Gold watch a misnomer, none of that here
But I did get a pen to bring me some cheer
'Innovation' - a hybrid - it writes like a dream
a fountain/cross roller (if you get what I mean)
My choice on retirement to remember them by
an extravagance yes, but boy does this fly
a pen like no other that I've ever had
which I'll use as a writer - it won't be a fad
Proof of pudding right here as I write these lines down
with a black and gold dream to dispel any frown
The pen is a Parker ‘Innovation’. It’s a hybrid cross between a fountain pen with a nib, but with a rollerball in the middle. This was my retirement gift from my employer of 40+ years – my choice.
It seems I can write and make people smile
Even bring a few tears every once in a while
Evidenced by when a short time ago
I had cause to recite one I'd written you know
And the things good folk said and repeated again
after I'd finished with every refrain
brought tears to my eyes, I can tell you right there
Quite lovely to hear when your heart you have shared
So as it seems I can write I will do so some more
As that's what I am and what my life is for
Been thinking about what I'd say if when faced
with a dilemma of consequence when
words and a rhyme ever failed to appear
when I sat down to write with my pen
But I really don't think I have anything here
to concern myself with as my paper
with life's cornucopia of things left to say
has not failed to reveal a new caper
And even, as here, when there's no subject matter
per se - just some words strung together
there's purpose and vision and something to say
about writing and writers - whatever
So as poet to reader here's promise today
you will never be left here without
For I can't stop writing my life here in words
so I'm here to stay, have no doubt
To Rodmell to Rodmell in late summer rain
the last day of August, inclement again
but for us, opportunity, less of a pain
now we are older and wise
The Abergervenny Arms and a beer
with food for the tasting, purpose quite clear
a short drive for us and relatively near
now we are older and wise
Monk's House and Virginia later today
to see where se wrote with something to say
just like us in her footsteps out for a play
now we are older and wise
To Rodmell to Rodmell in Sussex our home
where we with more time will frequently roam
at the start of our autumn thitherward in the gloam
now we are older and wise
Monk’s House is a 16th century weatherboarded cottage in Rodmell, East Sussex. It was home to the writer Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard, who purchased it in 1919 for £700. The Woolf’s lived and worked from Monk’s House until Virginia’s death in 1941 and Leonard’s in 1969.
Photo – Virginia Woolf’s writing room – garden of Monk’s House – Jempics
Nothing like a pencil
for writing a new line
The scratch upon the paper
the leaded point so fine
Cathartic too, the sharpening
with sharpener or knife
such is the simple pleasure
a new pencil brings to life
There once was a poem, it lived in my head
where it churned and prospered and grew
Words came and went, stanzas they changed
Syntax coaxed old from the new
And unlike the ones that I write every day
this one shunned limelight and stayed
mysteriously there in the background
not yet to be up there, displayed
But then one proud day it appeared on the page
and encouraged my pen with its form
the one it had nurtured all of this time
waiting there in the wings to adorn
My Jemverse poetry blog with the rest
that I publish each day without fail
hoping to illicit from those who read
as another one here to regale
From varying places I come
sometimes from nowhere, sometimes left field
sometimes from a nuance of something
Perhaps inspiration or a fledgling spark
that imagination plucks from the cusp
presenting an image to shape and mould
from nothing to essence
from left field to right
form something to everything
And then I write
I've been writing now for ages
my pen just can't keep still
and I'm certain that will be the case
for more years yet until
I've lost the plot entirely
and the words, dried up, are done
(I'll rue the day) but then accept
that day has finally come
But I'm pleased to say for now at least
I still write every day
as life it still continues
and has plenty more to say
So that's what I use my words for
to paint the life I see
in all its many nuances
as it evolves 'round me
I've been up half the night
as sleep wouldn't come
so I took up my pen
til the morning begun
And wrote down the words
that this page now reveals
as when slumber resists
this writing, it heals
Then as the light grows
and the day takes a hold
I read back the lines
and the story I've told
And most of the time
with no exception today
I know that my words
will have something to say
So I'll keep on writing
by day or by night
as when slumber fails
I can at least write
I couldn't sleep
so wrote instead
to get the words
out from my head
The night was hot
the air was still
and slumber failed
completely 'til
the early hours
and cooler times
when I had written
all my lines
...all about me and my life in words. I write most days, carrying an ideas book around in which I capture a word snapshot of life around me. So there's a lot here about Sussex and the sea and anything else I see that inspires.
The pictures are mine too. Some taken to match a poem; some poems written to match a pic; others chosen because they work well with words written.
Jemverse is life in words. Hope you enjoy the reading as much as I enjoy the writing...
Jemverse 