guitars | Mercury Ascends

Poem: ‘August in Yesteryear’

Posted on August 18, 2012 by Leofwine Tanner

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Summer was once ices poles and living
on bikes; we were free like swifts
screaming circles in the air. Greens
were for football and teams twenty a side,
roads for playing cricket, where cars
were stalling aberrations. We lay
on lawns watching clouds, minds unfettered
in those zenith blues; guilt
and care belonged to
some other world and school
might well have been
beyond the moon.

Only later came guitars with boys’ awakenings;
serenading neighbours
sunbathing in the yard, or the shock
of full moons rising late in the day. We really
thought we had credence, like southern
Skynyrd boys, singing in that
sultry heat with school coming at us
like banks of cloud, the football season
begun and cricket nearing its end,
watching shadows gathering
where the sun once shone

poem © copyright David F. Barker 2012

Poem ‘The Californian’

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Leofwine Tanner

The Californian

To this day I don’t know for sure
who you were.
You sounded American
and dressed like a Californian,
or that’s how it seemed
to my parochial mind.

I wasn’t used to your friendliness,
being spoken to so kindly
by a complete stranger,
but then, that was the thing —
I felt I knew you.
Why didn’t I ask your name?

The event had brought us together.
Now we waited for the train
to take us back through Cumbria’s
rounded hills, always threatened by rain.
And true to form, despite it being July,
we found ourselves sheltering
in a little cafe, sipping bad coffee
made more palatable with cream.
That’s where I saw you surfing
in my mind’s eye,
feeling that smelting sun sink
beyond an ocean of glass.
We had just enough time
to assess our few days
in the company of a Buddha.
At least that’s what we said, if I recall,
and that we, too, might be Bodhisattvas!
And who’s to say we weren’t right?

Even now, when I play that album,
I keep looking at the picture
of the kind-looking man, all smiles,
with the sweet and beaten guitar.
He still looks an awful lot like you

poem and image © copyright df barker 2012

Poem ‘Brief’

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Leofwine Tanner

Brief

Of the class of ’77
to my mind you were the best

Diamond moments
in empty halls,
instruments lying at your mercy,

each note, every chord
an affable smile
pavilioned in memory

How could you
be so brief,
this grief be so long?

image and poem © copyright dfbarker 2012

Versatile Blogger Award

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Leofwine Tanner

Many grateful thanks go to Lauren at http://lscotthoughts.com/ for nominating me for this award. I feel lucky to have even one person look at my blog, which has only been wound up to anything like ‘full capacity’ in the last few weeks. I am grateful to everyone, and apologies to all if I seem a little rusty or ‘green’, I’m not very good at keeping up to pace!

And the rules for the Versatile Blogger Award is :

1. Nominate 15 fellow bloggers.
2. Inform the bloggers of their nomination.
3. Share 7 random things about yourself.
4. Thank the blogger who nominated you.
5. Add the Versatile Blogger Award pic on your blog post.

1. When I was three or four I used to tinker on an old harmonium and make up songs about werewolves.

2. I was born almost exactly on top of the Greenwich Meridian line.

3. I’ve always loved music as well as writing and painting and in the past have owned far too many guitars.

4. I was brought up in an agricultural community which seemed very old fashioned, even in the 70s.

5. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a cat (or two).

6. Like over 90% of the English population, I am descended from Edward III

7. Unfortunately (or should it be ‘fortunately’?, like nearly everyone in western Europe (and many in North America, Australasia etc..) I am also descended from Charlemagne.

Now, it’s time to nominate 15 bloggers:

http://kiranchawla44.wordpress.com/

http://justsimplyinlove.wordpress.com/

http://swansongsandprose.wordpress.com/

http://newprairiestore.wordpress.com/

http://poesiepocketsandpapercuts.wordpress.com/

http://journeyintopoetry.wordpress.com/

http://Catsnco.wordpress.com/

http://granbee.wordpress.com/

http://DancingAntelope.com/

http://littleskew.wordpress.com/

http://rhernandezpoetry.com/