Tuesday 21 April 2020

Poems to give you hope



Here are two poems for today, both written in troubled times. Poetry seems to speak straight to the soul and poets great gift is to comfort us and speak to parts that need help-

The first one is by Siegfried Sassoon (1886 - 1967)
He witnessed the horrors of the First World war but wrote this poem about the beauty of bird song.

                         Everybody Sang

Everyone suddenly burst out singing;
And I was filled with such delight
As prisoned birds must find in freedom
Winging wildly across the white
Orchards and dark green fields; on; on; and out of sight.

Everyone's voice was suddenly lifted,
And beauty came like the setting sun.
My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
Drifted away… O but every one
Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing
    will never be done.


the second one is by Patience Strong. Her real name was Winifred Emma May (1907 - 1990) and my mum loved listening to her poems. She wrote poetry during the Second World war to lift up people's spirits and give them hope for peace.

Forget the times of trouble but not the truths they taught.
Forget the days of sorrow but not the strength they brought.

Forget the storms you battled through beneath a heavy load
But not the Light that lead you safely down the unknown road.

I feel thankful to people who wrote poetry that sums up what we are feeling.

A poem a day, a laugh a day, something good to eat a day, a smile a day, a comforting word a day, day by day, one step at a time.

I will end on a light not with a joke

Johnny goes to the doctor

'Doctor, doctor, I keep having a recurring dream. First I'm a wigwam, then I turn into a teepee. Then I'm a wigwam again and then a teepee. What's wrong with me?

The doctor replies, 'It's very simple. You are two tents.  ( too tense)

Thursday 9 April 2020

Smile though your heart is aching



You might recognize the title of today's post as the line of a song. There are so many songs about smiling, being happy. Out on a happy face, smiley happy people having n, and the one above, smile, though your heart is aching.
Smile at  yourself in the mirror when you wake up, it's the quickest facelift ever.
Smile at your friends and family. Smile when you go on Zoom, or whatever you are using.

Here is a quote by Mother Teresa of Calcutta about smiling

Smile at each other, amile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other - and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other.




Monday 6 April 2020

I'll be missing you



Missing someone is a deeply ingrained embedded feeling within me. i have missed someone or other for as long as I can remember. It isn't a nice feeling. you could cal it a yearning, a longing and also an empty feeling of something lacking, something that you need that is not a part of you anymore, but was and you loved it. You loved it with all your being and it's not there anymore, it's like being in mourning. It never goes away.
I'm used to missing people and it doesn't make it easier just because you're used to it.
Right now everyone knows what ir feels like to miss someone. There are techniques to cope with that missing feeling, remember the happy times, treasure your memories, tell them you love them if they are still somewhere here,

Sunday 5 April 2020

TCWG Short story Journal 7



It's Palm Sunday today. I used to love being given a palm cross to take home from Sunday school. In Italy it is olive branches which are tied with ribbon and blessed.

It's someone special's birthday today. My youngest son.
The first thing I think of when there is a birthday is the cake. The first thing I do when I want to cheer myself up is bake a cake. the first thing I do when someone is coming for tea is bake a cake.
The first thing I remember doing with my mum in the kitchen was making a cake. She taught me with such patience, so gentle and sweet she was. We assembled the ingredients on the kitchen table, flour, eggs, sugar, butter. Then we weighed them out, took a large mixing bow, blue and white striped, a wooden spoon, a fork and a metal spoon.
First we creamed the butter and sugar with the wooden spoon.
When it was light and fluffy we whisked in the eggs with a fork.
When that was all mixed nicely we folded in the flour with a metal spoon.
This was the way we always made a cake. Calm, unhurried, gently, all our love going into the cake, knowing how happy everyone would be when they saw there was a cake for tea. Sometimes we would add chocolate, sometimes, lemon, sometimes coffee and walnut. It might be sandwiched together with raspberry jam and dusted with icing sugar, it might be sandwiched together with butter cream and topped with more butter cream or glace icing.
I have never used a mixer to make a cake, those motions of cream, whisk, fold bring back such sweet happy memories.

Why all this about a cake you might ask? Well it's my son's birthday, and thinking about cakes made me think that we all are a bit like a cake.
If you see pictures of those rainbow cakes, when they are sliced you see lots of different layers, each a different colour or flavour.
We are like that, on the top, the decoration might be plain, a scattering of almonds, a dusting of icing sugar or for special occasions cherries, piping, sugar figures, as fancy as you wish.
Underneath the layers for each of us is different, at the top maybe the things you share with casual acquaintances, those friendly faces you meet while out and about but you don't them very well, then another layer for more intimate friends where you will share information  about your family, the books you like reading, the films you watch, the hobbies you have. Then again another layer for closer friends and family where you will share your hopes, dreams and fears, and son on then right at the bottom there might be a dark place where you don't want to go, where your pain, disappointments, fears, nightmares lurk.


When you get down there go outside into the garden, onto the balcony and take a deep breath, look at the sky, look at the moon, the stars, the birds flying around, the swallows are already circling.
Think of a poem you like, a song that is in your heart and remember that we are all together travelling companions and looking out for each other.

Here is my poem for the day by Samuel Daniel (1562-1619) he had a to be a poet with a name like that

Now each creature joys the other
Passing happy days and hours,
One bird reports unto another
By the fall of silver showers;
Whilst the earth, our common mother,
Hath her bosom decked with flowers.

I think I will go and bake a cake now.

Thursday 2 April 2020

TCWG Short Story Journal 6



' People, people who need people are the happiest people'

'You don't realize how much I need you, love you all the time and never leave you,'

'When you go out into the traffic hold hands and stick together,

The first two lines are snippets of songs and the last one is from a book I read called 'Everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten.

That's what we must do now, stick together, help each other, in any way we can.

Obviously the front line workers are the doctors and nurses, but there are so many other people;rubbish collectors, policeman, shop assistants, lorry drivers, teachers and all the other key workers and there are so many of them.

Here is a quote from Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881) the Scottish philosopher, that might help us focus on what to do

'Our grand business undoubtedly is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.'





Wednesday 1 April 2020

TCWG SHort story Journal 5



The compliments of the season to my worthy masters and a merry first of April to us all!
Beshrew the man who on such a day as this, the general festival, should affect to stand aloof.
I love a Fool - as naturally as if I were of kith and kin to him.
I have never made an acquaintance that lasted; or a friendship that answered; with any that had some tincture of the absurd in their characters.
The more laughable blunders a man shall commit in your company, the more tests he giveth you, that he will not betray or overreach you,
And take my word for this, reader, and say a fool told it you, if you please, that he who hath not a dram of folly in his mixture, hath pounds of much worse matter in his composition.

Charles's Lamb's well-known essay on April Fools Day reminds us that there are worse faults than foolishness and that perhaps it is not wise to be wise all the time.
A little playing the fool cheers us.