Zeitgeist

Poets and storytellers united 

Rosemary asked what you would say in order to bear witness to these times we are living in, and how it feels to be living in them.

Zeitgeist 

The spirit of this time is painted black
Dark smudges of increasing prices
housing crises, war and wear and
tear of Covid clouding our eyes
creating heavy hearts and headedness
Communities dispersing into
a thousand flittering parts
of separated stardust
lost and lonely 

The spirit of this time is painted white
There are the many moments of
reflection and connection
There is a space between me and you
to be filled with smiles 
soft touches, a haven of hope
Here communities are created like
a milky way filled with stars
luminous and loved

The key to living

The prompt for Friday writings is
take a poem or story you wrote many years ago (preferably, one that wasn’t exactly awesome), and rewrite it.

It wasn't easy to do  I choose the very first poem I ever wrote (2007). The second one is a bit different but I think has the same underlying message

Old poem 

The Key

Find the key to your heart
Open it and see
What do you really want?
Who would you like to be?
Then find the key to change
Act like the person in your heart
At first it might feel awkward
but you are good at playing that part
Being you becomes so much fun
You don't have to act anymore
You found the key to success
which will open every door

New Poem

The key to living

Free your soul from the shadow of your mind

Let it dance among the stars

Drink from this well of truth

so the soft substance of your intrinsic power

will fill every vein in your body

Listen to its whispers of wisdom

Your soul knows your pain, your unmet needs

but underneath there is universal peace

It knows your strength for you to share

It calls you home to lead out what’s already there

When you align with your soul

the essence of your mind is enabled

to read the scriptures of the key to living

and puts it to music into a symphony called YOU

Medicine for the soul and the body

My best medicine were people! My doctor of 24 years  retired and he really was both a healer for the mind and body. I wrote him a poem Only changed the first line

Healer of soul and body

You gave me medicine for my body and soul
You, a tailor of the cloak of the spirit
Master of the complexity of the fabric
of woven strands of flesh and blood
Threads broken and bruised
Mended with pills and injections but for all
with connections. Slender threads of your
presence woven into the life of your patients
Remaining in the unlocked chambers of the
heart, healing from the inside out

Now that you hang up your stethoscope
I hope the bright sky will spread out over you
(just as you have spread out your loving care
and laid your healing hand on men)
May the sun warp light on your self-forgotten
soul and light up a new path of discovery
Walk into the twilight of your life
where the muffled sound of a river is music
in a space of surrender into the grace
of a world which carries your colours

The Port Hills

 

The Port Hills

The lined faces of the Port Hills invite me
Slivers of light embrace me with soft arms
A cry of a black backed gull pierces the sky
and disperses the aloneness like mist

I proceed over the glowing hills covered with
strands of tussock combed to one side
The hills have turned their backs to the mundane
do not care about should and shouldn’t

The hills hold out a promise of harmony
leading me on a trail into a pocket of bush where
the leaves answer with a rustle to the whisper
of the wind, joined by the song of a Bell-bird

I rise above the shadow onto rocks, ancient heroes
who once withstood red hot tongues of a volcano
I reach the rim looking down and drink calmness
when looking on a carpet of Azure blue mirroring the hills.

I am but a speck in this spectacle of beauty
which moves me, coaches me, centers me
when life has thrown me off balance,
My spirit connected like a deep-rooted tree

Lines and Lyrics from Christchurch - Otautahi

Poem for Poets and storytellers United

Riverside Market

Lines and lyrics from Christchurch - Otautahi

Lyrics of liveliness linger around
the Riverside market where
Christchurch folk gather around
picnic tables, chatting and consuming
pitas, pie and prawn pad Tai
conspiring to taste tangible moments
The tram trundles through the streets
on the rhythm of life in a resilient city
where orange cones sit like scattered
notes, in streets straight as chorus cords

Lament of relics of earthquake events
have settled like soft syllables on foreheads
of people who smile when the sunlight
leaks on their latté on the terrace at the
Art Centre Café, while a punter pushes
the flat-bottomed boat on the Avon
under an admiring sky scanning
a composition of tones of tender green
in harmony with daisies and daffodils
in this pleasant potpourri in Hagley Park

In this garden city, people walk on paths
curved like snakes on pale puffy hills up
to the rim, to be hypnotised when looking
in the aqua blue eye of Lyttleton harbour
Thoughts and trees reflect in this water
creating an ancient old hymn.

On the other side the Pacific laps
at the shore like a lullaby, pacifying
the passer-by, strolling on soft sand
All over people sing with silver tongues
the songs of belonging in lines and lyrics
that intone the strength, resilience
and charm of a city that harbours us

Arohanui Christchurch 💗

Punter in Hagley Park

 

Lyttelton Harbourt

Art Centre

Message in a bottle

For Poets and Storytellers United

I have been writing little poems for birthdays.
They aren't all ready yet.
I found these gorgeous message
in a bottle thingies and handed over
the first poem in the bottle to a motorbike
friend of my husband who celebrated his 65th birthday.
Hope I can still buy more of them.
Aren't they gorgeous

 I printed out the following and put it in the bottle. Nigel read it back to me and he loved it