Gerry Sykes

Gerry Sykes Jan 6

In Aberteiffi, autumn’s freezing wind
blows russet leaves along the icy street:
the weather, unforgiving, hard, unkind,
unlike the Indian October heat.

So different from the bamboo groves of home
where hornbills gok, we walk along the quay
or stroll on Poppit Sands watching the foam
that crests the cold waves of the Irish sea.

Our warm hands gasp each other as we comb
the seashore– driftwood, seaweed, scattered free
across the beach: we make ourselves a home
along the ozone shore she lives with me.

The Aberteiffi autumn freezing days
are heated by the fusion of our ways.

a. Aberteifi is the welsh name for Cardigan- a town on the west Wales coast.

Gerry Sykes Jan 5

Himalayan Wedding 5

Kolkata, and we stop there for a while
and think of parting as we have to wait
(a separation of five thousand miles)
to get visa from the consulate.

They question, poke, requiring photos,
to test if we are honest and don't lie.
They want to know we’re true, and not a pose,
and so they start their bureaucratic pry.

How did our wedding come about, are we
devoted to each other, yes they see
the candor, certitude, veracity.
We get her visa straight away, we’re free.

Then book her flight, we’re on our way to Wales,
the land of song, of rain and winter gales.

Gerry Sykes Jan 2

Himalayan Wedding 4

A damp Kohima wakes: a wet sunrise
the drizzle falls: the monsoon’s end is grey:
our wedding day is blessed with gloomy skies
but marriage hopes have blown my clouds away.

Nearby a gift, a mithum grazes grass
and chews with ruminating bovine bliss.
The pots are bubbling to prepare a mass
of food for fifteen hundred; more or less.

My Naga best man sits with me in church:
while she in mekhela, her orchid bloom
walks down the aisle – we stand up from the bench –
as warriors precede her to her groom.

The moment comes to say that I love you
to breath the word “amedo” for “I do”

a. Mekhela - a traditional wrap round shirt worn by tribal peoples of N E India.
b. "Amedo" means "I assent" - equivalent to "I do"

Gerry Sykes Dec 2024

Himalayan Wedding 3

Ascending through a tropic river pass
its forest growing teak and ironwood
where terraced paddy fields ripen like grass
and jungle smells of musky cedar wood.

A check point near Patkai forces a pause,
a landslide farther on extends our stay.
The downstream traffic runs before our cars
are motioned to continue on the way.

The landslip takes us off the asphalt road
and up a steep and muddy jungle track
one lorry slipping, tips then sheds its load
another jam; a stall that holds us back.

At last Kohima town comes into view
a wedding beckons from the tall bamboo.

a. Patkai - a town in Nagaland between Dimapur and Kohima. The Checkpoint for entry into the rest of Nagaland was just after Patkai. Traffic often waits at the checkpoint because of landslides further top the road.
b. Kohima - the capital of Nagaland.

Gerry Sykes Dec 2024

Himalayan Wedding 2

The delta fails to drain the monsoon’s storm
and fetid wetness saturates the air.
Kolkata’s roads are flooded filthy warm;
the ***** water’s waist deep everywhere.

We leave the inundated coastal plain
and fly to Dimapur: our journey stops.
My aunt and I must wait while we obtain
the area restricted pass: time clots.

Detained in an hotel we watch the roads,
from our imprisoning rooftop strewn with junk,
we see the rickshaws carrying their loads,
like toiling metal yellow beetles; cyberpunk.

Our documents arrive, we're on the way
on up the jungle river's steep roadway.

d. Dimapur - a city/town in Nagaland but on the plain. It has the only airport in Nagaland.
a. Restricted Area Pass - at the time an RAP was required to enter Nagaland.
b. Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction set in a dystopian futuristic setting. This poem references high tech that looks somewhat archaic.

Gerry Sykes Dec 2024

Himalayan Wedding 1

In musky bamboo jungle, damp and tall,
a wet and humid monsoon scents the air.
The forest hears a hornbill’s gocking call
its woodland eyes are watching and aware.

There, soldiers shoot Kalashnikovs and spread
a cordite quick collateral sharp death.
She wears a Naga shawl warm, black and red,
and watchful says a prayer under her breath.

My centre’s there where tribal logdrums beat
among the soft cicadas nighttime trill
as fireflies dance their tango down the street
and brightly coloured birds sing loud and shrill.

My most important person waits for me
under a shady verdant alder tree.

This is the first sonnet in my attempt at a sonnet sequence. The rest will follow.
The whole sequence tells the story of our wedding and the hurdles we had to overcome to get married. I wrote it as part of a course bur more importantly to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary.

As the narrative is a real event that takes place in an unfamiliar land with its own culture there are some places and few words that might need elaboration.
a. Hornbills are birds found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia of the family Bucerotidae. It is important in Naga Culture.
b. Gok/ gocking is an onomatopoeic representation of the sound a hornbill makes.
c. Nagas - the indigenous people of Nagaland (and some parts of surrounding states) in North East India.

Dec 2024

Lizzie Bevis

'Twas the Night of Disaster

The stockings were hung,
but they fell off the wall,
The tree was so crooked,
it threatened to fall.
The cookies for Santa
got burnt to a crisp,
and Grandpa was snoring
with quite a loud lisp.

The cat ate the tinsel
and their whiskers did glow,
while reindeer-shaped lights
blinked sporadic and slow.
The wrapping paper ran out
halfway through,
so presents got covered
in the old Daily News.

But Christmas still came
with its usual cheer,
despite all the chaos
and Dad's missing beard.
For love and good spirits
cannot be undone,
by festive mishaps
and misguided fun.

©️Lizzie Bevis

#christmas #festive #fun