Today's poet

[Stevie]

27

“Yep”
Fleet of foot.
Calmness in turbulent times.
Hopping down stairs and/or hill.
A disinclination for certainty.
Cleft of the chin.
Your construction of sentences.
Smoothest of all pebbles.

“Oi!!!!!”
Mischeviouness.
Reparative not paralysing guilt.
Damn good verse.
Testosterone bathed ears!
The narrative of your kith and kin.
Simultaneous mouth, eyes and forehead grin.
Down on the arms.
Capacity for forgiveness.

“Presently”.
You big, me tiny.
Finger tips.
Looking good in skinny jeans.
Catalyst to creativity.
Wisecracks.
Nervousness when cooking for a special guest.
Big, gentle hands.
The headlines!

“Magnificent".

I like this a lot Freckle. The "Testosterone bathed ears" line is interesting. I read it as you being the one with the testosterone bathed ears. i.e. hearing the sound of a male voice. The word bathed tells me it is a pleasant experience, otherwise you might have said "blasted" or "assailed" or something. Is the "Magnificent" verse yet to be written?

[Stevie]

Only four sleeps?

Holey moley!.......

And on that bombshell think I will turn in with that early night and a book I have been promising myself...night all

Good Lord, the forum had an early night last night didn't it? 10pm? What's going (gannin?) on?

Good luck to everybody in the Anniversary Waltz! I had planned to enter the TWA this year but for various reason's didn't. It would have been good to meet a few of you.

My memory of running the AW a few years ago is pushing hard to Dale Head and off Dale Head and then having completely shot legs over Maiden Moor and the last descent. It is a tough race, definitely one to start at an sensible pace.

[Mossdog]

Sir Edwin Arnold

Destiny

Somewhere there waiteth in this world of ours
For one lone soul another lonely soul,
Each choosing each through all the weary hours
And meeting strangely at one sudden goal.
Then blend they, like green leaves with golden flowers,
Into one beautiful and perfect whole;
And life's long night is ended, and the way
Lies open onward to eternal day.

[Tooshy]

It’s that time of year again
My brother said she’s drunk is your mum
Then I knew your ghost had taken the train
To Ravenglass from Eskdale

Thirteen years to the night
- How can it be possible -
After the hospital call that taught me
Life unravels as fast as travels the tide

On the Mite sands where you swam
Before your war arrived

Thirty-three years after I’d watched
You strain like Sisyphus with a pipe
At a stranger’s car tide-bound
In the shifting sands of the Mite

And afterwards we took the train
From Ravenglass to Eskdale

Forty years on from the night
The hospital called you to a new son
With roses from the garage for mum
But I became your world

Away from the shore that moves
With the tides of the Esk and the Mite

It was April seventeen and I thought
In the breeze I felt the ghost
Of your hand encompassing both mine
Like it did that distant afternoon

We sat happy on the line
To Ravenglass from Eskdale

[Stevie]

Sir Edwin Arnold

Destiny

Somewhere there waiteth in this world of ours
For one lone soul another lonely soul,
Each choosing each through all the weary hours
And meeting strangely at one sudden goal.
Then blend they, like green leaves with golden flowers,
Into one beautiful and perfect whole;
And life's long night is ended, and the way
Lies open onward to eternal day.

Good choice Mossdog, is this for anybody in particular?

[Alf]

Interesting choice Alf, what inspired it?

I was reading about Yeats as I was looking to get a collection of his poems and I discovered he had a lifelong unrequited love for Maud Gonne and this poem, like a lot of his poems, are about her. They did get together eventually but it was a bit of a disaster apparently. I don't know if you have ever read the book (or seen the film) "Love in the time of cholera", their relationship reminded me a bit of that situation as well.

[Alf]

It’s that time of year again
My brother said she’s drunk is your mum
Then I knew your ghost had taken the train
To Ravenglass from Eskdale

Thirteen years to the night
- How can it be possible -
After the hospital call that taught me
Life unravels as fast as travels the tide

On the Mite sands where you swam
Before your war arrived

Thirty-three years after I’d watched
You strain like Sisyphus with a pipe
At a stranger’s car tide-bound
In the shifting sands of the Mite

And afterwards we took the train
From Ravenglass to Eskdale

Forty years on from the night
The hospital called you to a new son
With roses from the garage for mum
But I became your world

Away from the shore that moves
With the tides of the Esk and the Mite

It was April seventeen and I thought
In the breeze I felt the ghost
Of your hand encompassing both mine
Like it did that distant afternoon

We sat happy on the line
To Ravenglass from Eskdale

Thats a great poem Tooshy, well done

[Alf]

Sir Edwin Arnold

Destiny

Somewhere there waiteth in this world of ours
For one lone soul another lonely soul,
Each choosing each through all the weary hours
And meeting strangely at one sudden goal.
Then blend they, like green leaves with golden flowers,
Into one beautiful and perfect whole;
And life's long night is ended, and the way
Lies open onward to eternal day.

Thats a nice choice Mossy and with Tooshy's wonderful poem has certainly kick started my day!

[Alf]

27

“Yep”
Fleet of foot.
Calmness in turbulent times.
Hopping down stairs and/or hill.
A disinclination for certainty.
Cleft of the chin.
Your construction of sentences.
Smoothest of all pebbles.

“Oi!!!!!”
Mischeviouness.
Reparative not paralysing guilt.
Damn good verse.
Testosterone bathed ears!
The narrative of your kith and kin.
Simultaneous mouth, eyes and forehead grin.
Down on the arms.
Capacity for forgiveness.

“Presently”.
You big, me tiny.
Finger tips.
Looking good in skinny jeans.
Catalyst to creativity.
Wisecracks.
Nervousness when cooking for a special guest.
Big, gentle hands.
The headlines!

“Magnificent".

Definitely catchup time today .... love that poem Freckle

[Stevie]

It’s that time of year again
My brother said she’s drunk is your mum
Then I knew your ghost had taken the train
To Ravenglass from Eskdale

Thirteen years to the night
- How can it be possible -
After the hospital call that taught me
Life unravels as fast as travels the tide

On the Mite sands where you swam
Before your war arrived

Thirty-three years after I’d watched
You strain like Sisyphus with a pipe
At a stranger’s car tide-bound
In the shifting sands of the Mite

And afterwards we took the train
From Ravenglass to Eskdale

Forty years on from the night
The hospital called you to a new son
With roses from the garage for mum
But I became your world

Away from the shore that moves
With the tides of the Esk and the Mite

It was April seventeen and I thought
In the breeze I felt the ghost
Of your hand encompassing both mine
Like it did that distant afternoon

We sat happy on the line
To Ravenglass from Eskdale

This is very moving Tooshy, after reading it a few times the sense of time passing and family history really comes through. Some things in life are constants (the Mite and the Esk and the railway), and others change, but although you become more distant in time from events in the past there are some key moments there to hang on to. The things that stay with you may not be the things you expect to stay with you - the red roses, the car on the sand. But one thing that always stays with you and is the memory of your Mum, obviously very intense. The train ride with and without your Mum is a good way of getting the feeling across. Thanks for posting this.