Bard's life

Back in the days when youngsters played outdoors unsupervised and war-game consoles were the stuff of science fiction, we learned some fundamental lessons about the reality of life and death. As my late father frequently remarked, "Experience is the best school but the fees are often high." 


   BLACKBIRD

 With catapult, once school was finished,
 I went to hunt in woodland, high
 above Belfast, in summer light
 and heard, among leafed branches spread,
 a blackbird, singing like a bell.
 I took aim, shot; the missile flew
 ... ... unerringly, my aim was true.
 With awful suddenness it fell,
 all broken. Exultation fled, to be replaced by sickly fright. I knelt to watch it slowly die.
 Within me somewhere, light diminished.

I find Philip Larkin's poem Mr Bleaney a haunting one, particularly as I grow older and become increasingly aware of the isolation and consequent loneliness t hat so many fall prey to . My own poem, The Landlady's T ale , taps into the anxiety that many older people feel as t ime slips steadily away .   THE LANDLADY’S TALE These were the only things he had. I put them in a cardboard box. Just what he wore. I thought it sad. Apart from extra pants and socks. A good innings at e ighty- o ne. We never knew he had a son. He always was a quiet chap: no trouble, liked his mugs of tea. He’d come down to my door and tap, Fancy a cuppa, Mrs P? Before you go, forgive my cheek, he didn’t pay his rent last week.

The unseasonably warm weather, more June-like than April , puts me in mind of summer days in the garden at home in Belfast long ago and the fun we had when father watered the flower-beds.  HOSEPIPE We scattered, screaming, laughing too, not really wanting to escape the chill, refreshing water spray, like dazzling rain, the hosepipe threw. My brother giggled like an ape: in bathing togs, we danced away, then, panting, watched the water spew. With Father, we would laugh and jape while summer days drifted away and we, like watered lupins, grew.

Beachcombing, whilst generally pleasurable, sometimes has its sad moments. One such is recorded in this poem. Photo by Peter Kenny    DEAD SEAGULL A gull dead on the old slipway, its whiteness shabby, neck snapped, pale eyes expressionless, remote. A gull stone-dead at Bordeaux bay: a length of fishing line has trapped both its legs. Debris from a boat. Gulls live short lives, brutal and grim. It’s hard to mourn something like that, or care; to not be disdainful. Dying entangled limb with limb, helpless, starved, is a cruel way. That its death would have been painful beyond belief, makes the heart bleed. A piteous and pathetic end, here on the slip where I found it, moves me to, gently, lay seaweed over it, like a wreath, and bend to gather stones to place around it.

On a visit to Dorset early last summer we came upon a swing beneath a tree in a meadow of the sort you only find in England: a yellow and pink counterpane of wild flowers stretching as far as the eye could see. I treated myself to a few moments rocking back and forth in a relatively sedate manner as befits a member of the older generation and thought back fondly to the headstrong way I rode swings when I was fearless and young.       THE SWING   As we launch out, the air feels clean, the wooden swing, a pendulum divining or recording time, as sunlight stabs, pure platinum, through woodland chestnut, cedar, lime, into our playground, softly green. It takes our joint weight on taut ropes as we, in tandem, drive it on, gathering momentum, we rise: you grip the seat I brace upon with boots, knees, adolescent thighs and boundless, adolescent hopes. The swing is like a storm-tossed boat, the wood’s a bold kaleidoscope of light, leaf patterns, soaring dreams. I shou...

Guernsey's s pring seems already well advanced, with daffodils and primroses abundant in every lane . Soon the trees will be in leaf.        SPRING Green mariners, young leaves soft as skin, are gathering before a tall tree’s mast. A bright, fresh crew, they have a season’s voyage ahead to learn the ropes. They will return, old salts: brown-parchment-skinned, rum-soaked, no wiser than before.

In today's fast-paced world, there's a temptation to take others at face value, swiftly categorise then dismiss them, rarely taking time to learn their history or background.  REFUGEE Overhead lights, bright in a white room; a masked regiment around me at my command. In timeless hush, I work: my steady hand and shining blade make neat incisions, cut out tumours, like blind, destructive moles. It’s done. Eyes, above masks, are joyful. The patient lives. That was before... Today, I wear a white coat in a bright room. Around me, pale unmasked faces, that have not witnessed war, ignore my requests. In harsh, obliterating noise, I work steadily with shining blade. My practiced hand cuts pizzas into segments that do not bleed.