Thursday, February 13

A Poem for Thursday...."The End of the Line"



With so much relayed over the media and the papers full of the sad stories of flooded homes and broken journeys...I'm putting up this post as a memory of another sea...another train journey...another ending...though for how long none of us can be sure any longer.

The End Of The Line

Let's go live at the end of the line
Where breakers fall over rolling stones.
We'll ride the train that we rode when young,
Watch how the steam mists our view of the sea
As it hisses and cools on the iron, on the brass.
And the cry of the gulls as they dive, as they soar
Will welcome us back
Will welcome us back.

Let's board the train that we rode long ago.
Where the end of the line will have water and sand.
We'll be welcomed again by the mewing of gulls
By the smell of spun sugar and hot lardy chips.
And there, will be space enough for our thoughts
With salt winds to blow away stale urban fog.
To welcome us back
To welcome us back.

They're saying the crust is beginning to crack.
That the cold winds of change are blowing our way.
Yet, when I take  the journey again to the end
Of the line, where the seagulls are soaring above,
To the edge of the tide, to the line in the sand...
The memory of all things, of all being well
Embraces me back
Embraces me back.


Monday, February 10

geraldinesnape's photostream

...the abandoned bike... #pottershousepenkethCreated with Photo Editor- Putting the wood together in the yard to get an idea of the layout. # pottershousepenketh # ceramicCreated with Photo Editor- Distressing the oak in the fire for the installation at The Oaks Centre @pottershousepenkethCreated with Photo Editor- Burning the oak for the installation.imageimage
Created with Photo Editor-Created with Photo Editor-imagedark sky over the promboats on the bay 2boats on the bay 1
The Red Road Donegal"The Leaving"two figures rodinlife drawing three minute sketches collagethe goliath bowl collageBlue stone...Fran Crowe
assemblage... gull and seadonegal girl denisedonaghadeebridge at kilcarbottom of rosies garden donegalpath over the shingle

Some photos of work by
The Potters House Artists.

Thursday, February 6

A Poem for Thursday....Two Sisters.




 
Two Sisters

They reared me.
Those two sisters
Who stand there
Side by side,
Smiling out at me from the  photo frame.
Cherry blossom falling around them
Like snowflakes
Tinged with cochineal …
Pink… used for the icing
They spread
Thickly…victoriously
 Into the middle of their sponge cakes.

They hauled me up
Those Scottish sisters.
With their german biscuits
Almond slices and
Scones…no raisins... thankyou!
Brought colour into my monochrome world.
Into grey years... brought laughter…
In a grey decade
Where the pavements were always wet with rain.

Those canny women
Wiped my nose.
Told me to stand up tall
And straitened the parting in my unruly hair.
Criticised my big feet...
"Big as shipyards
Big enough to float the Titanic",
They said.
Drew me into their strong arms
And called me
“Wee pet”.
Those sisters.


...this is linked to DeVerse...Meeting the Bar  this week it's Songwriting and the link to Poetry.
 I was published as a songwriter in the late 60s early 70s and find that most of my poetry now has to have some rhythm and rhyme..at the least an underlying rhythm to move it along...so I read the work  quite a few times until a sense of pace comes into it naturally........
...why so long ago??
 well family ...children and The Potters House Penketh took precedence until I started writing again a few years ago.

Wednesday, January 29

A Poem for Thursday...."The Flood"





"Noah survives the Flood"...ceramic by Alan Snape


The Flood
Two four six is a children’s rhyme.
Two, four and six is the sleepy time.
Don’t frighten the kids just give them a smile.
Can’t go swimming for the waves are too high.
It’s only the earth dear when all’s said and done.
It’s just the blue planet, see… we orbit the sun.
There’s no need for temperate people to fear.
They’re far, far away from the garden my dear.
Go fly a kite while the winds are so high.
But don’t frighten the children,
Just give them a smile.

I wrote this quite a while ago after the Japanese tsunami.....
...since then edited it...
but I should think ...the people of Somerset are wondering about Noah and whether they should start building those boats.

Thursday, January 16

A Poem for Thursday..."The loss".

We thought
That maybe we had lost her
On the day
They blew up the BBC building
In the middle of the city.
Her office
With it's ancient glass roof
Abutted the back wall.
Saving the Company
A need
To make her office more substantial.
Safer.
She never complained.
She was a lady who lunches.
And so it was on that day.
Though no thanks to the army
Who didn't like to make their way
Down the darkened alley
Into her lonely room.
Only the jolly aunt called
Before the detonator blew it all up
And gave her the..."Let's go Mary".

We thought
That maybe we had lost him
On the day
They targeted children
Near MacDonalds on Bridge Street.
He was selling his cheery mugs
announcing
"Mum"
And
"Nana"
And all those other titles in between,
Hawking his wares
In the shopping mall.
But the second bomb was at Boots
Where the children had run for safety.
So it missed him.
And he
Jolly as ever,
Found solace in the Town Hall
Where his son discovered him later.
And with northern canniness
Shrugged and said
"Glad you're safe dad".

Monday, December 16

The Gingerbread Hut!


...each year our daughter....neviepiecakes ... makes us a gingerbread house for Christmas...
I can hardly bear to eat them...so much work and thought goes into each one.



This year she has excelled all expectations with...
...a gingerbread fisherman's hut fully equipped with lobster pots, a little fishing boat and a driftwood Christmas tree covered, of course, in snow...


...I love... love it...so what am I to do?
 ...it is truly a piece of edible sculpture...
...but she tells us to eat it and not to be so "precious"....


...look on the door ...a blackboard telling you that fresh fish has been caught and is there for the buying.


...and behind the snow laden driftwood tree ...a pile of lobster pots await the fisherman ...ready for the outing the next day....
...oh now I'm getting carried away!!

I just had to take lots of pics ...because the gingerbread is as good as the design...so there is no way that it is going to last forever...
...as Marie Antionette once didn't say...

"Let them eat cake"

Saturday, December 7

Rotten Root



We had a favourite tree in the back garden/field...just up the steps and to the right...an ideal spot to watch the grand girls climb while we had a little relax in the sun trap at the back of the tool shed....
...then came the storm this week.
Well lots of damage on the east coast and lovely Morecambe prom pretty full on as well!!
Houses washed away into the roaring sea...cars and vans taken by the waves and lots of Welsh bungalows deep in water on the northern coast where the pensioners retire to live a quiet life....ha!

Yesterday morning woke us quietly.... until we saw the tree!!
A beautiful Stag Horn...I forget the latin name...gorgeous tree...sturdy ...broad trunked....ideal for climbing...
...well I did myself a few times when I thought that noone was around to laugh at my antics!!
We had been given it by old friends who once lived in Southport ... it had many memories.

But the thought that I had was that ...
...if the root is rotten...
...the tree will fall...
...now I think that could be well applied to so many parts of life today...it got me thinking..
...no matter how beautiful...
...no matter how big...
....if the root is rotten ...it will fall.

Anyway here's a collage from happier times and of course the potter already sawing away at it as we will have some unexpected wood available for the winter fires!!





Oh... I have insisted that the main tree be kept and made into a seat at the bottom of the field where there is a nice little spot that gets the late sun when everywhere else is in shadow...been thinking about it for a while...
...I call that redeeming!!