Best Album Poems
Every image and text we post on Facebook
is selected and air-brushed,
to present our lives as we would like it to be,
sharing images for self congratulation and gloating.
We are both the viewer and the viewed,
the audience and the actor
mutually disclosing tarnished,
filtered and selected images and impressions
to create a make-believe social world.
Now we learn that our private data
and that of our friends
has been leaked to those that
can analyse and create a profile
or our weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
Advertisements and fake news stories
are fed to our in-boxes
to change the way we think.
A chest-full of tarnished reflections
left on our 'Welcome' mats.
Facebook faces front and rear,
are all tarnished reflections.
Sun reflect—
soporific effect
of sultry, languorous afternoon.
A photo album, open in an attic room,
of my family and dear friends gone all too soon.
Phantasmagorically fey—
gallimaufry in stray
disarray.
Those
childish
yesterdays-
in sepia
dust
I keep an old photo album
on my bottom shelf.
I get it out every once in a while,
just to sift the time away
I keep a lot of pictures
There inside that book. Some are old and a little
Yellow now, but still somehow clear.
Funny hair and clothes. Gigs and weddings,
funerals and newspaper clips,
just like time standing still
Tonight I looked through it again,
just knowing what I might find.
Somehow I think my heart
knew what it was looking for.
by the time I got halfway through
As I neared the end
of this blue memory lane…I saw it again…
the picture of you and me on our first night together.
I remember your blue eyes, your beautiful smile….
I remembered you….in my heart
You are, were, and always will be the love of my life,
The memories came flooding back,
too fast for words, and too strong to hold.
I remember God smiling down on us
As we shared our first night.
Dear God-how I loved you
(and still love you) so much
But now it can’t be…when
time and pain have driven us apart.
How did it get this way?
For minutes that seemed like years,
I cried my tears on your picture
And kissed your cheek on that page
I was trying so hard to keep the pain away.
But it came unrelenting…
And I’m afraid there are
many more tears to cry
who knows when they’ll come
My heart is forever yours, captured
in a snapshot on page 24
As I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord keeps you safe
May you feel loved tonight
even though
I’m very far away
I’ll always keep your picture
And your kiss inside my heart
I just can’t bear to
throw away the memory
Of the love that we’ve lost
Your picture is still inside
That album on my shelf
Sealed by tears, and prayers
Memories too painful to hold on to,
and too precious to let go
As a great lover of classical music
over many years the violin became ace
one particular lovely lady enchanted me
Anne-Sophie Mutter classically first place
This lady appeared in the Yellow Lounge
a night club in Berlin, she did astound
the Club Album played out such true class
covering composers splendidly crowned
Classical music doesn't normally appeal
in such an establishment it is pretty rare
but the clientele loved this classic treat
as Anne-Sophie served them such fare
Thankfully this performance was recorded
being on CD and DVD covered release
composers like Vivaldi, Gershwin and Bach
stunningly superb richness on each piece
Love to watch this many times over
never fails to hold me in it's grip
such musical feast left in wonder
takes one sailing aboard strings ship
(This piece I have written of my favourite music album by the great German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter who performed her repertoire at a night club , "The Yellow Lounge" in Berlin, Germany.
It's available on youtube if you would like to watch as it last just over 30 minutes. )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vKA8LW8NxI
dry tree branch sways
autumn leaf clings
the last
leaf through photo album
memories of friend persist
TIME WAS peaceful farmers were happy to reap their corn.
I am a farmers son, it's not my idea of living, not since the time I was born.
I had a girl, my heart was broken when I awoke to find
my girl was in my imagination, BLOWIN FREE In the wind.
So it's a WARRIOR. I must become
no more farming for me, I need to find my soul
with other men and a sword to set myself free.
Free is that what I call it, brain full of emptiness I find.
Like a LEAF AND STREAM
That rushes by, wishing to run, not get left behind..
Shadows through the branches glow like a SOMETIME WORLD
Bringing thoughts of the young girl which in my memory I hold
THE KING WILL COME,this is what they say
King of where I ask feeling a little despair,
Is it the devil king, full of fire just for me.
Or can I hear the screams of the people as they flee
from judgement day, it's so silly
it's cast in stone when you will leave.
I will THROW DOWN THE SWORD,
the fight Is over we have lost the cause.
Boy how I wanted to win such a prize,
yes my time is my own, to rethink my fate.
No longer to dream but go out and find
That girl who in my heart I left behind.
Penned 19 August 2015
Album title was No. 3 Wishbone Ash. : Argus.
old photographs
lifetime
thrift store
collated pictures
gloss enamels folio
binder segments years
time embosses memories
as dust cloaks each weathered fold
Last night I took apart the album I made for you
the one of our family before they left
before the sorrow clung to your every breath.
I separated each memory from their plastic sheath
and piled them in categories known and before me.
Military and quick I added the ones I found
from the folders covered in dust.
Each picture memorized to me
from the years of gazing and longing
for our life that couldn’t be.
I put them in one of my families new set.
To place on the book shelf to show them
the life they chose to forget
As I lay in bed last night they wafted through my eyes
like wraiths to drain my mind.
The tears never came, years have brought a drought
that leaves my husk parched as the shells
we found and used in the first album.
I lay beside my husband waiting for slumber
to erase the days I could not live
and the nights I dreamed about them.
I waited for the dust to creep and settle
this grieving part of me to sleep
This morning the day is new and responsibility awaits.
Anxiety shadows my chest
Like the wraith of the past I try to forget.
photos in album
camera snapped long ago
eye snaps memories
Gray and abysmal are her days
Each moment a faded dark haze
Consumed in her fairy tale dream
Her prince never came it would seem
Venturing she thought it were fate
A new destination, clean slate
Then within a breath of meeting
And an awkward funny greeting
She was cast under a love spell
Too embarrassed to ever tell
How easily the lyrics came
Now that he set her heart inflame
Listen to the keys dance along
Oh how melodic is their song
Listen to the strings strum along
Oh the harmony of their song
In perfect tune with emotion
Played with pure, loving, devotion
Two separate songs bound as one
The album of hearts has begun
Her fantasy life broken down
Soon after arriving in town
Energized to attain her goals
Pondering after long night strolls
Rejuvenated was her heart
As though life had begun to start
A story begins to unfold
Yet their feelings remained untold
Curiosity starts to bloom
Her soul slowly consumed in gloom
Hoping for answers of desire
She burned with his internal fire
Listen to the keys dance along
Oh how melodic is their song
Listen to the strings strum along
Oh the harmony of their song
In perfect tune with emotion
Played with pure, loving, devotion
Two separate songs bound as one
The album of hearts has begun
The album of hearts has begun
Two separate songs bound as one
And somehow they already knew
Without them saying “I love you”
Noel set me off.
Memories, permutations,
Eating paper.
My mother in her apron.
Dad with the black bin bag
Ready to bin the now useless wrapping
and
I thought.
As I heard my children screaming, snickering and howling downstairs.
What would set them off?
Set them off in their driverless car
Minor technological switches
Urine to wash the British navy's kecks
Half an hour rinse
After I've joined the dead
Thirty years from now.
I’ve been a pirate on black seas,
Explorer where the oceans freeze,
A monarch on an opaled throne,
An islander with rings of bone—
Inside the “British Colonies” thick section
Of my boyhood stamp collection.
In the olden days
My mother only took one photo for me
As a new born with the family members
My childhood gone plain without photos
When I got my 1st salary
I bought a camera
To take photos wherever I go
With my family
Schoolmates
Friends
Colleagues
Now When I open the photo album
Sad memories pour in
My parents gone
Some family members gone
Some of the colleagues gone
Some of the old classmates gone
Time betrays us
Some sweet memories left us
Fate seldom compromises
With dreams
And great expectations
But behind the sadness
Love will linger on
With the once happiest moments
Never dies
Now I use handphone to snapshot
The happiest moments
With all my loved ones
Sharp,quick and easy
Love and happiness
Will linger on and on
Never fade