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My poems written over  65years.        

Click on underlined subsection headings to see full poems

             

THE POEMS                              BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS. 

HOLIDAYS

Escape to Lanzarote                       An unforgettable winter holiday

Africa 1982                                 Memories of another land

New year in Holland 1972-3          A plumbing disaster

They call it Christmas now but...       Potted history of Christmas

 

FAMILY AND CHILDREN

Shoulder rides                               Four generations thereof!

Sticky Mickey                                The sorrow of parting

Baddy daddy                                A disappointing parent!

Hot Ribena                                   What a gal!                   

Maiden fair                                  Lullaby with innuendo                           Scrumping squirrels                        Thieves in my garden!

 

MORTALITY AND AGEING

I saw the grim reaper                      An unexpected visitor!

The paediatric neurologist’s lullaby.    Baby you have potential but me?

Spring at last                                 Ode to Spring, in its tail is a sting

When I’m dead                              How to live on after death

 

NONSENSE POEMS

The deep dark hole (icon episode).     Poor old man

The banana well                             You meet some odd people!

Paddy McGrew                              Perhaps not as bad as you think?

Are all cucumbers green                   Does green mean stupid?

The spectre of Louth                         Shopper list that endsin tragedy

The rhubarb plant and the wall.         Disagreement has a shocking end

One rainy day                                From the cosmic to the mundane

I’ll come whenever you want me        All about being “helpful”

PHILOSOPHY

The view from the fence                   An agnostic’s creed

Science started as                          - a tool of the philosopher!

My guide                                     Getting there, slowly

POLITICS

The fudgers                                   The truth about politics?

Mr Putin and the jewelled skull          A communist icon?

NHS Mayhem                               Something worth saving, for sure!

The last supper                               A tragedy set in the Belgian Congo

 

ROMANCE (UPS AND DOWNS)

Pamela the pianist                         A musical fantasy

Poor fool!                                    Reflections on my adolescence

Nothing to tell                              Disillusionment and a girl

Mental mirror                               Disagreement about meaning of love

Liver bird                                     Maybe the next one?

Rainbow girl                                Maybe I’ve found her?

Sunshine                                     Maybe I’ll marry her

Is it me that you see?                     Defusing my doubts

Controlling the angst                     Family angst – many years later

Come back                                 Based on Archers Rob and Helen

 

SCIENCE FICTION POETRY

Tower of titanium                         The captive princess on an alien world

Lost in the jungle                         Worse still with hostile alien plants

The alien came                           A stranded space alien – help!

Jewel in the sky                           An alien queen who can be dangerous

Hidden by autumn leaves             Strange discovery cures dementia

The good ship Glasnost               Attempted murder?

Alien taxi driver                          An alien with a conscience?

SCIENCE THROUGH POETRY

Autotomy                                  Story of a lizard, a cat & science

Patterns                                    From the cosmos to the cell and the brain

Negative entropy                       Is entropy the undefeatable enemy?

Just enamel                               Yes, it outlasts everything

Case for supremacy of brown      Nature’s favorite color

The arrogant song.                     Inner thoughts of a frustrated researcher

The marble statue                      An unimaginative colleague

Commuters with computers          An elderly researcher goes to London

Louis’ rant                                 At odds with Darwin over human evolution

Mary Anning.                           Famous 19th Ct working class fossil hunter

MEDICAL MAN

I'm your GP.                            Thoughts of a very new GP

Night call                               Traumatic awakening!

Marble Statue                         Portrait of an average GP

MUSIC

Maple leaf dance                   Genius of Scott Joplin!

.

REMEMBER Click on underlined subsections to see full poems 

Confessions of an amateur poet

I started writing poems in my teens and wrote just the occasional verses when I was a busy doctor. However,  now that I am retired my poets licence has been renewed and they keep popping into my head. When I was sixteen, I was rather bored by the Zoology textbook I was reading for my A level syllabus until I came across a reference to “autotomy”. This happens when an animal under attack surrenders a body part to escape a predator. I escaped boredom and rekindled my scientific curiosity with the help of that  stumbling first effort, a poem about autotomy.  I showed it to my father, with pride, who said, “That’s not a poem. It’s a jingle”, When he saw my face fall at this judgement he quickly added, “but it’s a very good jingle.” I wrote several poems and song lyrics during my student days in Liverpool. Subsequently, many of my poetry efforts, here presented, were originally penned as the lyrics of songs, especially in my days as a medical student in Liverpool 1961-1967. I even performed my song “Nothing to tell” at a folk festival alongside the banjo-playing girlfriend who had just chucked me. I had less time for writing as a busy GP but now that I’m retired, I have rekindled my interest and have become fascinated with the rhyming format: ababcc. A lady friend called Mickey who knows much more about poetry than me says this is an example of Sestina variant stanzas. I sometimes write the CC couplet shorter and use it as a recurring refrain as in the poem “Angst” where every verse ends with the good advice:

Count ten before you say a word

And then you won’t look too absurd

At my age, I’m really not too bothered about copyright but if anyone wants to use any of my lyrics for a song to perform in public, I’d really like to know. So, please contact me at my email address: johnaanichold1943@gmaqil.com

Poet on a computer.png

This is me in my study working on a poem - on my computer. I know that many poets find they must write at least the first draft in longhand which I did for many years. But the advantages of working on a computer are many, including, of course, the ease of editing and of transfer (printing or sending it off to a friend). For me, the biggest advantage is the use of  computer aids such as Word's spellcheck (my spelling never was good) and Thesaurus.  When you know there's a better word but you just can't quite remember it, Thesaurus to the rescue.

 

Just occasionally I go for an online rhyming app that gives you rhyming words when you're well and truly stuck. Is that cheating? not if the end result is good but to be honest scrolling through a whole list of odd words that rhyme more often than not helps me to think of an alternative not listed, perhaps an elegant half rhyme. I like elegant half rhymes.

​

John A A Nichols

JN signature_edited_edited.jpg

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