For my post today please enjoy this poem from my Beloved which pretty much sums up the changing sea that we have been swimming in for the last three years!
The Constant Sea of Change
I awoke and spent my pre-alarm minutes
gazing thoughtlessly,
I’d never noticed the morning colour of the walls before
or the way sunlight comes through that lemon tree.
Strange to be leaving, packing our boxes,
just to transport, unpack and re-arrange;p
everything’s falling apart and rearranging itself
in the constant sea of change.
The seasons are shifting, the citrus harvest is over.
My baby’s getting home from work before it’s dark.
And that flu that’s been niggling around the edges
has morphed into a cough that sounds like a bark
We kept the bugs at bay with oranges and lemons
and whisky imbued with the medical efficacy
of garlic and ginger, spices and honey
and we toasted life’s bewildering complexity.
Nothing like a lingering cold
to emphasise my brain’s impertinence!
Expecting to be spared vicissitudes
whilst on a sea of continual impermanence!
In a room full of boxes and books and clothes
my woman tells me about her week.
Half hearing the words as she chats and smiles,
while I feel the softness of her cheek.
3 years ago she was a stranger,
and in 8 weeks she’ll be my wife.
There’s plenty to enjoy if you can stay open
amidst the impermanence of life.
The unusual becomes the familiar,
an old habits new seem strange.
everything shifts and becomes something else
in the constant sea of change.
A Willy-wagtail agrees in the twigs and leaves
as he dances in winter sunshine.
Looping and strutting, breast swollen with song,
calling to the mate he intends to find
Out there she awaits and here he gyrates,
inviting her to a dalliance;
His passion finding its way through the fog
of life’s beguiling transience
It’s strange visiting my future mother-in-law
and not seeing her little black cat.
All those hours spent patting the schmoozy bastard
and now he’s gone – ! – just like that.
Taken by a tick in the prime of his life,
another reminder that everything is temporary.
The sea of change is also the sea
of life’s fragility.
So we’re moving tomorrow, it’s late winter
and please God don’t send us any more rain.
Our boxes are packed and we’re as prepared as can be
to do it all over again.
And the unusual will slowly become familiar
and what’s now familiar will soon seem strange.
Not good, not bad, just the way things are:
the constant sea of change.
Brendan O’Shea (2016)
If you like this poem then you may be interested in the album coming out very soon, “Tales of the Rainbow Gnome” by Brendan O’Shea. Watch this space!
Through the Vortex 