Beechings Blunder III

Forlorn now this iron leads to nowhere
save to a shortsighted whim
synonymous to abandoned towns
where Beeching's blunder echos still

Yet testament still here they lie
as memory fades with brittle truth reminder
tracking to long lost connections
and a politician's gain

©Jemverse

Photo – aging tracks from the Barcombe line, closed following the Beeching cuts in 1969 – Jempics

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Tri-haiku X (tears)

To open your eyes
as bright sparkles sting and fall
It’s ok to cry

Embrace my sorrow
But then tomorrow bring smiles
that I may see joy

As sometimes a tear
will fall from my eyes with joy
as something moves me

©Jemverse

Gone

When I was last in Cardiff
the old hotel was there
Boarded up and derelict
yet still with life to share

But now it’s been demolished
leaving just an empty space
Its bygone age has left us
with a sadness in its place

So I’m pleased I took a photo
when I was last down here
For a memory to capture
something which I now hold dear

©Jemverse

Secret Places

It’s hidden by the railway line
unkempt for many years
and if the Signalman could see it now
he’s be reduced to tears
Once known as Railway Gardens
when the signal box was there
Nestled just behind the sign
that warned us “Trains – beware”

But like the age of steam before us
progress has its downside too
as the garden is untended
and hidden now from view
So it’s become a secret place
to which no-one will go
hidden by the railway line
where weeds and brambles grow

©Jemverse

See also ‘Railway Gardens‘ (published on Jemverse – 26/12/14)

Summer’s Child – tanka

Thoughts turn to summer
upon these cold winter days
and a part of me
hibernates and pines away
Here, bereft, cries ‘Summer’s Child’

©Jemverse

Day 3 of 7 in the Jemverse ‘Five Lines’ event – a tanka a day for 7 days.

A tanka is a five-line non-rhyming poem of Japanese origin dating back almost 1200 years. Using simile, metaphor and personification, the five lines must follow a syllabic sequence of 5, 7, 5, 7, 7.

A fall from grace II

Sadly now the Bridgewater Canal
a shadow of its glory days
is almost forgotten and hidden from view
in Manchester’s streets and broadways
Now twenty-first century pubs and bars
vie for trade where once it was steel
Nightlife and partying along its towpath
hide a wound that time cannot heal

Long gone now the barges the smog and the grime
the lock gates closed up and unused
As a new generation seals the fate
of a history now lost and abused
But the wealth and prosperity cannot be ignored
which these waterways brought to this place
Its legacy there in continuing growth
in spite of its slow fall from grace

©Jemverse

Part II of the ‘Fall from grace’ trilogy
Part I – 6 October
Part III – 8 October

A fall from grace I

There’s a boat on the river
that’s sad and bereft
For I’m sorry to say
there’s not a lot of it left
Abandoned to fate
several years ago now
It’s slowly been fading
from its stern to its bow

It’s been vandalised and
set on fire once or twice
and been covered in graffiti
which of course isn’t nice
Bits of it gradually
have washed out to sea
As its structure has failed
on its final journey

Yet despite all this trouble
it remains in the place
where it was last moored
on its first fall from grace
So with the eye of my camera
and the voice of my pen
I’ll record its demise
as I pass now and then

For I don’t know how long
its salted beams will
remain visible here
so I’ll continue until
It finally disintegrates
and succumbs to the deep
can no longer be seen
and finds peaceful sleep

 

©Jemverse

Part I in the ‘Fall from Grace’ trilogy
Part II – 7 October
Part III – 8 October

Remembering

I think that now you would be proud
of all I have achieved
But on that day in seventy-four
I merely felt deceived
I was fifteen then and, waking rude
my sunshine went away
with suits upon the doorstep
on that dark and painful day
A long, black car, a hated suit
The deep hole in the ground
The falling ring upon the wood
That lonely, hollow sound
Bereft back then but I have lived
a life since that sad day
as two and forty years have passed
since Daddy passed away
So on this nineteenth day of second month
I’ll raise a glass to you
Recalling fifteen precious years
with the father that I knew

©Jemverse

Garden II

I have a parcel of land
out the back where I live
Which comes alive in the summer
when it’s superlative

But in winter it’s neglected
and gets quite overgrown
Too cold to sit out there
and the grass stays un-mown

I’ll still take a picture though
every once in a while
‘Cos even though I’m not out there
it still brings a smile

©Jemverse

The last breath

One tiny splash of summer colour clings
Alone and fragile there
Abandoned by warmth it sadly sings
With its last breath to share

©Jemverse