What if,As the old lady knows,“All that glitters is gold”And she really is“Buying a stairway to heaven”? Now what if The stairway goes not up?Which down the ages was taught,Instead it goes downAnd heaven’s a decent?All the wishful thoughts of the yearsAre no more than just thatAnd wise people are deceived For heaven is not … Continue reading As The Old Lady Knows
understanding
Meaning I Give You
Seeing you was both objective and subjectiveFor sure there you wereBut who and what you were in that momentWas determined and definedBy the meaning that I gave youFriend?Tormentor?Reason for hope?Harbinger of disillusionment?Lover?Possibility?So very much that dwells with meDefines who you areWho I perceiveWho I receive And how I will actSo much that lays withinWill change … Continue reading Meaning I Give You
Monday Musing
Pogue, I am shortly going to be left on my own for a while at home. I have most things covered off. Cooking, tick, tick. House cleaning, tick. Tiding up after myself, tick. Shopping, tick. BUT, there’s this machine in the utility room that remains a mystery to me. I don’t do the laundry. Apparently … Continue reading Monday Musing
Monday Musing
Morning Pogue, It’s another Monday and, after several letters on previous Mondays, I’m still thinking about Jonathon Livingston Seagull. I’m not going to write a letter to him today but he has left me thinking about love, the so called “highest lesson” and the learning I can gain by studying his ascension from a young … Continue reading Monday Musing
Monday Musing
Pogue, Good Morning. Has it stopped raining where you are? So this will be my last letter to Jonathan Livingston Seagull, for now, and to write it I have read Part 4 of the novel, a section that was not added by the author, Richard Bach, until 2014. By this point in the story Jon … Continue reading Monday Musing
The Russians Went To War
The Russians went to warAnd here I amSittingOn a bench in the parkOutside the cafe on a sunny dayAnd a gentlemanA Russian gentleman has askedIf he can share the tableI see no tanksI hear no artilleryNo planes in the skyI think it’s safeSo ”Yes Sir you may sit”.The Russians went to war,We sit in silenceWatching … Continue reading The Russians Went To War
Poem
There’s a poem on the breezeThat’s reaching out to youReaching out to meAnd it’s telling us a taleOf a time yet to comeWhen we’ll lose our every judgementSee the world with new eyesWe’ll understand each other’s storyA history we need to hearSo we’ll start from understandingAnd possess a driving need to knowReflecting what we’d have … Continue reading Poem
Monday Musing
Pogue, It’s raining. Again. And I noticed this morning that the News Papers are asking: “Where is summer?” And “Is summer over?” It’s only the first week of August, August the months when the majority of people in this country go on holiday. Then for those who have holidayed abroad, southern Europe, there are unprecedented … Continue reading Monday Musing
Understanding
Pogue, I had a conversation earlier with a person who seemed to want my attention. The person launched into a triad of opinions on a situation that had occurred. For some moments it was standing watching a train pass. Then there was a pause. I mistook this for the invitation to respond. My bad! They’d … Continue reading Understanding
A Better Future
Pogue, Hi, I’m back after a month off. In honesty I found myself with nothing meaningful to say and, throughly believing if you can’t add something of worth to the conversation you should keep quiet, I withdrew. In reflection a month on the road in Nepal and Bhutan, whilst labelled a holiday by most, took … Continue reading A Better Future
The perfect blossom is a rare thing.
Dear Pogue, Have you ever thought that certain artist get to present their art over and over, such as a musician? They write a great song and people call out to hear it played at concerts. The artist enjoys the achievement again and again, as they should. But other artist don’t get to share that … Continue reading The perfect blossom is a rare thing.
Oranges aren’t the only fruit.
I was sitting in the dentist waiting room this morning when a young lady came in. It soon became apparent that her first language was not English as she tried to explain to the receptionist that she had made an appointment. Fine, except the dentist’s server was not working, no records or information could be … Continue reading Oranges aren’t the only fruit.
Monday Musing
Dear Pogue, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and thinking around mental health in the last two weeks. I introduced the subject in a previous Musing when I made mention of the evidence now supporting the effects of Social Media on teenagers over the last 10 years. This is now a well researched subject … Continue reading Monday Musing
What Do I Do?
What do I do?When I can’t believe like you,Think like you,Read like you,Hope like you,Tell me,What do I do? How will it end?When I can’t walk the same path,Even admire the view,Believe it’s gone this far,Thinking we’re lostI’m turning around,How will it end? Can we think so differently?On such basic life stuff,Has life changed us … Continue reading What Do I Do?
Reading what’s not there
I’m currently reading what’s not there,It’s taken too long to see Between the lines there are gapsGaps that say so much,It’s what I’m not toldThe things not saidThe omissions waiting to revealThe things I shouldn’t know,But the whole picture seldom is completeSo you’ll forgive me please For reading into what’s not been saidFor pillaging your … Continue reading Reading what’s not there
Monday Musing
Dear Pogue, Forgive me! This started as a short thought and just kept growing! I have been noticing that amongst people there is often a need to be right. Have you ever noticed that? And being right, there is then a need to prove that they are right. I am sure there are all sorts … Continue reading Monday Musing
Which Jesus?
Pogue, I guess we’ve both been around a few churches in our time. I remember sitting in one and being approached by a man who proceeded to ask me: “Do you know Jesus” and then continued to tell me that I definitely need a personal relationship with Jesus if I was going to achieve heaven. … Continue reading Which Jesus?
Mistakes
I made a mistake onceSomewhere on the wayI didn’t do it againUntil the other day,I felt something was missingAnd now I must sayI’m really, really tryingTo make one each day,I admit it’s not so easyI’m trying to not delayBut please, please appreciateWith life I’m having to play.I want to be quite human I’d be glad … Continue reading Mistakes
The Trees
I went to the trees todayFor I was weary and sad,I went to the trees todayTo escape the world that pursued me,I went to the trees todayBecause I felt no one understood,I went to the trees todayI needed friends who listened.
Monday Musing
Hi Pogue, Another flight, another airport lounge. Stockholm today and I have an hour before boarding and home. It will be nice to be home. But Stockholm’s been a blast so a good trip despite the well below 0C temperatures (we hit -18C in Helsinki allowing for the windchill factor and that’s painful!). Here in … Continue reading Monday Musing
Somewhere Between
Somewhere between brilliance and blasphemyThat’s where I position my mindWith my eyes to the mountain And my back to the voidThe world in all it’s diversityI’m reading like a bookUnderstanding there is no rightTrying to decide if there’s wrongIf I should pin labelsTo other people’s thoughtsWhere should I draw the line Between divine and demonised?Oh … Continue reading Somewhere Between
Monday Musings
Dear Pogue, Do you ever read something and ask yourself: “How does that woman think?” or “What’s gone on in his life that he can write that?” I find myself doing it more and more these days. In fact instead of considering that I’m increasing my knowledge I continually find myself realising how small my … Continue reading Monday Musings
The Old School Field
The children still play in the old school field.The trees stand in the same places,Shed leaves in the same season,Look bare in winter like before,They’re just bigger than on that dayWhen you and I climbed so highHid in their branches And were possessed by make believe.I was happy then.The crime was that I did not … Continue reading The Old School Field
I Do Not Understand
There’s so much that I don’t understandThe more I thinkThe more I findThe world is a continuous question getting biggerThe mysteries of old were but a precursor to all that was to comeBut it wasn’t to comeIt was always thereWe didn’t know what we didn’t know Then there’s people whoare a mystery all of their … Continue reading I Do Not Understand
Songs To Pogue…What I’m Listening To Now.
Hi, Someone wrote me and said I’d upped my poetry game but poetry seemed to be my language of grief. Hmmm, maybe. I have felt rather sad of late and I do feel that giving our expression to feelings is a healthy thing and helps us to understand them. So I’ve found myself listening to … Continue reading Songs To Pogue…What I’m Listening To Now.
There Were Lies
They were liesThey were liesAnd there were liesBut they said it was the truthAnd they believed it was the truthSo maybe it was the truthWhilst remaining a lieYou seeing the world from your eyesWhilst I see it from mineSo much experience Preceding our beliefs Reenforcing our beliefsOur definitions of all that has happened So we … Continue reading There Were Lies
Thought Of Another
A life of patient suffering… is a better poem in itself than we can any of us write…It is only through the gates of suffering, either mental or physical, that we can pass into that tender sympathy with the griefs of all of mankind which it ought to be the ideal of every soul to … Continue reading Thought Of Another
Law 1.One
Dear Pogue, I have spent much time with things spiritual and during that time I have come to recognise certain constants in the world. They are not things that people usually consider or even realise exist. I thought I’d like to share with you the things I have found over a series of short letters … Continue reading Law 1.One
Monday Musing
Dear Pogue, There’s a saying that says, “Who will do the hard thing? He who must” It’s a challenge in many ways to cause people to face up to responsibilities and not shirk away. To face up to things if you like and own them rather than putting them off or just plain walking away. … Continue reading Monday Musing
Broaden Your Perspective.
Just a few thoughts to add to yesterdays letter: Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.Mark Twain I don’t know … Continue reading Broaden Your Perspective.
Letters To Pogue 
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