Here and Now

We must enjoy the future
The times we have had have gone
There's more life behind us now
Than is left as we go on.

The only reason to be alive
Is to make the good times last
Just look forward to more happiness
And not be a hostage to the past.

We got things wrong sometimes 
But we survived and got to here
We sorted the bad bits from the good
And know what to cherish or fear.

So enjoy every little thing you do
Savor the moments as they arise
Smell the flowers and hear the birds
Accept that life is a beautiful prize.

A Mother and New York

A one parent boy left with his Mum
By a Dad who never wanted to go
With much financial upheaval
Where the standard answer was no!

Later he knew that against the odds
She had nurtured him with warm feelings
Passed on honesty and unease in equal parts
As war bombs had left more than cracked ceilings.

Twenty years on and the world has changed
When enthusiasm means more than a degree
With seven day working while still in his teens
He started his own firm and was boss free.

Life intrudes and the company must go
But he has talent others thought worth buying
Now shaking important hands at foreign meets
He becomes used to first class flying.

New York was where he always felt close
To his Mother from yester year
To look upwards at the churches to wealth
And know he had earned his right to be here.

To be in this money Mecca
And recall from where he had come
He knew it was only made happen
By the love he had had from his Mum.

Fight Aging

I will not just sit and wait
For my old age to arrive
But will duck, evade and hustle
And keep the will to strive.

I want to live and to discover
Life's wonders that remain
Feel and taste new experiences
Even those involving pain.

For what possible reason should I 
Embrace the end that is coming
When I can fight and fight again
To keep all my senses humming?

An August Evening with Amy

What more could I ever want
On an evening such as this
A Blackwater River sun setting 
And the wind now light as a kiss.

Spring here can be magical
With the promise of summer to come
But watery suns threatening autumn
Are much preferred by some.

Pause for a moment with the oars still
And gaze at the lowering sun's glow
We drift briefly on the slack water 
Then turn our bow to go.

Such a simple joy to embrace
Calm, quiet, and sublime
We should do it much more often 
We just need to make the time.


30th August 2013

Engineers in the Graveyard

We can't recall his name
We should hold it dear
Here lie the crumbling bones
Of a Railway Engineer.

Shame on us forgetting 
He helped our nation steer
A simple direct digging man
Was the Canal Engineer.

Bleach clothes or clean the drains
No need to live in fear
The bugs and bacteria cleansed 
By a Chemical Engineer.

Tall buildings and bridges
Spanning valley, road or mere
Do duty for a hundred years
Let's praise the Structural Engineer.

Steel, mining, plastics, planes
Ships, milk, bread and beer
We only have the life we do
Because of an Engineer.

So cast the bronze or plaster
Write the plaque out clear
"Beneath this monument lies
A Very Worthy Engineer".

Brain Storm

A clever lady with a ready smile
Will always stop and chat a while
But behind the eyes something unsaid
I'm not well; I've got cancer in my head.

She carries on her life each day
Rolls with life's waves easy sway
But now finds it hard to leave her bed
Because she has cancer in her head.

No angry words and no "why me"?
With gritted teeth she shuns pity
She accepts her path of life has led
To getting cancer in her head.

She went the way she wanted to
No fuss, no rage, no pain
Just named on a bench on her favourite trail
Which she won't walk again.

Innocent Innocent of Rwanda

Oh, bright boy of another race
Tears stream down your young brown face
Of your parents and siblings there's no more trace
Why were you not born in another place?

This bright young lad sits beneath a tree,
Telling of the loss of his family
Speaks to a microphone but he's talking to me
And I sit comfortable in my land of the free.

His parents were hacked to death
And he watched them draw their last breath
Brothers and sisters all gone too,
Now what's a thirteen year old boy to do?

Non-Stop Anguish

It's been a year since he went and
Rare is the day he doesn't come to mind
We wonder if we could have done more
But would vet heroics have been kind?

It's best to believe that there is a plan
With pre-set lights that blink on
When the beast or person is due to leave
And it's been planned all along.

We should not stress the moment
Of what to do when those lights are lit
Get an ease of mind that tells us
There is nothing you can do about it.

Claws

I had a dream the other night
- no normal dream was this
No demons or plunging lifts
Nor Michelle Pfeiffer's Kiss.

The dream was of a crustacean
Who lived within the sea.
A large blue shell lobster
Who sought friendship with me.

We had a fulsome conversation
And opinions it had a lot.
When suddenly it shot upwards
A passenger in a wicker pot.

I regretted not saying au revoir
But we met again that day
It was around lunchtime
And it was on display.

It nodded to me and then
Very quietly said
Do me a big favour please - 
Order steak today instead.

I couldn't contemplate its death
No plunge in boiling water
After all it may well be
Some lobster's son or daughter.

I ate a plate of steak and chips
Not what I would wish
But had I enjoyed lobster
I would have felt shellfish.

October 2003