Tag: Poetry

Being a Before Picture

Life is about being a before picture.
Nobody said the After was better though!

The day before I knew not
The worry of my students upon my illness.

The day before I had not yet
Taken one more step towards healing.

The day before I had not yet
Made the decision to call them.

The day before was a good hair day.
Today I am a hormonal mess with split ends.

The day before I smashed that keynote.
Today I am curled up–overstimulated.

We are all composites of before pictures.

In the library today I saw the book called “You are not a before picture” by Alex Light, the poem is my response to the book title (not the actual book as I have not yet read it).

Bedtime

Moments 09

The moment the blanket settles
Your heat is radiating
Brushing my skin
Presence reassuring
Heavy arms around me
I start sweating
I feel my face reddening
Yet I won’t move
Out of overheated Geborgenheit*

  • Geborgenheit (German): a combination of safety, comfort, protection

Forever Punk

Moments 08

I don’t like colouring inside the lines.
I don’t like forcing my voice into a tight number of syllables and verses
into enjambment and pentameter.
I rather write as it flows, the rhythm of life isn’t tidy either.

pencil sketch of a crow. Portrait style she cocks her head to look at you with one eye. I sketched this in 2023

Dunnock

Moments 07

You flatter excitedly past my face.
And land on the fence watching me.

I lift the lid of the bird house feeder.
Showing you packs of seed and worm.

Just filling up.

I say.
You watch.

Suddenly you alight beside my feet.
Snatching dropped mealworms and seeds.

You are unbothered by the giant human.
We both work in acquiescence.

Taproot

or break generational trauma

Moments 06

Don’t sever your taproot.
Drive it deeper into the ground.
Move it past the rot.
Further into the shadows.
Deeper into time.
Along the double helix.
Let it find the light.

Sketchwords

Moments 6
rough water colour sketch of a wren sitting on a branch a mistletoe with a red bow above and in the top left corner the sickled moon

The moon
The wren
The mistletoe

Pray
Protect
Defeat a foe

Aunty got it wrong

Moments 05

Advisory:
“I don’t want a blankie.”
She pushes it off forcefully.
“Blankies are for when you are sick.
I am not sick.“

An hour later:
“Why are you not sleeping, child?“

Reproach:
“Well, you never tugged me in with a blanket.
I cannot sleep without a blanket.”

So, blanket it is, for the four year old despot.

Learning Scottish

or A wee fanny

Moments 04

“She is such a wee fanny!”

Ach that is uncanny!
Naw, not the swearing mate.
Sitting in a glass house; not taking the bait.

It’s just that these verbose verges,
Normally suppress the more violent urges.

She is proper scunnered!

31st of December

Moments 03

Parapabambam
I‘m beating my drum
January may come

A Bullfinch Tongue Breaker

Moments 02

A red rump blurred
Is cutting it tight.
My E-bike is fast.
The Bulfinch is faster.

Glorious landing
In bald branches.
Accusatory glances
Throwing shade.

My bike and I
Are steering clear.
His piping call
Brings up the rear.