I love these two poets.  The first time I read a Ginsberg poem, it was like reading
in a burst of sunshine.  The fabled Kerouac just enchanted me, then and now, even
with all the brilliant poets working today.  God love us, they both bring champagne
to the party.

           EPIPHANY

Grey sunflowers, and poets
Sitting in old railway sidings
Alongside huge locomotives,
The clattering and banging
Of wrecked machinery
A perfect backdrop to a new world
In the making.

Kerouac and Ginsberg
Loving the whole, the tiniest bit of it.
Ginsberg breathing in grey sunflowers,
Remembering them for all those coming after.

Imprinting them on the fabric
Of that new world
Waiting just around the corner.

                             © 2020 Gwen Grant

All material on this blog is copyright but if anyone wants to use part of it,
then please get in touch.   http://www.gwengrant.co.uk

Long listed – Carnegie Medal.
Published – Heinemann and Collins.
Now in Kindle.

                         ANEMONES 

Another scratchy night,
With the moon hiding and clouds
Covering the stars.
Bitter thoughts bringing bitter tears,
With memory offering no comfort
Or consolation. 

Maybe there is a loving hand
To hold your hand,
And maybe not.
Maybe you will remember
Those who once loved you,
And maybe you will forget
How loved you once were. 

But when memory fails,
When peace slides out of reach
And touch is never going to be the same again,
You will find strength
In the love that shows itself
In the tenderness of anemones,
Bunched in a small bowl,
Standing on a dark windowsill. 

                               © 2017 GWEN GRANT

      WAITING

Silent fields, and a bitter night,
And us, trying to keep warm
Under a frozen sky.
The air so cold, a tap
Would shatter it into shards of darkness
To fall around our feet,
And in that star-lit, owl frozen silence,
The hushed dark call carried thinly
Across the still and sleeping fields.

We, so quiet, the red-gold shadow
Of a fox padded by us
All unaware of our waiting,
Its paw pressing the frosted grass
Into dark and hungry prints
Along the path.

Then the silence was broken
By the soft whisper of wind
Drifting snowflakes down the feathered sky,
To quilt the winter ground,
And, somewhere, in that bitter icy world
Someone offered a word of hope.

As long as hope is in the world, then,
We, cold and frozen in our waiting,
Can warm ourselves at the fire of love.

                                                      © 2018 Gwen Grant

Although when I was a girl, we lived in a very small house at the furthest
reaches of the town, most of our life was lived outside. Tractors were very
much a part of this life and I loved them.  They trundle beautifully about
our streets and whenever I see one, I always have an almost irresistible urge
to go out and pat it.

LOVE LETTER
         TO A TRACTOR

Massey Ferguson.

A red tractor so lovely,
My hand stroked
Its scarlet glory.

Trundling across
The strawed ground,
Its great wheels
Dignified in every
Pleat and perfection.

An inspired creation.
A glorious construction.

Which, one day, I hope,
Will carry me home.

                ©2023 Gwen Grant

GOING AWAY

Stanley Price and his Mam
Boarded an aeroplane
To fly to Canada.
We all wished
We could have gone with them.
But Stanley said
There was only room
For one more and that was him.

Anyway, he went on, knowing us lot,
One by one, we’d all get eaten by bears
Five minutes after landing.
Couldn’t chance it, Stanley said,
Shaking his new Canadian head.

Whilst we drifted away,
Ribbons of love and living
Tying us together
For practically ever.

Even though none of us ever saw
Stanley Price and his Mam again.

                 ©2022 Gwen Grant