A Shot In The Arm

Hope is in the air

Confidence building daily

A shot in the arm

My wife and I both had our first vaccine doses this week. I had AZ whilst my wife had Pfizer today. I had a day or so of fever and a general fluey feeling but supposedly Pfizer has few side affects. It remains to be seen what difference the vaccines actually make against covid, but we will find that out in time I'm sure. 

It's hard not to feel the general vibe of confidence in the air though I'm not sure how much the warmer weather has to do with that. I took the baby out for a walk at the weekend and was stopped a couple of times for a chat by some of our elderly neighbours. Their attitudes were almost childlike and they seemed thrilled to be outside and interacting with others. I can understand where they are coming from.

I do hope that this is not a false dawn, and that even though future outbreaks are likely, they remain short and flat.

Also added are a couple of  photo's from my walk at the weekend, from Frank's Park, near Belvedere.

Snooker and a Poem - "Crowds"

I've been watching the closing stages of the World Snooker, and its marvellous to see crowds back in to watch. I don't think I realised, until now, how much a difference it can make to an atmosphere, even watching it on TV. It would be lovely to think that this marked the beginning of things getting back to normal, at least in some capacity. We shall see. But greatest of all is to see the man who always sits in the corner, at the front, is back in his seat again after a year away.

The shouting is loud
It shivers down my spine
The roars of the crowd
Says that it may be a sign

That the return to normal life
Might now be coming true
Though it rests upon a knife
We've almost made it through

Sport doesn't really work
If there's no-one there to watch
To sigh, or go beserk
At triumph, or when they botch

So can we really dare
To hold our hopes high when
The man who's always there
Is back in his seat again

NaPoWriMo Day 30 - "Fairy Folly"

The final prompt:

And now for our final (still optional!) prompt. Today’s prompt is based on a prompt written by Jacqueline Saphra, and featured in this group of prompts published back in 2015 by The Poetry Society of the U.K. This prompt challenges you to write a poem in the form of a series of directions describing how a person should get to a particular place. It could be a real place, like your local park, or an imaginary or unreal place, like “the bottom of your heart,” or “where missing socks go.” Fill your poem with sensory details, and make them as wild or intimate as you like.

It was tricky really finding the inspiration within one day for this and I've probably ended up with something a little generic at least in terms of concept, but I hope the rhythm is interesting. I apologise for the length:

If you go to seek the fairy queen
You must be sure, you must be keen
For a special journey you must take
To seek out that fairy queen
Then you must be very keen

Turn off right at the old oak tree
Never turn left or you will not see
The fairy queen that you desire
Be sure of your way at the old oak tree
If a magical world you want to see

And when you pass the patch of holly
Avoid its prickles, no gosh and golly
For to sneak up upon the fairy queen
You will need silence at the patch of holly
Don't let them hear your gosh and golly

You may feel sleepy at the three grey willows
But don't lay down with rocks as pillows
Don't fall for the fairy queen's magic
Turned three witches into three grey willows
And they'll use your head for their own pillows

Then you'll come to an open glade
Where you must weave daisies in your braid
If you wish to fit in at the fairy queen's court
But don't you wander in that open glade
And never use buttercups in your braid

Now push yourself through a hedge of loam
And you will find that fairy queen's home
But do beware as she won't let you leave
From that palace in the dark in the hedge of loam
(near the glade, past the willows
near the holly, past the oak)
That you in your folly must now call home

NaPoWriMo Day 29 - "Lonely Planet"

Today's prompt:

And now, for our prompt (optional, as always). This one is called “in the window.” Imagine a window looking into a place or onto a particular scene. It could be your childhood neighbor’s workshop, or a window looking into an alien spaceship. Maybe a window looking into a witch’s gingerbread cottage, or Lord Nelson’s cabin aboard the H.M.S. Victory. What do you see? What’s going on?

Having read about Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins death last night, this was the first thing that popped into my head when I read this prompt, and it made me think of the view of the Earth from the window of the spaceship. I also recently watched the film Stowaway which also has scenes of Earth seen from space, providing a bit more inspiration:

I see it floating
Part submerged and bobbing
On the surface
Of a star-spangled sea

I see it suspended
Hung by invisible wires
Swung by invisible hands
Around the glowing sun

I see it flying
A bird of paradise
Dressed in fine plumage
Of blues and grey-greens

I see Earth; our home
Alone in a vast expanse
A vessel teeming with life
Searching for safe harbour

NaPoWriMo Day 28 - "Questions"

The website was all back to normal today. So here's the prompt:

Our prompt today (optional, as always), is to write a poem that poses a series of questions. The questions could be a mix of the serious (“What is the meaning of life?”) and humorous (“What’s the deal with cats knocking things off tables?”), the interruptive (“Could you repeat that?”) and the conversational (“Are those peanuts? Can I have some?”). You can choose to answer them – or just let the questions keep building up, creating a poem that asks the reader to come up with their own answer(s).

As a parent of young children it was easy to come up with some questions for this poem, as the whole day seems to be an exercise in fielding questions. Especially one's related to food:

When will we get there?
What's that in my feet?
When is it my birthday?
What do we have to eat?

Why do I have to go to sleep?
What cuddly can I take?
Why do you have to go to work?
Please can I have some cake?

When will it be Tuesday?
Why do ducks say quack?
Can we take the bus home?
When do I get my snack?

Why do I have to tidy?
Where did you put my pen?
Why is it we have to poo?
I'm hungry again!

NaPoWriMo Day 27 - "Beat of my Heart"

The NaPoWriMo website has been down and the Day 27 prompt hasn't updated properly as far as I can tell, so I'm having to go by what's on Twitter:

...get in touch with some minor, haunting feelings

With little to go on I've interpreted this as best I can, so here's today's poem and I hope it provides a haunting feeling:

The beat of my heart
The beat of my heart

Am I being watched?
I just can't tell
But up in my head
Rings a warning bell
With the beat of my heart
The beat of my heart

There's something thre
That I just can't see
Rooted in place
But it wants to be free
With the beat of my heart
The beat of my heart

A shiver running
Along my spine
Something's calling
That's hard to decline
To the beat of my heart
The beat of my heart

A passing feeling
Dark and bereft
Then it falls away
And all that's left
Is the beat of my heart
The beat of my heart

NaPoWriMo Day 26 - "Integrity"

Today's prompt:

And now for our (optional) prompt. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a parody. Besides being fun, writing parodies can be a great way to hone your poetic skills – particularly your sense of rhyme and sound, as you try to mimic the form of an existing poem while changing the content. Just find a poem – or a song – that has always annoyed you, and write an altered, silly version of it. Or, alternatively, find a poem with a very particular rhyme scheme or form, and use that scheme/form as the basis for a poem that mocks something else.

If you’d like to get some inspiration, you might consider some of the poems that Lewis Carroll included in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which parody the moralistic verse of Isaac Watts. For example, “The Crocodile” is a send-up of Watts’ “How Doth the Little Busy Bee,” while “Tis the Voice of the Lobster” is a parody of Watts’ poem “The Sluggard.” Or, for a briefer and more whimsical poem, consider “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat,” which is a parody of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

I have to admit that inspiration came very quickly for me today. I'm not sure it's parody, I think it's more satire, but you have to go with what's in your head. I taken as my basis the song Waking Up by Elastica, which is a song I really like, and changed the lyrics to concern Boris Johnson and all the latest sleaze that's been going on:

On the side of a bus
Said I'd pay them
But I only gave the NHS
A one percent rise
Needed some kit
So I called them
And gave all my mates
The PPE prize

Integrity and honesty has never been easy
Oh-wo-wo I think you should know
(repeat)
Distract with long words
Tell another lie

To drive to test eyesight
Isn't that reckless
I said this to cover up
For my mate Dom
I did up my flat
With some money
But I won't tell you where it is
I got it all from

Integrity and honesty has never been easy
Oh-wo-wo I think you should know
(repeat)
Rumple up my hair
Tell another lie

Integrity and honesty has never been easy
Oh-wo-wo I think you should know
(repeat)
Smile charmingly
Tell another lie