Status Report

How the calmness calms me
How the stillness stills me
How the quietness quietens me
How the blue sky brings out a smile

Its light lighting the trees leaves
Here, there, almost everywhere
Long past the time of blossom
The love of beauty is still transmitted

Somewhere a storm is brewing
Even here there are dark clouds
The first of the raindrops start falling
Though the real trouble is a good way off

Been There Done That
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Intermissions

I am inside the story which I tell
I race along
I am on part three already

Now I take a break, a breath
First I read from Song of Silence
To take me to the Benedictine monks

I am transported to Vigils (Matins)
To celebrate the darkness
To engage with sky, with stars

I welcome the light which enters
Gifting energy to these thoughts
Even before my memory commences

Been There Done That
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Another Mistake

Incorrectly reading the details
Seeing words which I wish to see
As opposed
To those there written

Yet useful
To make the telephone call
Another silence broken, by my
Pointing out the error of my ways

Step back, slow down
Why in this life still the rush
Didn’t you once gain a distinction
Simply by taking your time

Been There Done That
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Sissinghurst

Might I ever return
To sit entirely alone
In the Tudeley chapel, looking
Through Chagall’s stained-glass windows

Might I ever be allowed
To open the wrought iron gate
To step alone, yes quite alone
To step into Vita’s writing room

Might by then
The pond be completed
Such that I could sit there alone
Beside the clay, beneath the moon

Been There Done That
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Blue And White Side Of Town

The scarf was bought in Venice
With little or no thought given
To wearing it at a football match

But now my team needs all the support
It can muster, so I think to take
This fashion item to wave about the Kop

Of course the Yorkshire wags and wits
Will have a little dig, sarcastically
At this wearer of finest Italian cotton with silk

I will smile, as well I might, for it is I
Who remembers the frantic speedboat ride
Across the lagoon back to the airport

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