On This Day

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. Most clowns are funny.

March 3, 2020 1 year ago today. UK Prime Minister, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson said this:

“I was at a hospital the other night where I think a few there were actually coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody, you’ll be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3NAx3tsy-k

As of yesterday, the UK deaths related to Covid 19 stands at 123,000. Anyone who thinks that death toll was inevitable or unavoidable needs to extract their head from their arse and read the facts. A disaster by any measure. A tragedy and a betrayal that will blight millions of lives for many, many years to come. Failure and deadly incompetence on a scale not witnessed before in living memory.

Thousands of businesses have gone bust, and once ‘furlough’ and other financial support is phased out, millions will be unemployed. Real people, real lives.

A disaster by any measure. And yet the British people keep on voting for politicians like Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

Super Saturday Haiku

Covid sits and waits
We're off to the pub today
Live now, die later.

Stay

Stay with me
Until I fall asleep
As I lay on my side
Curled-up tight.

If I murmur
Don't be alarmed
I sometimes tremble
As I drift away.

Stay with me
In my dreams
There's always a riddle
To be solved.

Lie next to me
With the lightest touch
So I can feel
You're still here.

Stay with me
And never leave
I can't bear
To sleep alone.

End Of The Hush

The lockdown begins to breakdown
Builders working, cars rumbling
The end of the quiet.

This special period
This supernature
This wretched virus.

I will regret the loss of peace
I will lament for the birdsong
I will miss the hush.

None of the beautiful things
Were a price worth paying
For all that we lost.

Invisible

You don't see me
You won't see me
I disappear from sight.
Undetectable
Imperceptible
Just a trick of the light.

Do you regret?
Wish you could forget
My appearance here today?
Indiscernible
Inconsequential
I'm the boy who hides away.

I see it in your eyes
Should I apologise?
Would you even hear me speak?
Inaudible
Invisible
Another secret that you keep.

Old Shoes

I want nothing new
Just my old shoes
So I can take a walk
Along a well-worn path.

Cutting through familiar fields
A trail, honed by footsteps
Crazed, polished clay
Stinging-nettle walls.

On the straight and narrow
Towards the vanishing point
Never turning back
Until I disappear from view.

Leave Me Be

I am still breathing
Dreaming of walking
Fantasy flying
Bird's eye seeing
Not now
Not yet
I'm not ready to leave
I still have work to do
Unfinished stories
Unrefined plotlines
Songs without voices
Sentences hanging
Pausing for reflection
Searching for inspiration
Some divine intrusion
Leave me be.

Hang On In There!

Bluebells in bloom

Someone pressed the pause button
We’re dancers, frozen
Waiting for someone to hit the button again
So we can return to our dance
Return to consumption
Our high octane, fast burn.

Wait a minute!
Look outside
Take a breath
The sky is no longer tainted grey
The air is clean
It tastes of flowers
The scent of springtime
Let this moment last
Let it stand
Unopposed.

It will not come again
Not in our lifetimes
Serving as a reminder
Of what we are
Of what we could be
What we should be.

Just breathe!
Everything has value
Everything has meaning.

Go outside!
In your allocated hour
Go outside!
You can be born again
You can learn to live again
You can decide how this world should turn again
If not you
Then who?
Who are you trusting this to?

Look around you!
You will see everything
It is beauty
A captive treasure
It is the past
It is the future
More than anything
It is now.

Tomorrow can wait
Yes, I know you’re hungry and you’re itching to move
But now is your chance to think again
Do you want to go back?
Think carefully
This time won’t come again.

This Is The Time To Be Slow

Stay Home

This is the time to be slow, 
Lie low to the wall 
Until the bitter weather passes.

Try, as best you can, not to let 
The wire brush of doubt 
Scrape from your heart 
All sense of yourself 
And your hesitant light.

If you remain generous, 
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet 
Again on fresh pastures of promise, 
Where the air will be kind 
And blushed with beginning.

John O’Donohue Benedictus (Bantam Press 2007) p180

This poem was sent to me by a friend. The words chime with our current predicament. The poem is used here without permission from the publisher. However, it, along with many other works by John O’Donohue, is widely available on the internet. From the book Benedictus, which is available to purchase. Check it out.

Leap Forward

In the lost hour
Between winter and summer
The dead, cold darkness
Hold the line
Whisper of apple blossom
Rain will wash away
Unseen petals
For home, we stay
Tomorrow comes quickly
It will last forever
Waiting for the day
When we will breathe again