Sunday 26 April 2020

Realization and The Mind Cupboard



World War II Mosquitos

Dear Reader,

I have been reading such an interesting book about the young women who joined the services at the beginning of the Second World War.

I thought this small piece about the Mosquito, a wooden aircraft,  I would share with you, hoping you too will find it interesting.  One of the furniture industries in north-east London changed tack and instead of making chairs and tables started making the Mosquito. Sheets of paper-thin plywood and balsa-wood were glued together, heat-strengthened and then sawn, shaved and shaped into the plane's components. The result was a very light, fast, highly versatile fighter-bomber, and the Mosquito built a fearsome reputation not just as a fast unarmed and light bomber, but also as a U boat night fighter, as well as a path finder on large scale bomb attacks.

                                                                             *

This week and last I have found literally thousands of people looking at the poem : The Mind Cupboard" and I can't quite work out why this is.  Most of these readers come from Turkmenistan and I wonder, if you are one of them, could you write and tell me what it is about this poem that you like so much?  I do know it is difficult to write on the comments box in my blog but I would be so grateful if you could try.    I have put it on again this week.

                                                                              *

Realization

I am
part of the whole.

I am
in the first light,
the bird's first song,
the sun's first dart
through the curtain crack,
in the music of summer trees.

I am
part of the alpha,
the birth,
the awakening,
the growing and spreading,
the throbbing of life.

I am part of all suffering
hands blood-stained.
Part of the love
humanity shares and
of all good things.

I am
part of the omega,
the closing, the last light,
the call back from the dark
to the bright, eternal night.

                                                                              *

The Mind Cupboard

My mind cupboard overflows
with unwanted debris.
It needs a spring clean.

I will brush away the cobwebs
of cheerless thoughts.
Scrub out the stains of childhood.

I will replace the brass hooks
corroded with salt tears,
empty all the screams
hoarded through the years.

I will replace the accumulated ashes
from the worn shelf-paper,
with virgin tissue.

I will chase and catch the wasps,
relieve them of their stings.
I will refill this cupboard
with love, and learnt, brighter things.

                                                                                 *

With blessings and best wishes, Patricia                                                                

Sunday 19 April 2020

Chapel




                                                                                      The Celtic Cross


Dear Reader,

We have been watching Kenneth Clark's television series 'Civilization' on DVDs. It is a wonderful stroll through thousands of years of what it means to be civilized and I have very much enjoyed it.  Unfortunately I left school when I was fifteen and so had a very patchy, short education.  Most of the things I have knowledge of and understand I have acquired through reading voraciously.

But what has dawned on me watching this series is what has been, and probably still is, important to intellectuals, academics, painters, artists, authors, the elite, is wealth and what to spend it on. Incredible jewels, fantastic ornate churches and cathedrals, castles and museums, art with life-size people in various states of undress and enormous statues in stone, inhabit the landscape.  Apparently this is what civilization is made of but for me it is all too much.

I want and have a very simple life.  The Celtic people got is right I think, their creed is my creed. This is one of their prayers:              
                                                      May you have
                                                      walls for the wind
                                                      And a roof for the rain
                                                      And drinks beside the fire
                                                      Laughter to cheer you
                                                      And those you love near you
                                                      And all that your heart may desire

                                                                            *



Chapel

Away with the cherubs
the angels, the painted ceilings
the high arches
the high ceilings
nudes male and female
the artifacts
the gold crosses
and ornate statues of the
Virgin Mary.

Give me a chapel with
whitewashed bricks
wooden pews
oak door with studs
daisies on the altar
in a china jug
a bust of St. Columba
and quiet peace
in God's house.


                                                                             *

With very best wishes, Patricia

Sunday 12 April 2020

The Mind cupboard




                                                                                        Swallows welcome return

Dear Reader,

On Monday I think we start the fourth week in lockdown.  For Francis and I it really hasn't been boring or bad at all, but I certainly don't want to sound smug about this.  Obviously for those of us lucky enough to have a garden to sit in, or work in,  a house to live in and wonderful neighbours who do our shopping for us we are much blessed.  If on the other hand you live in a high rise block and have small children to care for and amuse, lockdown must be terrible and I salute and honour you for your fortitude.

One of my daughters works for the NHS and one is a carer.  I do worry about both of them as obviously the coronavirus is lurking where they work.  But someone has to do it they both say and I do feel very proud of them.

I am not sleeping at all well at the moment because I have anxiety dreams every night.  I get up and make myself a cup of tea and sometimes listen to the radio.  World service is good and interesting.
 But I do hope the government doesn't decide to relax the rules that we now all know about distancing and shopping for essentials.  We must be certain that the virus has petered out properly before we can go back to normal.

                                                                                   *                                                                                                  
I am putting 'The Mind Cupboard' poem back on the blog this week.  It seems to be one that touches the heart at this moment of our lives, so I thought I would give it another run.  I am sorry if this is not the case for you.

*  
The Mind cupboard

My mind cupboard overflows
with unwanted debris.
It needs a spring clean.

I will brush away the cobwebs
of cheerless thoughts.
Scrub out the stains of childhood.

I will replace the brass hooks
corroded with salt tears,
empty all the screams
hoarded through the years.

I will replace the accumulated ashes
from the worn shelf-paper,
with virgin tissue.

I will chase and catch the wasps, 
relieve the of their stings. 
I will refill this cupboard
with love, and learnt, brighter things.

 *

Very best wishes, Patricia




Sunday 5 April 2020

The Mind Cupboard










Dear Reader,

     As someone who has had mental problems over my life, in particular, problems with anxiety  I have put my poem 'The Mind cupboard' on the blog today.  I think in this very strange time of Corona virus many of us will be feeling slightly unstable.

Perhaps we don't have a garden and there are no suitable places to walk, our homes are small and we are having to share them with a large family.  This is not the case for me, but I can visualize this scene.  It is not a good one.  But, from what I have read in the newspapers, things will get better and normality will be resumed by the end of the summer if not before.  Cheer up.

Next week the weather is going to be sunny, the birds are having a lovely time so open the windows and listen to their joyful songs. And here is a tip I feel I can give you if you have Netflix.  Watch 'Anne with an E' before you go to bed and you will probably sleep well.



April 12th, Dorothy Wordsworth writing in Somerset, 1798

'Walked in the morning in the wood.  In the evening up the Coombe, fine walk.  The Spring advances
rapidly, multitudes of primroses, dog-violets, periwinkles, stitchwort.'

April 12th, Nathaniel Hawthorne writing in York, 1857

'(Easter Sunday)  This morning was bleak and most uncongenial; a chilly sunshine, a piercing wind, a prevalenc of watery cloud, - April weather, without the tenderness that ought to be half revealed in it.'

*

The Mind Cupboard

My mind cupboard overflows
with unwanted debris.
It needs a spring clean.

I will brush away the cobwebs
of cheerless thoughts.
Scrub out the stains of childhood.

I will replace the brass hooks
corroded with salt tears,
empty all the screams
hoarded through the years.

I will replace the accumulated ashes
from the worn shelf-paper
with virgin tissue.

I will chase and catch the wasps,
relieve them of their stings.
I will refill this cupboard
with love, and learnt, brighter things.

*

Very best wishes, Patricia