There you can be who you want to be -
Nobody’s yelling or carrying on.
Pure brooks replenish rivers
Fit for swimming and drinking
And on the seashore, no tangled plastic
Nor the matted corpses of seabirds.
There you can really create stuff -
No one’s dissing your best endeavours.
Sleep is easy in the quiet safety of home
With dreams that are serene
And on the TV screen no endless tales of crime
Nor gloomy broadcasts all the flaming time.
There you feel you are truly living -
Nothing’s menacing your peace of mind as
Starlings flock in rhythmical shoals
When autumn days submit to dusk
And on the edge of felicity - no sudden thuds
Nor faraway grey thunder grumbling.
Ah yes, we all long for Utopia. Happy Birthday, YP!
ReplyDeleteSeems like you found it in Prescott Valley Bruce!
Delete👏👏👏
ReplyDeleteI do not know how to do those emoji thingamabobs.
DeletePress the key with the "windows" symbol and the "full stop" key at the same time and a window pops up with the emojis and you click on the one you want.
DeleteGreat poem.
Plus no one has to work for a living but can spend their entire life doing just exactly what they want and what fulfills them. And love relationships always go well and never end badly. Plus everyone's in good health all the time.
ReplyDeleteAnd they don't need to get their eyes "done"!
DeleteI met a traveller from a verdant land,
ReplyDeleteWho said—“There lies a realm both calm and grand:
Its gates are silence, peace its only creed,
No tyrant’s voice, no hungry heart, no greed.
The black cats wander soft through fields of thyme,
Their eyes like embers marking mortal time;
No shout of rage from screens or trembling hands,
No armchair outrage fouls its gentle sands.
There Trump is but a name the winds forget,
A ghost of noise the dawn will not regret;
The seasons turn—each leaf and petal sing
Of endings kind as every bright beginning.
And on the plinth where men once carved their fame
No boast remains, no gilded, hollow name—
Only these words endure in quiet grace:
‘Here humankind and nature share one face.’”
It is hard to know what to say about this poem Traveller. I think it is your own modern reshaping of "Ozymandias" and if it really is that, I think it was quite brilliant my friend. Well written!
DeleteIt’s a cliche but one of my favourite poems.
DeleteMaybe good news coming out of Gaza today…let’s hope it holds.
Happy birthday for yesterday.
Happy Birthday, Neil. Hope you have a year filled with fine walks, lots of laughs, fun adventures, peace and joy!
ReplyDeleteMe too. I am not ready to go quite yet. Thank you Ellen.
DeleteIs it your birthday? Happy Birthday Neil!!!!! I'm sending you my very best wishes for another happy, healthy year and many more to come.
ReplyDeleteTen more would be excellent. Thank you Jennifer.
DeleteI LOVE your poem. If only we could live in a place like that.
ReplyDeleteSo kind of you to say so Michael. Thank you.
DeleteHappy Birthday.
ReplyDeleteIn spite of the recent story I wrote for "Wednesday's Words"?
DeleteI deduce it is your birthday. Hope you have a lovely utopian one. 🎁🎂🍻
ReplyDeleteI am now so old that I cannot remember what happened yesterday - my birthday.
DeleteI like it. It's a long time since I've seen or heard the word flaming used, normally pronounced flamin'.
ReplyDeleteNever flamin' in Yorkshire mate! We are not bloody Texans!
DeleteHappy Birthday and a glass raised to the next ten years. The opposite to Utopia is Dystopia, something akin to what we are living through now. But having the land of Utopia to aim at we might get there one day.
ReplyDeleteI checked the bus timetable to Utopia but all services have been suspended.
DeleteHappy birthday and many more to come.Hope you're going to celebrate in style, or even just celebrate in any style.
ReplyDeleteThank you Janice... A quiet evening meal at The George Hotel in Hathersage. That is all I wanted and it was very nice.
DeleteOne line sticks out for me and that's no none is dissing your best endeavor. We are too eager to criticize other people who are trying to be positive about the world.
ReplyDeleteI am pleased that you picked up on that line Red.
DeleteThat was a much more positive post than I expected from yesterday's teaser. I hope you had a nice excursion to Utopia for your birthday!
ReplyDeleteWe did not go to Utopia... we went to The George Hotel in Hathersage.
DeleteWhen you're alone and life is making you lonely
ReplyDeleteYou can always go
Downtown
(Another poem/lyric promoting a type of Utopia, at least for some!)
Seriously, I like your imagery and your longing for someplace with "no faraway grey thunder grumbling," but of course Utopia has never really existed, has it?
I had never thought of "Downtown" that way but you are right - it is about finding a utopian place to be... and no - there could never be an earthly Utopia - unless you consider what New Zealand was like before humans arrived.
DeleteMost places on earth before the nasty plague of humans arrived
Delete