[Graham King]

Past Regrets

A twelve-month past, I’m sure I set
My heart to work on what I loved the best.
Did I begin? Did I try yet?
My resolution slumped; I do not pass the yearly test.

A year or more it was, ago,
That I swore I’d bring home 'no more such junk!'
The process has continued, though;
My attic and my outhouse overflow. That oath was bunk.

My skills lie boxed-in on the shelf,
A trove unopened. Where’s the merit sweet?
It seems I still defeat myself;
What honours do I gain by such long, wholesale, self-deceit?
[or ‘What does it profit me – such long-stored, wholesale, self-deceit?’]

Truth told, I dread to try and fail
[or ‘Truth told, I fear attempts may fail,’ – any better?]
In some way I do not control or choose;
And so (this paradox, my tale!)
By changing not, I win at least this: certainty I’ll lose.


[The poem is about hoarding supposedly-useful materials, to the point that they crowd out scope for actually making anything of them. But I'm not confident I put that across sufficiently here. All comments welcome.]

[John Whitworth]

Thank you Graham, Douglas. I shall keep it as it is.

[Brian Allgar]

I swore I’d give up sex and saturnalia;
That was my optimistic resolution.
So no more “escorts” (farewell, Chloë, Thalia) -
A euphemistic term for prostitution.
No steamy vice, no lurid bacchanalia;
I’d join the straight-and-narrow revolution;
I’d throw away my S & M regalia,
And purify my vicious constitution.
I’d smoke no more; my teeth were growing scalier
And yellower from nicotine pollution.
I’d tend my garden, prune my white azalea;
My life would be impeccably Confucian.

I might as well have tried to eat Australia;
I broke each vow, preferring dissolution.
But this year, there’ll be no such moral failure -
I’m quite resolved to make no resolution.

[John Whitworth]

Love those alias!

[George Simmers]

Good one, Brian.

[Graham King]

Clever one, Brian.. and a bold effective step to use only those two rhymes, alternating throughout!

[Graham King]

Past Regrets

I wish my life had been less serious!
Many times I waxed severe.
Now I lie here, weak, delirious -
Candle faint - but thought is clear

On one point – sharply! - from my past:
I yearly thought to mend my ways
While thinking “Long my life will last”-
Unguessing soon to end my days;

Procrastinating then to fix
Those character-faults I should rue:
That silly feud, the mean sly tricks
By which I got ‘one up’ on you!

I know now: when my life is gone,
Ill thoughts of me will long abide.
For here I fall; and you look on,
Your dagger buried in my side.

[Roger Slater]

New Years Resolution

Someday when I am thin, well-read,
with flaws but Lilliputian,
I will forgo the yearly farce
of New Year's resolution

whereby as clock hands join as one
I promise, once they've parted,
a better day, a better year,
for me will then get started,

and yet I know this day won't come;
the earth will keep revolving,
and I will make myself content
to be here still resolving.

[Jayne Osborn]

I absolutely swore I'd give up Flakes,
and Mars bars, Twix, Maltesers, Chocolate Buttons -
but when I'm at the checkout all it takes
is seeing that array. Like many gluttons
I'm weak and my resistance goes to pot,
without the slightest waver on my part.
I said I'd give up chocolate. I have not.
(To tell the truth, I didn't even start !)

Oh, I regret my lack of will-power now.
My Resolution was a waste of time.
I've let myself down very badly. How
could I have been so spineless? It's a crime
allowing 'want' to turn to desperate 'need'.
Succumbing to temptation is the Devil's
work; he loves us to resort to greed.
... It's ages since I bought a bag of Revels...

[Brian Allgar]

A very tasty piece, Jayne.