Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 
Brian Turner Aug 2020
Take up the challenge
Believe in 'the now'
We 'of tenet' will show you how

Tenet is the reason I breathe in the morning
The reason I smile at you as you pass
The reason I believe in mass

Without Tenet there is nothing
And nothing to do to
Tenet is why there is me and you
Inspired by the new movie "Tenet' I have written this short poem. Tenet is a 'belief'. Without tenet there is nothing I believe. The now refers to this moment, not yesterday or tomorrow. See Eckhart Tolle for more
Brian Turner Aug 2020
I’m OK, you’re OK
That’s how I’m gonna start today
A neutral position to drive through
The brilliant feeling of new me, new you

I’m OK, you are not Ok
This isn’t going to end well
I can tell, you fell

I’m not OK, you are OK
I give in it’s yours to take
Let’s hope your path is not a mistake
Let’s hope my news is truly fake


I’m not OK, you are not OK
The worst position of all
Ok fine I hear you
Let’s end this call
This is a technique on how to get on with people that I have turned into a poem. I'm OK, you're Ok is the approach on how to work with difficult people. By saying 'This guy is OK" before a difficult telephone call and asking them "Are you OK" the odds are on that the call will go well. On the flip side "I'm Ok, you are not Ok' may lead to locked horns.
Brian Turner Aug 2020
It was our second visit in six years to Ivy cottage
Inside the kitchen I crossed through the bookmarks of time
What will the future be like for the kids?
At the top of the stairs looking down another bookmark
Will our next home look as nice as this?

Those thoughts and wishes have come true
All I can say Ivy is thank-you
Thank-you for your park of 1000 acres
Thank-you for the swallows who chased me
Thank-you for the future that now faces me
We have visited Ivy Cottage at Margam country park in Wales. The place and furniture has not changed, we have. The second time my memories flooded back when I was in the kitchen and stairs. These are 'the bookmarks of time" as they triggered the same thoughts and hopes from six years ago.
Brian Turner Aug 2020
Spring came
Nothing would be the same

Looking out
No one about

Covid came
Insane

Politeness came
Would it remain?

Touch went
Hugs went
Feelings vent

Mothers wept
Fathers wept
Sanity bereft

Daily toll
Daily bread
Daily dead

Summer came
Hope came
Some things would be the same

Solstice came
Longest day
Longest year
Longest hour

Hope stayed
We played

Laughter came
Loving came
Some things would remain the same
This is a lockdown poem.
Brian Turner Aug 2020
We sidle up the road to the farmhouse on a hill and enter the dark gap that forms a door.
The ‘broken thing’ hangs heavy in my hand.
The floor is bare except for a big pile of metal scrap, the ingredients for the fix.

Two shadows have their backs to us and are deep in conversation.  
Heads are nodded and words are exchanged about the near miss and the loss encountered.

The Fixer enters stage left complete with Macbeth bowl haircut.
Hands fat with muscles he approaches me and grasps the broken thing with a swift tug.

‘Not good, not good, bad job, bad job’.
He is working it out.
His skill is not taught.
This is instinct, blood and sweat.

He disappears for several minutes stage right.
The big pile does not have what he needs.

More conversation goes on about cattle and sheep.
The accents are harsh. We are deep, deep in the country.

The fixer returns.
A flush of oxy-acetylene ignites and suddenly two become one.
A rush of steam comes from the barrel that the patient has come out of.

‘Better than new’, the Fixer says.
‘Better than new’ Dad replies.
‘What’s the damage? ’
’That will be…30’
‘OK 30”

No negotiation here, no debate on price.
This work is understood.
This is graft and money hard earned.
This poem is based on my dad and me going up to a blacksmith in Northern Ireland in the 1980s with broken farm machinery. ***** Finlay is 'the fixer' and his famous phrase 'better than new' has stuck in our family. He could fix anything that you brought him. The scene is set deep in the countryside in Aughnacloy County Tyrone.

— The End —