Sample poems from The Round Journey

LOCK

A final march down the towpath,

Mount the verge with dew lit shoes

And lean into the abyss of the lock,

The sluice gates are shuttered and

the chamber fills once more,

With holidays, sleepless pillowy hours of susurration,

Wedding vowels, babies and rebirth days,

Sealed tight and safe, unshared

The memories pour in, churning up,

The water opaques the dates and years

muddies chronology that

passively floats, moulding

yielding, slipping away



The windlass drops in its slot,

The gates are cranked, aching open

And all that was you floods away,

Becomes particles in a wider water system,

Diluted in times weary basin

Drifts, aimless, onwards

Leaving home

First steps are cautious,

The outside world is a stranger from the street,

holding a warm foil wrapped pot of normality,

A stew to pick over later

The world continues to turn but feels still,

Motion sickness flickers,

You are on your way, with

a glancing underappreciation of the sky

in all its dumbfounded gory glumness,

This journey is a walk inside yourself,

A rekindling of what you are now they are gone

Rebranding the skin, you live within

Double knotted, zipped and buttoned up,

The first journey from home, tough as a toddler

wobbly stepping stone walking,

The wider world is waiting to greet

The new born crunchy shell you peep from

Get on your way,

Start your tramping about,

Seek out remembrance to the 

landmarks and stories of your life,

See them for what they are afresh

New perspectives