Category: A New Poem Every Morning #2

That One Small Thing You Leave Behind

lindastudley9 Comments

Pack the toothbrush, paste, and floss
Pack the tablet (it takes less space)
and all the things you grab and toss
into the rucksack just in case.

What’s the weather like? Do I
need sweaters or a bathing suit?
Sandals, dress shoes, hikers, slippers,
maybe even rubber boots?

How many pairs of pants and shirts?
(Short sleeve, long sleeve, no sleeve, tanks.)
Shorts or slacks, jeans or skirts?
Good grief my mind has just gone blank.

At some point you just have to stop,
assume you’ve got all you should bring
you zip the zip – slap on the lock,
and leave behind that one small thing.

#178

Kindness Addiction

lindastudley2 Comments

It’s addictive.
Using your powers of observation,
not to find fault, or problems, or
reasons why something won’t work,
but to find success.
To find success,
not just in your own life,
but in the lives of those around you,
and then to speak up and tell them.
Tell them that you see the things they do,
admire their talent and passion, appreciate
their kindness and compassion.
It’s addictive I tell you.
It makes people smile, it liberates you
from thinking everything needs to revolve
around yourself.
It’s contagious too.
Observe – appreciate – then actually say something nice.
Get hooked.

#177

My Life – Purchasing Music

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Teenager buys record
pulls on big headphones to listen to music
so parents won’t complain about the noise.
Glue a penny to the tone arm to combat scratch damage.

Twenty-something – popping 8-Tracks
into the car stereo, (use a guitar pick
to shim it when it gets loose). The inevitable
CLUNK in the middle of your favourite song.

Time rocks on and the cassettes,
never in their cases, slither across the car floor.
“Pass me a Bic pen, the tape’s too loose.”
You’ve just about replaced your whole music library when…

Compact Disc – Stick it in a portable CD player and
plug in your earbuds. Jewel case splinters, ‘liner notes’
you need a magnifying glass to read, and one thumb
print and the music stops.

MP3 – compress that music so you can fit thousands of songs
on a postage stamp. Quantity over quality?
Perfect for pod-people, but at least the cost
of CDs goes down.

Flashback. Back to headphones. Back to vinyl. Is this the end?
Am I back in time listening to records again. Why
didn’t I keep those records…

Pono? What’s Pono?
Here we go again.
How many times do I have to buy the White Album?

#176

I Will Have Colour

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I love colour.
Lots of colour.
Reds that drip rich and round
like drops of blood or plush
like the velvet linings of wooden
boxes filled with love and
secrets. Blue like the soft Chinook
arch promise, the pool of indigo ink
in the sky that thins royally
around the hard white stars, or
turquoise – jealous and sad
in eqal parts – green and blue.
Yellow, the tart lemony show off
and her sister, orange, older and wiser
and less prone to manic happiness.
Green, like a Gaian Goddess, complex
with shades and depths beyond profound,
from giggling sprouts of tender spring
to ancient bough breathing eternal shade.
Purple, oh, purple, colour of kings, that
blooms in bruises and other hidden places.
How the violets love to bathe in your glory.
Colour.
I will have colour.

#172

 

A New ‘New Beginning’

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New beginnings are seductive dictators.
Bold and confident, they dangle promises like carrots
before our soft and pouting muzzles.
If we will just stick to the plan we will achieve that Nirvana,
that ‘one day’ that has eluded us for decades, that end
of the rainbow where everything falls into place.
But new beginnings are notorious for not factoring
inertia into their calculations.
Climbing up the hill is hard work.
Rolling down it is so much more fun.
New beginnings still whisper their siren song,
but I have thrown off the dictator. I will revel
in the means rather than the ends.
Henceforth all my new beginnings will have one thing in common.
They will all be fun.

#171