Still life

Day 12 of Napowrimo and the prompt was to use the index or contents of a book. So I chose Still Life by Richard Cobb, his sketches from a Tunbridge Wells Childhood.

As I approach in 1

I wonder about the locations in 22.

I can see the Sussex view in 28

Little Mount Sion in 34

I remember Grove Hill 37,

Where My Mother’s House lay 48.

Down the road were two people

i pluck from my memory.

The Black widow 56 and

Dr Rankling at 67.

At the bottom of the hill

still there today the church

King Charles the Martyr 71.

and the outside world 79,

from the Linbury-Buses 84

I looked through the doors and windows 93

The war memorial 106 was on my left

and i imagined my childhood journey,

in my pocket a secret map 124,

which chartered my holiday

a trip to the rocks, a ride on my bike

and ending with tea at Mr Evan’s 147

after all its still life.

 

 

New, Newer, Newest

Is this new, newer, and newest.

Have I just bought it

Was it just produced?

A new book, a film, a song

Is it a kind of now exiting?

Or appearing for the first time.

It’s not a new concept,

But new knowledge, just found

Its newness is unfamiliar,

It’s strange, a new idea

A visit to a place

New to me, will it make me better

Different,from the former me.

A fresh new start, unused

Will I be a new me?

So in a new era, a new world,

Planted with newness around me.

Flowers growing, fresh green grass,

New buds wakening,

The spring is here,

A new person awaits

So I ring out the old

And sing in the new

Glorious Mud

The path has disappeared

under a deep mud

I start by dodging it

walking around it

there are no dry patches now

my boot enters the mud

it sinks deeply

squelches oozing

covering my boot

I feel my boot slide underfoot

its harder to raise my foot

the stickiness clings to me

I smile

it reminds me of being a child

seeing how far up my boot it will go

being almost stuck

what glorious mud