Happenstance in Heptonstall

Emptiness, said the Tibetan philosopher Tsong-Khan in 1397, is the track where the centred person moves. The word he uses for track is Shul. This term is defined as an impression: a mark that remains after that which made it has passed; by a footprint for example.
- Stephen Batchelor: Buddhism Without Beliefs

The surprisingly big stones, on the footpath at the top of the woods, have been hollowed out, the sandstone worn away by millions of mill workers feet, treading there, on their way to and from their place of work.
- Christopher Sanderson: Arvon, Lumb Bank, August 2018

Shul
In the wrong place
At the wrong time
With incomplete skills
And out of sorts motivation

Shul
Ineffective communicator
Inhibited, introverted personality
Of course others are better, others do better
Neither do others suffer, not as I suffer

Shul
Yes, of course the teachers have their favourites
Those who are so so often encouraged to glow
Meanwhile you rail against the establishment
Standing up for yourself, also for others

Shul
You take yourself off, into Mother Nature
Sit awhile, beside the stream
Photograph the effects of your predecessors
Say after me: I will not be beaten, I am who I am

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon

Immigrant Song

Up against the course notes
A Smörgåsbord of inspirations
From writers, who, right now
I have to work hard to remember

Four days, five nights
Walks; uphill backwards walks
Hills too steep to catch one's breath
Too far from the ice cream shop

Now, back here in my home town
In the Pie & Mash Cafe
I have it all to myself today
Though you do have to book for weekends

The next ship may well sail
Without me on board
For, after this weekend
At Buckfast Abbey

I may well settle
For the quiet life
Though before I go
I do want to say

To all of the immigrants
In my country
Do you know
We too are lost, yes, we too
We are all pretty well lost

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon

Wounded Healers

More words than you can throw a stick at
Would be needed
To describe how good it felt
To be at the album launch performance

Yet, if just one word had to be chosen
From the mountainous pile of words
It would be aplomb
Aplomb, aplomb, aplomb, and again, aplomb

Seven or more months in the making
With a lifetime backtracked
In the writing
Oh how well we receive your memories

Oh how well we receive your memories
How we advise how you step, how you sway
As you tell us of your emotions
As your songs gladden our day

So here’s to the next one
For nothing does ever stand still
Here is to the next compilation
May your collaborations ever march (or dance) on

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon

What Takes You There Takes Me Too

I do slow down
I do take more time (mostly)
I do carry on leaving
But Lumb Bank is still within me

Stop, I say to myself
Have I said too much
Have I not said enough
Is all truly or otherwise revealed

I have bought
The collected works
Of the mountaineer poet
Also bought his book Found At Sea

Which is a mirror
Quotation
To one I saw many years ago
Which I photographed

Lost At Sea
Being apt I thought
For how my lover at that time
Appeared to be feeling

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon

Just One Man, With One Other

He had written the poem a long time ago
He was surprised
When I asked him to autograph
That particular page in the book

Surprised isn’t quite sufficient
He was visibly moved
Stopped in his tracks
Silent, for the first time that week

Eventually he gathered himself
Told me: that even though
It was a book of prize-winners
He himself did not win a prize

Something to do with the poem
Having already been published elsewhere
Which, at the time, made him disgruntled
Though he thanked me, he signed the work

Better still
On the Friday-night group readings
He asked to borrow the book
He read the poem out loud

With a bit of history for introduction
I like to think, that together
We both could wonder, just where
Those thirty odd years went to

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon