GloPoWriMo2019 Day Twenty-five

Today we season with a sonnet.

When first I hear the cuckoo call in spring
I look toward the beech tree grand and tall.
I smell the raindrop's song, and hear it sing
Of dying days of winter that recall

The crisp and frozen crust on fallen snow
That hides the saddest mark of season's end,
And then I turn my face to winds that blow
The taste of hope that memory will mend.

For as I watch the new leaf dimpled sky
And catch the wee birds' chatter in the trees,
And see the soaring hawk that hovers near,
Then think I of foolishness, asking why
The greed of some can bring us to our knees -
But only future's promise do I fear.

(c) 2ndwitch, 25/04/19

GloPoWriMo2019 Day Four

Today is a day of sad fools.

When we were very small
We were told life was a dream
We would soon master it all
And things were just as they seem.
But today when we went to our house
There was water where water should not be.
Last night we had our hackles were roused
And late hours delayed when we were set free.

We do this job
For ourselves
And for the country
We live in,
But the two aims
Are now so far apart
We can no longer
Reconcile them.

Today the ship of fools left the harbour.
Today they set sail with no charts.
Today the fools stepped to the brink
Of the unknowable abyss,
The chasm of unpredictable future
Watered by the mistakes of the past,
And warmed by the infernos of
The hatred and misery
That the fools deliberately created.

(c) 2ndwitch, 04/04/19

GloPoWriMo2019 Day One

Today is a day of fools.

We are told, from early in our lives,
To listen when someone is talking to us,
To take notice,
To do as we are told.
We are told, from early in our lives,
That they know what they are doing,
That they will do their best,
That they know what is best for us.

So why do I think they are wrong?
Why do I think I should never have listened?
Why do they keep ignoring common sense?
Why am I so worried?

I was told, I was instructed, that privilege
And education fitted those who had them
For a role in charge of life.
I was told, I was instructed, that those
Who were privileged and educated
Knew better than the rest and
Had a duty to be in charge of life.

The old order has broken.
We should no longer listen.
We should take notice only to oppose.
We should challenge.
We should disobey.

There is no new order,
And the ship of fools
Has left the harbour
And taken all sense with it.
We are alone and betrayed.
We believed in the fools.

(c) 2ndwitch, 01/04/19

GloPoWriMo 2018 - day eleven

Today the prompt is to write a poem that addresses the future subject.



Strange Dawn.

Across sand dusted with silver and gold
Your feet left no prints and the sea
Had no need to wash the strand clean.

Through evening velvet, blue and rich grey,
You drifted, singing, and laughing
At the echoes of another life.

In the deepest night, star-dimmed and
Moon-muted, your voice called faintly,
A call from beyond on a poor phone line.

When the morning dawned, there were colours
In bands and woven plaits across the sky.
But that was a future without you.

That future is black and the colour
Is false and mocks the grieving watchers.

GloPoWriMo 2017 - day fifteen.

Today the prompt is about being halfway, or in the middle.


Halfway.

Wherever you are
You are halfway
To somewhere.
Wherever you were
You were halfway
To here or there.
Where you will be
You will be halfway
To the next place.
Halfway is not
The beginning
Or the end.
Halfway is
A movable feast
Between then and then.
The past is gone
It was halfway
Between the distant
Past
And the recent
Past.
The future is
Halfway to the
Distant future.
So, whatever you think,
Wherever you imagine
Yourself to be,
You are always
Only
Halfway
There.

(c) 2ndwitch, 15/04/17

GloPoWriMo 2017 - day ten

Today the prompt is to write a portrait of someone important to me.


To my granddaughter.


I cannot but be sad to see the way that you know are so like I was then,
But there is no changing the disposition of genetics, no adjusting of the
Genetic code to make things be different. And you have the curl in
Your hair, the twist that sometimes turns against the rest.
You have the eyes that gaze with wonder and a knowledge beyond
The understanding of those of us who watch you as you wander
Through this broken and damaged world.
In your laughter lies the key to reparation, the key to
Mending that which is so broken, and in your smile
Lies balm and peace to end all wars.
As time moves on you will grow and learn, and perhaps, just perhaps
You will lose some of the wisdom that you have now but cannot
Give words to express; or perhaps you will keep it, adding,
Day after day to its sum, and gaining only that which can
Build and heal, and make once again a world where all
Can live together in friendship, where fishes swim the rivers
And the seas, and where plants and man live with animals
In one great complementary global union of valuing difference.
In your hands is the future, guard it well.

(c) 2ndwitch, 10/04/17