In the Fall

In the Fall
Everything falls earthward
It should be a time of

Desolation
Despair
Disillusionment

At Summer’s end.

But Autumn leaves
Turning to their brightest
Most gloriously
Inventive
Artistic
Enthusiastic
Sublime embrace
Of life.

In death
Nature shines
Puts on her
Royal robes
And parades
Across the land
Dancing in the wind,
In glory.

And why?

Because she knows
This is just the beginning
That after a winter retreat
There will be new life
New beginnings.

This is not death at all
This is life conquering death
Looking for tomorrow.

Poem and photo copyright Englepip ©

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On Chesil Beach

All a long the shore they lie,
Staring at a cloudless sky
Helpless and broken
On a bed of stones.

No gull swoops to devour them
No dog to crunch their  bones
Motionless, unwanted
None can hear their moans.

Unburied and discarded,
Helpless, rigid souls,
Staring up at heaven
Near where the huge sea rolls.

And always the sea batters
Upon this beach so cold
Pounding and back-gurgling
Stones millennia old.

For aeons past this beach has rolled
These stones so round and smooth;
What chance have fragile life-forms,
Against the force of time untold?

Words and photo copyright Englepip©

Chesil beach is a vey impressive “elemental” place. It is very hard to walk on and is vast and challenging. If you are interested, please follow this link to find out more here.

 

 

Stumpy

I lift, I try, I try to fly
My wings I flex to do those tricks
My mother does, my father does
But I’m still just a ball of fuzz.

I know you’re s’posed to flap a bit
To work those muscles, not just sit
But here I stay, feet on the ground
My wings I think must be unsound.

They’re stumpy, there’s no doubting it
They’ve no real feathers I admit
But maybe if I flex them lots
My wings will grow and you’ll see what’s

The outcome when I grow  so tall
With feathers  great and neck so long
I’ll be a fine fellow with a honking call
And you’ll look at me and be enthralled

And we won’t recall this little bit
When wings are wrong and just don’t fit
Will we?

Verse and photo copyright Englepip©

Vehicles

 

When your life has fallen to pieces

And you don’t know where to turn

When you seem to have lost the momentum

And can’t tell where to go

When you feel all alone among strangers

And cannot find a friend

You’re like an engine

That needs an overhaul

A bike locked up by its wheel

A bus that’s devoid of passengers

 

Don’t give up, in time you can heal.

 

But reject thoughts that turn you inwards

Care for others before yourself

Move towards the helpless and hapless

Help them find new channels to cope

And soon you’ll be aware and realise

Your own vehicle’s about to restart!

 

There are a lot of people who suffer from clinical depression and believe me I do not dismiss this illness – it is real.  But for most people, short term set-back strikes us all at certain times of our lives and we can feel very depressed. For this, I believe time will heal. However I also believe there is a point when dwelling on our own problems becomes a heavy burden and that by looking beyond ourselves we can make a difference to others and that by helping them we promote  and speed up our own healing too,  so we can restart our own living.

via Daily Prompt: Restart

Daily Prompt: White Rose

A winter’s day

And already the sun is low on the horizon

A chill creeps through the air

As the light sinks.

The graveyard settles into shadow

And night.

At my feet lie the dead.

Buried beneath the cold clods

Stones at their heads that read

Of poetic loss and grief at their passing.

“Beloved son”, “Loving mother,”

“Sacred to the memory.”

The once living

Now lie inanimate,

Six feet under.

Waiting: for what?

For eternity, for heaven or for hell?

Certainly, their release from this life passed,

Is there death, new life, resurrection?

For this is a Christian place.

As I turn to go,

I retrieve a discarded rose,

White and innocent in the dewy grass

And I place it on the moss-covered  wall

Between the sacred land and the unconsecrated.

Is it for me to sympathise in death or

To celebrate of the life to come?

 

We shall all find out in time.

 

Words and photo copyright to Englepip©

via Daily Prompt: Sympathize

Colours

Grey, damp and depressing and

The sun hovers just above the horizon

So that days are short and nights long.

A chill envelops me and I cough

Cough up my guts and sniffle.

Oh for summer months and

warm, long days with flowers

In the garden – a sensation  of

Colour and scents and glory

At life so profuse. It will come.

And in the meantime, I will dream.

 

Words and photo copyright Englepip©

 

via Daily Prompt: Profuse

Daily Prompt: Out there

 

 

The wind whistles around the entrance to the cave

And a dull day brings rain, beating against the rocks

And swishing inwards, pock-marking the sandy entrance.

The swell rises and the spray adds to the dampness

Out there.

 

Out there are monsters of the deep, curling cunning tentacles

Around the unsuspecting prey.

Out there are the sharks, patrolling the shoreline for a tasty meal

Homing in on splashing and signs of distress.

Out there are the jellyfish, floating like ghosts

Just beneath the surface, tentacles ready.

 

But also ….

 

There are sea-lions clapping their flippers

Lying  as though sunbathing, even in a squall,

Resting at ease in the undulations of the waves.

There are sea-singing whales,  splashing in the ocean

Blowing great fountains and spurts high into the air

Where they play.

And there are the dolphins, racing and leaping and

Laughing in the surf which beats the shore.

 

In here it is warmer.

In here is protected from the elements

From life.

In here is washed up detritus

Excrement of seagulls and skeletons of bats.

 

I can see from my cavity in the rock wall

All manner of life: I can observe others living.

Maybe if the sun shines, I should emerge

And risk dipping my foot in the ocean of life

Maybe I should take a short swim

And see what life brings.

 

 

This is a symbolic poem as well as a description of what it is like to be in a dry cave above the swelling ocean. We all have choices in our lives. Some find a safe hide away, ‘a cavity in the rock face of life’  if you will, from which they are frightened to emerge. It seems safe but is impoverished in what it offers as an experience of life. Out there, there is fear no doubt, but there is also laughter, joy and beauty. We cannot, in my opinion, live life to the full without a little risk taking and sampling other things. I believe we should get out there and enjoy and marvel at the good in the world, rather than live in fear and experience nothing.

Words and photos copyright Englepip©

via Daily Prompt: Cavity

Greetings: Leaping into the future

 

Whatever life’s chances have brought us

We must finally leave

Past behind:

Take heart that the future’s

Before us, untouched

Life’s a new path to find.

Pristine,  the new year

Lies awaiting

Like a newborn entering the world.

Take care of your

Future chances

Give thanks for,

And nourish each day.

Happy 2018 to all readers.

 

Copyright Englepip © poem and photo.

 

 

 Daily Prompt finally

Time flies

Sometimes things just get in the way

Too much to do and too  much to say.

Sometimes  busyness takes us over,

Hard to live, when jobs spillover.

Sometimes those we love get ignored

They take up time we cannot afford.

Sometimes time just runs away

And it’s gone before the end of the day.

And if you think I’m just being witty

Wasting your time with a rhyme or a ditty

Then consider the following if you can

What’s the purpose of every (wo)man

If we can’t laugh, love, lead a life that’s true

Cos we’re making  excuses that our time flew,

Telling each other there’s no time for you.

Then who are we really and do we deserve

To even exist  on this wonderful earth?

So take a moment, a minute, or even an hour

To balance your life and take back the power:

To make your life calmer, even serene:

To begin to remember who you’ve been

Before things took over and time became mean.

Then life will improve and you will feel new;

Take time to consider how time plays with you.

 

Photo by Englepip©

 

via Daily Prompt: Witty

Daily Prompt: The focused butterfly

Original photograph by Englepip© 

Sometimes my attention wanders

And I look out of the window

And daydream

Of the summer sun and butterflies.

They, like my mind, go wandering,

Fluttering from leaf to flower

Or word to thought

From sky to plant,

Or dream to reality.

And this brings me back to

Focus on the very thing

Which sent me rambling in the first place:

The butterfly.

And as I watch its solid concentration and focus

On the things that really matter,

I realise I have too much,

Too much irrelevance in my life;

But if I focus

And make the most of every moment

Like the butterfly,

Seeking only the best for my mind, my body

My spirit and my heart

I will too will find happiness

And focus.

 

Worth a thought?

 

via Daily Prompt: Focused