Can I see a pain within your eyes?
Can I sense a fear within your mind?
Can I hear the sounds of anxious words?
As I hold your sweet lips close to mine.
I touch a smile that’s touched my heart,
For I know of sadness from afar.
I would breathe each breath just to ease your sighs,
As I hold you close within my arms.
I will seek the source of all that scars,
As I listen for your trembling call.
I pray for you to be as one,
As I catch each gentle tear that falls
I barely knew him
But will miss him so.
His smile, his optimism,
His commitment, that glow.
I barely knew him;
Was I right to have wept,
For a man seldom seen
But in my prayers, daily kept?
Yes, I barely knew him
But was privileged just the same
As others just like me
Who witnessed his faith.
A faith that had carried him
Time and again
Through family turmoil
Of sickness and pain.
A faith that reached out
And touched all that he knew;
Known a year or a month
Or days just a few.
But we thank God that we knew him
Albeit for the briefest of time:
Witnessing his love – for You, Lord
Has enriched all our lives.
In my loneliness I discovered a garden
Rich with olive and cypress trees
I glimpsed an overgrown portal
With stones standing guard either side
Intrigued I brushed aside cobwebs
Peered into the encircling gloom
But was met by the joy of a welcoming light
And a voice that was calling my name.
Hiding in the shadows
Of tall trees
Playing games
Along the path by the stream
Flashes of sunlight
Exposing – then
Clouds
Once more all concealed.
Desiring the darkness
To end soon
For the forest
To give way to green
For light to reveal
True detail
Games replaced
By a life that is real.
I knew not one of them.
And yet my heart was pained,
By the sacrifice of many,
For the wretched yards they gained.
Lone tree stands guard among them
On windswept day of autumn.
Leaves strewn o’er Flander’s Fields;
As symbol of the fallen.
We’d had a little lecture
On how to start the heart,
From a lovely lady doctor
An exponent of her art.
She’d said, “Mr Smith, he must be thrown
From the bed onto the floor
Then quick, locate the sternum
And beat him up some more!
A rhythm’s best of four to one*
To bring him back to health
But don’t forget whilst doing so
To take a breath yourself.
We heard the very latest in opiate technology
We understood the pain bit
But not the physiology.
We were keen to keep our hands in,
So learnt of prostaglandin;
But weren’t antagonists and agonists
Those aunts in magazines I missed.
Yes we’ve had another lecture
Of lifeless, listless lethargy.
Enough to give a headache to those of us in A&E-
From a fervent pharmacologist
(I wish the hour I had missed)
For my brain is now narcotic cos…
He’s boring and I’ve nodded off.
Sun-soaked estuary
Drinking in the day.
Wind, waves and water
At one for the race.
Nervous crews abounding
Booming voices all about;
Who will win first battle,
Uncertainty and doubt.
Timing all important;
When to make first tack.
First to flinch can win
Or be left in other’s tracks.
Boats jostle for position
To cross the starting line.
Tac-ticks, tac-tocks
Heart beats with waiting time.
Go! The horn is sounded,
Water starts to churn
As flotilla launches forward;
Who’ll win the trick of turn.
It’s over in a moment;
Expectations, hopes destroyed.
Ego killed by indecision
As rudder snags a buoy.
Sun-soaked estuary
Swallowing the day
Wind waves and water
Wash settled scores away.
The garden was warm and inviting
As the guests began to arrive
The laughter was gloriously infectious
As the guests continued to arrive
The house was filled to the rafters
As the curry began to be served
The exchanges got warmer and warmer
As the musician enchanted the crowd
The inhibitions were gradually ebbing
As the champagne flowed as a tide
Embarrassing moments were happening
As the party lech continued to paw
Strange liaisons and invasions of normal
Led to distress and the falling of tears
The talking got dafter and dafter
As the champagne continued to pour
The beat got stronger and stronger
As the dancers gyrated around
The antics grew ever more puerile
As the champagne was continually downed
Then as attrition set in
The odd guest made excuses to leave
Whilst the stalwarts continued to morning
As champagne was now drunk with a straw
And as the night it faded to morning
The waft of bacon was caught in the air
First footers arrived in the kitchen
The lure of caffeine too much to bear
Hazy memories of revelry remembered
As hangover cures are shared
And as the fog began to lift with some breakfast
The flow of champagne begins once more!
What happened thus;
That caused this scene,
A host of caricatures.
All within this tiny room,
A bar – just one a small saloon.
In corner sits a haggard fly
O’er dressed in evening wear.
First bought late seventies perhaps
But worn with first bought pride,
True age belied.
Eavesdropped conversation
Revealing car enthusiast.
Boring all ‘bout his vintage car
With vintage clothes to match,
‘Non-synchro gearbox’. Fancy that!
Nice so very nice,
As young man deliberates
Over a quiet few pints
With prospective father in law –
Pre-wedding chore.
Six new subjects have arrived
In give-away garb of sweaters
Hoodies and trainers for shoes.
Our learned young, no spending sprees;
Concentrating on degrees.
Once proud gentleman
Sitting in corner – drunken sot!
Pin-striped suit so out of place,
From pocket hangs kerchief.
Insurance man or dapper thief?
People drawn in search of beer,
Of conversation, dying art.
Portrayed as thus
A strange array…
But of me, what do they say?
The Poet Layabout 