An entry in the Daily Telegraph’s 1999 Mini-Saga Competition.
The task set being to compose a story of 50 words exactly – no more! no less!
What Would their friends think?
Reply
Liverpool
The Port of Liverpool Building (formerly Mersey Docks and Harbour Board Offices, more commonly known as the Dock Office) is a Grade II* listed building in Liverpool, England. It is located at the Pier Head and, along with the neighbouring Royal Liver Building and Cunard Building, is one of Liverpool’s Three Graces, which line the city’s waterfront.[1] It is also part of Liverpool’s UNESCO-designatedWorld Heritage Maritime Mercantile City.
The SPIRE
THE SPIRE
This work of man
Exultant spire
Sings to the world’s
Celestial choir.
Man’s needle point
It pricks the clouds
Defies the lightning
Lures the crowds.
Commands the heavens
Upholds the sky
Tells the world
Don’t fear to die.
This vibrant sky
These bright moonbeams
Define our souls
Colour our dreams.
This work of man
Exultant spire
Sings to the world’s
Celestial choir.
Salisbury Cathedral, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, and one of the leading examples of Early English architecture. The main body of the cathedral was completed in 1258. Two men filmed themselves climbing 404ft (123m) to the capstone of the Cathedral’s spire to replace a faulty weather meter. I add below a link to this video giving the spectacular view captured by these conservators working at the top of this, Britain’s tallest spire . . .
The footage shows the breathtaking views only usually experienced by the Cathedral’s peregrine falcons.
Another Place -2
Image
KNOCKERS
In my naivety, I thought knockers were people who knocked at doors. ….
Doors, or so I thought, are knocked on ….
By Postmen
By The Police
By Postwomen
By Meter Readers
By Touters For Trade
By Charity Collectors
By Suspicious Callers
By Christmas Carollers
By Political Canvassers
By Deliverers Of Goods
By Beggars and Pleaders
By Children at Halloween
By Subscription Collectors
By Neighbourhood Watchers
By Collectors and Borrowers
By Salesmen and Saleswomen
By Online Shopping Deliverers
By the Travelling Fish Van Man
By Vendors of Household Goods
By Proselytisers of Religious Sects
By Kids Playing Knock Down Ginger
By ‘Round Table’ Collectors at Christmas
By Persons leaving parcels for a Neighbour
BUT . . .
My illusions
were proved to be delusions
when, out browzing,
I came across the following …
So to make the situation worse
I turned at last to verse . . .
We do have the best knockers in town,
They patrol our street up and down.
If you’re not in good shape
Then you’d better escape,
Or they’ll certainly cause you to frown.
’Cos they ring and they knock twenty times,
Even when you’ve got ‘GO AWAY’ signs,
Saying “You must now leave
Or you’re going to receive
A summons for multiple crimes.”
But then someone pointed it out,
There certainly was cause for some doubt.
As I’m not very clever
I’d made a bad error
Over what this old sign was about.
They said I was most asinine;
I was dim and unable to shine.
To them it was clear
I had no idea
I’d mistaken a word in the sign.
Yes, to put it quite bluntly you see,
I’d boobed over what it could b.e
In my defence
I thought something else.
I was really naive you’ll agree.
I had taken the word at face value;
I believe every word these signs say.
I just wasn’t thinking;
Perhaps I’d been drinking;
Never dreamt that they meant it that way.
There was no way I could have guessed;
I knew not these words were just jests.
If they’d meant to be clear
And were really sincere,
They should NOT have said ‘KNOCKERS’ but ‘CHESTS’.
We do have the best knockers in town,
They patrol our street up and down.
If you’re not in good shape
Then you’d better escape,
Or they’ll certainly cause you to frown.
’Cos they ring and they knock twenty times,
Even when you’ve got ‘GO AWAY’ signs,
Saying “You must now leave
Or you’re going to receive
A summons for multiple crimes.”
But then someone pointed it out,
There certainly was cause for some doubt.
As I’m not very clever
I’d made a bad error
Over what this old sign was about.
They said I was most asinine;
I was dim and unable to shine.
To them it was clear
I had no idea
I’d mistaken a word in the sign.
Yes, to put it quite bluntly you see,
I’d boobed over what it could b.e
In my defence
I thought something else.
I was really naive you’ll agree.
I had taken the word at face value;
I believe every word these signs say.
I just wasn’t thinking;
Perhaps I’d been drinking;
Never dreamt that they meant it that way.
There was no way I could have guessed;
I knew not these words were just jests.
If they’d meant to be clear
And were really sincere,
They should NOT have said ‘KNOCKERS’ but ‘CHESTS’.
“Someone’s Knockin’ At The Door” (‘Let ‘Em in’ … 1976) .
Before The Sun Sets
The crisp crunch of my footsteps as I crossed that frosty field
Confirmed to me the joy that winter brings;
The frail but wondrous sunlight burning through the morning mist
Affirmed a world of wonder in all things.
It brought to me a memory of those long days of my youth,
When all was young and all life was tomorrow,
When time and love and right and wrong were not things I considered,
Just the lasting joy which Nature can bestow.
Tomorrow was a world away from the life that I live now;
No anguish that my world might cease to be
Before I’d felt and savoured all that life can have to offer,
Before the sun sets on that ancient tree.
Despite my knowledge of the pain that’s in the world around me,
Bleak Nature seeks to calm its shifting shadows,
The seasons, sun, the starlight, still remain to bring us hope,
That vital spark from which renewed life flows.
Big Ben
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London …
Pen & Wash . . . WHB – 2015
In London you’ll find a big clock
And notice it doesn’t ‘tick-tock.’
But if you climb the tower
And wait for the hour –
You are in for a bit of a shock!
Life Force – 2
LIFE FORCE – TWO
“These fragments I must shore against my ruin.”
I wish to put a hold on life,
freeze it at this instant;
stop my headlong race to reach
some intangible resolution
before life, and with it death,
overtake me.
Yet, a wanton fervour
forces me to write;
a defining greed pushes me on;
a need to achieve,
to find the telling phrase
to verify my competence.
There is a frenzy on me,
a new lust for life
alien to my past;
but still I draw on that very past
to colour the present
and steer me into my aspired future.
My imperative is to leave an imprint
on the foreshore of my life
before its tide recedes.
Regardless of renown,
I wish to leave a noble fragment of myself
with a proven hint of worth
to carry me beyond my grave.
Such fragments,
the flotsam of my endeavours,
washed up and left
for those seashore scavengers,
those ardent beachcombers
of other people’s detritus;
my scraps left for Autolycus to pick over.
I need the harvest of my life to be
another’s prized perception,
their acquired inspiration.
And yet I know I must desist,
I must allow those morsels,
slivers of myself already extant,
to speak for themselves,
to represent me to the future.
I must accept
that already
I have utilised my credit with the past
and created my memorial for the future.
“These fragments I must shore against my ruin.”
The quotation appearing at the beginning and end of my poem is, slightly adapted, taken from T.S.Eliot’s poem “The Wasteland”.
Delilah, of course, took away Samson’s Life Force, his strength, by cutting off his hair whilst asleep.
AS THE YEAR ENDS
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Pexels.com
Dark the swollen river runs
Under the bridge’s shades of grey.
Slate sky condemns the passive scene
Draining colour from the day.
Tree silhouettes outline my view
Their winter ribs bared to the frost
December bids the old year gone
With no regrets for what is lost.
The year expires; bid it goodbye,
It brought distress, re-kindled fears,
It promised much it failed to give,
Left little hope and many tears.
So now, in hope of better times,
Tomorrow holds the future’s key.
New perspectives flood my view
Blue skies as far as I can see.
LIFE FORCE – ONE
LIFE FORCE – ONE
When shadow turns to substance
In the still of morning’s birth,
Then once again I wonder
How much my life is worth.
Have I in the scheme of things
At last outlived my time?
I want to last a fair span yet,
To hope is not a crime.
I long to do a thousand things
I’ve not had time to do,
But is that just a selfish wish
I’m not entitled to?
So many of my friends have gone,
Lives past while mine’s still here.
Do I deserve more time on earth,
Or is my ending near?
Such morbid thoughts occur to me
More frequently each day.
I rush to pack more living in,
No halt, pause or delay.
Despite the limits on my life
My time is filled with actions.
Yet still my mind frets at the thought
Of those un-lived attractions.
Why am I selfishly intent
On hurtling to nirvana,
Grasping at each passing chance
More enhanced life to garner?
I could so quietly subside
Into a life of ease;
No rush, no great exigency
My daemons to appease.
Yet I am not content like that,
I must remain on course,
To stay with, in the time I’m left,
This imperative life force.
The two photographs were taken by me in London’s Roman Amphitheatre, which can be found in its restored state in the basement of the City of London Guildhall.
These Roman remains, thought to date to the 1st Century AD, were discovered when the Guildhall Art Gallery was being re-developed in 1985. The original structure could house over 7,000 spectators seated on tiered wooden benches in what would then have been the open air, where they watched the execution of criminals as well as fights, usually to the death, between wild animals and gladiators.
More can be discovered about these little-known remains of the Roman Londinium on the City of London website at:
London’s Roman Amphitheatre
Roland's Ragbag 