I love this land
That I have been born to
With its thick mud, green mosses
Wise trees
Rippling grasses

I love this land
That I take my walks in
With its wild winds, frothing seas
Journeying clouds
Birds gliding

I love this land
Enchanting to my eyes
With its bulbs erupting
Petals opening
Fronds advancing
Flowers blossoming

I love this land
That supports my family
With its softest moonlight
Dazzling dawns
Frosty winters
Hopeful spring

I love this land
With its autumnal colours
Its nighttime silhouettes
Its dramas of humanity
I love the people
Brave and dedicated
Creative, curious
Kinder than we know

I love this land
That I am part of
With all of my heart
And all of my soul

And I will serve it
With all of my being
Until the day
When we are all
As one

The hair
Landing on the barber’s shawl
Is white

Sandy and white
Like speckles
Of salt and pepper

How did it get to be
That colour?

How did I get to be…
Old?

I remember Sundays
Sitting in the barber’s chair
Watching blond strands drop
Whilst my father read the paper
Sipping a coffee
Waiting to take me home

And now my hair
Is white

Where does the time go?

I think I have lived well
And I hope I have lived true
So, I don’t mind my age
But sometimes
I am surprised
By the signs of change

Out there
Is a magical place
Unsullied by human mess

Pure, paradisiacal
Quiet

Sea water flows quietly
And sand is soft
And healing underfoot

We are half a mile out
Maybe more

And we have crossed
A curious river
To reach
The ray

Although we have lived
Many years in this place
We have never ventured here before

Discovering this new place
Has brought us closer
Together

We have a white wine haze
To numb our feelings

And distract us
From the all too familiar routine
Of lockdown

Like fuzzy haloes before our eyes
Things have become white
And cloudy
And nothing seems to matter so much

And we fall into our beds
Wanting to sleep for one hundred years
And reawaken beyond the storm
When the world will have put itself to rights

But we know
Another clear dawn
Awaits us
With its sharp truth
Of this earthly challenge

And then
We will rub our eyes
And turn to the coffee ***

If this is the karma of humanity
It’s time to change it

When someone
Dares
To share
Their heart
Others’ hearts open too

And from the opening
Comes
Brotherhood
Sisterhood
Family
Care
Love
And a reason
To love

Yesterday
My inner demons were disturbed
From their slumber

My tired bones
Became vulnerable
My mind, overrun

I fell asleep
Only to be woken
By the 3am voices

'You have got this wrong'
'You have made too many mistakes'
'You won’t get through this'
'You are going to die'


In the pre-dawn hours
I cling to my sleeping wife for comfort
And I whisper to myself
'There is only love'
'Only creativity
Only love'
But still the demons mutter their dark spells
And I start looking outside of myself
For easy answers

Who will fix this for me?
Should I run away
And start somewhere better, easier

And I try to soothe myself
By chanting again
'There is only love, only beauty
I will not let these thoughts dominate
I will banish them
With my love'

Yet, still they are active
Strange as they are
And I guess I have to live with them
Understand them
Before they will quieten
Or disappear

I am a human entity
Made of spectral dust
And I behave in this way
Thanks to my life
And everything within it

And perhaps somehow
In the dark of that night
I grew a little

I understood myself better
I did not crumble
I just waited
And it did end
Eventually
And I did sleep
And I am still alive
Ready to face one more day
To do battle
With my own life
Again

Quiet
At home
In love
And loved

We walk
In dazzling sunlight
Under winter blue skies
By returning tide

We cook
We eat
We talk
We rest

I am in love
And loved
And how beautiful
This day is

I can see
That you are struggling
To survive

You are battling
The approach
Of the abyss
But you are not giving up

You are brave
And quiet
Just breathing
Hard

And floating
Held by
Your environment
Your world

I do not know
If you will make it through

I hope you do

Without questions
There are no answers

Without answers
There are no discussions

Without discussions
There is no exchange

Without exchange
There is no change

Without change
There is stagnation

It begins with a group
Who stand alone
Doing things differently
Calling for change
As if ‘their’ lives
Depended on it

And ‘we’ laugh at ‘them’
Comment on ‘them’
Make cheap jokes about ‘them’
As if ‘they’ are somehow crazy
Or even, *****.

‘They’ continue
Driven by a true cause
A deeper wisdom
A universal truth

And whether ‘we’ realise or not
‘We’ become informed
‘We’ are forced somehow
To change ‘our’ minds
Whether ‘we’ like it or not

And one day
‘We’ encounter ‘their movement’ once more
Active, growing
Pushing for widespread change

And ‘we’ stand
Separately from ‘them’  
Still observing from the safety
Of 'our' intellectual bubble
Analysing ‘them’ as if ‘we’ had some kind
Of journalistic purpose
To understand ‘them’
And 'their' ways

We know that ‘they’ are right
And ‘we’ have been wrong
And yet still ‘we’ stand observing ‘them’
Trying to convince ‘ourselves’ that still
‘They’ are trouble makers
And ‘we’ can find a better way
To change the world

But still ‘we’ know that ‘they’ are right
And eventually ‘we’ can no longer
Justify
Our actions
The guilt becomes too heavy
And our evidence too weak
And ‘we’ become sickened
By what ‘we’ are doing

Until one day
‘We’ step across the threshold
And ‘we’ quietly, weakly, become
Them’
And those who remain in the ‘we’
Become a minority
And age in isolation
Clinging to the mistaken beliefs
Of the past

The journey
Of true and meaningful change
Is slow

When you are bound
By a thousand ropes
Accumulated
Through lifetime after lifetime
It can become very difficult to escape

Even though you might remove
One or two ropes of karma
Still you may feel tightly bound
Unable to grow or move forward
At all

But as you continue to remove the ropes
Which have been wound
Around the heart and soul
One snip at a time
Unwinding them
Discarding them

Then one fine day  
You will perceive
That their hold on you
Has Loosened
Slipped away
Disappeared

And the suffering
Has gone
And
Joy
And
Freedom

Remain