Liberté, Égalité, Humanité
Boxed, bagged, packed in tight
Lurching on with all that’s left
Eyes front; use mirrors
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n.b. You can’t take it with you, I have been told. What is the least we need? Are we heading to a time when nomadic living is again the norm? Like travellers in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, everyone is on a journey; everyone has a story.
CLP 13/06/2019
There it was, so close
Reflection of something past
It’s known it was known
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n.b. Whatever it was is not so important, but not being able to recall it creates a new reality; the understanding that time has been stretched so thin that gaps are appearing in its fabric. Like a fleece that has been stretched too far, holes are created that themselves will become forgotten when the yarn is spun.
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CLP 06/06/2019
Warm weather approaches
Party time for the English
Hippopotami
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n.b. Monthly rainfall average for April 2019 in the Southern Water region is 22.7mm. This is less than half of the long-term April monthly average of 50.8mm. Alarm bells should be ringing very loudly. If you listen very hard you might hear farmers and gardeners saying that they are hoping it will rain soon. Nothing from the privately-owned, profit-driven water conpanies.
Meanwhile sales of hot tubs to fill with the precious liquid continue as the blubbery British find new ways to take the weight off their feet and their minds off the Conservative Party, Brexit and the latest breeding news from Buckingham Palace.
According to the retail chain Argos, in 2017 the UK’s top hot tub city was Newcastle. The top region for obesity in 2017, according to Public Health England, was the North-East where obesity is found in 27.1% of the population with a further 41.5% of people classified as over-weight.
Weight loss and well-being does not come with a plimsoll line tatoo on your belly, (or five bellies). https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/plimsoll-line.html
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CLP 31/05/2019
Hind steps from bracken
Edges to field centre
Grazes in full view
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n.b. Have you noticed that deer do this? They often choose a wide open area to settle down, eating and resting in a place that allows them to be easily seen, but allowing themselves time and space to respond to approaching threats. Safer to be out there and able to breathe fully exposed, than to be living constantly nervous of being caught when confined under cover.
CLP 27/05/2019
Anarchronistic Britain
Cannot decide European future
Government has ignored
Knife mayhem
& numerous other pointed questions
Requiring serious thought.
Unburied victims wait
Xenoliths
Yield to zymogenes
n.b.
“&” was the 27th letter of the English alphabet
Xenoliths are small particles of elements found within larger deposits of mineral, rare elements amongst dross.
Zymogenes are the bacteria that help break-down and lead to the fermantation of organic matter, although xenoliths are not organic… so I claim poetic immunity.
NaPoWriMo 2019 Day 19 prompt: Use the English alphabet to shape a poem. Artificial and challenging. I cheated to make the final line sensible as best possible.
CLP 20/04/2019
“I just want my kids to be happy”
So commonly heard
So unthinking said
And missing the point
Of parenthood
And childhood
.
“I don’t care what he does, as long as he’s happy”
What the children know of their parents
Who want them just to be happy
Is that they hold the keys
To all the doors
Well before they’re eighteen
.
“I’ll do anything for my babies”
Who soon learn that to sulk
Is to take control
Mumnipulate
Dadominate
Power without responsibility
.
“I don’t know where we went wrong”
So commonly heard
So unthinking said.
.
n.b. Happiness is a derived emotional state that seems to come from a sense of being at ease amongst those you respect and share purpose. Hence the attraction of online gaming and gangs. Happy families it appears to me, do things together, rather than just being an altar for feeding the children’s egotistical pleasures.
NaPoWriMo 2019 Day 20 prompt: Use speech commonly heard.
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CLP 20/04/2019
At last I have a moment
As I wait on the platform
My chance to make a few points
About my direction of travel
On a journey that seems to still have some miles to go
I pray
But I cannot be too confident of that
Bearing in mind that there has been disruption to schedules
Delays, diversions and cancellations
Signal failures
Even trespassers on the line
Where am I?
I am on a one-way ticket
Although this has been described by some
As an open return that will inevitably bring me back
To where I begun
If this is the case
Despite travelling light
I may seem destined for the buffers
But I am never alone
The company of fellow passengers
Not all good company
Some first class
We travel together
Most have their own itineraries
Their own baggage
Places to go, people to see
And our passing is a wave and a cheer
I can save time by taking an instant dislike to others
Who one must take care to avoid
When signals are set at danger
Although for a rare few
I discover a destination shared
Who, when a conversation begins
Continue it on the line
And it seems we have always known each other
Although just recently crossed paths
This journey continues
Without undue haste, but not undue speed
Onward travel in hope
Side by side.
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n.b. NaPoWriMo 2019 Day 15 prompt: Write a dramatic monologue.
CLP 15th April, 2019
I come from Malmo
Its low gentle farmland
Mudflats by the Øresund
I come from beneath the cavernous sky
Of the Lincolnshire fens
I come from the tops of Cork’s raging cliffs
And sea-carved bays
I come from coal-stained valleys that cut
Through Merthyr’s coal-drained hills
To Cardiff’s terraced streets
I come from the Blitzed houses of Portsmouth
And its wartime volunteer committees
I come from the smog of The Smoke
And Maidenhead’s Thames
I come from a dormitory town laid out
South of the Downs
I come from so many places
Across such a long time
Can I still trust my sources?
I don’t know anymore
So, where have I come from
This blue-eyed boy?
n.b. NaPoWriMo 2019: Day 11 prompt is origins. As ever I owe Bob Dylan credit and an apology for twisting his lyrics from “Hard Rain”
CLP 11thApril 2019
Lovers to begin
Then joined in marriage
Friends after? Maybe
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n. b. The paths we travel follow uncertain routes and sometimes diverge.
CLP 31/03/2019
Where has this month gone?
I’ve not got used to writing
Twenty Nineteen yet!
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p.s. What is this cruel trick? I have so many things still to do and this is my 60th year. Time to catch my breath, learn to breathe and slow things down. If I do, will my remaining days pass more slowly? I promise to take more care of each one.
CLP 22/03/2019
Voyage des Mots 