Under the weather II

When you're under the weather and feeling quite ill
and you're not at all sure if you're quite yourself still
and everything aches and all energy's gone
and you can't string two words together for long
You know that it's time to stay warm in bed
and let sleep the good healer do its stuff instead
as though at present it's naff and you're not feeling clever
you know you'll get better and this won't last forever

©Jemverse

Photo – a ‘getting better pic’ – Jempics

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Clarity V

Cathartic this wide expanse of beach
tide low under deep blue sky
just the tonic that I needed
as I wandered slowly by

Splashed winter boots in cold water
found a bright red shell
dragged my toe through the wet sand
with words I'll never tell

Felt the sun warm on my neck
wiped away the tear
replacing that with new found joy
as things became quite clear

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

Tri-tanka XVI (Lucidity)

With lucidity
lightbulb moments came to me
from left field this week
Caught me unaware but filled
the hole which had been growing

With lucidity
fulfilment left me complete
with realisation
And relaxed into happy
the proverbial clouds parted

With lucidity
the sunshine returned again
and with spring in step
I was dancing in my mind
Some decisions born of that

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

[Tanka is a Japanese poetic non-rhyming poem with a syllabic sequence of 5-7-5-7-7. ‘Tri-tanka is a derivative of Jemverse making, returned to periodically as part of an ongoing series]

Waiting III

Sat in the hospital waiting room
there with Sal for moral support
on a very cold winters' morning
('cos it's the right thing and I ought)

Here for an eyesight inspection
post-op (trust everything's good)
'cos we're not as young as we were
and things don't work quite as they should

But we're in a good place for the checking
all thanks to the NHS
whose care and attention and treatment
is nothing short of the best

©Jemverse

Photo – stock from NHS.gov.uk

The new me

New week and new me
at least that's the intention
as I don't want to dwell or
perhaps even make mention
of what this past fortnight
has been my malaise
which sadly protracted
itself there for days

As I'm mostly I think
a quite chirpy fellow
not given to stupor or 
times when quite mellow
inactivity rules and
the mind gather dust
and an ache of the limbs
like a mildew or rust...

...takes over and holds
with insidious intent
and proclivity there
a confidence dent
It's an alien concept
which doesn't compute
engenders confusion
there oft to dispute

Polar opposite even
I'd be bold here to say
so whenever it comes
it's whisked swiftly away
and gregarious me
full of yellow not blue
comes back to the fore
as here is my due

So with that cheery thought
on this fine Monday morning
with all malaise past
and new chapter dawning
it's into the yellow
I jump with a cheer
for this is a new me
quite in evidence here

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

[The ‘malaise’ was Covid-19 to which, after over two years of caution, we finally succumbed. Fully recovered now though, I’m pleased to say]

Came up for air

I came up for air, been down there a while
it was getting quite hard to breathe
but at the edge of my sight
I saw a feint light
and knew I would there find relief

And the scent of the roses in the sweet air
was as fresh as e'er I recalled
such was the respite
from the depths of that night
it was just as if Springtime had stalled

So I breathed it deep in with lungfuls a-plenty
filling my boots with that fayre
knew life had returned
as that darkness I spurned
and seized that good moment right there

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

The Music

The music was there with something afresh
it had found and picked up on the way
Something perhaps
with live music’s lapse
that made it quite special today

Seemed the musicians had put in their all
throwing energy full in the licks
As they could not perform
‘Cos now’s not the norm
so they put all they had in the mix

And whatever they’d done the music it thrummed
as my spine tingled there with the sound
It had gusto and flair
and it hit me right there
with my feet tapping loud on the ground

And it did what it always set out to do
to the listener waiting to find
A new way to heal
the ills they all feel
as they hear something new and unwind

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

Tri-haiku XXVIII (Healing)

With no abandon
to a mediocrity
I wait with patience

Hasten the mending
the healing of wounds and ills
Bring back spring to step

For I am waiting
Breath bated, coiled to move
to those hills again

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

With the sun upon my brow

I’d like to go out walking
but need legs to get me there
and as one’s out of action
and I don’t have a spare
I’m having to make do
with sitting with a smile
as a hobble and a limp is all
I’ll manage for a while

But I can listen to my music
play a game or read a book
and with the world outside my window
there, I still can have a look
and know that with the healing
that is happening right now
It won’t be long before I’m out there
with the sun upon my brow

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics

Rocks and shins and A&E

August Bank Holiday Monday
sun is shining and it’s warm
so to the beach I should be heading
as you would ‘cos it’s the norm
Yet instead I sit in A&E
my leg still causing pain
Not my first choice I’ll admit
to be in here again
Strangely though it was the beach
just last Wednesday night
where I sustained the injury
the reason for my plight

And it’s been getting worse and worse
so much so that here now
I’m sitting in the hospital
wondering if somehow
that fall upon the shingle
when a rock and my shin met
has resulted here in something
to now give cause to fret
And it seems that I was sensible
to visit here today
to find there’s nothing broken
I am quite relieved to say

But you can see here from the photo
and the bandage round my shin
that the fall upon the shingle
really did some damaging
And the doctor’s diagnosis?
is to rest it for a week
no walkabouts or wanderings
or footfalls so to speak
So recuperation beckons
to allow the leg to mend
as lots more time down on the beach
I do intend to spend

©Jemverse

Photo – Jempics