,
Hot Coffee, Luck, Delight

Truth Or Consequences, Nice,
Climax and Goodnight.

Details | Gary Radice Poem

Berlin

this nonconformist city
breathes a calm but edgy air
through gaps in the graffiti 
and the street art everywhere

its face is sometimes brutal
but its heart and soul seem not
and it walks a sexy diverse walk
that’s cold yet somehow hot

(but I know I’m getting older
when those fun thoughts in my head
reject the swinging KitKatClub
for KitKat bars instead)

and all those wearing AirPods
sipping hot drinks on the go
pass tourists taking boat trips
slowly going with the flow

while the 'high tea' of a bratwurst
served from food trucks on the street
is eaten at tall tables
en plein air without a seat

and just like high end stores at home
the windows dress up nice
displaying priceless dresses
that are shown without their price

note too that no one jaywalks here
by crossing roads at will
not even during rush hour 
when the traffic’s standing still

and when it comes to bridges
here’s a fact that crossed my mind:
there are more here than in Venice
and in Amsterdam combined

and by saving time by taking trams
that move berlin about
we spent time taking time in parks
where locals take time out

while the aiming and the shooting
by the wall towards the west
was just us aiming cell phones
shooting selfies with the rest.


but the death camp films and clothes we saw

of the many that were killed

brought tears that drowned a silence there 

for the blood that humans spilled

and I cannot start to comprehend

the minds of those who kill

and just because I went there

- and just because I stood there

- and just because I wrote this

doesn’t mean I ever will.

Details | Gary Radice Poem

The Wetlands

as swallows land and swifts take flight
inside late noon’s last shards of light
the chill winds that descend on day
cause dense green swathes of reeds to sway
across the flooded vista’s ground
in harmony with nature’s sound
of shrills that echo through the air
from birds and insects everywhere
while stars with room to breathe and shine
light up a land divorced from time
to show the beauty and true worth
of life in balance here on earth.

Best Poems Written by Gary Radice

Miss Amelia Havisham's Garden Shed

The Kissing Gate

Vincent Van Gogh: Cafe Terrace At Night

The Stanzas By the Sea

Catch the World

The Dog On the Beach

What Was

The Very Weird And Wonderful World Of Place Names (UK And US Editions)

Berlin

The Wetlands

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