Mouse repatriation

We'd heard scampering for several days
and the evidence was there
crumbs in all the cupboards as 
our food they'd come to share
But really they weren't welcome
so we brought some humane traps
and tempting them with biscuits
we caught the little chaps
Then one by one I introduced them
to the garden there to learn
the repatriation one way trip
and never to return

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

Mapping the past

No.15 in the ‘past to present’ series from Jemverse

Found an old map in Emmaus
worn and dusty and old
thought to myself 'I'm having that'
went out of the shop with it sold

Familiar but different
there are things long gone away
a past the history books have claimed
from our quaint yesterday

And yet there's still a memory
from distant childhood time
places gone, remembered still
with part of them still mine

©Jemverse

Photo -Jempics. Taken from the 1946 map itself. An original 182 Ordnance Survey of Sussex from 1933, it’s significant as it’s pre-Shoreham flyover (1970) – so there’s no blot on the landscape, pre-Beeching (1966) – so the whole of the old Guildford line is marked with all the now long-gone stations, and it’s immediately post-WWII – so the Brighton & Hove Municipal Airport at Shoreham is there but not marked as such. (Emmaus – btw – is a second-hand bric-a-brac and furniture store run by a homeless project).

Peace found

Had ten days last month for wonderful things
to all bring a joy and pull at heartstrings
Places to visit and things to see there
taking photos to later re-live and re-share
Ten days of staycation what more could I need
when living in Sussex for this life that I lead?
As Sussex has all the 'joie de vivre' I desire
with its people and places and things I admire
So whenever a moment affords this release
I'm happy in Sussex as at home I find peace

©Jemverse

Photo – Houghton Hill, Sussex from the garden of the George & Dragon – Jempics

Four spans across the Adur

Part of the ‘Past to Present’ series from Jemverse

Four spans across the Adur
at its mouth at Shoreham town
on the road on into Lancing
at the foot of Sussex Down

Four spans of steel construction
admired for sixty years
'til Norfolk Bridge mark II's demise
'midst many local tears

Four spans across the Adur
not forgotten yet now lost
to progress and the march of time
no matter what the cost

©Jemverse

Photo – from a postcard in the author’s collection – Jempics

[The second Norfolk Bridge in Shoreham was opened on 4th July 1923 by Lord Leconfield. A four-span cantilever design, it was initially a toll bridge until 1927. It was replaced the third (and present) Norfolk bridge in 1987].

See also ‘Of horses and lions‘ (posted here in July)

Wavefall

Went for a walk on the beach
in the morning
at first light of day when
most still were snoring
It was quiet and peaceful
just the sound of the sea
and the crunch of the shingle
the wave fall and me

©Jemverse

Photo – Sally Croucher

Raison d’être

In my solace and respite
with the sun streaming in
I'm at home in my room
as you'll see from my grin
for all that is in here
is here to bring joy
with things I've collected
since I was a boy

It's here that I write
and here that I play
be it music or games
sitting here day by day
It brings 'joie de vivre'
my raison d'être
for all inspiration
in life that I share

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

Complete II

In my garden at nightfall
when the sun has just set
and the heat of the day still remains
I find solace and respite
as on my bench with repose
I appreciate all of life's gains

For here is a moment
which is all of my own
precious like treasure, replete
and as the light of the day
is enveloped by night
congenital here, I'm complete

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

The sun I find

This time of year with pen in hand
I'll sit down in my garden and
as sunshine warms and shines and does
what in July it will because
this is summer, so will I
sit down and watch as time goes by
and words may come. they often do
reflecting on a whim eschewed
crafted from a poet's mind
inspired here by the sun I find

©Jemverse

Photo – Sally Croucher

Homeward bound II

When away in a city that's far from my home
a comforting thought there to hold
is that homeward I'll head and I'm never removed
too far from the warmth of that fold
For no matter how much pleasure derived
or enjoyment from being away
it's always the best to be homeward bound
I would say at the end of the day

©Jemverse

Photo – Shoreham, my home – Jempics

Two Bridges

When in flight over Shoreham
a hundred years ago
two bridges you would see
'cross the river down below
The Norfolk and the railway
but no footbridge crossing yet
for the town and all its people
had that pleasure still to get

©Jemverse

Photo – from a postcard in the author’s collection

[This picture dates to before 1921 when a new footbridge was opened spanning the river to the bottom left where a group of people can been seen. Shoreham airport (from which the aeroplane here probably came) opened in June 1911, just eight years after the Wright brothers first ever manned flight in December 1903. Strictly speaking, Shoreham had three bridges when the picture was taken, but the third – the old toll bridge – is to the north and out of shot]