free verse – Simon's still stanza

Please Do Not Suppose

Please Do Not Suppose

Please do not suppose

That you need

To be

Alone

In our experience.

Although some is

Especial to you

Others may know

Something

Of the tides that

Come ashore

Upon us.

At times the tide feels

Low

Others it comes a buffeting

Flattening us

Beached.

The insidious underground

Of hormones

Burrow the recesses of

Our being

We feel the change

And the energy

Ebb and flow.

But know

It’s not your fault

We too

In our own way

Feel the waves.

You are still

loved and loveable

desired by

others to connect

and share

in the fireside

of stories and dreams

delighting in your

eyes aglow

before the firelight

a sign

your spark has not

gone out.

Simon C.J. Falk 13 May 2023

Not This Time

Not This Time

Not this time

Will car and foot

Traverse

The driveway

Seasoned

All seasons

With lines of

Pepper corn trees

Harbouring bees and

Birds and shade.

Not this time to

Continue conversations

In corridors

That somehow feel

More confidential

Than back home.

Not this time

To sit in circle

Holding a simple

Cross

In the hand

And holding stories

Laughs, burdens,

Challenges of

Others lives

In the circle of the

Room,

And one’s heart,

And in the

Great Story.

Not this time.

This time

Other things emerge

But there are many times

And the gratitude endures.

Simon C.J. Falk 13 May 2023

What Frequency?

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

Pandemic Ponderings and Pain

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

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.

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

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

RATs n STATs

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

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.