A Blast From The Past

Pardon the pun in the title, but this is a poem written after Hurricane Katrina wreaked so much havoc on New Orleans, a few years ago now. I was reminded of it today when I read a poem by my friend Monna Ellithorpe, also about a hurricane saying much the same things but in a very different style. As I have never included it this blog, I take this opportunity to address that now.

It was actually intended as a song - a folksy type of song - but after I had written the lyrics I found it difficult to actually sing them; or rather to put a tune to them. After some time trying I decided it should be a poem. The very first poem I had written - after years of writing song lyrics ! Hope you enjoy reading it

The Wind

The Wind sighed,

and the world turned.

The Wind whispered, 

But no one heard.

The Wind wondered, 

But no answer came.

The Wind cried, please

But few took heed.

The Wind shrieked, 

But the suffering had started.

The Wind warned us all,

But who had noticed.

And the world turned.

The Wind howled, 

But was it now too late

The Wind became man's enemy,

And they asked, each one,

Why didn?t we listen

Why didn' we care

Why didn't we do enough

We could have helped

And the world turned.

The Wind tore through

The remaining years.

Why didn't we listen

And the world turned,

In upon itself

If you should want to read more of mu early work, it is available to read or for free download on SCRIBD, Poems And Endings And Lost Loves 

I'm on a roll

I hate to say it but with a second new poem so quickly since the last, could I be on a roll? This is another in response to a prompt on the same website by as the last post by my friend Monna Ellithorpe.

Not quite decided on a title yet and it is still in a rough, unedited form but I am recording it here because I am so happy to be creating again.

The Mystery Parcel

One damp and dismal morning last week

I answered a knock on the door

The postie was waiting with a parcel for me

Unexpected, exotically packaged but more ...

It did not have a full address, 

He'd done well to deliver this mail

The name was clear, it was for me alright

But this delivery could well have failed.

I gratefully took it from his hands

With heartfelt thanks and praise,

And carried it carefully to my den

Prepared to free my prize, to be amazed.

I really had no inkling, no idea at all

Of who may have sent this parcel

Addressed with such a tenebrous remit

It may never have reached me at all.

So I set about the task required, 

Not knowing what I would find.

Soon I held a simple box, devoid of any note,

I raised the lid and thereI found confined

A bundle of vintage photographs

Dog-eared and monochrome

Displaying almost familiar faces

Fondly remembered from back home

A treasure chest of memories

A prize I tightly grasped

But who and why and where

Amongst the questions yet to ask.

A few places where change is needed but it's a poem and I want to shout it out loud. Hope you read and enjoy.

New Poem, A Connection To The Past

Wow, they say not to apologise for long breaks in posting but this has to be a record. I had not been finding time for writing for a long time due to personal issues. However, A new weekly writing prompt on an old friends, new web site caught my eye. Monna has for a long time been working to bring new creative writers together and to offer encouragement. This new site has a regular writing prompt to help get you started and I decided to "have a go".

This was the result, of the prompt, (an inscription in an old book":-

A Connection to the Past

I am holding in my hands a battered, tattered book

I saw it on the bookshelf and just had to take a look.

The cover stained, page edges foxed

A history waiting to be unboxed,

For me, the pages of a volume such as this

Will always speak so loud and lead to an abyss

Where I become as one with the narrative within

And lose myself to some adventure waiting to begin.

And then I think of others who have held this work before

Having found its heroines and heros on some far, far, foreign shore

Did they read it to forget some dismal, dreary task

Or maybe, like me, it was simply to be enjoyed – why ask?

For reading is a pleasure, an indulgence to revere;

A diversion from whatever life brings, a new frontier.

But the greatest pleasure an old book can bring at last

Is to find a pale inscription, a connection to the past.

Basically I was at a loose end for an hour or so and wanted to try this. It is a first draft, almost straight from the pen (well the keyboard anyway) although I did google a couple of synonyms to help. Actually I quite like it and may find myself doing more in which case this blog could well be resurrected. I would like that.

Not Quite A Poem

Life has been so incredibly complicated and busy this year, and shows in the number of posts I have made, especially since the spring. One of these days things will sort themselves out and I am sure my artistic output will return to normal.

In the meantime, here is a lyric. Meant to be a little bit of fun, it was well received at my ukulele club when I tried it out on them in an "open mic" spot. I thought that with absolutely nothing in the poetry line to share here, I would at least show that I am still just about turning out something creative in the writing arena. Hope you like it and take it for what it is.

My Uke Is Gonna See Me Through The Day 

refrain

When I ‘m feeling  low

Got no place to go

And no one’s ‘round to raise my sorry mood.

I don’t sit a round

Staring at the ground

I Pick up my 4-string and I start to play

verse 1

Oh my uke is gonna get me through the day

Raise my voice and strum along and play

My spirits soon will rise, soaring to the skies

Oh my uke is gonna get me through the day 

verse 2

The cheerful sound of strumming is so cool

Takes me back to days I spent in school

No cares to weigh me down, no sign of a frown

Oh my uke is gonna get me through the day

verse 3

No pills or potions do the same for me

I’ve tried them all, they fail it’s plain to see

But when I hear those chords, I’m never ever bored

Oh my uke is gonna get me through the day 

If you would like to hear the song, having read the lyrics, then I offer next an early recording of the song which I often do to hear what I am doing. It is so easy to perform a song without really hearing the results. I do think that it does enable me to learn and improve. Anyway here it is:-

Finally - a new poem

I have been so busy learning to play the ukulele and painting again that writing has been on the back-burner for longer than I care to think; hence the long break since my last post. There is only so much time in the day unfortunately.

But writing is never very far from my mind, in fact I wrote a song a couple of weeks ago so maybe the time's may be a-changing?

But what bought this change about? Well last weekend, we spent a few days in Brighton and did a little shopping in the lanes. My wife persuaded me to buy a red paisely shirt. Not honestly my style, but she decided that I needed to have something a little outrageous in my dottage. It will do for ukulele concerts, I guess. Anyway, Whilst the rest of the party spent a couple of hours tramping around The Royal Pavilion, I sat in the sun and took out my notebook and decided to WRITE A POEM. Yes, it was a conscious decision. But what should be the topic of my endeavour? Why, my new red shirt. I don't need big stories to get me writing - so here it is:-

A new Shirt.

Today, I purchased a brand new shirt

A little bit red but, OK;

It's colourful, patterned

Will stand out in a crowd,

Wearing it makes a statement,

"This is me, and I'm proud"

To be just a little bit different.

Just for once in my life

I'll stand tall

So don't tell me it's flash;

Nothing so rash!

It's just a little bit loud

- That's all.

Just a little bit of fun really - no hidden messages, etc. Not my usual style but maybe that's because I have not been over-zealous with the lineage. I have not sweated over the number of syllables as I might once have done. The next thing is to record it, and embed the recording on the post. You can then hear how I think it should be read.

Anyway, the long abstinence is over. I am hoping that my writing will become part of my life once again.

A new paperback, a new poetry collection

The third collection of my poetry is available on Amazon, called Nightmare and other poetry.

However for readers of this blog a free download is available from SCRIBD, under a different cover but with identical content. This may not always be free so don't delay, get your copy now. That's me trying to see you a free copy, LOL. But seriously I posted an embedded copy of this book in my a little while ago in a post on this blog, you can of course read it from here. It has been updated using the latest formatted copy which I used for publishing via Createspace so both agree - within a few typos caused by the conversion process.

Actually, the software that Scribd use to convert MS Word files does not do the job as well as that of Createspace (an Amazon company) so there are a few typos which I am going to have to clean up. In the near future but I hope that this does not spoil your enjoyment of the poems.

I have been busy publishing my three completed volumes of poetry plus an art related book. This has now been completed and so I am now catching up with some art tutorials. All this has taken a toll of the writing of new poetry, and I have written no new poetry since the 21st March this year, which can be found on this blog.

I hope by the end of the month I will be writing poetry again. Please keep an eye out for these published first on this blog.

More News on Published Poetry

I do seem to be spending a lot of time at the moment editing and formatting my short poetry collections for publication on Amazon in paperback format. This of course is affecting the amount of time I have for new, original poetry. But I hope this process will be completed soon (after all I don't have that many books in hand) and that I will be able to get back to writing new material.

This post is to release the news that I now have a second poetry book available on Amazon. It is actually the first in the series but for practical purposes I published the second volume first, if that makes sense.

This new collection is based on older poems which I have edited and converted from song lyrics originally written in the sixties and seventies. I am surprised that the range of topics is as wide as it is considering their origin. That is not to knock the poems but simply to state that the range of themes is wider than the usual stuff of pop-songs.

• Paperback: 42 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (29 April 2014)
• ISBN-10: 1499294905
• ISBN-13: 978-1499294903

 You can see this book on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk or alternatively I shall let you into a little secret - keep it to yourself - for a while it can be found on Scribd for free download. Same book different cover.

The table of contents, in four sections, is as follows.

POEMS ON ENDINGS AND LOST LOVES 
SILENT LADY
SING ME A SIMPLE SONG
REFLECTIONS FROM THE PAST
YOU WERE HERE ONLY YESTERDAY
MISTER WILLOW
MEMORIES

POEMS ON ATTITUDES TO LIFE 
THE WICKED MAGICIAN   
PUT DOWN YOUR GUN   
IS THE DAY TOO LONG?   
THE WATERFALL   
PATTERNS ON MY MIND  
YOU'RE IN A RUT BOY 

A POEM
THE WIND

POEMS FOR CHILDREN   
IF ALL MY FRIENDS COULD TALK
YOUR FURRY OLD FRIENDS

 I have one more collection of poetry complete and ready for publication. I shall include details next time.