John Griffin / Poems / Index of First Lines
13th of Febru’ry. Cupid’s forces, / camping on east horizon hills
Sensitivity / Valentine (the eve of battle)
A foolish young man, saying, "Will you?"
Sensitivity / St Patrick's Night at the River Café
A martial arts club north of Richmond (not far)
Levity / A Public Nuisance
A millionaire for you and nothing more?
Sensitivity / A millionaire for you
A motley coat / and cap and bells: / the poets wrote / of little else
Sensitivity / Motley Coat
Ah, when one's only seventeen
Festivity / Birthday Sweets
All the chickens on the roof
Reflectivity / Wings
As I rise high above the British soil
Reflectivity / Vision from Box Hill
Banished from your bed, no more I'll weep
Sensitivity / Banished from your bed
Before our children pay the cost
Gravity / We could have listened to the nerds
Black is the bilging bastard of a billow
Gravity / Chaos
Black-haired, quick, black-legged, black-kneed
Longevity / To The Spider
Born upon St. Patrick's Day / she never told me one of his
Sensitivity / Twas never written
Can there be magic in the written word
Sensitivity / Can there be magic
Colourful washing on a washing line
Reflectivity / Skysoul
Dear Alice, Mrs Griffin, ‘Bunty’,
Tribute / Tae Mum
Ere this day dawned I was most grievous vexed
Levity / Poetry Channel Smart-card
Even in a trice the universe is made
Reflectivity / Blasting Blazes
Fair siren, I'd commit a monstrous crime
Sensitivity / Fair Siren
Febru-erry / brings the berry / empty hearts are fed
Sensitivity / The Colour of my Heart
Fireworks, fireworks, bursting in the night!
Gravity / Fireworks
France, Russia, Brazil, Romania, / Morocco, Nepal, Albania
Songs / My World (Part 1)
Full many a pair of trousers have I worn
Levity / Trousers
Germany's Goethe would have us believe
Levity / The Germans
Good friends, had we tramp’d upon this hallowed ground ...
Levity / Nobby's Speech
Great sunrise in the sou'-sou'-eastern sky
Sensitivity / Great sunrise
He was in laugh with her
Sensitivity / Laugh Story
Hello and welcome to the 9-line rhyme
Brevity / The 9-line Rhyme
Here is a verse where the very first line rhymes
Levity / Rhymes
Here let me lie and ask for nothing more
Sensitivity / Here let me lie
Here on the boundary, keeping score
Reflectivity / Love, Peace and Ashtead
Here stands a pair before me now
Levity / Orange and Purple
How quickly sped your mighty ship
Tribute / Goodbye Challengers (Jan 28th)
How to approach that pretty lady there
Sensitivity / How to approach that pretty lady there
I am a ship of paint and slim
Festivity / Ship of Paint
I felt more loving for a small dead hound
Sensitivity / On St Valentine's Day
I need to find that thinking cap
Brevity / Thinking Cap
I never felt so alive
Festivity / Labourers
I sit here writing poems in the night
Sensitivity / I sit here writing
I sit three paces from the television
Gravity / Flintstones
I wanna be up on the 'ill today
Levity / The Mujahideen
I went to middle age one day / and hated what I saw
Reflectivity / The song of the old soldier
If music be the food of love / and if it suits the chef
Brevity / If Anything
If Perfect Woman were to meet man's gaze
Sensitivity / Perfect Woman
If you can keep your distance when behind you
Festivity / If on the road
If you dote but don't succeed
Festivity / Success
If you have something great to tell the world
Festivity / If you have something great
I'll tell myself it isn't true
Sensitivity / My New World
I'm not proud to be British / What's so great about that?
Levity / Proud to be British
In 1987 / a hurricane from heaven
Levity / The hurricane of 87
In July / I went across to Uruguay
Songs / Uruguay
Is there anything mare tragic than a hedgehog lyin' deed
Levity / A Scottish Lament
Is this that tree whose upper branched swayed
Sensitivity / Is this that tree
It is the journey of the eye from her waist
Festivity / On seeing a beautiful woman, walking
I've been thinking about money a lot
Reflectivity / Fish is Fish
I've loafed around for fifty years
Gravity / Quicksand
I've said two things within this bind
Brevity / An Apology
Know / why / I / show
Festivity / Know Me
Last Saturday I faltered to subscribe
Gravity / A King's Sport
Let's go to Tierra del Fuego!
Songs / Tierra del Fuego
Lie back, my darling, think of Surrey's hills
Sensitivity / Lie back …
Lonely in Cairo, I watched a ship
Brevity / Portsmouth
Long have my labours kept me from your arms
Sensitivity / Long have my labours
Look gaily on your waking life, my friend
Tribute / The One-Way Journey
Love, you would know yourself from your reflection
Sensitivity / Love, you would know yourself
Lucky for you we’re world-wise now. The young
Gravity / Viewing Byzantium
Name: John Simon Griffin; Gender: Male
Levity / Poetic Licence Renewal
Not diamonds nor exotic eastern jewels
Sensitivity / Not diamonds
Now I went down to Sainsbury's to buy some chicken wings
Songs / Jessica Rafferty
Now, the first man to live was called Adam
Brevity / The First Thought
O, elusive craft, shall I strive to make you perfect?
Reflectivity / Poetry
O, Lord of love and all creation
Festivity / Standard Habbie Christmas Prayer
O, rose, thou are sick
Levity / Birthday Bumps for Bill Blake (28th Nov)
October is the kindest time, killing
Tribute / The Fruitful Sea
Often I've heard the gentle gender moan
Sensitivity / Often I've heard the gentle gender moan
Oh, where in heaven's Ernie Wise?
Tribute / Ernie's Parting
On a cold rainy morning at quarter to two
Brevity / Mine's a Double
Once upon a time an amoeba split in two
Songs / The Evolution Song
One day a letter died
Festivity / Hidden Title
"Papa slept well last night", said Father John.
Levity / The Day The Pope had a Lie-in
Pigeon, fragile pigeon
Brevity / Pigeon
Politty politty politty politics
Levity / Politics!
Radio-raised bard of the spinning flies
Tribute / To The Cosmic Dancer
Remember a few thousand midnights ago
Festivity / No Prizes
Rock-a-bye-London, sleepy old town
Songs / This is London
Saturday stroke Sunday morning, Marco's done his chores
Brevity / Shutting Shop
See the timeline we're displayed on
Levity / Welcome to the Twittersphere
Shall I beware henceforth those alpine heights
Sensitivity / Shall I beware henceforth …
Shall I compare thee to Madam Surrey
Levity / Madam Surrey
Short verses about famous deaths in 2007
Brevity / Clerihews 2007
Short verses about famous deaths in 2009
Brevity / Clerihews 2009
Sierra Leone, Nigeria, / Afghanistan, Ethiopia
Songs / My World (Part 2)
Since men will always finished what they started in confusion
Levity / The Yarn with the obvious ending
Skiing's / for human beings / who like to slither / down to the river
Songs / Switzerland
Smash all the clocks! Let time be stopped!
Sensitivity / A Lover's Farewell
So she has found him. Answered are her prayers.
Sensitivity / So, she has found him
Some people have got an itch
Levity / Echoes from the Sixties
Some people say I'm mad
Levity / The Lunatic
Starlings etc. chirrup, cheep and squawk
Reflectivity / At Winter's End in Battersea Park
Sue Blair went to the doctor / the doctor thought her fair
Sensitivity / Sue Blair and the Doctor
That badge I used to wear
Reflectivity / The Badge
The centuries and sundry years / gone by since thy nativity
Tribute / To The Bard
The dentist, it is normal to resist
Levity / OK then, Stephen
The funnel sings the blast of parting. Burma’s on the jaw.
Levity / Sailing to Rangoon
The M25 is now finished
Brevity / A City Sanctified
The man in black stands resolutely on a field of war
Levity / The Black Guard
The Muse possesses one in every age
Sensitivity / The Muse possesses
The road from joy to miserable gloom
Sensitivity / The road from Joy
The rusting trees are packed in cotton wool.
Sensitivity / Autumn Ode
The Scotsman in the duffle coat took aim and shot his wife
Levity / Us
The sloshy poos of a big big cow
Levity / The Chocolate Man
The world may think the sun's above the ground
Sensitivity / The world may think
There is a small minority / of people not including me ...
Levity / Anything Left Handed
There is an old geezer called Claus
Levity / 4 Christmas Poems
There once was a limerick penned
Brevity / Three Non-Limericks
There'll be bluebirds over
Gravity / Colours
They used to call us poofs when we were young
Reflectivity / Repatriation
This Christmas, put away the sled
Festivity / The Malden Rushett Christmas Lights
This is the place where you and I first loved
Sensitivity / This is the place
This mouth of mine is virgin'd once again
Sensitivity / This mouth of mine
This poem will rhyme if you do what the title suggests
Brevity / Pronounced Punctuation
This task is beyond me, this load too great to bear
Gravity / This Task
Till now I never understood a word
Sensitivity / Till now I never understood
Those Scottish songs, and all so far away!
Reflectivity / Those Scottish songs ...
Tot / not not / time upon the hands
Festivity / Five Circles
Upon a day, before the world was lit
Longevity / The Serpent speaks to Columba
Upon a lake there swam a swan
Festivity / Lake Without a Swan
We cannot go there now
Reflectivity / The Empire Builders
We started the experiment at 25 past 9
Levity / Professor Adamson's Mishap
Well, I've worshipped lots of different gods
Songs / Homing Pigeon
What mortal tongue can tell if god lie dead or simply sleep
Festivity / Legions of the Sky
When Chris Columbus discovered you
Songs / USA
When I sit down to eat the Sunday roast
Levity / A Sunday Sonnet
When I was but a nipper, life was tough
Reflectivity / Addiction
When one begins to sense that love is leaving
Sensitivity / When one begins to sense
When yesterday arrests you do not yell
Gravity / When yesterday arrests
When you think of all the sexual hang-ups, fantasies and quirks
Gravity / Hangups
Why do the tropical countries allow this
Levity / Canoeing to Mergui
Why should I try to mimic saint / while impish thoughts prevail
Sensitivity / A Clown's Vow
Why should vain man make honest creatures tame
Gravity / Ignorance
Will broadcasters please show some mercy
Brevity / Memo
Will you talk to your Elders for me?
Reflectivity / Pact
Writing my postcards in a bucking cab
Levity / Myanmar Taxi
You are beautiful
Brevity / You Are Lovely
You surely know that each man who has dwelt
Sensitivity / You surely know that each man who has dwelt

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