Rhymes of Our Times

Graham Eastaugh

Description

Graham Eastaugh’s poetry ranges from nonsensical fiction to both serious and light-hearted social comment. The author also writes about his continuing struggles against living with a progressive illness. His speciality is to occasionally include a twist in the tale to keep his audience on its toes. More than anything, the overall aim of this book is to provide a thought-provoking and entertaining read.

Sujets

• Poetry

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse UK
• Date de parution: 24 avril 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798823082037
• Langue: English

Extrait

Rhymes of our Times
 
 
 
Graham Eastaugh
 
 
 

 
AuthorHouse™ UK
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403 USA
www.authorhouse.co.uk
Phone: UK TFN: 0800 0148641 (Toll Free inside the UK)
UK Local: (02) 0369 56322 ([phone] from outside the UK)
 
 
 
 
© 2023 Graham Eastaugh. All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
Published by AuthorHouse 04/24/2023
 
ISBN: 979-8-8230-8204-4 (sc)
ISBN: 979-8-8230-8203-7 (e)
 
 
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Contents
About The Author
Nothing’s gonna stop us now
Animal farm
The power of persuasion
Shattered dreams
The beast from the East
Under pressure
Fortunate me
Going for gold
In between days
Back to the Dark Ages
Colour confusion
Back in the day
The appliance of science
Living on a prayer
The few
Different for girls
Golden years
Expressions of love
Psychology of Man
Out in the cold
A design for life
Matters of the mind
A necessary evil
Love changes everything
Battersea and butchery
Clouded memories
We are what we are
Consequences of longevity
Modern girl
Reasons to be fearful
Fate and accountability
Bad moon rising
The pros and cons of health and safety
Missing the point
Years and years
Small mercies
Saturation point
The other side of the coin
Who do you think you are?
A cautionary tale
My generation
Won’t get fooled again
The curse of the drinking classes
Season supreme
When we were young
Mind your language
Lyrically ludicrous
Life’s too short
Imagine
Minor irritations
Twisted sister
For better or worse?
Note to self – past and future
Shit happens
To hell and back
Die another way
Thirty-four years
Nothing else matters
Young love
I’d do anything
Back to basics
The cost of living
Out of the dark
Shooting stars
Just for one day
This is your life
Yesterday once more
Planet precarious
Part-time love
Fighting talk
Mad world
Life and death
Believing and disbelieving
Reality revisited
Different opinions
Twisted logic
Father figure
All creatures great and small
This is the modern world
How does it feel?
Nobody’s fool
Off the scale
A question of faith
Happy meal
Why?
To the youth of today
Biblical proportions
Out of control
Thinking out loud
Rich and famous
War of the worlds
Never be the same again
Time flies
Fast forward
Alcoholic synonymous
Typically topical
A dog’s life
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
The sun ain’t gonna shine anymore
Love and marriage
Auf Wiedersehen, pet
Whatever it takes
Opposites attract
Bedroom debauchery
Health hazard
It ain’t over till it’s over
Political correctness gone mad
Hypocrisy
Animal magic
Things are getting personal
Nothing ventured, nothing gained
A brief history of Christianity
Food folly
Lost innocence
Bye bye, love
Comparison sight
Little and large
Beyond the grave
When the fun stops, stop
Multiple sclerosis and me
Money matters
Based on a true story
Let’s face the music and dance
Things ain’t what they used to be
Silly Billy
Luck of the draw
Now and then
Diagnosis Day – 8/4/83
About The Author
Graham Eastaugh was born on 7/4/61 in Colchester, Essex. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis on 8/4/83. Nearly all his working life was spent in the publishing industry, from which he retired in October 1996 due to deteriorating health.
Nothing’s gonna stop us now

Go shout it from the rooftops: we’re free to live at last!
The threat of Covid-19 to mankind has surely passed?
Across the world the human race has suffered such stagnation,
But happy days are here again because of vaccination,
The virus reached us unannounced and caught us on the hop,
Our normal ways of socialising clearly had to stop,
But now those days are over, with restrictions at an end,
And governmental bigwigs have fantastic news to send,
We can cuddle our grannies and give them a hug,
As now we’re immune to this dastardly bug,
We can shake hands at will as we spit in the street,
And partake in orgies with strangers we meet,
We can go to the pub now whenever we feel,
The same thing applies when we fancy a meal,
To cough without once being taken to task,
And shop till we drop without wearing a mask,
We’re able to travel as free as a bird,
With no fear of penalty payments incurred,
We’ll never again have to do what we’re told,
And bog rolls are no longer scarcer than gold!
We’ve had lots of sadness and multiple tiers,
While businesses worldwide fell into arrears,
A ‘gift’ we received without chance of response,
A foul Chinese takeaway nobody wants,
We tuned in to hear epidemiologists,
When few of us knew the job title exists,
The whole of the planet cried out for protection,
Then everything changed with a simple injection,
At last we’ve unlimited things we can do,
Thank goodness we’ve gone from Wuhan to woo-hoo!
From now on we’ll live as we bloody well like,
And pray there’s no imminent asteroid strike.
18/12/20
Animal farm

The beaver was badgering people for food,
The badger was grousing about being nude,
The grouse was apparently bearing the strain,
The farmer was beavering hard in the rain,
The duck was persistently fishing for leads,
The fish had been goosing the swan in the reeds,
The fox was annoyingly dogging the hound,
The dog had been lazily swanning around,
The parrot had squirrelled his money away,
The squirrel had ratted on friends yesterday,
The rabbit was seemingly chickening out,
The chicken, of course, was just horsing about,
The crow had been rabbiting almost non-stop,
The eagle was foxing the cream of the crop,
The horse had been parroting pigs in poor health,
The rat crowed with pride he’d been pigging himself,
The bat had been hounding the bear for a while,
The goose had been ducking the issue in style,
I eagled a par three, and batted a ball,
The tortoise, as always, was doing sod-all.
7/1/22
The power of persuasion

“Be that as it may; I’m not going away,
“I’m here for a reason and here I shall stay,”
“That’s as maybe,” I said as I scratched at my head,
“But I’ve told you ten times I would rather be dead,”
“Oh, don’t be so proud!” he then shouted aloud,
“You’ll totally love being part of our crowd,”
He started to cuss as he said: “No more fuss,
“And once and for all say you’ll be one of us,”
I then underlined that I’d not change my mind,
And rued the fact I couldn’t kick his behind,
Then when I felt sure I’d be hearing no more,
The pain in the arse wedged his foot in my door,
I told him to go as my answer was no,
His face by this time was a picture of woe,
He started to shake as he said: “No mistake,
“You’re making the worst choice that you’ll ever make,”
I said: “Okay, you win, from this day I’ll begin,
“To go about life in a different skin,”
We’d ended our chat then he walked from my flat,
With yours truly whispering quietly: “Fuck that!”
I’d held my belief to my utter relief,
And no one again would be giving me grief,
The man was insistent on changing my view,
Some born-again Christians might feel this rings true.
23/3/18
Shattered dreams

Oh, bollocks! We’ve been here before,
My heart’s ended up on the floor,
We hoped for the best, but we failed in our quest,
And now I feel sick to the core,
I was five years of age in July sixty-six,
When jelly and ice cream I’d eat for my kicks,
My memories of then are a fat diddly-squat,
So great football memories of England I’ve not,
I remember Gerd Muller once ruining our day,
His pal Gunter Netzer pissed off Wembley Way,
And Brooking and Keegan then failed to catch fire,
And then Maradona sought help from up higher,
I cringe when I think about Stuart and Chris,
And dread to recall Gareth’s miserable miss,
Two years after that I was driven quite batty,
Then Seaman decided to render me ratty,
In Twenty-O-Four it was penalties hell,
We suffered the same fate in O6 as well,
And spot kicks would also haunt manager Roy,
The Iceland game wasn’t a match to enjoy!
We’ve had many more football lows to recall,
I haven’t the heart here to write of them all,
I’ll never stop dreaming, no matter how far,
We might win the World Cup next year in Qatar?
13/7/21
The beast from the East

If I had my way I’d be sticking the boot in,
To tyrants like Russian thug, Vladimir Putin,
The king of the Kremlin’s a bloody disgrace,
In the way he brings shame on the