Featured Poet

24th May 2020

The day I was the featured poet for A Poem A Day in April. There were hundreds of participants. It was 3/4/2015 and it had 661 visits and twenty one comments. Not at all bad.
Just thought I'd share it again

Day 3:

 3rd April 3rd poem.

Was inspired today by a walk along the coast . We took a path from the beach up a pretty winding staircase. Each turn gave a different, yet  interesting view which  made me reflect the path our lives take. Not sure I've done justice to it in this poem.

Go This Way

Go this way, tread these winding steps,

                                    Up this steep slope.

                                                     Stop here, rest,

                                                              Take in the view,

                                                                              The castle - almost ruins

                                                                                            Glory days over.

                                                                    Carry on up, round that blind  bend,

                                                         See the lake- veiled in mist,  

                                             Joys hidden in shrouded past

                        Struggle further,up  towards the peak,

                                   Breathless,

                                               The path narrows, stones underfoot slow progress
                                                                                  
                                                                    Turn, see the valley

                                                                                      Deep, dark,

                                                                     Holding lost moments of gloom.

                                                                                     But now, for you, up, up, 

                                                                                    Crawl on to the summit,

                                                                 Lift yourself up,

                                          Stand, breathe deep

                           Look around,

                                      All before you takes shape

                                                             Holds together.

Octpowrimo Days 4, 5, 6 and 7

16th Oct 2017

The Prompt for 4th Oct ( will I ever catch up?) is:

"Between the Clouds and the Water." Trying an acrostic with that then...

By
Eleven on
That day people gathered,
Waiting
Eagerly for the sign.
Everyone
Nudging

Their way through
Heaving,
Endless

Crowds
Looking
Out for anything
Unusual. What would she
Do? What had
She in mind?

And
Now  they were
Drenched

Then they
Heard a sound as of angels
Everyone saw the clouds part and

With their eyes wide and all at once dry,
At least one hundred
Thousand witnesses
Experienced the miracle happening in
Reality before them, of the dancing of the sun

Hope you liked that little story. If you want to know what actually happened look up Fatima, the miracle of the sun.


The prompt for the 5th Oct:

"Finally I Understand"

I would like to be able to say that I am at an age,
a time in my life when I can say
finally, I understand.

But , no matter how many seconds I spend
pondering the ups and downs
I'm no nearer to this end

There are, I've just worked out, eighty six thousand,
four hundred seconds in each
twenty four hour day

So, it's possible that, with a lot more thinking and study
I will finally understand
what do you say?


Prompt for Oct 6:

While I Was Pacing The Floor

In the early hours, dark shadows told stories
that are only understood in the night
as my eyes tried to construct some meaning.

Her cries welled up inside me, a waterfall of loving
I took her in arms that ached to calm,
that wanted to make her cease screaming

What is it little one , what's the matter, what's wrong
come let me give you a cuddle
I'll  whisper in your ear a gentle song

So, on those nights, while I was pacing the floor
a connection was made between us
a bond that will last for ever more.


 Prompt for 7th Oct

Then I Went too Far

Reds, yellows, oranges, crunched underfoot
hot breath met the chill autumn air, misting glasses.
And on she walked, mindless among trees and bracken,
trudging through brambles, off the main track .
Would he even notice ? How had they come to this ?
Standing in a clearing, too many ways to choose
which way to go, where was she anyway?
She had gone too far
Too far to retrace her steps
Any path would do

Tokaido Road

26th May 2020


Five Years Ago. 

26th May 2015

Hello all my lovely followers.
Just taking a rest from all the packing and cleaning and sorting and dumping and worrying that I've been manically steeped in this last week or so. Soon we are to move, days now.
In the meantime,  let me tell you about a wonderful evening we had last Saturday at the Gulbenkian Theatre in Canterbury.
We went along with friends to a modern day opera, yes, you read that right, an opera. Not normally my thing - all those soprano voices singing in a language I don't understand.
But this was nothing like that. We were prepared for it by having a presentation evening at Beach Creative to tell us about this unique performance. The inspiration for the production was The Tokaido Road in Japan, or rather a set of prints by Hiroshige, an artist who did fifty three wood block paintings of the stations on the road.
Nancy Gaffield, a poet became inspired by the prints she discovered when on a visit to Japan and wrote poems in response to the pictures. ( Tokaido Road by Nancy Gaffield, in case you're interested.)
Putting these two elements together and joining with musicians and other creative people an opera was written.
What a wonderful experience it was, especially as we knew some of the history.
Add to that the meeting of friends and a glass of wine .... well you get the idea...
This is my response to it:

 Tokaido Road

We step into the picture,
From Nihonbashi we accompany Hiro,
Along Tokaido Road.
A road from our dreams.
We cross the bridge.,
Slowly, serenely, absorbed in the scene.
Enchanted, enraptured, we listen to music,
as it  resonates, reverberates,
In our subconscious  recesses,
a reeling rhythm of life.
Music brings joy and pain
Freedom and confinement,
Throwing us onto the way of the road.
Images present themselves,
Without being asked,
A waterfall, windy roads,
Animals  scurrying, birds in flight.
Kites held by anonymous hands,
Escape.
Trees sway gently over the banks of,
The river.
The river that divides,
With fingers that spread across the plain,
That takes to itself,
That has it's story to tell.

We,  in monotonous pilgrimage,
Put one foot in front of another,
Encounter steep slopes,
And mountain pines.
At the summit,
cherry blossom fills aching lungs,
In the heat of the day.
As travelers we continue
On the way,
With Hiro,
But long for release.
The path , at times impossible,
Against us,
Wind , rain, umbrellas taking on new form.
We continue with Hiro,
To the end.
And in the end the mystery,
We are not the same,
We, like Hiro,
Are changed.