Writing for Wellbeing...

Where the poems are

There is a long curved pathway
which runs between sanity and madness:
I have walked it many times,

searching

in wrong places
for solutions
to wrong problems;

destined

to walk for ever
until, exhausted,
I came close to death.

Whoever is responsible for miracles

chose that moment
to open up my eyes,
let me see the light,
which lit a different path.

That is where I found the poems.

by David Agnew (Belfast David)

-------------------------------------------------------

I read this poem by my friend David, today and I immediately wanted to share it. It offers hope that however bad things may seem, there is always the possiblity for change, for making different choices. It is never to late to take a different path.

Please do have a look at David's poetry; his words always have something special about them, whether it's gentleness, humour, wisdom, something to ponder upon, or something a little bit silly to smile about; his words never disappoint! Take a look at his blog:  http://belfastdavid.wordpress.com/posts/
and details of his books (that I can thoroughly recommend) can be found here: http://belfastdavid.wordpress.com/books/

Tenacity...

from

Tenacity (1971):

I sit for hours at the window
Preparing a letter; you are coming toward me,
We are balanced like dancers in memory,
I feel your coat, I smell your clothes,
Your tobacco, you almost touch me.

by Ruth Stone

Ruth Stone died last month, at the age of 96. Many of her poems convey a haunting feeling of loss and bittersweetness; they are“love poems, all written to a dead man”; written after her husband ended his life, leaving her to bring up three daughters on her own...

Beside the seaside, beside the sea...

As you no doubt all know by now, I love the sea ... so, on that theme, I thought I'd share these poems - they're not by me! - I might have posted them before - sorry if I have! 

Hope you enjoy them x

~~~~

 

Sea Fever

John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

 

The Sea

JAMES REEVES

The sea is a hungry dog.

Giant and grey.

He rolls on the beach all day.

With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws

Hour upon hour he gnaws

The rumbling, tumbling stones,

And ‘Bones, bones, bones, bones!’

The giant sea-dog moans,

Licking his greasy paws.

And when the night wind roars

And the moon rocks in the stormy cloud,

He bounds to his feet and snuffs and sniffs,

Shaking his wet sides over the cliffs,

And howls and hollos long and loud.

But on quiet days in May and June,

When even the grasses on the dune

Play no more their reedy tune,

With his head between his paws

He lies on the sandy shores,

                                   

So quiet, so quiet, he scarcely snores.

Tongue Tied

I've been writing on and off for as long as I can remember, but it was only really when I first started writing my blog over on myspace, around four years ago, that I began to share some of my writing with other people. In its heyday there was such a good feel to myspace - in total my blog was viewed over 44500 times, and had over 4000 comments - which makes the figures for this current blog seem rather feeble in comparison!

I'm so grateful to all the friends I had on myspace, and to those who subscribed to my blog, and I'm so pleased to still be in contact with a few of you via Facebook now. The comments, feedback, praise and encouragement really gave me the confidence and enthusiasm to keep writing (and taking photos), and my creative juices kept on flowing - it was such an inspiring and creative time! In particular some of the names that spring to mind are Jim, Barbara, David, Kathleen, Laine, Kate, Sarah, Gary, Rachel, Mark, Jo, Roger, Maria, Angie, 'Tiara', Wendy, 'Poetic', and there were more... Even though I haven't actually met most of these people in the flesh, through our writing and sharing of life experiences we built up a closeness, intimacy and degree of closeknit friendship that isn't always easy to achieve in the 'real world' outside of the computer screen.

Anyway, the reason for this nostalgic ramble is because there are ripples of unease and discontent rumbling through the world of myspace bloggers right now. Apparently things are a-changing on myspace, and not for the better as far as blogs are concerned. At first I felt a wee bit smug, thinking 'Well I stopped blogging there a long time ago, so I'm ok...' But then a couple of hours later I thought 'Hmm - I'd better check that my blog is still there - even though I don't update it anymore, I still like to check on it from time to time...'

I was dismayed to find that comments have been deleted. Later I started thinking 'What if they delete the actual blogs next??' ... This is really panicking me, because a lot of my poems and prose on my myspace blog doesn't exist anywhere else - in my usual disorganised manner I often wrote my blogs without keeping a copy, so I'd be devastated if all my poems suddenly disappear for ever ... So, needless to say, I'm going to have to start trawling through all of my old blogs, and try to rescue what I can while I can ...

This (below) is something I wrote a few years back - it makes me smile a little bit, as I realise that I'm so much more confident and outgoing now, compared to what I was like when I wrote it. I used to really suffer because of being such a quiet intovert. It's funny that once I accepted, embraced and cherished this part of myself, it started to step back a bit and allow a more outgoing part of me to step forward...

TONGUE TIED

Words seem to fall out

Through my fingers.

My pen does the talking.

But life would be so much

Easier

If the words came straight out

Of my mouth

Instead.

I feel like I've managed to achieve much more of a balance now - I still let my pen do a lot of the talking - or the keyboard - but I also feel much more able to let my mouth talk too! One thing's for sure though - I'm going to keep on writing for a long, long time - even if I have to start most of my poems from scratch if I don't manage to rescue everything from myspace...

And, blog or no blog, I'll always have my journal - my constant companion! My journal has helped me through many a tough day ... Journalling is something I recommend to everybody - writing things down really does help, and no - you don't have to have any particular flair - just pick up a pen and see what happens! You never know - you might decide to set up a blog too - like me, my daughter began with writing in a journal, and now she's taking her first tentative steps (well more of a leap to be honest!) into the world of blogging!

It's always a wee bit emotional, looking back through my old journal entries, but in looking back, it helps me to see how much I've learned and grown, and it gives me the faith that whatever life throws at me next, i have the strength to cope...