Category: NaPoWriMo

NaPoWriMo – Bonus

I’d already decided that I would celebrate the anniversary of my moving here in my final poem for this year, but then this afternoon the muse struck me again (and besides, I know some of the previous ones were a bit pathetic).

North Street Chichester, Saturday afternoon

In Caffe Nero
there’s a grey-haired man
perusing a graphic novel.

And the guy by the window
is talking to a pony
disguised as a dog.

So why shouldn’t I
do my knitting?

The iced pistachio latte
is delicious, darling,
and so will be
my handmade scarf.

Linda Rushby

30 April 2022

#NaPoWriMo

NaPoWriMo Day 30 – Seven Years

Seven years
since I made this place my home.

Seven years of walking on the beach,
seven years of listening to the waves,
seven years of smelling the roses,
seven years of sipping the coffee.

And all the things I’ve done,
people I’ve met,
places I’ve been,
skills I’ve learnt,
books I’ve read,
words I’ve written,
mean nothing
so much as this:

I found my way home.

Linda Rushby 30 April 2022

#NaPoWriMo

NaPoWriMo Day 29 – Dogs on the Beach

Dogs on the beach,
sniffing the air,
sniffing the pebbles,
sniffing each other.

Barking at gulls,
barking at waves,
barking at each other.

Running in the wind,
with their fur blowing back,
and their ears blowing back,
chasing a ball,
chasing a stick,
grinning and yelping
and leaping for joy.

What lives they lead!

Linda Rushby 29 April 2022

#NaPoWriMo

NaPoWriMo Day 27 – Creation

Take a thread,
bend it, fold it,
make a loop.
Wrap it round your finger,
or a needle
or a hook.

Pull it through itself.
Repeat,
and make another,
or add another thread,
perhaps another colour.

Soon you have a chain
that you can join
to make a circle,
or turn back on itself
and feed it through
the loops you made.

And now the fabric’s thicker
and it grows through repetition.

A miracle.
From one dimension,
you created two.

Linda Rushby 27 April 2022

NaPoWriMo Day 24 – Found Poem

Ad Infinitum (found between Westbury and Salisbury)

The next station will be
Salisbury.

This is a
Great Western service to
Salisbury.

We will be calling at
Salisbury.

The next station will be
Salisbury.

This is a
Great Western service to
Salisbury.

We will be calling at
Salisbury.

We are now approaching
Salisbury,
where this service will
terminate.

Passengers for
Southampton
change to the
rail replacement bus.

Linda Rushby 24 April 2022

#NaPoWriMo

NaPoWriMo Day 23 – All Those Faces

All those faces
in all those places.
If we met again,
what would you
think of me?
And I of you?

The randomness of life,
the circles of chance
that made our paths
converge and
separate again.

The words that drift around
the cafes where I’ve sat
and eavesdropped
other people’s conversations,
the songs that play
on jukeboxes and radios.

Memories that
accumulate then fade again.
Other people’s lives
that touch mine
then move on again.

All those faces,
all those places.

23 April 2022

#NaPoWriMo

NaPoWriMo Day 22 – Up the Hill and Round the Bend

Up the Hill and Round the Bend

Wake up feeling lost and meaningless,
every little thought a source of shame.
Sun creeps through the window
telling you to go and find the morning.

Stumble round the room,
you cannot find your clothes,
you wonder why you bother, even here.

Outside, the traffic rumbles by
but up the street a little way
there must be something worth the walking.

Up the hill and round the bend,
you can’t but think
the view is better there,
there will be some surprise,
and so you go
a little further.

And every bend
will bring you to another sight,
a patch of bluebells;
bursting buds on hoary branches;
another hill, another bend.

Up the hill and round the bend,
the sea below;
the moiling waves
are never still’
and up ahead,
another hill, another bend.

Up the hill and round the bend,
closer to the gulls
whirling on their crazy paths,
now above you, now below
and up ahead,
another hill, another bend.

And so it goes,
there’ll always be a struggle
to get up the hill
and round the bend
but today you saw:
the crashing waves,
the red cliffs,
a patch of violets,
new leaves upon old trees
and the day has barely started.

Linda Rushby 22 April 2022

Dawlish, Devon

NaPoWriMo Day 21 – Poems

Ooops, sorry, a bit delayed. This was written yesterday, but I was travelling and didn’t get a chance to post.

I’ve also just written one for today, but about to rush off for breakfast and may not get round to posting till later.

Poems

Poems
scribbled in pencil
in the margins of
su doku books;
on scraps of paper,
and unfolded envelopes.

On train journeys,
or sitting in cafes,
overlooking the sea,
or staring at pot plants,
and watching passers-by.

Tapped into
the notepad function
of smart phones,
or sent as a text,
to myself.

And sometimes even
typed on a laptop
on the kitchen table
or my old PC
by my study window
overlooking the street.

Poems
can come from anywhere,
and go to anywhere
(or nowhere at all).

I am just
the conduit.

Linda Rushby 21 April 2022

#NapoWriMo