Embrace the new

Hello all – I am back, just in time to chase the old year out of the door and welcome in the new with a huge sigh of relief.

Wherever you are, and whoever you are, I wish you all a wonderful 2014, whether it arrives with a bang or just waits patiently for you to notice it.

I am looking forward to change, creativity, love, peace, friends, family and happiness. Oh, and just a smidge of writing – because that’s how I roll!

I hope you enjoy my poem – Happy New Year!

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– Embrace the New –

The last moments of this year are almost departed
The countdown to next year resounds in our heads
We pause, all is silent, the moment is on us
The chimes ring out twelve times – the new year is here!

Let the London Eye spin, resplendent and glorious
With rainbow-hued lights and brilliant flame
Old River Thames reflects our festivities
Look out to the future, let our hearts beat again

What will this gift of a fresh new year bring us?
What will we learn, create or complete?
Possibilities are endless, if only we allow it
Embrace the unknown, take a chance, a blind leap

So now, let’s enjoy the chimes as they ring out
The smiles, the cheers and the old Auld Lang Syne
A fresh start, a clean sheet, a year not yet written
Happy 2014 – let adventures begin!

Holiday High Jinks

Hello, dear and faithful readers.

I had planned to write an amusing and witty poem to round off my pre-Christmas contributions to this blog, but like pie crusts, good intentions are made to be broken and blasted by other commitments such as work, which pays the bills.

I started this blog back in the spring this year with no idea in my mind that I would manage to attract such a wide readership, have so many visitors or expand my writing skills into poetry. I have met so many lovely and creative people, read wonderful work and felt my own craft develop over the weeks and months. Writing has probably saved my sanity this year. I have grown older, wiser and learned some very hard lessons along the way. I lost my dad in the summer, a pain more excruciating than anything I have felt before, and really don’t wish to repeat again for a long time. I hope this blog would make him proud. At the very least I’ve been brave enough to put myself out there and feel I can hold my head high.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who has stopped by, read, liked, commented or just trawled around to see what’s going on. You are all welcome.  I am taking a break in the countryside for the holidays, so the pages will lie fallow for a couple of weeks. I will recharge my batteries, recoup, soak up some calm and return, full of energy and food 🙂

See you all on the other side – 2014 is going to be a good one. I have already decided!

Ripples

When the words don’t come easy
When inspiration evades me
When I must gouge every word from my bound and stitched mouth
When the rhythm’s distorted
When the rhyme pattern is thwarted
When confidence is eroded by crippling self-doubt
When I shrink before mastery
When my skill is unsatisfactory
When my fountain of words is foundered by drought
That’s when I lay my soul bare
That’s when I let myself care
That’s when what I put there on the table is me
It’s my heart, soul and body
It’s what pushes and drives me
I’m a poet, a writer, and words set me free.