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Best Poems Written by Dave Rhumour

Below are the all-time best Dave Rhumour poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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An Atoms Tale Is Epic

If I die before tomorrow
Though the sun won't shine for me
Take pleasure in it's warming glow
There's a future there to see

No life will last forever
The sun will one day fail
But not before we've all passed on
So who will hear the tale

A tree falls in a forest
A whale dies in the sea
What happens to the birds nest
Do the krill sigh with relief

For all things have their moments
And moments are just that
Fleeting blinks of birds eyes
While they are swallowing a gnat

The movement in those atoms
That constitute our food
May see them come full circle
How oft have they been chewed

Eternity is far too short 
To learn all that is about
Everything this world has
Is really nowt but nowt

In pondering the puzzles
That plague us one and all
Don't succumb to sorrow
When you see the last leaf fall

As somewhere in the realms of space
In one parallel or two
Will be another one of us
Who holds a similar view

All the atoms that we find here 
Have been around so long 
Their air miles are quite staggering
But their engines still on song

While visions of perpetual motion
That man has sought for centuries
Can never match these tiny dots that
Have whizzed around with endless ease

©Rhumour
December 4th 2008
Edited February 5th 2017

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True Love Starts

True Love starts with an open heart,
and then becomes a wish to never part...

True love starts with an open mind,
and grows with every action kind...

True love starts with a gentle touch,
and blossoms with each kiss and such...

True love takes over all our dreams,
and makes us think up wondrous schemes...

True love powers us through troubled times
and grants forgiveness for thoughtless crimes...

And True love can truly conquer all for those,
who know that inner beauty beats a red, red rose...

©Rhumour
October 9th 2011

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An Ideal World

In that ideal world which I will never see,
would I find the rules revolve around me?
No I think that they are best equal for all,
with none at any other's beck and call. 

For as long as there are slaves and underdogs
so will strife remain to break down those cogs
that otherwise could run a smooth society,
with everyone getting home in time for tea.

While the few continue to abuse their power,
the losses for others mount hour by hour,
imagine for a moment if all had equal rights,
would there be any cause for brutal fights?

Look around and it is clear to see that pain
is generated by those that ever plan to gain
a bigger slice of the resources that we all need,
with many wars started just to satisfy their greed.

No communism in politics was ever shown to shine,
the need for change is purely within our minds,
as force in any guise destroys without care
and that is no way for us to learn how to share....

©Rhumour
June 20th 2011

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Red, Red Wine

Let us spill our red wine together,

abandon all concerns about stains.

Let us take a long drive together,

and get lost in the woodland lanes...

Our picnic will simply be of cheese & wine,

with a soft blanket to cushion the ground,

and when we spill that red wine on each other,

we'll lick it up & make some giggling sound...

Yes, let us spill our red wine together,

splash it everywhere without any care,

for the great beauty of being in love dear,

is we don't need anything at all to wear...

©Rhumour

July 23rd 2012

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Simply Time

With Crystal Ball I might have found 
Some way to weave my way through time
Instead I played without the rules
Did it my way throughout the schools

Meandered free from guides or maps
Ate my meals from plates on laps
Camped and rambled, cycled too
My only aim - my love for you

Single till I sang your song
Wed while we were still so young
Cats and flats and tube train rides
Cinema trips and theatre asides
Walking miles down country lanes
Hobbling from the blisters pains

Now and then there'd be a tiff
Life's never perfect, oh what if
Pardon me while I reminisce
My poetic licence still exists

So work was just my hobby made
Into jobs for which I was paid
Until later I joined the retail trade
Years went by, I sold the shop
We bought a house with the cash I got
Acquired a dog who chased our cats
And still we ate from plates on laps

Houses changed, our lives did too
For a while you were lost to view
Back as one we multiplied
Two girls from us were derived
Another move nearer to school
A third child born who is no fool

Sadly you were soon unwell 
At first the doctors couldn’t tell
Mighty was the blow that day
When they said no cure to allay
The failing heart within your breast
A transplant might be for the best

Some days after our son was two 
While I was there, visiting you
The doctors said you had one last chance
And we took the news with a mutual glance

Harder still those several weeks 
Intensive care, drug induced sleeps
Tubes, machines, alarms and more
Until you slipped through the final door

Goodbyes were hard for all who came
Many said it was a shame
But on with life we had to go
Three children had to deal with woe

Does time heal, or simply pass
Those old sayings might make you laugh
4000 days have been and gone
Will I join you before long?

©Rhumour
April 14th 2008

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Strawberry Blonde

Strawberry blonde hair blown wild by the breeze
Trailing behind as her mount she did tease
Rousing his vigour as they came to the high hedge
All the way over and still they had the edge
Will her triumph be held right up to the end
By and by we will know the answer my friend
Everyone watching and urging them on
Run boy run, is the theme of their song
Rising again to jump the very last fence
You should have heard the crowd as they winced

But though the log rattled it never quite fell
Long were the sighs as the pair did so well
Onto the finish line for a rousing cheer
Now it's all over, some will sup beer
Down at the stables much later that day
Ellie groomed her steed in the proudest of ways...

©Rhumour 
July 14th 2010

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Blind Views

I stare at the world through slats in the blind
Which are partly obscuring the dazzle at times
There's nothing particular to spot there today
As even the birds seem to have all flown away

But once in a while a tractor growls down the track
Hauling a jangling old plough or a planter at back
Then later the post van is speeding here with the bills
Soon I watch our Postie get in and out of the chills

In past times we chatted when the dogs were inside
But now I'm in here while they bark out their pride
He'll stop at one house though and sample some tea
But there's nowt going on - it's his sister you see

Just across the river in the giant glass houses there
All trays have been cleaned and stacked with such care
Not much more to do now for a good month or two
Soon be time for their rest in the warmth of Corfu

Not far from their place is a great old machine yard
See bright yellow lorries sport scuffs where they sparred
With anything that didn't yield to their determined path
'Another post over' you may hear their drivers laugh

A few hundred yards more just out of sight on the bend
Is a specialist scrap yard with old machines that they mend
And sell back to farmers for much less than when new
In these cash strapped times there's a few more in view

When times past we ambled my old dog Griff and I
Some walls were crumbling and I thought they might try
To patch up or rebuild them but still they survive
If they fell in a high wind it would be no great surprise

At the jetty quite near there is a boat on the Glen
A spot where a while since I fed our ducks and their friend
The swans have moved on now and the grebes cannot be seen
For the best pickings have gone though the waters still green

It's time for a drink now so maybe I'll potter off to
The kitchen where there is much less of a view
Some soup and a sandwich will be nice I do think
Just as soon as I've washed all the pots in the sink...

©Rhumour
October 6th 2008
Edit February 2016

(Note: this edited version is different from that in the paperback 'Rhumour Has It'

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No Jobs For a Man

I was the seventh child in a family of four,
the second born, do I need to say more?
Well perhaps I should fill in a few gaps,
or you could remain confused perhaps...

Yes I was the second boy born to my mother,
five girls came before me I did discover,
four boys in all were to follow my dad,
down to the dole queue, no jobs to be had.

No Jobs For A Man was all dad would say,
just a few ads for a lass, the same every day
and so the poverty we all knew as many before
was plain to all those that came by our door.

It was the time of depression between the great wars,
the shipyards were idle, the pits dug no more,
all the efforts of unions brought little relief,
fitters had nowt to fit, nowt to eat, nowt but grief.

For grief came to many as families felt the cruel
grasp of TB and rickets that kept children from school,
such was the prize for those veterans that survived the war,
no prospects for their kids to keep the wolf from the door.

They had stood most of the losses that any man might take,
in trenches as bullets and worse killed many of their mates,
back home they should have had their just reward,
but back in the thirties, they were largely ignored.

For profits and health care were but for the few,
death came to most folk before they aged forty-two,
lungs damaged by coal dust and smoke and TB
in those cruel years afore we ever heard of TV...

©Rhumour
March 26th 2011

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A To Z of the Bee

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Siren Sisters

NB - familiarity with the pronunciation of the British place names in this poem is essential to comprehend some of the lines - and to ensure the tongue twisting effect in parts.

The Seven Siren Sisters of old Cirencester
Are more infamous now than the lechers of Leicester
While walking with linked arms in Lincoln one day
They saw six sailors sinking pints on the public highway
Their giggles could be heard way down in Biggleswade town 
Where the cattle drovers were supping in ye olde Rose & Crown

When one time they rummaged in the markets of Kent
Even they were shocked at the brass they had spent
fourteen shillings had gone and a handful of pence. 
nowt left in their purses to furnish the rent
so they came to the notion of trading themselves
for to pay the landlord and put food on their shelves

Soon with all their gay laughter and raucous loud shouts
some curtains at their lodgings were twitching about
and when out were seen tottering many men who were known
to be married to others that lived close by that home
there was such a commotion as wives came scurrying forth
one carried a bucket filled with fresh muck from a horse

A pitched fight then started with brooms and an odd frying pan
until the wives were left standing over each cowering man
while the Seven Siren Sisters of Old Cirencester
sneaked out the back door and ran off to Rochester
never again did they return there to work picking hops
but it wasn't the last time they'd spend too much in the shops

©Rhumour
October 10th 2008