writing

My Poem “Under Arbor”

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Sitting under a tree…
Sitting under a shadow
as the sun shines
and there is blue sky above me…
I take a moment alone, on my own,
to savour the moments
of precious peace…
My time here is short –
however, isn’t everybody’s these days?
My thoughts briefly drift away
as I daydream that I am far away…
I think of memories
that mean the most to me…
I remember and I see the faces
of those who give my life meaning
and who make my heart skip a beat…
Life is the most precious thing…
Love is the most important blessing…
I never get the opportunity
or the time these days to just sit
and take it easy,
and that is why I am
making the most of this moment
to breath in the fresh air
and sit in the shadow of a tree.

My Poem “Left to Write”

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Fast or slow…
Long or short…
Something you feel,
something you know…
Something to be discovered,
something to be revealed…
In a notebook, on a screen…
At home, or somewhere
you have never been…
From eyes and ears
to mind and imagination…
From the inside to the outside…
In silence, from sound…
In the sky, or while standing
upon solid-ground…
From dreams to reality…
From a burst of sunlight…
From the stars of infinity…
Just like that comes a poem,
and it never ceases to amaze me
what a writer can create
when they are simply
left to write.

My Poem “One Minute”

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One minute of time…
One minute to write…
One minute to construct
a rhyme of many lines…
One minute…
(is not enough time)

My Poem ‘Back down to Earth’

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I’m back now…
my second home is now
4000 miles away again…
I’m back below the clouds…
I feel like I am a man of two minds:
one, a proud Englishman;
and another, someone who feels at home
in Georgia, in the United States of America,
where there is more opportunity
to do anything, at any time of the day,
and at any given moment
as there are lanes on a highway.

I’m back where everybody drives on the left,
instead of on the right…
I’m back where I was born –
however, there isn’t a moment
when I do not miss the light of my day,
the light of my night,
the light of my life,
back there where you can see
fireflies flying and glowing
against the stars of a twilight sky.

I’m back wearing jeans –
however, only days before
and for two weeks-straight,
I had been wearing shorts
morning, noon, and night,
and getting touched on the skin
by the heat and the light of the sun…
I’m back walking down familiar paths
and sitting in the same chairs
in the same places that I know every inch of –
however, though I am awake and writing
here in England, I am also projecting myself
back to Georgia with Melissa
and dreaming along with her
and surrounded by the scent of a burning candle
that smells like coffee
when its wick burns and its wax melts.

I’m back where there are not as many drive-throughs
as there are in the US;
here in the UK, for example,
if we want to withdraw some money from our bank-account,
or if we want to pick up a prescription from a pharmacy,
we have to actually walk to somewhere –
however, in the US you can get money,
you can pick up your prescription,
as easily and as speedily
as you can order take-out food,
and you don’t even have to leave
the comfort of the driving-seat of your car.

Both the US and the UK share many things in common,
but there are many wonderful differences
that set them apart…
we have different names for the same things:
in the US, people seem to find more time
to celebrate and remember the liberty
and the freedoms that they are
constitutionally entitled to…
both the US and the UK even have
different forms of humour
and things that they find funny,
but both the US and the UK know
the true joy that comes with sharing experiences
together as friends and as a family,
and why it is important to smile and to laugh.

Both the US and the UK have for centuries now
shared a “special-relationship” with one-another,
and from my perspective and from my experience
our commonalities have no limit
to their importance and worth…
to me, both the US and the UK
are two sides of the same coin,
they are two halves of the same heart,
and I feel and I know with all my soul
that the US and the UK are bound to each-other
in more ways than could ever be described –
and when I am away from both the UK and the US
there are things and there are people
that I miss more than others,
but it is my knowledge
of what makes both the US and the UK
so special that always makes me smile
and always brings me back down to Earth.

My Poem ‘Mobile Poetry’

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My pen has died,
its ink has run out –
but I really want to write,
but I don’t know what
I want to write about?
I am old-fashioned in some ways,
but in other ways I am very up-to-date…
I am sentimental about “the old days”,
but I also believe that you have to act
on something when you feel it
before it is too late.

Most of the time I imagine
and I daydream while I am on the move…
I write everywhere I go:
on planes, on trains, on buses,
in the middle of a bustling cafe,
or in the silent solitude of my bedroom…
what I write about I never plan in great detail,
usually I try to let the moment talk to me
and inspire me before I decide…
when I write I draw everything and everyone towards me,
I open my eyes as wide as they will go,
and I write and I create art
without having to try too hard.

Using all the tools that you have
at any given time is the key…
writing from the heart is the blood
that flows through every poet’s poetry…
writing and creating does not always have to be
strictly with a pen, a pencil, a paintbrush,
or even with the keyboard of a computer –
I once created a piece of art
on a sandy beach on the island of Jersey…
of course I will write with a pen again –
but this poem is one of the few that I have written
from beginning to end solely on a mobile-phone,
and I will always remember it as being a wonderful example
of my gift to be able to create art
and write when the need arises
to write to some “mobile poetry”.

My Poem ‘Memento Vitae’

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Mementos of life…
Photographs of us…
Memories of days and nights…
Echoes of love…
Souvenirs of where we’ve been…
Snapshots of who we’ve known…
Reminders of what we’ve seen…
Hallmarks of home.

Hope and happiness…
Laughter and light…
Smiles and kisses…
Children who have blossomed
before our eyes…
Things to remember…
Lessons learned…
That which truly matters…
Cycles of rebirth.

Sunrises and sunsets…
Timeless songs of yesterday…
The eternal souls
of those who we will never forget…
Music that stays with us everyday…
Unbroken Vows…
Promises made under starlight…
Words of truth spoken aloud…
Miracles never to be forgotten
from the gift that is our life.

My Poem ‘In view of the Trocadero’

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You can’t beat a great seat
near a window with a great view –
whether it be a panoramic-view in Italy
that features the epic and awe-inspiring sight
of a volcano called “Mount Vesuvius”,
or the watery-splendor of the majestic fountains
of the Palais de Chaillot in France,
or standing on the rocky-top of Tennessee…
there are some sights and some places
that irrevocably stay with you.

So much art has been created…
so many poems have been written…
so many stories have been generated…
so many songs have been christened
with the identity and the inspiration
that they will always be known for…
so many things cannot be captured
with a photograph, or with words –
because no matter what is seen or said
about a place in particular
there is always so much more…
memories from childhood of a place
that we visited mean so much
because they were the first time
that we went there,
and nobody ever forgets
their first time going somewhere…
legends are built upon
the retelling of tales
and the experiences of people
who wanted the history of the world
to never forget what it is
and what it was about a place
that gave people a reason to say
why it is that they care
and what is the most important thing
about a place that they want to share.

When you are looking out the window of an airplane
you feel like you are within
touching-distance of heaven…
when you are sitting on a bench in Golden Gate Park
and marveling at the oasis
of spell-binding beauty that you see
at the very heart of the city of San Francisco…
when you are standing on a seaside boardwalk
and you become intoxicated
by all that stimulates your senses
as you become hypnotized by the sight
of the bright sunlight
shimmering on the ocean waves below…
when you are somewhere that instantly
becomes somewhere that means the world to you,
you will take that place with wherever you go…
just like the view that I have now of The Trocadero –
a small reminder of a place with the same name,
that lives on even though it is far from home.

My Poem ‘Experimentation’

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Everything begins with experimentation…
most of the things that we love the most
once began as something unknown…
most things we seemingly
stumble upon at random…
most of the things that we take with us wherever we go
are the things that remind us of the wonders
that we remember of our childhood home…
we grow up with certain things…
we grow up with people who we know, and who know us…
we lose things… we have to look in more than one direction
in order to find our focus.

When we start looking beyond our comfort-zone,
when we start following a voice
that calls to us like an S.O.S,
when we start caring about a people
and a world that is not our own,
when we start finding others who bring out our best…
a chain-reaction of events without-end forms…
a new thing is born…
a new way of exploring
the infinite possibilities of the universe is launched…
a new sword to defend you from the dark of the world is forged.

Everything is a continuation…
everybody is a DJ – and every day we all remix what we see,
what we hear, what we feel, in our mind and in our imagination…
when we look around, when we want to journey to somewhere
with a definitive-destination, and we stop to think
about why any of us are here and what should be
our new source of motivation…
when we want a bit of the old and a bit of the new,
when we want both the contemporary and the retro,
then it doesn’t hurt to spin the wheel of inspiration
and dabble in a bit of artistic experimentation.

My Poem ‘Thirty-six’

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So much has changed,
so much is different…
I still have the same name,
I still live in the same place,
and for the most part
I still have the same face –
but I am not the boy who I once was…
and, as I always do at this time of the year,
I am wondering to myself,
as I stare at my own reflection:
what about me has changed the most?

These days, I have brown hair –
where as when I was a child I was a natural-blond…
these days, I take journeys to many places on my own –
where as when I was a boy growing up in my village
the furthest away from home that I went
was down to the end of the road
and to the nearest duck-pond…
these days, I spend hours dreaming up new stories
and making up adventures for complex characters –
where as when I was a boy, I… I…
to be honest, I pretty-much did exactly the same thing –
but these days when I write something
usually I am writing from the experience
of having been through and having seen so much.

I have always asked questions…
I have always looked for the meaning of things…
I have always lived my life without feeling
burdened by other people’s expectations…
I have always looked up to the sky –
at the stars at night,
or to the blue-sky of a Summer’s day –
and I have always been awestruck by what I saw,
because every time I look up I am inspired,
and what follows is always breathtaking.

All life is about change,
about transformation, and about transition…
everyone’s life begins in the same way,
and from the day that we are born
we are all on our way
to the same destination…
all my life, my parents have been there for me
and they have given me more than a son
could ever ask for –
every day, my Mum and Dad are with me
and it is because of them that I am so blessed…
when I was a boy, I said a prayer and I made a wish:
I prayed to God that I would find my purpose,
and that while searching for the meaning of my life
I would find love and happiness…
now, I am an adult –
and, as I look around myself and at my life,
I can say with all my heart
that all my wishes and prayers have come true…
I can honestly say that my life has been one
that I would never have wanted to miss –
even knowing all that I have seen and been through,
I feel loved, and truly blessed to be who I am
and to have done all that I have done…
and I am still only 36.

My Poem ‘Don’t be afraid of the dark’

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Don’t be afraid of the dark –
because it is in the dark
where we find the brightest lights
and the most beautiful sights
in the universe…
don’t afraid to close your eyes –
because when we close our eyes
we dream and we see
our internal hopes looking back at us…
don’t be afraid to believe
what you want to believe –
because it is in the act
and in the art of belief
that we learn to see
the beauty of things and people…
don’t be afraid to remember
where you have been and what you have seen –
because remembering is like time-traveling
into the past, and it can help you
to make sense of what you see
and where you find yourself in the world.

When I was a child I was afraid of the dark –
but then I found out what had been waiting
for me all my life, one night while I was staring
up at a sky full of stars…
it was like one of the stars has descended to Earth
from the heavens and had indelibly left its mark…
while growing up I discovered
that even silent nights are filled with music,
and even seemingly blank pages
are secretly emanating inspiration…
the more that I have lived
the more that I have been bitten
repeatedly by the bug of universal fascination.

I used to be afraid of dark rooms –
however, now I find them fascinating places…
I used to be scared of walking dark streets at night…
I used to have this fear about people
forgetting my name and my face –
but now I know that there is more to see
than what can be seen with our eyes…
there is so much more that contributes
to the answer that we all give when we die,
when we are asked: what was the meaning of your life?

Hold on to no fear…
don’t miss what you do not need…
hold onto what and who you love –
even if doing so sometimes brings you to tears…
don’t be afraid to ask for help –
because there is always someone
who can hear you and will listen…
letting go of something makes you realize
why it is important to hold on to something
for as long as you can –
but sometimes life can go by so fast
that when you look back on everything you have done
it can seem like the still image
of a picture-postcard photograph…
sometimes it is where and when
you do not expect to find things
that you come face to face with miracles –
so, if you have children do not forget
to teach them, and remind everyone else,
that is against the blackest of backgrounds
that we see the brightest of sparks…
and it is ok to open and close your eyes
and to not be afraid of the dark.