It's some time since I posted a poem by my daughter Sophie Hannah. Here are two that I like - from (in turn) The Hero and the Girl Next Door and Hotels like Houses, with permission.
One-Track Mind
Why does she take unnecessary trips?
She lives just opposite a row of shops.
She went to Crewe to buy a bag of chips.
She went to Birmingham to buy lamb chops.
She has no time for aeroplanes or boats.
She cannot get enough of British Rail.
She went to Liverpool for Quaker Oats
Then Halifax to buy the Daily Mail.
She went to Chester for a pair of tights.
Every weekend she's up and down some track.
She went to York for twenty Marlboro Lights.
She went to Stalybridge and came straight back.
Once, on her way to Hull for cottage cheese,
She saw him. All he said was Tickets, please.
The Mind I lose
Whether the things I feel are true
or just illlusion on my part,
I think that I'm in love with you
and wouldn't want to doubt my heart.
You say my heart may not exist.
I know it does, but isn't what
I once believed. This adds a twist,
the like of which can save a plot.
Feelings and thoughts are kept apart
unfairly by the words we choose.
Find me a better name than heart
by which to call the mind I lose.
