Waste the Time

Tags

creative, dreams, Life, nostalgia, poems, poetry, time, verse, Waste, writing

What did we do before we had

The time to waste the time,

When every moment seemed so full

Of obligation’s ties,

And commitment pulled us closer

Then swallowed up our days,

When hands were full and red and raw

From dawn to dusk to dawn,

Of all the things we ever made

For lives we never knew,

From pit to fire they came and went

To lay the tracks from now,

And love was just a distant dream

In books and silver screens,

We washed away the dirt of day

And with it all our hope,

So tell me now with hindsight’s eye

When dear time’s time we kill,

What did we do before we had

The time to waste the time?

 

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2018

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The Forgotten

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creative, Forgotten, history, poems, poetry, Truth, verse, war, writing

The future will kiss

Our shadows as if it knew

The things that we had chosen

And all the things that we had forgotten,

It will stare back as if

We were a part of all to come

The things that we had seen

And everything that we had prophesied,

But we are the lost

The souls who burned on Hell’s cold fields

And left the lessons buried there,

The future will still close

It’s cold unempathetic eye

It’s vengeful ghost still chained against

The cliffs we fought so hard to tame,

The laughter rings like rain

Upon the boxes we built as defence

Which wall out the moments frozen

To stop them scratching out our eyes,

The future will still blow

It’s kisses downwind to hide its fear

And all the things that we had chosen

For we are the forgotten.

 

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2018

Eve’s Curse

Tags

creative, poems, poetry, verse, writing

She moved like the simmering storm,

Swept in from an ocean

Which festered in its anger

Like a child whose petulance grew

Bitter berries beneath a compromised sky,

Aching shoulders, back bent twisted

Head hung like a knife blunted

Her eyes still razor sharp

Raised above the bruised horizon

Cut the rain like sorrows parting,

Loose skin caught by the whispering wind

Its map folds trapped

And blurred at the edges

Roads that once led south and west

Smudges smeared like fallen fruit beneath the boot,

Carried like carrion the black shadow wings

Swept on like Arctic winter

With nowhere to go

A desperate curse upon the land

Her eyes burned blackened by hope.

 

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2018

Kitchen Window

Tags

creative, Life, loss, poems, poetry, time, verse, writing

She stood at the kitchen window

Still her eyes looking out

Over the fields of wheat

Now clothed in concrete and stone

Salt-moist with the days

She had given away

And moments she had sunk

Her tired hands into

Too deep to ever catch the dreams

Which swam in the shallows

Transients in the currents

Which left their lip-stain

On shores she felt that she

Could never reach

Not seeing that they

Like the hours lost

Were nothing more than shark-bait

Driven onto rock-scarred shores

Wishing that the story book tales

Had not been quite so tall

And that true love’s lips had kissed

A promise of truth

That the dragons had left some bridges

For her alone to burn

And that the rainbow had borne

Her happy ending

Still, her eyes looking out

She stood at the kitchen window.

 

 

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2018

Losing You

Tags

creative, Distance, Fear, Losing you, loss, poems, poetry, separation, verse, writing

When did I first begin to start

Losing you?

Was it the note that you said I

Never wrote?

Or was it the favourite tune you

Couldn’t name?

Perhaps the day you looked away

At the trees?

Or when we passed upon the stairs

Like strangers?

When did I first begin to start

Losing you?

Was it when you looked at me and

Said his name?

Or was it when your lips forgot

How to smile?

Perhaps the day I was not there

Within your eyes?

Or when I felt the final cord cut

From my heart?

When did I first begin to start

Losing you?

 

 

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2018

Gone (Light and Dark)

Tags

creative, death, Gone, Human nature, Life, loss, poems, poetry, thoughts, verse, writing

I read the fickle words you wrote

Scribbled on a post-it note,

False sentiment caught in my throat

Made me gag and made me choke.

I heard the flowing eulogy

The standard one and not for me,

As standing there for all to see

You hung your words upon the tree.

I watched you talk of you and I

And look so meekly to the sky,

And as you spoke of when and why

To my replacement you mouthed ‘hi’.

 

I read the fickle words you wrote

But what more did I expect?

A heart torn open

Bleeding free –

A life cut short to be with me?

I heard the flowing eulogy

But I was only lost at sea

And ships will sail

And ever will –

And life goes on without me still.

I watched you talk of you and I

But true I never let you know

The secrets that

I hoped you saw –

And now I’m gone, forever more.

 

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2018

 

Distant Shores

Tags

creative, hope, poems, poetry, Promises, Reality, verse, writing

I chased the poster’s dream

As it fluttered high above the breezeblock sky,

Its white-wisp clouds kissed the blue,

And even though

It was not there

An egg-yolk sun caressed the flesh

Of perfect bodies on the sand

As draped in tiny fabric slices

Their feet in silken silver grains

They let the gentle tide

Carry off the cares

They never really owned

A thousand palms

Captured in stop motion

Waved through the lens

Across the miles

And beckoned to their world

Their silent mouths too still

To whisper truths

That they would always be

One dream away from reach.

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2018

Days of Nostalgia

Tags

Childhood, creative, history, Life, Memories, nostalgia, Past, poems, poetry, verse, writing

When we were younger

Our feet danced

To the beat of the factories

On every street,

Metal bins rattled

Voices roared

As our rain-heavy leather ball

Slapped on the wall,

And we watched our dads

As hooters blew

Stride from the heat to the corner pub

And the pull of beer,

It was always enough

To halt our game

And wonder at the marvel of what

Lay ahead for us,

As the words of our mothers

Rang in our ears

And we knew that all too soon our games

Would be lost for good,

And that the storm ahead

Was rising still

Our adult lives being forged in the mill

Despite our cries,

Sweets and penny chews

On happy days

We dipped our toes like liquorice sticks

In life’s tart sherbet,

But not for us, not yet

The working hours

Our endless time still filled with joys that

Poverty couldn’t kill,

As on the kitchen table

Our mothers served their fare

The food that always smelled so good yet

Always was the same,

And mornings came so very late

With our fathers gone

And days of school – what did we learn

But how to play the game?

And did we ever really know

What lay beyond

The streets down which we lived our days

And voices never heard?

All the Things

Tags

All the Things, creative, faith, Life, lyrics, music, poems, poetry, song, thoughts, verse, writing

All the things I’d promised me,

The things I’d do, the things I’d see,

Now disappeared.

The time I wanted oh so much,

The time to feel, the time to touch,

Now faded grey.

 

All the hours I’d wasted then,

I knew one day would come again,

Desert me now.

And all the words I’d left unsaid,

Now dance like ghosts inside my head,

Still haunting me.

 

But if I’d never caught your eye,

And if I’d never seen your smile,

Would I be still left wondering why,

And would it have been worth the while?

 

All the hands I’d never reach,

What was it that I had to teach?

Forgotten now.

The movies that replayed my days,

Ended in much happier ways,

Can’t live them now.

 

But if I’d never caught your eye,

And if I’d never seen your smile,

Would I be still left wondering why,

And would it have been worth the while?

 

All the things I’d promised me,

The things I’d do, the things I’d see,

Now disappeared.

The time I wanted oh so much,

The time to feel, the time to touch,

Now faded grey.

 

Points of Wonder

Tags

creative, inspiration, Love, poems, poetry, verse, writing

Shapes of angels

Dance behind your eyes

Like constellations in the night,

Points of wonder

Promises wrapped in cloud

Offer up such sweet delight,

Dreams that live quiet

Come alive for me

Reveal themselves in coloured strokes,

Soul-salving hues

Which burst with meaning

Deep beneath my well-worn cloak,

A song that sings

Life into this heart

Which beats with purpose all for you,

A love that breathes

With your body’s sway

And makes each day for me brand new.