Petals

I knew I was held back by something.

I didn't know what.

I met myself climbing up a hill

Accepted me

Then forgot 

Your approval

And restrictions 

The flowers are my diction

And I'll talk to the petals 

Or parade them

Whether you like it

Or not. 

C. LJ 2019

Playtime

They crouch either side of the jungle -
A thick mud-brown rug in the hall
And I pull a pink satin ribbon
Soon to be pinned by their claws
They pounce -
A leopard and lion
The pretty pink string sees their teeth
Then we all sit in great satisfaction
Of finding the snake
Underneath.


C. LJ 2019

Favourite Time

It's raining outside

But I have tea,

Two candles and

A cat with me

A blanket and 

A reading book

In between chapters 

My cat looks

Sleepily at me

And we both smile

Because this is our 

Favourite time.

C. LJ 2019

Two cats on a bed

Two cats on a bed

Content

An empty tea cup

Sighing 

I try to slow time

Being present

But the cats are present

Without trying.

C. LJ 2019

On other animals

Dogs are given outfits, blankets

A bed next to the fire.

Cats have diamond collars, velvet cushions, are admired.

Yet cows are lined up terrified,

Stunned and hung upside down

And pigs are crammed into crates

Scared by the gas and screaming sounds

Each cow has the heart of a dog

And a pig can make its own bed

But for some reason the love for cats and dogs

Does not extend to them.

C. LJ 2019

On Nature

The world is concrete and metal

I need the smell of green leaves 

Or the touch of fur of a kindred spirit

To remind me of early earth

When God walked with man,

Man with animal,

And among all -

Streams laced with sun.

I hold on to glimpses of forest

To mist above water

When walls and roads

Block the sky

And confuse where I came from.

C. LJ 2019

OCD (6)

It's exhausting

Reading script after script after script

And then casting

Myself as the villain each time

But each time forgetting 

It's not even real as I'm tricked by

My own brain

With Obsessive Compulsive Disorder 

Directing again.

C. LJ 2019

Rose Haiku

Petals make the mane

Of the rose that sways softly

Above steady claws 

C. LJ 2019

Relics

I'm walking through the wreckage

Of my former self

Finding relics

Amongst the rubble

Of me before I fell

Statues that tell stories 

Of who I was

Underneath

What once was buried treasure, 

Is now brought back to me.

C. LJ 2019

Uniform

I used to sparkle 

There's magic in our eyes

I was told to sit down

Pressed into silent uniform

After a while I stopped fighting

Crumpled, I crawled out

And like a cat

Licked my wounds

And the dirt off

Bit by bit

And there it was.

C. LJ 2019

Be

I walked with butterflies 

Over damp grass

Grateful of change and 

Restoration 

And a moment to

Pause

In the breeze

Watching wings and petals

Be. 

C. LJ 2019

Daisy Haiku

The petals of the

Delicate Daisy are still

Made with precision 

C. LJ  2019

Mind Haiku

The same mind that makes

A maze to hold Minotaurs

Creates monsters too 

C. LJ Ireton 2019

Sunflower Haiku

Unmissable bloom

The sun inside a flower

The sky in a room

C. LJ Ireton 2019

'Mary' Haiku

Was not the faith of

Mary one of the greatest 

In a world of men? 

C. LJ Ireton 

Pictures

My mind is a maze of magic sparks,

Circuits conjuring 

Candyfloss clouds or

Calamity storms

In a heartbeat - 

The fastest painter I know

Filling in both cracks and rainbows

To make pictures 

Then presenting them to me

As Masterpieces

But both wear fanciful frames 

That I cannot always see.

C. LJ Ireton 2019

Open Ground

The sun drew me out

Crawling, curious 

Onto Open Ground

Where I knelt by buttercups

To the sounds of sparrows 

I breathed in light

Safe in my circle of trees

Amazed to just be outside. 

C. LJ Ireton 2019

Contentment

To know contentment,

Watch a sleeping cat.

C. LJ Ireton 2019

Brave

Though she feels surrounded,

Lost in light-scattered haze

She steels her heart against the storm,

Her mind against the rain 

Until the clouds pour flower petals

And courage colours her face,

Hailed luminous with the rising moon,

Reminded she is brave.

C. LJ Ireton 2019

Company

I'm not alone.

My cat is next to me.

And her eyes hold

Lion prides, Dragon treasure and Tiger stripes - 

The whole animal kingdom

Is curled at my feet

Choosing me for company. 

C. LJ Ireton 2019

Queen Kateryn Parr

Into the tapestry of tradition

You embroidered your words in ink

Sewing in stoicism 

Under standards of sapphire and silk.

Skilled lady - what poise, what faith you held 

Under the gaze of religious men -

Facing dangerous duty with grace,

Marking books with a woman's name.

In a chequered court, with a heavy crown,

 Your patience and pages were displayed

Among your collection of royal jewels

Admired by queens not yet made.

Copyright LJ Ireton 2019

Mary Queen of Scots

Sailing across an uncertain sea,

Her white veil trails

 The wind of things to come,

While her thick golden train flows behind

Like the waves in the wake

Of warm colours now gone.

So she fills her cold castles

With France and her beauty 

In defiance of shadows

Not her own

And dances her way over stone floors 

In riches, decorating herself 

Her own throne.

C. LJ Ireton 2019

The Star

The Star

Knew

We'd been looking 

In the wrong places - 

We did not consider 

That light

Would settle in

Sawdust and shadows

Where it was needed

Most - 

So she held out a hand

In suggestion.

C. LJ Ireton 2019

Words

Seas shaped by syllables 

Talking trees to life

Earth made from whispers

Forming wheat fields overnight

Underneath spoken stars

We search for echoes on the wind

So we can speak your language 

Into worlds yet to begin.

C. LJ Ireton 2019

Cat Haiku

Cats are royalty

And yet they make you feel like

You are the royal 

C. LJ Ireton 2019

OCD (6)

Calm, calm

The noise, the lies

That fly around your brain

In swarms

A storm

Halt the formation 

Call them down

Call them down 

See, see

The swirls of black

That circle up and up

To harm, 

Attack

Catch them reshaping 

Send them back

Send them back.

C. LJ Ireton 2019.

Broken brain

Broken brain

That I carry around with me

Was meant to be in charge

But it tortured me

Until I stopped moving

In despondency.

Now I wait

For supplies 

But there's no bandage for the mind

So I sit

Holding the

Fragile pieces.

C. LJ Ireton 2019

Someone

I try to be myself for a moment

Then I remember my madness and cry

Because I feel like time has been stolen

Leaving someone I don't recognise.

C. LJ Ireton 2019

Thoughts

Oh that my thoughts

Could run like water

Always flowing to the sea

Instead they go no further,

Forge a dam

And hold in me

A stream is like a wish

To whispers stuck in dirt

Weaving them in movement

Making rivers of new thought. 

C. LJ Ireton 2019

Dark Cloud

Dark cloud

I know you now

You've been following me for a while

Some days you thunder

Confusing me

But when the lightning stops 

I see you. 

C. LJ Ireton 2019

Ghost Ship

My mind, my time

Was stolen from me

The clock stopped with my sanity

The pain is now

An absent thing

A ghost ship that is hovering

While I look on

Now from the pier

Not knowing how it brought me here.

C. LJ Ireton 2019.

Darkness

Thoughts thrashing through tunnels

Endless atoms amongst darkness

Moving forward without my feet

Without my sight - 

I forgot I was made of light too.

C. LJ Ireton 2019

OCD (5)

The air feels grey and thick

I wade, weighed down

By warped versions of reality 

That push me to my knees

And I sink.

I can't think my way out.

C. LJ Ireton 2019.

My cats

My cats

Circle me

As planets orbit

Round the Sun

So my cats

Remind me

Who I am

When I've forgotten.

C. LJ Ireton 2019

Place

I could stand here for hours

With the wind brushing my face

Holding me upright, lifting my heart

Over purple trees, just like my gaze

Part of the outside I can stand

Where my mind can see a space

It's been singing for in darkness

Searching for a peaceful place.

C. LJ Ireton 2019

Alive

And the sun shone

Bringing the very earth to life

The creatures crawled out from the ground and birds took to the skies

The stream spoke to the pebbles

Saying it is alive

Nature says we live

Man says we survive.

C. LJ Ireton 2019

Choice

Have you seen a cow fight its way back out 

Of the slaughter line that won't let her leave? 

Or that same gentle beauty hung heavy by the leg 

On a chain, like a felled brute beast?

Have you seen pigs held down to suffocate, screaming, Squealing in choking chambers?

Or how pigs can play, train and answer like dogs,

Yet they still don't receive the same treatment?

Have you seen the alarm in the eyes of a bird 

Facing stun by electrified water? 

Or the injustice when innocent chicks are poured down 

Into death by an industrial grinder?

These animals fear every step of the way and 

You refuse, you refuse to acknowledge 

That we are the cause - 'free range' label or not - 

Unless we have mercy and stop this.

Do not buy packages produced by pain or 

Turn your back on these creatures who trust.

We have a choice and compassion's its name, 

Let peace in their kingdom start with us.

Copyright LJ Ireton 2019

Words

My voice is worn

From screaming

SHOUTING

About what happens to you - 

But my words roll off their shoulders

Like raindrops

And my echo sits in the puddles

They step in

Forgetting 

What I said - 

Like your your pleading eyes

Mean nothing to them, 

Or don't exist

Behind humane labels

And all the paper notes

That pay to wash your blood away.

Im haunted by your frightened face

Longing to be saved,

Not deserving pain in return

And I cry with shame -

Because what more can I say 

If they don't want to learn.

Copyright LJ Ireton 2019

Still

I hold myself

Still 

As my own body 

Pauses

My mind opens

Emotion trickles 

Out 

I let this 

Moment

Halt

Momentum

As the world rarely does.

Copyright LJ Ireton 2018