1289

There are only two

Things that make life worth living;

You - and Shakespeare!

Brian Hick June 2013

©copyright Sally Hick 2.7.25

 1279

I stood and watched a ewe give birth today;

Easily, her lamb slipped into life,

A twin, standing pristine, while she lay

Breathing softly, blooded, but the strife

Of transference, the time before the knife,

Hung easily, as though a benign earth

Held close reality, a silent midwife

Cosseting a child against the dearth

Of gentle dignity, which would deny it worth.

O looked up but saw no shepherd was in sight

No human hand had guided this gestation.

A ewe's instinct, an afternoon of bright

Spring sunshine, a meadow's germination

Out ran any human intervention,

Where silent nature, seeded to ensure

Another life, another generation,

Led the ewe to wash the lamb she bore

Then slowly turn to graze, as she had done before.

Between the blood of birth and sudden death

How little time to contemplate and dream.

No sooner on your feet than your life's breath

Is scattered to the elements, the gleam

Of promise, as your mother washed you clean,

Will vanish even quicker than my own

And all the hopes of youth, which now seem

Everything, be flushed away unknown

Long before you or I have time to sense we've grown.

Brian Hick May 2013

©copyright Sally Hick 9.6.25

 1177

They've gone to the prom - and

I have finished marking for the day.

There's nothing on TV -

I do not care to read -

But Opus 18 No 1

Is soothing as I try

To make some sense

Of where I've got to

In these last few weeks.

Moving could have been a trial

But passed by without notice.

The marking now is almost done

The job ticks over without stress

All the things I choose to do are fine.

So what is lurking, smugly, out of sight,

Weighing at the edge

Waiting to catch me off guard?

Why do I suspect

You smile?

Brian Hick June 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 5.6.24

 1143

The owl, unseen, sweeps silent on the vole;

The cat sneaks up upon the baby bird;

The tied dog howls into the coming dawn;

The brown rat scutters darkly and unheard;

Each one happy, living in the now,

Oblivious to death which lurks unreckoned

A breath away, yet cannot terrify

Where minds are focussed only this second.

          But human minds fret endelessly between

          The faulted past and the furtive void

          Knowing failure cannot be restored

          Or coming challenges, by thought, ignored.

          So we endure the present as we are toyed

          By Time which does not care to intervene.

Brian Hick March 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 25.3.24

 1136

The tide is going out and where waves turn

Small patches of damp sand appear

Dark against the brilliance of the foam

Which idles on towards the rotting pier.

The wind has dropped and some folk even risk

T-shirt and shorts to jog along the prom,

While I lean here, watching the time run by

Unconcerned at what's about to come,

Accepting that the beauty of this day

Suffices - no - is more than I could ask

And far more than I could dare demand

Of life, which wraps its warmth around my hand,

And leads me on towards a greater task

Which lies in wait, somewhere along the way.

Brian Hick March 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 14.3.24

 1092

The wings of the wind

For two long nights the wind has howled the house

 Rattling windows, drumming the kitchen roof

 Oozing through the cracks around the doors

 To chill our feet as we curl up

 With gin & tonic or repeats of Morse

And yet I'd rather be outside

 Blown away on a downland slope

 Caught for breath by the channel's surge

 Leaning against the ebb tide's force

For then my mind is scourged and cleansed

 Of all the doubts which clog and stall

 As I hear somewhere on the wind

 The wings of life beat with your call.

Brian Hick January 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 12.1.24

 1085

New Year

I have a list of things I need to do

            To fill the time from now till then

            But sense the moment will come, when

I've done them all, and fear what will ensue.

Can I find a new way to perceive

            The long gap between wake and sleep

            Which will not require me to keep

An hourly check on what I might achieve?

Can I just let time slip by;

            Ignore the email and the phone,

            Switch off the TV, be alone

Without constraint or need to question why;

Sit and read, perhaps listen to some Bach;

            Sit and write, for my own pleasure,

            Sit and think, as if this leisure

Were a gift, a chance for a new start.

Brian Hick January 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 7.1.24

 1051

The world is moving and I'm not prepared

For this constant change, where everything

Disintegrates; what was secure is pared

Beyond the bone and we can cling

To nothing save the fact that we ill die.

If we were happy, why not once again,

But what hope happines for your and I

When all around is misery and pain?

So that's it then, let's all give up and end,

Regardless of the things that we enjoy

And, when we've had a drink, maybe append

A moral for the rest - just to annoy.

'No matter that you're dying to move on;

You've only got one life - and phut, it's gone.'

Brian Hick November 2011

©copyright Sally Hick 4.12.23

 Bank Holiday - musings

I wanted to stay in and do some work

          - not that I had any work to do -

          But the sea was calling me to go

And simply be, whether or not I wrote.

Stripped to the waist, he stands upon the groin

          Posed until the moment when he flips

          Into the air and lands, to laughs and quips

From those who watch, but do not join.

Indulge each moment for we never know

          When it will simply be too late

           To gratify each other and the wait

May be too long for love to gently grow.

I took some pics while walking by the sea

          And some of them were good, but when I came

          To download them and give each one a name

I pressed delete - and so they ceased to be.

Brian Hick summer 2009

©copyright Sally Hick 24.8.22