My Poetry Library

Children

Posted on 4 July, 2017 by PoetJanstie

Their wayward spirits pull
in opposition to wavering
forces of parental aspiration.
They threaten fraying threads
in seams of bedlam’s bursting bag
that barely contains the chaos.

The morning school run
a controlled explosion
ruthless and well oiled
the caring machine runs
this oft trodden path
through anarchy.

But dare they dream
of that perfect sound
of peace and quiet
the heaven
the bliss
the hope

… the fear
of that deafening silence
the hour before dawn
when they fledge
maybe to return
one welcome day.

© 2017 John Anstie
All rights reserved
~~~~~

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Dear Earth, you are a sacred aqueous Isle
in a dark and endless sea of universe
We may be bound by genetic code.
You may never reveal your strategy
the presupposing chemical destiny
of one great astrophysical master plan
for all living things. We, who represent
your malaise, your chronic infestation;
we, like a fleeting itch in your long life,
will never comprehend it. But, in truth
you know too well that we can never
understand more than one percent
of all there is to know. You contain
the knowledge that is beyond us.
We are but a rash on your skin.

One day, we know you will
raze all of our delusions,
prepare us for the day
when a blinding light
will inoculate you
and inform us of
a moment when
extant humans
will, at last be
prepared to
distinguish
the lies
f r o m
truth
that

w e
a r e
m e r e
a t o m i c
p a r t i c l e s
i n s i d e a t e m p o r a l c h a l i c e

Posted in poetry | 5 Comments

On One of My Tomorrows

Posted on 12 April, 2017 by PoetJanstie

(for Celia)

Our last goodbye was casual
as if I would see you again
on one of my tomorrows

I touched your arm
you flinched. In pain.
I felt persistent guilt

Born of carelessness
only nervous uncertainty
could freely demonstrate

Born of habitual presumption
that you were in charge
you weren’t. Not really.

You never were, save
your own sense of duty
to boss, nay care for everyone

Too much on small shoulders
that weren’t as strong as the
force of that inner being

The force that stopped being
that was someone once
whom I loved and miss

Some time after we’d helped you
to meet your God, one starlit night
I heard your voice as clear as the sky

O lamb of God, who takes away
the sins of the world, have mercy
and grant us peace. I swear.

This. Was. Not. My. Voice!

Posted in poetry | 13 Comments

Head Over Heals

Posted on 26 March, 2017 by PoetJanstie

So soon, familiar sounds again,
the birds are on the wing.
A starling, dizzy, calling his mate
head over heals they sing.

The grass is growing faster
underneath our feet
and here we are, like Arab Spring,
where two extremists meet.

It’s difficult to fathom how
those two imposters hail
from just one body, so opposite,
yet apposite, they fail

to sustain this perfect, vibrant beauty
when offspring promise fades,
but need such boundless hope and joy
recede into the shade?

And yet the awesome speed of light,
with unimagined pace,
still takes too long to speak to us
from farthest outer space.

Fewer shorter days remain
to save the obvious child,
with a simple kind of husbandry
to wrest it from the wild.

Why deny a time that bursts
with forms of life that bring
their seeds to Earth for us to reap,
head over heals in Spring.

Posted in poetry | Leave a comment

A Sonnet for Leila

Posted on 6 March, 2017 by PoetJanstie

The narrow path that sometimes seems too long
dim crescent moon in deeply dark night sky
and have they ever made you feel the throng
of voices in your head that ask you why
but never seem to show the way to be
the touch of fate that seems to threaten you
and blinds your inside eye so you can’t see
the little light that grows and burns as true
as any light could be, a voice that speaks
that elevates your spirit, steals your fear
reveals itself in unexpected weeks …
and drugs your senses ’till your vision’s clear.

Then Lucida was born to help us see
the all pervading light that helps us be.

This poem is dedicated to Leila Seren Grace Anstie, my fourth grandchild
born at 11:25am on Wednesday, 7th September 2016.
A sister to Samuel, who isn’t here, at least in person,
to meet her, and sister to Nathaniel, who, happily, is.

Glossary:
Leila = dark as night (from the Arabic Laylah “night”)
Seren = a star
Serenity = title of honour, respect. A title for royalty.
Grace = elegance
Anstie = (from anstige, a narrow path)
Lucida = the brightest star
in the constellation, Alpha Monocerotis

Posted in children, family, Hope, Love, poem, poetry, Sonnet, Wonder | Leave a comment

Comment for Kole

Posted on 3 January, 2017 by PoetJanstie

Never expecting too much of life
Is like preparing to be surprised.
When all it throws at you
is bad news, it comes good!

Then you popped your head
above the parapet to say
Hello, it’s me, I’m here!
Where’s the milk bar?

You, one of many young lives,
a second blessing in a year
so full of unhappy events;
loss and degradation …

… a parting of ways,
the work of a generation to
bring us together, gone west,
now adrift, like the Marie Celeste

I wonder what will be, for you
in the midst of sheep-clothed tyranny.
We may have messed up
but must we leave you to fix it?

I wonder, in a house full of balls,
what genesis of talents and skills,
what genetics will course your veins;
mould your personality.

The perfect uniqueness you are,
will you keep them all in the air;
become a champion of …
peace and social justice?

What will light your fire;
what will bring you joy;
what will be your raison d’être?

Welcome to the World, my boy.

This poem is dedicated to my sixth grandchild, my fourth grandson, Kole George Nicholson. Born early in November 2016.

It is written in Free Verse.
JNA December 2016

Posted in children, family, Free Verse, Love, poem, poetry, political, wisdom, Wonder | Leave a comment

do not make war, a poem

Posted on 24 December, 2016 by PoetJanstie

This carries with it, not only a poetic expression of love, but also a very special message … from the pen of Jamie Dedes

Jamie Dedes' THE POET BY DAY Webzine

View of Cliff House from Ocean Beach

it must be painful for them to write, those poets in tough-times and hard places
where blood and tears and poverty contaminate the air, stain the sidewalks, and consume the people

the blood must be soul-sick and rusted and tasting of acid, not salt,
and the poems meant to heal the writer and stroke the cheeks of the wounded,
to dry their eyes and gently kiss their gray heads

to poem in such places must be like walking shoeless on glass shards

perhaps the most sacred thing in the dream-time meadow of poets’ desire is Light ~
can you awaken to meet the Divine on the battlefield, in the camps, in government housing or in the ghettos?

if so, you are a saint, not simply an artist

in my small world, my civilized world, people fall asleep reading or after making love…

View original post 280 more words

Posted in poetry | 2 Comments

A Ritual for Peace

Posted on 11 November, 2016 by PoetJanstie

If there were ever worthier cause than this,
then tell me please. To start and think how each
and every step we take will mark the ground.
Enduring footprints, howsoever small,
one day will rise in thousands, coalesce
into a hardened monument, that stands

… forever irresistible to all.

Each bastion will strengthen a resolve,
exposing the futility of war;
the rape of Mother Earth. To save her soul,
repeat again, unquestioning, the need
for all to find another way … for all;
and seek new social order; politic.

And might this be our greatest ever quest
that every day we do or be our best

ensuring love and kindness finds a place
in every breath we take, that gives us grace

to reconcile conflicting minds and cease
the fighting; search for everlasting peace.

This poem was first published in the October 2016 edition of the The BeZine, whose theme for the month was ‘Rituals for Peace, Healing and Unity’.
This poem is written in Blank Verse, concluding with three rhyming couplets.

Posted in Blank Verse, Death, Hope, Love, poetry, Preachy, Religious, War | Tagged Love, Reconciliation, Truth, War | 4 Comments

Incidental music for ‘Sheffield PALS’

Posted on 1 July, 2016 by PoetJanstie

Last night at the New Barrack Tavern in Sheffield, a tribute was paid to a group of local young men, who fought for our country but never came home. To mark the 100th anniversary of the Batt…

Source: Incidental music for ‘Sheffield PALS’