Inspired after reading ‘turning up fresh’ by Ren
Dropping In – 21st October 2025
Month: October 2025
Never had a need for others’
politics, rules or opinions;
The Knowing – 20th October 2025
Inspired by this piece of writing by Maia at Tiny Hearts, though I was less explicit.
Life’s echoes return soon –
your reflections reveal the blame.
A child’s plea, a tide pulled by an invisible moon,
a candle waiting for a flame.
Love is not held tight with a closed fist
but free to flow from an open palm.
The heart not so easily dismissed
from the banks of a river, calm.
The knowing grows in a room
with all the windows open wide.
Gut feelings fall down too soon
if you’re never looking outside.
The deeper reading of the maps
will quiet the storms in advance.
The heart becomes a harbour, perhaps
to contemplate this dance.
Some Surrender – 19th October 2025
The both of me are struggling inside
One wants to just enjoy the ride
A hedonist with parties to attend
A firestorm with fuel to spend
Better to burn out than fade away?
So, tonight is the time to play
…Tomorrow, I’ll write down everything…
The both of me, struggling to get out
The anxious side, processing doubt
Every word needs to be remembered
So that some time must be surrendered
If all this savouring gets rephrased
Will it be somehow falsely praised?
Did it really happen as we say?
The feeling is that it must be done today…
…Tomorrow, I’ll write down everything…
The both of me are struggling to win
A desperate balance being fought within
This happiness must be documented
Not pass by forgotten and lamented
So tonight I’ll simply sigh and say
That if it cannot be done today
…Tomorrow, I’ll write down everything…
Shared with W3 #181 – a bop poem. This poem was inspired by this week’s dVerse prompt, using a line from a Günter Grass poem as a refrain. I saw this line, “…Tomorrow, I’ll write down everything…” used in the poem ‘Tomorrow’ and along with the word ‘bop’, this reminded me (again!) of the dilemma Jack Kerouac would face when having fun with his friends but wanting to rush home to write it down before it got forgotten to the mists of time. I see that I have written this poem before, too! Perhaps this is part two?
In the first stanza, I reference Firestorm, a DC comic character that at one time was two different people inside one body, often struggling with decisions. This came to mind as I had been reading it last night.
Ice Age – 18th October 2025
Shared with dVerse MTB quatern and utilising the phrase ‘what happens when the river stops‘ taken from Günter Grass’s ‘What I write about’.
What happens when the river stops
flowing towards its final form,
to meet dissolution, consumed
in a roiling ghost of gestalt?
Gathering stagnation – is that
what happens when the river stops?
Dammed many times along the way,
it aches to carve a deeper chart;
Breath seeping into the soft soils,
probing for any solve to see
what happens. When the river stops,
frozen skin, a trick of the light,
conceals the hand of destiny
on swirling tides of history.
I find I do not want to know
what happens when the river stops.
Empty Chest – 17th October 2025
Amid grief, it seems easy to find words to comfort others, yet a struggle to find them for yourself. This poem was somewhat inspired by this write from Carol Anne at Therapy Bits
I’ve got an empty chest
I never knew that you used to fill;
I can’t run from it,
always following me,
your hollow shadow;
The sunlight that lit up your eyes
is dimmer now;
The daylight holds no more promises,
no shine left in the sun;
All the time was no time at all;
Where did you go?
I’ve done this before and I know
the ghosts will always haunt
until they become familiar again;
When I leave,
I will leave no empty chests.
Ride Of The Dullahan – 16th October 2025
Shared with dVerse Poetics – headless horseman. I learned a little about Irish folklore while writing this.
in search of final harvests
on a stallion carved of midnight,
its four falling anvils
spark cold dread from cobblestones
his lantern grins with soft decay
the texture of mouldy cheese
the pallor of the moon
that stains a long-forgotten tomb
twin gateways pierce all things hidden
compelling every secret to be shed
unlocking all that’s tethered by a name
hold your golden pins tight
Bus Ride To Bondi – 15th October 2025
Another true story. Shared with dVerse Prosery and to incorporate the following phrase
What will I do there
without my hands upon
your summer face?
from ‘Oh Umbrellas’ by Jeffrey Hermann.
the long bus ride
didn’t feel that way
a sea breeze
of anticipation
your yellow summer
dress highlighting
your tan, smooth skin
and holding my gaze
we hung on to each other
our words and communion
as the world
ran towards the surf
Oh! That was our time!
do you think of that now
on different beaches?
I’ll take the bus ride
one more time
to hold on to you
…but…
what will I do there
without my hands upon
your summer face?
will the memory
be enough
for the long journey home?
In Silence – 14th October 2025
Maybe not a helpful admission,
I’m not sure where I stand these days;
as the ground shifts
exposing each other’s rifts,
it hardens without permission
and uncertainty sings its praise.
The world, beautiful but broken;
my temperament wishes no further harm;
no left or right
or centre might
have, to me, truly spoken
and guided me towards a calm.
My reason searches for the true
to ease the burden of each other’s sorrow;
how easy it is to break,
to forget to give and take;
cautious and careful in what I do
when nothing is certain tomorrow.
Not knowing what I’m talking about;
does the world need to hear that voice?
Listening to all divergent views
makes me ever more confused
so that when still filled with doubt
silence is my choice.
So maybe I just stand with my art,
valuing the deed over the word;
to the fragile flickering spirit bring
a striving for such praise to sing;
At least, it’s a place to start
so that the silence will still be heard.
Inspired and paraphrased from the Red Hand Files (again!) #337 and for the GloProWriMo Day 20 prompt:
write a poem informed by musical phrasing or melody that employs some form of soundplay (rhyme, meter, assonance, alliteration). Also, the poem ‘In Evening Air by Theodore Roethke was suggested as an example, and I used the rhyming form, which I found quite pleasant and I think worked very well.
18th Dec 2025 – shared with What’s Going On – Silence
Charlie Zero The Poet Music picks & Reviews #24 and my quick thoughts:
MockART – Some nice noise here that is keeping my brain active whilst trying to download an upload for my computer so that I can practice guitar again, since something has messed up one of the apps I like to use. Not sure that I would listen to this at any other time though!
Wet Nurse – Fractured and somewhat scary energy here. It’s interesting for sure but a bit too disturbing for me these days. About 20 years ago I would’ve been all over this.
Meira Asher – Interesting punk hip hop that reminds me of some similar weird freaks I met from Japan in the 00s. I like the more rhythmic tracks over the atmospheric ones.
Half Empty Glasshouse – I have their albums already but had forgotten about them. Lots of time changes and genre warping. This is my kinda jam for sure.
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – ditto
Sostenuto Monotetra – 13th October 2025
Melodies found within the pain
Lift it up, put it down again
Black or white, they will both remain
Hold and sustain, hold and sustain
Things may not go as you had planned
Falling apart and out of hand
Like counting every grain of sand
Keeping on and….keeping on and….
I’m slowly visiting GloPoWriMo prompts from April, as I didn’t follow them at the time. This prompt, from April 1st, was to use a musical term previously unknown to the writer, in my case sostenuto and for extra inspiration, I searched for a form that I hadn’t used before, too – monotetra.
October’s Monologue – 12th October 2025
Shared with Poets and Storytellers United – October. Looks like I kinda wrote another autumn/seasonal poem!
1994ever 