Poems

Tomorrow’s Hope.

Tomorrow’s hope seems so far away

In the face of adversity, we shy away.

Do you succumb to pressures?

Do we stop living, accept our lot?

We live a short space of time

We can engage in the every day

Take it, as that’s how it is.

We can say fate intervenes

And casts a shadow so deep

There seems no light at the end.

We can imagine there is no tomorrow

That today is as good as it gets.

That pleasures are for others

The fortunate ones who take

Who never have to suffer, who don’t care.

But what if your tomorrow is all about hope

Of believing your life is change

That misery in keeping strange bedfellows

Also offers blinding hope.

That if we take it, the future is unclear

But if we don’t the present is the future

With all the pathetic angst we will rail against.

Tomorrow is hope, always hope

Never to be defeated by mediocrity

We look forward, see what we need

Step in that direction, take firmly

The hand that is extended.

 

Written for: https://therattlingbones.wordpress.com/2015/07/08/poetry-prompt-wednesday-14/

 

 

PAD Day 1 April 2

Foolish Poem

I woke up feeling foolish

But she got out,

Said: “I have to wash my hair.”

 

Went to the café looking foolish

She said “It’s all a mistake.

You curdle my coffee, goodbye.”

 

Sat in the bath being foolish

She said ‘Imitation is flattery.

But yours is just sad.”

 

Foolish stood on her high horse

Looked down her nose, scoffed,

Said: “You’ll never be good enough.”

 

Sweet young girl took pity

Came for lunch then ran for safety

No fool like an old fool.

 

Old fool foolish old fool

Sits in the park, memory is all he has

Wishful should be his middle name.

 

Surely you Jest!! April 2

If I jest I am I a jester?

Should I wear a funny hat

So you would hear me coming

A jiggling and a giggling.

I’d tell you my one favourite joke,

You know the one,

Just to hear you laughing

From deep within your belly.

I could stun you with a cartwheel

Roll my way across the room

A somersault to end it off

A star jump and a tah dah!

Or I could just tickle you

I know the spot where you are

Likely to squirm in hysterical delight

While I laugh with you

As you tickle back

You too know my susceptible bits.

But of course it’s all in jest

We laugh, as we do best

But love, as we most want.

 

PAD DAy 2 He Said She Said

He said he’d love her,

For better or worse

Said he’d be there for her

Through the good and bad

But then he said he didn’t love her

Said she was not affectionate enough.

 

She said she’d love him

For better or worse

Said she would bear his children

Love and care for them

She said she needed his help and support

Said she was exhausted at night needed rest.

 

He said I need time out

Time with mates, camping, boys stuff

She said the boys are a handful

I’ve not time to think.

He said I love my boys

We do father dad things.

She said baby is ill, throwing up

Boy 2 is naughty, broke a vase today.

He said I’ll deal with this later.

She said I need you now.

He said I have to get to work

She said Boy 1 has shat his pants.

He said you look shit when I get home

She said the boys are killing me.

He said I ‘m going to the pub

She said there’s washing to be done.

He said you are the mother sort it out.

She said I’m doing my best.

 

He came home and the house was empty

She’d taken them all away.

He said I don’t know what to do.

She said do something, anything.

 

Mother and Daughter – Collage – April 3

When the old lady saw she stopped.

There were triggers of past times

A little girl who was different

Who sought out attention,

Who wanted to be what she wasn’t.

A teenager who flouted rules, stayed out late,

Who never wanted for anything.

She knew they always feared

The elephant in the room,

The accident waiting to happen,

Which when it did, estrangement began.

Years of worry, searching, rescue,

Running from life, spurning the mother’s love.

Peace offerings manipulated

Buy this buy that, nothing sweet was appreciated

She wanted bigger and better, brighter and righter.

But the spiral had begun.

She vanished, popped up here and there

Then nothing.

Now she was ill, the old lady wanted to reach out

But the past dictated otherwise.

Bad habits and bad memories

Hurt, pain and turmoil.

She stood back from the sidelines

Waited for the call she dreaded

But saw it coming.

Her daughter turned into a wild child,

But life the mother knew was precious.

She was her daughter no matter what,

The old lady mused with a tear on her cheek.

This mother would always love her child.

 

 

Three Days PAD 3 April 4

Day one: Nervous polite words

The farmyard and the weather

The usual chit chat.

 

Day two: We shared a joke,

Laughed together, sat closer

Felt each other’s warmth.

 

Day three: We made love

Bodies entwined

Mouths engaged, giving so willingly.

 

I want more of Day three

More of you

More of us.

We Are Worth It / March 29

 

We don’t know what tomorrow will bring

But we plan to do our best.

That’s what you do with

One day at a time.

Always we are reaching out

Knowing we are there

Knowing you are there.

So much of life is attempted

With life’s blind fold in place

Hoping we get it right,

Allowing patience to guide us

Placing one foot before the other

Believing we will find a sure place to step.

Every so often we lose our footing

We stumble and fall

The world we know vanishes

But only temporarily.

We are resilient folk

We find ways to return

Resurrect and replenish ourselves.

Despite the initial thought of a needing space

For no matter the fear we feel in losing what we treasure

The treasure itself is what nurtures us.

So we pick ourselves up

Dust off the hurt, push aside the obstacle

Watch the dawn arrive

Resolve to try again

Because we are worth it!

Melt My Heart

 

Was it the room full of words

I was lost within

Where you first spied me

Between the sonnets and the free verse

When I spun a yarn of fairies

Or was it one of my many tales of fancy.

Your tender approach so apprehensive

You claimed you were intimidated

Thinking my words contained substance

But were really just me being me

Pretentious at times, erudite at others

Playing with words random ideas.

When you spoke I took notice

I turned from my within gaze

Looked out and saw compassion.

Reaching out to so many

I stood in awe; your words seeped into me

I stated my admiration

You had an audience who needed you

I wrote for all and any idle enough to read.

But when your words flowed my way

I listened, spellbound,

I found in time I am addicted to you

I can’t get enough of you being you,

Each day, your words melt my heart.

Floating

I feel myself floating, drifting up

It’s eerie, I don’t understand

Below me ants mill around

There is confusion,

I feel frantic

I am suddenly afraid, is this?

Beside me my mother long dead stands

I feel the remembered softness of her hand

Resting on my shoulder.

I feel the jolt run through me

She pushes me down, ever so gently

Looks at me with that knowing mother smile.

I awake, dazed, confused

I am tied down, tubes everywhere.

I hear click, ping, whoosh, hiss, beep

As a plethora of machines battle to keep me alive.

I sense someone near me

A nurse checks a connection

Looks at me, her eyes light up to see me awake.

I hear my prognosis

A wave of grief consumes me

I turn away

In denial I don’t want to hear

Don’t want to know

A future, what future?

I remember my mother, her touch

Her knowing look.

What were they thinking

Sending me into this hell?

Music Prompt #35 “Caroline” Performed by Old Crow Medicine Show – Old Lady

 

 

Hump Day Poetry – Week 7 – Fairies in My Garden

There are fairies living in my garden

I see them there each day

Such wondrous sights they share with me

Of fairy lights and fairy spells.

I’ve come to know them one and all

The Dew twins, April and May

Are as mischievous as you could imagine.

My favourites are the Fern Fairies

Who live among my many ferns

Turning magic into art.

They transform me to their minute size

Show me games and fairy ways.

The price I pay is their welfare

For I stay silent of their presence.

I was anointed their protector

By Fernister, the grand Fairy

Who made me swear to keep them safe

A task I take most boldly.

So every day I venture down

To the microcosm of their busy world

Some days they want me in

Some days I stand outside.

It’s Easter in a day or two

They celebrate with lights

And strange golden orbs

That glow and dance about.

I can’t wait to go back in

And join in the Fairy harvest feast.

 

Music Prompt #6

The parents looked at me and said

‘You have to stand on your own to feet

Be real in all you want.’

Such sage and simple advice

I carried through life

Over the curves and ups and downs

The days when fantasy seemed more real

Than the day-to-day hum drum of work and more work.

School was never a place for me,

My teachers were uninspiring

Classmates wanted to be fashionable

Saw mediocrity as their life’s goal.

Education I found for myself

No thanks to the system

Which frowned on individuality.

It tried to mould me a clone of their lacklustre selves.

Standing on my own two feet,

Came at a cost

Persecution, ridicule, scapegoat

The butt of so many jokes when

All I wanted was to be me.

Lovers came and went,

Took a part of me

Left me scarred

Financially at the mercy of others.

I learned the hard way that people

Despite what they said can’t be trusted

I was better on my own,

Wandering the world, being me.

I was the oddity in a world of indifference

I lurched from one crisis to another

Always learning, being me.

I reached out one day

‘I hope you don’t mind me intruding’,

Discovered a real person

Not affected by society expectations

Not like other women

Happy being who she is

Never seeing me as anything more than me.

I rest now in her arms

I stand on my own two feet

I am a person, a man of integrity

Aware of my own self

I am the real me.