I no longer use this blog - It would help me very much if you would visit my new website:
http://joanna77.vpweb.co.uk and follow me on the link at the bottom of the home page!
Thankyou so much!
JoAnna (also known as Juliet or Helen)
Monday, 29 August 2011
Saturday, 6 August 2011
New website
I have now created a new website - http://joanna77.vpweb.co.uk I would love you to visit me there! Please let me know that you have visited by replying to my blog on the new website, or completing the contact form.
Thankyou!
Thankyou!
Friday, 2 July 2010
Just trust
No choice - but to trust now
A reluctant choice…
But one that enlarges, strengthens
Changes me
The controls … out of my reach
Nothing I can do…
Will alter things…
I must just walk, faithfully
Choosing your peace
When anxiety would overwhelm
Every desire, every instinct
Is to sort things out
Change things for the better
But … I can’t reach the controls
That shape my life
Forced…
To live … one day at a time
Not knowing what tomorrow will bring
Can’t plan for the future
Too many unknowns
No security in jobs, finance
Or planning.
I dreamt I was going somewhere
Peaceful to think things through
Plan … find a solution
But that was just a dream
Instead - I must learn to live with
Uncertainty, the unknown
To trust …
Hold on to your word
That when one source of supply
Runs dry
There will be a new supply…
My attempts
To sort things out
Has left me worse off …
Than before.
No choice…
All I can do is trust
Put my future…and harder
than that …
the future of those that I love …
in Your strong hands
and simply trust
You…
A reluctant choice…
But one that enlarges, strengthens
Changes me
The controls … out of my reach
Nothing I can do…
Will alter things…
I must just walk, faithfully
Choosing your peace
When anxiety would overwhelm
Every desire, every instinct
Is to sort things out
Change things for the better
But … I can’t reach the controls
That shape my life
Forced…
To live … one day at a time
Not knowing what tomorrow will bring
Can’t plan for the future
Too many unknowns
No security in jobs, finance
Or planning.
I dreamt I was going somewhere
Peaceful to think things through
Plan … find a solution
But that was just a dream
Instead - I must learn to live with
Uncertainty, the unknown
To trust …
Hold on to your word
That when one source of supply
Runs dry
There will be a new supply…
My attempts
To sort things out
Has left me worse off …
Than before.
No choice…
All I can do is trust
Put my future…and harder
than that …
the future of those that I love …
in Your strong hands
and simply trust
You…
Monday, 23 March 2009
Memorable Meal
This is a poem which is based on an experience I had - when we had to sell our home, due to the failure of my husband's business, when his business partner was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The 'story' is partially fictionalised, but inspired by our true story.
Memorable Meal
They sit amongst cardboard boxes and rubbish sacks,
dirty crockery stacked on granite work-tops,
take-away containers, half-eaten plates of Sri-Lankan food.
One final meal in the home they have taken twenty years
to create, hastily eaten with friends… come to help
dismantle their life: take it apart piece by piece, like the
old wardrobe, now lying with hinges unscrewed and bolts undone,
dishevelled, displaced, in a heap on the kitchen floor.
She clenches her eyelids in a futile attempt to stop the tears
as she sorts through her children’s toys, throws her
daughter’s drawings away, her son’s first pair of shoes,
trying not to tear his favourite posters as she removes
them from the room where he was born, their lives
destroyed by the words: ‘six months to live’…
Future plans discarded, memories and treasures
hurriedly packed away, perhaps to be resurrected one day.
Memorable Meal
They sit amongst cardboard boxes and rubbish sacks,
dirty crockery stacked on granite work-tops,
take-away containers, half-eaten plates of Sri-Lankan food.
One final meal in the home they have taken twenty years
to create, hastily eaten with friends… come to help
dismantle their life: take it apart piece by piece, like the
old wardrobe, now lying with hinges unscrewed and bolts undone,
dishevelled, displaced, in a heap on the kitchen floor.
She clenches her eyelids in a futile attempt to stop the tears
as she sorts through her children’s toys, throws her
daughter’s drawings away, her son’s first pair of shoes,
trying not to tear his favourite posters as she removes
them from the room where he was born, their lives
destroyed by the words: ‘six months to live’…
Future plans discarded, memories and treasures
hurriedly packed away, perhaps to be resurrected one day.
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Inverkirkaig Bay
I wrote this poem, when holiday near Lochinver in NW Scotland in 2007 - an attempt to describe the beautiful and peaceful location, which inspired the poet Norman MacCaig, to write many of his poems!
I hope to go back there again soon!
Inverkirkaig Bay
A clock ticks away the solitary hours
the occasional cry of a bird
wind sighs through blue-green firs
a single car makes its way
slowly...
along the shore road
The sleepy sound of water
swaying against the stones in the bay
the hushed chattering of crickets
a bee buzzes past my window
meandering on its way
collecting nectar
from purple flowers on the hillside.
Lazy sunshine peers through white mist
silver-sparkling patterns on grey wrinked waters
So far away from the busy-ness
of London life
this wild, remote countryside
where poets are born.
Note: Inverkirkaig Bay (North West Scotland) was a favourite haunt of the poet Norman MacCaig.
I hope to go back there again soon!
Inverkirkaig Bay
A clock ticks away the solitary hours
the occasional cry of a bird
wind sighs through blue-green firs
a single car makes its way
slowly...
along the shore road
The sleepy sound of water
swaying against the stones in the bay
the hushed chattering of crickets
a bee buzzes past my window
meandering on its way
collecting nectar
from purple flowers on the hillside.
Lazy sunshine peers through white mist
silver-sparkling patterns on grey wrinked waters
So far away from the busy-ness
of London life
this wild, remote countryside
where poets are born.
Note: Inverkirkaig Bay (North West Scotland) was a favourite haunt of the poet Norman MacCaig.
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Poems - Wales
*
Aberystwyth Beach
Walk along a pebbled beach
on a bright spring's morning
Sea-birds floating
beneath scattered
tumbling clouds
White-crested waves
dancing
laughing
chasing
Hear my whisper
in the cool salt-laden breeze
Delight in My presence as I delight in yours
Watch, a little later
the sun in golden fury
Paints the sky
with pink and crimson flames
Angry waves battle
against unyeilding rocks
Darkness creeps silently
a blanket spreading from the east
Through the storm
hear My voice of peace
Return when night has filled the air
the sea lies calm at last
Restless waves now murmuring
rocking gently
Be comforted by the stillness
As stars watch over the slumbering world
know My love for you.
Aberystwyth Beach
Walk along a pebbled beach
on a bright spring's morning
Sea-birds floating
beneath scattered
tumbling clouds
White-crested waves
dancing
laughing
chasing
Hear my whisper
in the cool salt-laden breeze
Delight in My presence as I delight in yours
Watch, a little later
the sun in golden fury
Paints the sky
with pink and crimson flames
Angry waves battle
against unyeilding rocks
Darkness creeps silently
a blanket spreading from the east
Through the storm
hear My voice of peace
Return when night has filled the air
the sea lies calm at last
Restless waves now murmuring
rocking gently
Be comforted by the stillness
As stars watch over the slumbering world
know My love for you.
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Hebridean poems
*
Midnight on Lewis
Endless sky, translucent blue
fading to white where it touches
staccato blackness -
gorse, heather and broom.
The steady pounding of a hammer
breaks the silence
a lone crofter repairs his fence
in the dusk-light.
A yellow orange glow
gleams, square from the croft-house windows
Blue-grey clouds hover like dragons
motionless in the bright midnight sky.
------------------------------------
Sollas Cottage
Across windswept moors,
barren rocks flung carelessly
by a giant hand
fierce-looking highland cattle
block the road.
Over the crest of the hill
an old croft-house,
white-washed walls, red tin roof.
A spiral of smoke rising from the chimney.
The aroma of peat pervades the air.
Our car bumps along the grassy track
across dung-sprinkled fields
Through the rusty metal gate,
we enter the acre of rough scrub-land
that makes up the croft.
Through a cobwebbed window
in the thick stone wall
we peer into a tiny bedroom.
Flowery curtains,
age-stained wallpaper,
iron bedstead, dark oak wardrobe,
a fire burning in the grate,
vainly attempting to disperse
the all-pervading damp.
Deep within my pocket
I find a rusty key,
unlock the heavy front door, enter
the sparsely furnished kitchen.
Later I walk into the garden,
wade through unkempt grass
peer over the dry-stone wall
at the vast expanse of silver sand
Stretching for miles
across a tidal strand to a deserted island
and ruined mansion.
*
Midnight on Lewis
Endless sky, translucent blue
fading to white where it touches
staccato blackness -
gorse, heather and broom.
The steady pounding of a hammer
breaks the silence
a lone crofter repairs his fence
in the dusk-light.
A yellow orange glow
gleams, square from the croft-house windows
Blue-grey clouds hover like dragons
motionless in the bright midnight sky.
------------------------------------
Sollas Cottage
Across windswept moors,
barren rocks flung carelessly
by a giant hand
fierce-looking highland cattle
block the road.
Over the crest of the hill
an old croft-house,
white-washed walls, red tin roof.
A spiral of smoke rising from the chimney.
The aroma of peat pervades the air.
Our car bumps along the grassy track
across dung-sprinkled fields
Through the rusty metal gate,
we enter the acre of rough scrub-land
that makes up the croft.
Through a cobwebbed window
in the thick stone wall
we peer into a tiny bedroom.
Flowery curtains,
age-stained wallpaper,
iron bedstead, dark oak wardrobe,
a fire burning in the grate,
vainly attempting to disperse
the all-pervading damp.
Deep within my pocket
I find a rusty key,
unlock the heavy front door, enter
the sparsely furnished kitchen.
Later I walk into the garden,
wade through unkempt grass
peer over the dry-stone wall
at the vast expanse of silver sand
Stretching for miles
across a tidal strand to a deserted island
and ruined mansion.
*
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