Skip to main content

FINDING THE BREEZE (#SingingAsTheDarknessLifts 169)

FINDING THE BREEZE  

PodBean Listening Link

This morning the birds are offering a range of gentle sounds and the air brings the scent of clover and warmed beach stones.

 

Alt text says this week’s photo is two women taking a selfie, and indeed it is. It is Kath and I settling into our seats aboard The Waverley Paddle Steamer.

 

I think Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn might have ignited my interest in paddle steamers many years ago. And when I found out that a paddle steamer visits Llandudno for a few days each year I was eager to take a ride. Having missed the opportunity to book tickets in the past I made sure I was more organised this time, I bought the tickets earlier in the year and pinned them to the noticeboard in readiness. It’s always a nice feeling to see tickets pinned to the noticeboard and the gap that was left behind when these ones were unpinned has now been filled with a pair of tickets for a Ruby Wax show.

 

And when the day of our trip on the ship arrived it was just the right kind of weather for it. We had the wonderful cool sea breeze as the ship sailed, and could even turn this into a dramatically cooling, hair tousling experience by wandering up to the front of the ship, as well as glorious sunshine. It gave us a pure day out... one that was not framed by work tasks... and one where we decided it would be lovely to eat out in the evening before journeying back home.

A little visit to the souvenir shop during the journey saw me purchasing a cup with the colours of the funnels on it – I do love a souvenir, and this is a nicely practical one. I have been having my morning tea in funnel colours each morning this week.

 

This week also marked the 24th anniversary of my first date with Kath. It was a blind date and one I am delighted I went on. I have a couple of poems about that very evening and it felt good to take one of them to the bandstand stage at Oswestry Pride at the weekend as part of my set. It was my third time reading at the event and it felt good at the end of a very hot week to be taking the cool breeze of poetry to the park. Because I wear reading glasses, I can’t always see the people in the audience clearly, and because it’s a park it wouldn’t be possible for me to see the people standing further away anyway, but what I can feel is which poems land particularly well and I’d say this one did.

 

So here’s my poem from my second collection ‘Welcome to the Museum of a Life’ celebrating the fact that my beautiful wife dropped a pound coin in a bar twenty-four years ago...

 

THAT COIN

 

I imagine putting that pound coin in my mouth

tonguing it from heads to tails

and back again.

 

As you walked in,

a clock somewhere struck eight,

while the minute hand of the one I was eyeing

clicked its thirtieth tick.

 

Your hair

your skirt

your make-up

your eyes straight ahead

told me

you were out of my league.

 

Then that fumble of fingers

had the coin falling from your grip.

Your one flaw was all I needed to say my name.

 

Like a one-armed bandit on triple seven

I rattled out the stories of my life

 

and still you said yes to a coffee I wouldn’t make

and paused on the bridge over the canal

to kiss me.

 

I could love that pound coin forever.

Take its metallic tang again and again.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MY YEAR IN REVIEW (#SingingAsTheDarknessLifts 114)

 MY YEAR IN REVIEW   Listening Link This morning it is raining and the almost unchilled air carries strong hints of green.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a collage of a group of people. It is indeed a collage and it is made from the photos that accompanied each blog post this year. I do like to take a look back before I look forward and I thought this would be one way of doing it for 2025.   When I was little I loved an annual. To me it was a book of delightful snippets collected together to be enjoyed in a period of time that involved a break from routine. I can picture myself reading in my pyjamas, the seemingly bottomless sweet tin, and the advent calendar that left its glitter on our fingers with all its doors open telling me that it was indeed Christmas Day. This week’s photo is like the cover of my 2025 annual.   This blog has been my way of building a good relationship with Mondays, and the fact there have been 114 episodes since Sept...
2 comments
Read more

HOW IT STARTED, HOW IT’S GOING (#SingingAsTheDarknessLifts 92)

HOW IT STARTED, HOW IT’S GOING     Listening Link  This morning the cool air is very welcome. It carries the vague scent of cut flower stems.   Alt text suggested this week’s photos could be a collage of a person lying on the grass or a collage of a person smiling. I say it is my author photo from 2020 alongside one of my author photos from 2025.   I still like the photo of me lying in the rosemary from five years ago, but can never unsee the single hair under the word poet which escaped my notice at the time. And I really like the recent photo. It’s actually me!   Not only can I face the camera and smile now, I am also willing to pose for more than one photo at a time. That’s a lot of progress. And I am proud and intrigued to look back and see where I have come from. Of course if you ask Kath how difficult I find it to stand still and gaze into the middle distance or how many photos we rejected along the way there is a story...
Post a Comment
Read more

LIFTED (#SingingAsTheDarknessLifts 108)

LIFTED Listening Link  This morning, the cool air brings the smell of hash browns as the traffic builds its familiar rush.   Alt text offers no suggestion for this week’s photo. I say it is my sister, me and my mum in the lift after coffee and before a little shopping spree. I love this moment in time from our lovely, shared day, and the fact I remembered to take a photo.   This week I learned that I am a competent pumpkin carver. Good company, a simple design idea, a whiteboard marker pen and a last-minute pumpkin purchase resulted in a Trick or Treat worthy exhibit which made me smile.   It has been like adopting a mini half-term this week... catching up with a good friend, time with family, carving that pumpkin, having a toffee apple, going to a big firework display, landing on the settee of lovely people and having a photograph taken... and perhaps there will always be echoes of school holidays even though I no longer have these as ...
Post a Comment
Read more