Force and Feeling

Channeling forces I don't know the name of,
Feeling feelings I forgot the shame of,
Painting pictures with these words from places
Where we left all our forgotten faces.
Abstract  notions that betray our feelings,
Climbing higher 'till we hit the ceiling,
Forces found within the music playing,
Have to say I don't know if I'm staying,
Or going away to somewhere warm and kinder.
Send a postcard and I'll come and find you.

Writers' Circle

So many years ago I used to be a member of a local writers' circle. On Tuesday night I re-joined. It was a member's evening, so everyone took a photo and had to write whatever came to mind. I had the above photo, and wrote the following pieces:

First Impressions

This looks like the central or main staircase in some sort of grand house. Maybe "house" is being somewhat unkind - a castle? A mansion? A chateaux?

There's a curious lack of symmetry to the image, almost like whoever put up the lights wanted any person ascending the stairs to go to the left rather than the right.

Of course, this probably has more to do with the angle from which the photograph was taken, so maybe the photographer's thoughts were wandering to the left, and it's best left to the imagination as to why that would be.

We can see stairs going off from left to right, and in the centre a passage of sorts, leading to the same place you might find the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, that is to say, the place you can only reach via your own imagination.

Either that, or the drawing room.


Other Impressions

This is a haunted staircase. No amount of lights shining upon the walls could deter the Grey Lady when she is afoot.

Many years ago, fleeing from her cruel and violent lover, she reached the top of the last, wide flight of stairs, and could see the summer haze wisping into the house through the open front door below.

As she fell, gathering speed towards that summer haze; towards freedom, even as her life was ending in thuds and thumps and violence, she could think only of how beautiful the day outside looked.

The day she'd failed to reach.

And so, now, every summer, and only in the summer, the Grey Lady walks. She means no harm, of course. She just wants to see the sunlight.

And she wishes she could feel it, more than anything in the world.

A Memory

Could you stay a while longer?
Can’t believe it’s time for you
To leave.

Struggling to breathe
Without you here
To bathe me in your light
And stop my fear.

I’d know you in an instant
If I saw your face again
I’d forget all about now
To go back and see you then.

Forever is a long time
To keep your memory alive
But I miss you even after
The sobs have turned to sighs.

And I’ll meet you once again
On the wasteland in my dreams
And I’ll forget to ask you
Where you’ve been.

Pavements

The pavements lead to places
That my heart might yearn to find
As I wander through the city
And I try to leave behind
The person I became
When I became someone I'm not
And the things I did back then
That I would rather time forgot.
And all these urban landscapes
Seem in many ways the same
And I am looking for somebody
But I don't even know his name
For how can I know the name 
Of the love I've yet to meet
But if I just keep going,
If I keep wandering the streets...
And all around me there are people
And all the people are alone
And I don't know where I'm going
But I wish I had a home.

The Choice

When you waste away in water,
You can swim and you know you ought to,
But when you fell and no-one caught you,
It almost broke your heart.

You could die and who would miss you?
Who’d have been the last to kiss you?
Have you had enough of this?
You don’t know where to go.

To the bottom of the ocean
Dying with the downward motion
Or maybe you might get the notion
That you need to float.

And swim back up and breathe the air
And find somebody who will care
And bring you back and keep you there
And give thanks that you’re alive.

Some Kind of Love Poem

Words of anonymity
That wake you from your dream
Finding an affinity
But are you what you seem?
Wonder where you’re sending me
When you send me away.
Now your voice is mending me
In ways I cannot say.

Demons

All my demons found me
At the setting of the sun
I felt the pain surround me
And I knew I could not run

Inner voices told me
That my life would be no good
I just need you to hold me
But I know you never would.

My mind is flying higher
As it leaves my body cold
And if I were to die here
At least I'd never grow too old.