What Frequency?
What frequency
Is your tinnitus?
Mine casts waves.
Of doorbell chime,
Searing security alarms,
And phones
Pinging and ringing and
Ringing and pinging.
But wait!
Is that sound of
Guitars?
And cicadas on the summer breeze,
Of banter and laughter of those
Passing by.
With a little sigh
I hear
Why fret and worry
About so many things?
Few are needed.
Let them go.
Let them be.
Be.
Simon C.J. Falk 14 January 2023
A recent poem
Recently a colleague told of turning up to an old favourite cafe. It was closed. It made me ponder some of the last two and half years. The examples are by no way exhaustive. Just samples.
Pandemic Ponderings and Pain
i.
Astride a makeshift ergo stool
A teacher MS Teams her students, while
The eyes at the back of her head
Crane to the open door behind her, where
across the hall
Her own children logon
Uniformed in headphones
To their own class.
For whom is she the teacher?
Her class? Her kids? Or society?
Before this
Hybrid was a plant
Or a car
Not a learning style.
Learning from this all.
ii.
Through fog-misted glasses
A young registrar doctor
Glances at the nurse beside her
His temples almost bleeding
From the tightness the surgical mask creates
One of doctor’s colleagues resigned last week
One of nurses fainted on shift
A head injury making her a patient.
Is the virus the only health crisis?
How do we vaccinate exhaustion?
And treat mental health?
iii.
“Permanently closed”
The sign said
The window seats
Face the Lakeside views
With no one seated on them
No scents of steam or stir-fry fill the air
Covid cancel of a cosy lunch
Fancy a delivered meal on the duvet again?
With a streaming service soundtrack.
Another small business is no more.
iv.
User-paid solitary confinement
As aged care locks down once more
A room with a view,
Maybe,
Maybe not.
What day is it?
Staff slide meals and medications into my cell.
Might as well have the virus and be in bed
There’s little else to my day.
v.
Educators
Healthcare workers
Small business people
Those in residential aged care:
We may not see you
But we gaze in your direction
We can’t count your cost
But applaud your courage
Maybe someone will come,
we hope so
To admire your class
Or refresh your mask
Or present a new business opportunity
Or invite you out of your room
We thank you
You who keep us grounded
And who forge the frontiers
Of our new normal.
Simon C.J. Falk 5 July 2022
Faces Of the Day
Faces of the day
A glint in an eye
A wan, worried expression
A loving look
Or all pursed and puzzled
Tired tints and tones.
In each face
I see a reflection
as in a mirror
A sense of common humanity
all one family
And craft of the creator.
Simon C.J. Falk 16 June 2022
Apologies to Dr Seuss
These words kept pestering me so I had to exorcise and transfer them. Sorry that you caught the transference!
The RATs n STATS
The RATS n STATs
Inhabit our flats
Where we hang up our hats
So how about that!
When will Omicron
Finally be gone?
It’s getting tough
When we’ve had enough
So today
As we go our way
We smile and say G’day
1.5 metres away
Behind masks for the fray.
We long for the morning
When we need no more warning
As we wake up yawning
When the new hope is dawning.
Simon C.J. Falk 29 January 2021
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Don’t forget to look for the #WATWB. I’ll join in when I get my act together!
Lockdown Letdown or Variations on Mark 5. 1-20
The pandemic has gone on for a long time now. People are tired. Bone tired. Resilience has run down. Some have lost work or are living in the fear of doing so. Although we know that many of the issues are complex and cannot be solved rapidly or easily, we still lose patience. In addition to our own struggles, we go online only to see the struggles of others. Their frustrations and angst are expressed or even ranted, looking for a home. Some of their angst gets transferred on to the accumulation of our own. While walking I caught this transfer happening to me. Then this happened.
Why do you want to heal me?
Who am I?
Legion
There are many of us
Faces like mine
Mirrored here
And there
And everywhere.
We are isolated and locked down
Nowhere to go
Let us out!
We can only walk or run
Around the same blocks
So many times.
We want to go to
The footy
The club
The gym
The church.
We want to hoon around
In our cars
Like bloody bogans
Terrorising old ladies
And little children
And the frazzled nerves
Of sequestered parents
Invigilating “online learning”.
We want to be out in the streets
Bawling and shouting
“My rights! My rights!”
We don’t care if we get the virus
As we’re dying in here anyhow.
Don’t try to make us feel bad
By talking of Afghanis who
Dream of being able to exercise rights
Or of earthquake affected Haitians
Who don’t have homes to have a lockdown.
We can’t fix them!
We want to be keyboard warriors
Or serve salvos of the seething stew
Boiling in our bile.
Give us our vaccination yesterday!
We are programmed consumers
And we want our product already!
Give us those police and politicians.
Let us hurl our hate at them.
How dare they do not show up to the press
Every. Single. Day.
Why should they rest?
We don’t!
Or aren’t!
Or can’t!
Let us release all our hate
On them!
Let them be
Our scapegoats
Our herd of swine
Cast into the drowning foment.
Take our torment!
Take it!
Take….
It’s … It’s… Gone?
It’s gone!
I’m free
I don’t have to lockdown
My heart
My reason
My soul
I’m free.
Simon C.J Falk 23 August 2021.
========================================
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He Spoke Into the Vacancy
He spoke
Into the vacancy
Slow, low
Spoken words
Not at all
Like the chit-chat
We began with
Now words are
Paced
Not raced but
Placed
Like offerings to
The air
And ear
That listens
Listens
First the back-story
Listens
Ah, now
Now
Here
The pain
The poverty
Of the soul
Laid bare
Kind
Of him to
Share
And share we do
The silence
The space
The questions
Again?
Yes!
Simon C.J. Falk 26 June 2021
As Ponds Reflect
As ponds reflect
The trees and sky
So do we
Reflect
People and places
Around and
Held
Within ourselves.
Simon C.J. Falk 24 May 2021
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More #WATWB coming soon!
The Emperor Had No Clothes Then No Mask
The emperor had no clothes, then
No mask.
Bare necessities
Or not
So it seems.
Strutting stridently
On his
Self-styled stage.
Emperor or jester?
Which side
Of the coin?
Simon C.J. Falk 11 October 2020
Into Denial
Denial
No, it’s not
It didn’t
Happen
You were here
Now
Denial
you are not
not denial
You were robust
Always strong
Our light
Joking
Denial
With you we were
Safe and then
Fading
Denial
You seemed
Distant
Denial
I’m not here now
And you’re not there
Not
There
Not…..
A memory left of you
But we remember
Always
Always, we remember.
Simon C.J. Falk 28 July 2020
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The Unique Art of Richard Foote
Writing about Reading and Reading about Writing
Fiction writer
There's a new sun burning, and soft fruits ripening, my precious grizzled tresses tumbling, Dylan's humming 'The times they are a changing', these parting verses are mere shadows merging ...
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Daydreaming and then, maybe, writing a poem about it. And that's my life.
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Bookworm. Poet. Story-teller.
Dogs*Life*Music*Photography*Travel*Writing
NO RULES FOR THIS GAME
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Stories and photos from Scotland
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Simon's still stanza 