2016-01-01: Dare to dream

For a while I dared to dream

But the dream you made for me

You also broke.

And I awoke inside

A shattered mirror

Reflecting only my lost hope.

2015-02-24: Don't Call Me

Don't call me baby
I am not your child,
I have my own life,
I have my own mind.

Don’t call me duck
Or bird, or hen
Wherever you come from
I’m no feathered friend.

I have a name
So use it
And if you can’t
Don’t call me

2006-12-13: Traveller

Sat on a train

going nowhere.

Sounds like the story

of my life.

A perpetual traveller

who never quite arrives.

[I've been kicking myself for not writing about anything other than emotions (seriously, how old I am ? And me with a Significant Milestone Birthday now less than a year away !). In addition I've been struggling to find time to work on or finish the fragments I do have. So I took a notebook along when I knew I might be sitting in a waiting room for some time. And came across this from 2006.....]

2015-02-01: Unfinished business

"Why didn't we...." 

You ask in a drunken call

I didn't hear regret

Just curiosity.

I don't remember

The question

Being asked,

Or anyone saying no.

Why didn't we

Ever steal a kiss

When we had

Too much to drink.

Why didn't we

Run naked into the sea

Just you and me

Against the world.

Why didn't we

Fall laughing into bed

And get to know each other

In an entirely different way.

Do we have unfinished business,

you and I ?

Or did the opportunity

Simply pass by.

And in hindsight

Is it simply that

The memory of maybe

Is sweeter than regret

[So this one has been in progress for a while, and recent things in my life have meant I haven't had the time to work on it. But the gap has also helped me rethink it slightly so I'm hoping it works in it's current form. It is based on a number of different events and conversations, some of which did involve me, and others I simply observed]

30/12/24: just found some of the notes for this one, and I'm not sure why I didn't include the following verse before the "do we have...." verse.

Why didn't we

Lay back in the long grass

When the sun wasn't the only thing
Getting hot

1989-10-16: Changeling

In my dream

I am everything you want me to be,
And somehow that seems right,
To not be fettered by reality
But instead be the figment
Of someone else's imagination.

And I, some kind of changeling,
Chained to solid earth
By feet and heart of stone,
Am liberated to unseen heights
By the transforming power
That fantasy can hold.

And yet how can it be
That I do this not for myself
But for some other who has yet to come
And thus in every moment
Within the dream
I live a lie.

2014-Oct and 1986-02-11: Abstract time

In the archive is a poem that starts "Time is an abstract conception of the mind" (which I will post further down). When I read it now, it reads like I am trying to be clever.... and not quite managing it. But the phrase stuck - so here is mark 2....

Time is an abstract

Concept of the mind.

It marks the passing

Of our lives

With sands of grain,

With cogs and gears,

Each second, minute,

Day, month, year.

Onwards it flows

In one direction

No chance to stop,

Pause for reflection.

And before you know it

Time has flown

I find myself 

Nowhere, alone.

Ahead the future

I can't see,

Behind the past

That's closed to me.

The path ahead

Unknown, uncertain.

Each step I take

A choice unspoken.

[And here is the mark one version:

Time is an abstract

Conception of the mind

Sequencing the motion

Of all human kind.

But break away,

Listen to the off-beat,

Hear the hidden tempo,

Touch the living pulse.

Dancing for your freedom,

Let no one make you stop.

'Til the multi-coloured 

Strands of noise

Swirl in chaos

Before your eyes.                                             ]

2014 Sept: And then

And then...he touched me.

Unpeeling my clothes

Like I was the perfect present,

Covering my body

In a blanket of kisses,

Exploring my body

Like it was a foreign country,

Taking me on a rollercoaster

Of sensation,

Teasing my senses

With each new surprise.