Norwich Notes
|
Repeated failure
And rejection; rebuke to
The ego: God's will? |
Put your dream into
A sack; take it down to the
River and drown it. |
Write haiku: three lines,
Seventeen syllables: more
Succinct than Twitter. |
Take a dark thought and
Nurture it - let it grow and
Grow; typical me. |
Coincidences
Surround me: old faces and
Places bubble up. |
Arbitrary signs
Imbued with significance
Turn into omens. |
Try the bars of the
Cage now; see whether the old
Cold steel will bend. |
Norfolk Shock Horror
Probe! Pudding Norton to be
Twinned with Dumpling Green. |
In the staithe, flatfish
And ruffe. Among the bones of
The old wherries - pike. |
Retreat now into
Old Norfolk: let the sluggish
Waters absolve you. |
Aberdeen; Grimsby;
Cherry Hinton and Norwich:
Bad blood in the East. |
Yes, I was much too
Far out of my life and not
Waving but drowning. |
Same town; same job; same
House; same woman: illusion
Of stability. |
Discard all hopeless
Hopes; smile now at your old
Face in the mirror. |
No lottery win;
No last minute reprieve - just
Work and family. |
At first, a place to
Go fishing - then somewhere for
The mind to wander. |
I plough old furrows
Repeatedly - throwing up
Fragments of Norfolk. |
Everything has
Unravelled now: the dream has
Died; life is just life. |
At forty-seven
Still discovering new ways
Of being nervous. |
Auden said: 'In the
Prison of his days teach the
Free man how to praise.' |
Skull-shaped, sea-bitten,
Wide-skied, church-towered, unkempt;
Older than England. |
Be hopeful only
For that which won't disappoint
You when it fails. |
Be mindful only
Of this moment - let the past
And future vanish. |
Forgive your parents;
Be good to your lovers and
Friends; horseman pass by! |
My destiny is
To have no destiny - just
Its taunting shadow. |
Untouched; untrammelled;
Uncompromised by success:
Freedom is failure. |
Albino blackbird
In Chapelfield Gardens;
Being different. |
On the road today
A dead damselfly - its blue
Wings unflickering. |
Nothing else exists
Now - only these Norfolk lanes
Rife with cow parsley. |
No fame, no money -
Just the daily uploading
Of words and photos. |
I grew up between
Two rivers: the wide, slow Yare,
The secretive Tas. |
Heat-haze shimmering
Over the tarmac: time to
Drive out to the coast. |
Hunker down and stay
Still - wait for the weather to
Change: my life story. |
Between the shaking
Hands and the nervous stomach
Life is fitted in. |
Capture the image
In seventeen syllables:
Five, seven and five. |
Don't push; don't try;
don't
Expect; stick to the valley;
Copy the river. |
Old Norwich persists:
Its medieval churches;
Its bulging graveyards. |
New Norwich insists:
Its wi-fi, its malls and its
Mobile phone shops. |
Reflected spire;
Small enough now to pick up
And carry away. |
Rediscover life;
Take your coat from the hook and
Walk to the viewpoint. |
St. Etheldreda's
Old brick tower - indistinct
With cherry blossom. |
In the underpass
A sudden gust of air brings
The smell of urine. |
Re-emergence in
Spring of that which was buried
Under ice and snow. |
Fit the new strings and
Turn the tuning pegs; listen
To the full crisp sound. |
Outside the office
Block - cigarette stubs litter
The ground like blossom. |
On the path today
Clean-licked chicken bones lie next
To a ripped bin bag. |
Buy a camera;
It will help you to see the
World differently. |
Aimless; effortless;
No direction; no time; no
Place: glimpses of Zen. |
Wrap up the Tarot
Cards and put them away; face
Life without false hope. |
Today on Mousehold
The chiffchaffs are back; listen
To them zip-zapping. |
City till I die
City till I die - I am
City till I die |
Order is restored:
Sir Thomas Browne is wearing
His striped traffic cone. |
Which one came first: the
Raging anxiety or
The deep depression? |
At Gildencroft the
Gurney family - asleep
Amongst the nettles. |
Unseasonable
Northerly - turns the cherry
Blossom into snow. |
Reclaim the morning
From the tyranny of the
Stomach's restriction. |
A breeze catches the
Venetian blind - sending a
Shiver across it. |
Today the swifts are
Back - screeching and circling
Over the rooftops. |
Intimations of
Mortality: white flecks in
This morning's stubble. |
This morning's shattered
Shop window - its crystal web
Broken but still whole. |
Beyond the City
Norfolk waits - resolutely
Unforthcoming. |
Wensum-side magpies -
Hopping and chattering: two
For joy, two for joy. |
Thong-tops; bra-straps;
small
Tattoos on the lower back:
Desire smoulders. |
Blustery, rainy,
Iron-grey Monday morning:
Hard reality. |
Scattered around the
Riverside bench lie empty
Cans of Special Brew. |
Noon sunshine, and the
Undertaker comes out for
A cigarette break. |
03.42 -
Woken by blackbird singing
In the dead of night. |
Say it this minute,
Say it clearly: I love you
Nicola J. Bushell. |
Settle into the
Cold: the sore throat, the streaming
Nose, the barking cough. |
Look at it closely:
Unalloyed reality
Here and now; always. |
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by Norfolk Tourism