Anxious, early hours,
wind throws rain against panes,
breath wrestled from chest,
stomach somersaults while heart quick steps,
mind kicks brain awake,
paces vast halls of thought,
up, down, up, down,
potential failures grow loud,
footsteps pound and rebound,
resounding, echo, echo, echo.
Look at them laugh and relax on the beach,
paddling toes, digging holes, smooching on sand,
slapping on sun cream, sucking on a peach.
These days are our last, don’t they understand?
While filthy litter makes the planet choke,
fleeing children starve under smoking skies,
plastic fills the sea from our greed for coke,
homeless bundles huddle, fear in their eyes.
Don’t they know the great time of man has passed?
Or do they make hay while the sun still shines?
The wealth and the excess will never last;
protective lotion layer coating minds.
Do they bury worry deep in the sand?
Block ears with the sound of the soothing sea.
Like me, enjoy the small things while they can;
cover eyes with shades so they cannot see.
This poem was inspired by the childhood prayer, which I always found rather morbid.
If I die before I wake, remember happy me,
a song for each occasion, busy bee.
Forget the eyebrows in the air, tut-tut.
Don’t think of the thankless, if only, but…
Remember the time I fell off my chair,
lay on the grass giggling, feet in the air.
Forget harsh words, regrets and sorry tears.
Remember dreams followed, conquering fears.
When my soul is taken away to rest,
remember me as my wonderful best.
Don’t think about things I shouldn’t have said.
Remember the cuddles, snuggled in bed.
Forget the many failings I acquired.
Remember wild dancing round the fire.
Know that I wished to be open and true.
And never forget, I died loving you.
If life was music, I could waltz and wail
down this grey aisle, sing out my soul and pain.
Tap dance on grubby tables, strewn with snacks,
swing high from dusty, laden luggage racks.
Vault prickly, itchy, threadbare railway seats,
terrify little children scoffing sweets.
Take hold the hands of a dark, handsome man,
share duets, fall in mad love, make some plans.
My fellow passengers in quick time clap,
The guard skips along, whistling, his feet rap.
‘Tickets!’, his hole punch plays like castanets,
as we rumble on through worldly regrets.
Wake to a foreign land,
heavily silent.
The earth keeps
secrets smothered
under cold, crisp layers.
Blanketing, blizzard
buries all.
Not a babbling bird
tells its tale,
nor murmuring mammal
speaks its story.
Whispering world of
words unsaid.
Our past is
entombed deep.
Truth suffocates us
beneath a
pure, white face.
The radio told me as I buttered toast,
There is no paradise now.
Beautiful beaches are wrecked on Bali’s coast.
Under a fresh blue sky, no shores lie pristine.
There is no paradise now.
The salty sea’s cold tongue cannot lick them clean.
Waves spit dirty rubbish on damp silver sands.
There is no paradise now.
Only rainbow vomit thrown by human hands.
On shopping bag jellyfish, turtles choke and die.
There is no paradise now.
We cannot close our eyes; pretend, ignore, lie.
Marine creatures swim in our colourful spew.
There is no paradise now.
No putting the world right or making it new.
Those dreams of romantic escapes are all dead.
There is no paradise now.
We made a wasteland; must face ruin instead.
Sometimes the news creates a feeling of hopelessness in me. This story did just that. Since David Attenborough’s Blue Planet, awareness is growing and people are starting to act but is it a case of too little, too late? How do we change attitudes on such an enormous scale?
(Picture: AFPG/Getty Images Newsround BBC)
I have never taken part in a blog challenge before, and never thought that I would, but A Frank Angle sent me a very polite, personal invitation and I thought this poem was appropriate. Thanks for the invite Frank.
If
If we could open ourselves for exploration,
to read and decipher like a map,
a foreign country to discover.
Then you might place your feet on fresh soil
and I might walk new pathways.
For a while, travel a road together,
reach a place we recognize.
Read more answers to the If Challenge in the comments on Frank’s post. Perhaps you’d like to have a go at the challenge too? Details are here.
Another poem using material gathered on my recent train journey.
Four lads go out for the day
Posing, strutting,
rubbing crotches
along the seat.
Shouting, braying
billy goats on heat.
Throw our cans,
crunch of tin,
on the luggage rack.
Furtive, frightened glances,
give ‘em a smile and wink back.
I’m a big man now.
Did anyone see?
Only me mam would
be ashamed of me.
A boyo’s day out,
rampage in the city.
Shake our tails,
feathers wide.
Don’t we look pretty?
Throw our wrappers,
plastic rustle,
on the dusty floor.
Tutted annoyance meets
with snorted guffaw.
I’m Jack the lad.
Look at me ‘ere.
Only me dad would
clout me ‘round the ear.
Attracting attention,
standing out
from the rest.
Silver-backed apes
beating our chests.
Throw a quick f-word,
sharply crude,
in the stuffy air.
Young kids in the next seat
but we don’t care.
I’m a foolish child.
Hear me loud.
Only me parents would
be so proud.
Train journeys always provide inspiration for writers as we get to spend time with a bunch of colourful, interesting characters. We can be observers and eavesdroppers; imagining where and why the other passengers are travelling and creating stories for them. I love sitting with my notebook, listening, watching and scribbling. It helps the journey pass quickly too. I am thankful to my fellow travellers for sharing with me such gems.
Here is a poem based on a conversation overheard on a recent train journey (it would have been impossible not to hear it!). It brightened up my trip and made me giggle. Ideally, it needs to be read in a Swansea accent. Warning: it’s a little bit naughty!
Goin’ down Cardiff for the rugby and Linda’s 40th.
Got the T-shirts printed,
lookin’ good girls!
C’mon girls, find a seat, find a seat!
One ‘ere, one ’ere,
one by ’ere, next to me!
Open up them jelly shots, girls.
Get ‘em down yoo!
Have a drink.
Have a jelly shot.
Have a drink, girls!
Oh my God…we got a celeb ‘ere.
Gethin, he is.
We got a celeb ‘ere, girls!
Eastenders!
Quick girls, get down there…
Selfie, selfie.
Get a good’un
for Facebook like.
Don’t mind, do yoo?
He don’t mind.
Gethin he is.
Eastenders!
The teacher, he is…
Do your nails, girls.
Stick ‘em on,
stick ‘em on.
Did mine last night, mind.
Bet they’ll fall off.
‘Ow much make-up yoo got in there?
Good God!
Where yoo sleepin’ tonight?
Top ‘n tailin’ in the
same room.
Share with me,
share with me.
Mind, yoo don’t know what I got in
this ‘ere bag!
Vvvvrrrmmm –
yoo know what I mean!
No, not really like…
left it at home, didn’t I?
Don’t use one, do I?
Don’t need one.
Lucky yoo!
I got a couple of
cucumbers though.
A big one for yoo,
this long!
Come and sit up by us, Gethin.
Oh, c’mon, have a drink.
Have a jelly shot!
Have yoo put that
selfie on Facebook?
With Gethin, selfie with Gethin.
Send it me, send it me!
Gethin, sit by me ‘ere.
Sit by me.
Squish up girls,
gettin’ crowded in ‘ere.
The rugby, see.
Ooh! Squish up!
There’s nice.
Gethin, c’mon, squish up by ’ere love!
Have another jelly shot, girls!
We’ll be fallin’ asleep in the rugby.
God, I need a fag.
Not long now,
not long now, girls.
Them shots it is.
Soon as I have a drink,
I need a fag.
Gettin’ warm in ‘ere, mind.
I’ll be strippin’ off next.
Gethin, I’ll be strippin’ off love.
C’mon girls, have a jelly shot.
Cool us down, like.
Have a cocktail.
I got ‘em, in a tin, like.
Cocktail in a tin.
What in a tin?
No, not a cock in a tin!
Cocktail in a tin.
Better than tinned cock!
Gethin, come by ‘ere.
Have a cocktail, Gethin.
Want a pringle?
Want a pringle, love?
No, a pringle!
I’m starvin’! Should have
made sarnies…
We’ll fill up on cocktails, girls!
My fortieth, right, I’m
doin’ a party.
Butlins.
Brilliant.
That’s class.
I’m havin’ karaoke,
limousine, bubble disco.
That’s a date, that is.
Class.
Date that is, girls!
Gethin, come by ‘ere…
You’ll come to my fortieth, won’t you love?
Butlins, Gethin.
Class.
He’s from Eastenders, he is.
Got a selfie on Facebook.
A celeb.
Are we ‘ere?
Oh my God, I need a wee.
Desperate I am, girls.
Lookin’ forward to this, I am!
I’m free!
No kids.
I don’t get out much, see.
This time of year is one of mixed emotions for me.
In many ways, I love Christmas. I enjoy the traditional activities: bringing out the advent calendar; making and choosing gifts; filling the house with pretty ornaments we’ve collected over the years; brightening the dark days of winter with carols and shining lights; finding a tree to decorate; baking the naughtily alcoholic cake and mince pies. It is not a religious festival in our house but a special time to spend together; playing games without the everyday rushes and having to be elsewhere. A chance to say thank you to loved ones at the end of the year.
The difficulty for me is that Christmas is also a time of greed on a massive scale. It brings out the very worst of consumerism. The shops are brimming with cheap, useless trinkets that nobody really needs. The adverts encourage us to spend, spend, spend. People get themselves into debt to provide the perfect Christmas for their families. In my nearest large town, a Hawkin’s Bazaar has just opened selling ready-filled stockings – the epitome of thoughtless excess. Many of the presents bought at Christmas will end up at the rubbish dump. Food will rot and go to waste.
A few years ago, I found the experience of doing my Christmas shop at the supermarket – where I saw a family with three trollies of food, one of which overflowed with sliced bread – so overwhelming that it left me feeling sick and dizzy. We are using up the planet’s resources at a shocking rate to make this throw-away stuff. It may please for a short time but, a few days after Christmas, it will be forgotten and discarded. What has brought us to this? We have become disconnected from what is important, from the message of sharing love and caring for others at Christmas. We have lost our way. Something needs to change. We must stop buying stuff and be more satisfied with what we have.
Although I have always tried to do a small-scale Christmas, we still have far more than we actually need. We end up on Christmas Day bloated on delicious food and wine. We are spoilt for choice. So, Christmas is a time when I feel sick with guilt too. I am lucky to have done well in the lottery of life; of being born in a country with a democracy, safe from war and famine. At Christmas, I think of the many people with nothing – the homeless, the refugees, those living in war-torn countries like Syria and the Yemen. So many with far too little whilst the rest of us have far too much.
This is a time of year when I can feel despairing, so we try as a family to contribute in a positive way. We choose various charities to support at Christmas. We have given up buying lots of presents and sending out cards in an effort to be less wasteful. Money saved goes to those who need it more than us. We show our love by selecting or making one or two special, useful gifts, something genuinely wanted. We plan what we will eat so there is no food thrown away. We take part in community events. It seems inadequate; I would like to contribute more and in the new year I want to explore what else I can do.
Last year, I wrote this poem to express how Christmas can make me feel.
Christmas sickness
I’ve got Christmas sickness,
guilty, weeping conscience
pressing on my chest,
heart about to burst.
So, what
do I do about it?
Engulfed by greedy consumerism,
frenzied buying madness, I
hang twinkling lights while
Aleppo burns,
engorge cupboards with festive feasts while
Yemen children starve,
stuff stockings with unwanted gifts while a
refugee child dreams of tomatoes.
Bury my head in the sand of Bethlehem.
How do you cope with Christmas excess? Are you trying to buy less and get back to the true meaning of Christmas?
