Things Poetic

 Silence To have silence, quiet Nothing breaking it A goal and a lost hope But something to seek and drive for Lie on the water surface, head in the water And listen, float, nothing else Waves rippling, sounds of people, water on sand Peace Meandering through reeds, over stones, around trees and plants Over level falls  Against sand

Conscription Growing up with the idea of conscription is going to be a new idea If the worst predictions are right When threats of ward trip into preparations For wars Or  Deployments for wars Gap years wont happen any longer Deferred till after Will there be places to go  After ? Waiting for that letter in the post I’d guess it’ll be email now ? Saying Your time has come young man or woman To do your duty And learn to defend, to fight, to stop the enemies doing to you back Frightened, shaking hands hold the letter, the laptop, the phone ‘When’…’where’….’Why me’ All the questions we asked as teenagers All the options we looked at All our hopes and dreams

The Rose Petals, deep red, lips dipped in wine, Opened, splayed, calling out to be visited Thorns deterring the unwary Molten core a magnet for insect and human alike In the wind or in a vase Delightful, fragile, protected

Perfect or Good I love this from John Steinbecks book East of Eden  “And now that you don’t have to be perfect, You can be good” And even more so because it’s spoken by Lee, the Trask family cook.  The impossible pressure to be perfect or without flaw is face and false. Once you drop that as a goal, then you are free to make human choices to be kind or ‘good’ I like this balanced and connected with Lee’s description of ‘, the concept of ‘thou mayest’ - human beings have the choice to be good or bad. They are not trapped in some form of predestination. Not only is there a concept of ‘thou mayest’ (ie you can choose to…) , you can also choose to not.

 Fragility ‘He’s had a stroke’ - words that fill you with dread. Can he speak.  Can he walk. Can he see. The uncertainty and fear send our minds into a maelstrom of chaos ‘Time will tell’  Yes, it will, but till then, everyone will be.there and hold him tight It’s so fragile

 Pattering Rain Drip….drip, misty and light, rivulets on the window, coalescing into drops Slowly, then more quickly making their zig zag route to the sill Tiny rainbows against the sky,  Birds gather their feathers around them, and shuffle into the leaves, onto branches, to wait it out Splashes kick up from the ground, spreading the water widely Cleaning off the floor but staining the walls with dirt Sunshine pushes through,  Chasing the rain across the garden, monkeys getting married as it moves along Refreshing the space around me Birds call again, telling each other the local gossip Food emerges from the ground, caught by the eagle eyes robins and starlings