Today's poet

[Harry H Howgill]

Excellent that Harry :thumbup: though a bit close to home.

Cheers Alf. I suspect there are plenty more dodgy knees around here.

[stevefoster]

Brilliant HHH, can just imagine Pam Eyres reciting that:thumbup:

[Stef F]

Just One
Unknown


One song can spark a moment,
One flower can wake the dream
One tree can start a forest,
One bird can herald spring.


One smile begins a friendship,
One handclasp lifts a soul.
One star can guide a ship at sea,
One word can frame the goal


One vote can change a nation,
One sunbeam lights a room
One candle wipes out darkness,
One laugh will conquer gloom.


One step must start each journey.
One word must start each prayer.
One hope will raise our spirits,
One touch can show you care.


One voice can speak with wisdom,
One heart can know what's true,


One life can make a difference,
You see, it's up to you!

Post interview, this one has struck a chord with me.
Argh scream scream scream, the suspense would kill a flea!!

[freckle]

I mistakenly read an email that I thought said that Pam Ayres was coming to run a training session at the club next week. Turns out to be one Sam Ayres instead. But it got me thinking..... (With apologies to both Pam and Sam.)

I Wish I'd Looked After Me Knees

Oh, I wish I'd looked after me knees,
My left one it quite disagrees,
With the miles I’ve plodded,
I should have said “sod it!”
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me knees.

I wish I’d been rather more keen,
To cut back on my training regime,
But even when ill,
I’d be racing uphill,
My niggles, I could have foreseen.

When I think that my normal race plan,
Was to act like a bloody stunt man,
Up Fairfield, Scafell,
Even Wasdale as well,
Now I need a retirement plan!

My Mother, she told me no end,
”Take up bowls, that’s what I recommend,
But you sprint to the summit,
Then downwards you plummet,
Your madness I can’t comprehend."

If I'd known I was paving the way,
For my cartilage to fritter away,
It’s a no-brainer,
Most certainly saner,
To keep fit a more low-impact way.

So I sit in the old doctor’s chair,
And he sighs at me with great despair,
”What do you expect?
Of course they are wrecked,
Fell running is daft, I declare.”

So I’m here with my frozen green peas,
Clasped to my great swelling knees,
I’m finished, I’m reckonin’,
But the hills they are beckonin’,
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me knees.

Brilliant Harry and so lovely to have you back! missed your writing!

[Harry H Howgill]

Brilliant Harry and so lovely to have you back! missed your writing!

Ayup Lass. I've been having a lovely break from running for a bit since the end of the season and I must say that I'm quite enjoying it! I've never done so much relaxing in years! So I've been finding a bit more time for scribbling amongst other things.

[freckle]

Ayup Lass. I've been having a lovely break from running for a bit since the end of the season and I must say that I'm quite enjoying it! I've never done so much relaxing in years! So I've been finding a bit more time for scribbling amongst other things.

Aw thats good Harry...keep it up!

[freckle]

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.

~ Naomi Shihab Nye ~

[freckle]

Looks like it is just me on here tonight :closed:....and its sunday! pah and double :closed:....ah well, never mind here is hoping that the loveliness of my weekend extends into the working week...!!!!!?!

for now, here is one of my favourites...

Love After Love
Derek Walcott

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

[Hes]

Hi Freckle, you aren't alone on here! Just finished some work after a brilliant extended weekend. There's been some great posts lately and 'Love after Love' was brilliant. Nice to see HHH back and with some of his own work too, nice one Harry although I hope your knees aren't giving you too much jip.

[Hes]

Hand

Away from you, I hold hands with the air,
your imagined, untouchable hand. Not there,
your fingers braid with mine as I walk.
Far away in my heart, you start to talk.

I squeeze the air, kicking the auburn leaves,
everything suddenly gold. I half believe
your hand is holding mine, the way
it would if you were here. What do you say

in my heart? I bend my head to listen, then feel
your hand reach out and stroke my hair, as real
as the wind caressing the fretful trees above.
Now I can hear you clearly, speaking of love.

Carol Ann Duffy