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Monday, 18 June 2012

Time on Ones Own


That there might be something in the effect of time spent alone, time spent on ones own either by choice, or as a necessity due to a particular way of life.

When do we first notice that we are on our own.

I moved to the small town of Holmfirth when I was thirteen. Eventually I left behind my friends in the tiny village of Birdsedge, some six miles away, but not until I had spent many weeks cycling to and fro.

One day I was sat in Victoria Park watching some boys play football. I thought if I watched them often enough they might ask me to join them. After several days as a spectator I did join in, they became my friends, I was soon a member of their gang.

This ice breaker led to many more friendships, more friendships than I am now able to recollect, it was a significant step, and it was a step I was conscious had to be taken. It was a time when I knew I was on my own.

When do we move from being uncomfortable on our own to being happy or content to be on our own.

The time sat watching the boys playing football, waiting to be asked to join in, was not comfortable. It was probably also a discomfort to the boys to see me sat there, sat alone, day after day.

Yet some days not everyone would join in at football, sometimes people would go off fishing or cycling, go off doing solitary activities, mostly I would stay with what was left of the group.

I had had enough of my time alone.




a poem from In & Out of Dream Space Love Embellished by Visitations click anywhere on the text for details

Sunday, 17 June 2012

Back then


No one tells you anything
Anything that you really need to know
At the time you need to know
At the time that you really need to know

How to stop those voices shouting
How to stop the calling of the shrink
How to count to ten or twenty
Or even just to stop and think

No one tells you
Except that you ought to know
No one tells you
Except the tears just have to flow
No one tells you
Except for sure that by now you know

How to stop the nagging doubting
How to drop the stalling mink
How to count, wait, hesitate
Wait a short while longer take a drink

Back then back in childhood
Back then back in teens
Back then back a young man
Back then with dragons with queens

No one tells you anything
Anything that you need to know
Anything that you really need to know
Somehow just a simple breakthrough

Then again a massive step
Then again a massive step

If you've ever been in love
Or lost a close one
Or lost a limb


Well to think that none of that would matter
To think that not a single thing matters
Not a single thing at all

How to stop the voices shouting
Wonder if  it's worth the thought
How to add the noughts together
To any single thing less fraught

So damned easy just to write it
To compensate with chance
Or the intellect almighty
Of imagined circumstance

What you need to truly feel it
Touch it right there on the nose
Deep down in the spine

Hear the book words breathe it fine
Pay the teller to tell her lies
Pay her with the fives and dimes

No one tells you anything
Anything that you really need to know
No one tells you

Tells you what you need to know
At the time you need to know
At the time that you really need to know

No one tells you anything
Anything that you really need to know
No one tells you
At the time that you really need to know



This poem is from the collection East of Lincoln Central available now on kindle - click on the text for details

Saturday, 16 June 2012

Scrap Man


There is old angst in me
Anger that makes it hard to see beauty
Inhibited to realise the simple joys of being free

Anguish came, and stayed sometimes
Sat with me alone to trouble my mind
Twisted my heart, my hurt soul angrily redefined

I sought out solace tucked up in blame
Worked so hard for unpublished fame
Listened to poets in silent disdain

I travelled the world with an attitude of wrong
Neither in Paris or Rome did I break out in song
Always the pragmatist I stood apart from the throng

Now I see specks of light here as a sign
I have intention and foresight to work out in time
With breath and touch each day to combine

I aim at a peace, but with a vibrant soul
I will walk by waves, smile fully as they roll
I will wonder at skies, stars and moons
I will stroll with your names as forever you call


a poem from In & Out of Dream Space Love Embellished by Visitations click anywhere on the text for details

Friday, 15 June 2012

A single dust mote note


Midnight
At ten thirty
Houseplants die
By dust fair dirty

A room with a view
Of a railroad
A moor
Some way beyond

A radio station
Misplaced
Here a Saturday
On a Thursday

A dial beyond
Way past beyond
My last
Imagination


Would that this warmth
Was as settled
As the mind
That it tries to disturb

This body displaced
Replaced
Each spring
Each autumn

Each winter
Dusted
With a thin fine sprinkle
Of fair-weather soft fallen snow

A room with a view
Back over a fair few years
A mischievous miscalculation
Lost among a past matriculation

A song
Would that
To pluck
A single note

In time, in tune
My only; dare I even say
My only one regret
My missed single dust note mote





This poem is from the collection East of Lincoln Central available now on kindle - click on the text for details

Thursday, 14 June 2012

Telephone


You didn't expect to feel so low
Why would you
Wasn't there laughter and lightness in her voice
Go back if you will
Analyse those thirty-one minutes
Line by line, as if a detective or forensic scientist
Better still
Write a diary note, from the distance of time


a poem from In & Out of Dream Space Love Embellished by Visitations click anywhere on the text for details