Tickets To Ride

If then now

Or what about later

No, don’t put it off

Do not put it off

Well that’s fine if you stay with me

That’s perfectly ok if you are onboard

But don’t forget that I am needy

And that this is just the start

Yes, there will be disappointments 

Doesn’t the rollercoaster always go up and down

Doesn’t night always follow day, dark after light

So also we can expect to see the bright side

What then if

Is there something to follow

Pray, pray tell

Is the argument ever won

Available at Amazon

Christopher's Website
for his Collected Works

Home Retreat

I have it in mind to create an online meditation retreat, but first I will carry out my own week-long retreat at home, or at any rate in our Old Stables.

Each day I will follow a structure not dissimilar to retreats which I have been on, with morning, afternoon, and evening meditations interspersed with readings, music, films, and talks by online inspirational spiritual figures.

I hope to video as much as is practicable for later use; I will write about the retreat process, I will also write poetry and do artwork and photography.

Before I begin I will lay out the room to suit my needs, I will have to hand the books and the music which I hope to use, although I do wish to have some scope for spontaneity.

I feel a mind-map coming on, to help me draw together the strands of my thoughts.

The excitement, to have found a sense of purpose is already there, and I hope it will grow, as and when the project is further developed.

Available at Amazon

Christopher's Website
for his Collected Works

More to it than that, isn’t there always

My photographic images were taken

In the many places where I have been

Sufficiently lucky to have visited

And so when I want to choose one from 2014

To illustrate a book which I am publishing

I do have quite a dilemma

Who should be pleased

Who could be offended

Who would say that I ought to have asked first

And who might actually say

Christopher this is just not good enough

Do you not ever think to consider

The effects of your actions

But it was just a snapshot

Yes, I know that I have given it a caption

Which might suggest a psychologist in conversation

With her client, the lead character in the novel

Except that it is only a suggestion

Nothing is unequivocally confirmed

And so doubts may still linger

Available at Amazon

Christopher's Website
for his Collected Works

Songs in the key of life

Two more songs for the funeral

Copper Top by Bill Wells

Which tells the story of a chap

Going into the pub nearest to the crematorium

For a pint on his own while he waits for his mate

To pick him up in his car

His stories reminded me of my being measured

And fitted for my first, bespoke, tailor-made suit

By Mr. Wimpenny in the upstairs market hall

Then The King of Rome by The Unthanks

Accompanied by Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band

Which tells the story of a chap whose pigeon

Wins the race from Rome to his west-end home

Which reminds me of Saturday afternoons

Sat out on the Tinkers pigeon loft

As Colin and Lawrence welcomed their birds back

From Paris, or maybe even further afield

These two tunes to go with those already chosen:

Flower Duet from Lakme by Delibes, Acid Rain by Paul Heaton (the full 8 minutes +), then the Flaming Lips with Do you realise. That’s not to mention Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Spiegel im Spiegel, or Bolero, which were also once on the list

Available at Amazon

Christopher's Website
for his Collected Works

Socialist Worker

Up at five

Breakfast before seven

My 2006 poems turn the 400 mark 

As dawn breaks

And blackbirds chirp

After lunch there is a tiredness

Thankfully, the crystal in the window

Glows red as if a burning sun

Its energy pulsates into and inside me

Telling me to write, to get writing

In that one moment

I captured that one existential breath

Where the lines of absorbent energy

Became coincidental with the lived life

As if some preordained force of nature

Just as those  Critical Theory classes at Buxton

Could so so easily have been disrupted

If the champagne socialist and artist within me

Hadn’t careered into a Labour Party card-carrying

Member and activist, also the lecturer fo the day

Available at Amazon

Christopher's Website
for his Collected Works