tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61991738495223627712024-03-19T07:32:19.485+00:00EddieGubbinsEdmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.comBlogger404125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-19722631711647758852023-12-16T20:20:00.001+00:002023-12-16T20:20:14.345+00:00The sea and I a poem<p> My relationship with the sea since I retired.</p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px;">The Sea and I</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The canopy of jewels in the dark velvety sky</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Stretching over the beach on which we sat</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Gravel damp with spray beneath our legs</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Needles white and jagged but softened</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">By moonlight sparkling across the calm sea</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A ship with lights blazing passes cheerfully</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Off to some distant exotic lands and places</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Will I ever sail like that again?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Out into the moonlight sea</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Away! Away!</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Will I again feel the thrill of leaving?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Seeing the land and the lights disappear</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And the moon and stars companions</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now I sit on the beach in the soft glow</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Remembering what it was like to go away</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What it was like to arrive in distant lands</p><div><br /></div>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-7370248976675811292023-12-03T15:13:00.002+00:002023-12-03T15:13:22.188+00:00Genocide<p>There has been many posts on social media about genocide. In my fantasy novel Princes Daphne, Edward Eastland has led his friends through a rift in time and space to the aid of the Sea Elves. The Elves feel they are being systematically killed by the followers of the Tyrant. Nelvask, the magician, discuses with Latask the meaning of genocide.</p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ Tag looked at Edward but seeing he was not going to speak or give any sign that he was even listening, asked, “ What do you mean by genocide?</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">I have never heard that word before.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Latask shrugged and held his hands apart. “ The usual understanding of the term genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. This is especially true when the destruction of a people is accomplished by mass killings of all citizens of a nation. I know that sounds legalistic but it is the best I can do to define what Nelvask and I are debating.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ Why would anybody, no matter how evil, want to wipe out an entire people?” Kitty’s eyes were wide with horror.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Nelvask laughed. “ Coming from a pillar of the old Empire that is a bit rich.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Kitty bristled, her eyes flashing. “ The Empire, even during its worst excesses, did not go round killing other peoples without any reason. In most cases killing happened because there was resistance to their incorporation into the Empire. The Imperial officials tried to incorporate other nations into their system. Though under several Emperors and the Covenent the Imperial authorities might have wanted to wipe out the Rombuli, they did not even try.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Corlina interrupted. “ I do not know enough about the history of the Empire never having lived until recently under its control. I understand what you are saying, Nelvask. For some reason the enemy of the sea elves wants to kill them all. Why?”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Nelvask shook his head. “ It is not easy to understand why one set of peoples want to get rid of another. Again I call them peoples because I do not have the information about their background. They could be some alien organism that we have never before heard of or seen. Back to the reasons why one peoples wants to wipe out another peoples. As far as I understand, there are many complex reasons behind their desire to wipe out another peoples. First of all, targeting a population for elimination because one set of people consider the other set vermin who impeded the use of the land and resource. Usually it is imposed because one set of people has overwhelming superiority in military power. The second reason is the desire for revenge for past aggression. A third cause of massacres is fear. If the enemy is presumed to be so dangerous that it threatens “us” with extinction, then it might be a wise policy to exterminate all of them first should the occasion arise. The final reason for genocidal killing is the most difficult to understand. Sometimes the very existence on earth of an enemy community is considered so polluting, so offensive, and so unnatural that harmony cannot be reestablished until every last one of this group has been eliminated. Which of these reasons the enemy of the sea elves follows or which variant of them, I have no idea.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Latask spoke. “ We do not have enough information to make a judgement on the issue of genocide”</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">As is seen it is very difficult to understand whether genocidecis taking place or not.</p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-16054294121061489582023-11-28T19:37:00.001+00:002023-11-28T19:37:22.088+00:00My Christmas poem<p> <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px;">Bernard</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We plodded all the way from Nazereth</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">With all the other crowds along the road</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The lady sat on my back among the bundles</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The man walking with his staff holding the rope</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">All I wanted was to arrive and get some rest</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And at last we arrived at their destination.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The town was crowded but he found an inn</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Came back to say there were no rooms</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The only resting place was the stable with me</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The lady agreed weary from riding and ready</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To lie down and rest even with the animals.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I did not mind as long as it was warm.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It was peaceful in the stable where I rested</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The lady started groaning and women came</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Soon there was the cry of a new born baby</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The man took away my feeding trough</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Filled it with straw and laid the baby on top</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There was a golden glow over the manger.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">All went quiet again and I settled down until</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Outside there was the sound of rough voices</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Men came into the stable, shepherds by looks</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">They knelt down by the baby and handed a lamb</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It was strange but they talked of bright lights</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And angels singing and telling them to come.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For days it was mainly quiet with a few people </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Come to visit the baby who appeared important</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There was the sound of camels outside the door</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Three men in travel stained clothes entered </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Carrying wooden boxes carved and jeweled</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Bowing they gave these to the woman and baby.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Today I stand waiting loaded with bags and food</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We are leaving so the man said to the woman</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He had been told to leave and not come back</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I did not see anybody speak to him o the woman</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But I am only Bernard the donkey , all I do</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Is carry them where .ever they want to go</p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-85125096924704603062023-11-13T12:28:00.002+00:002023-11-13T12:28:40.080+00:00Poem of Galway Bay<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">A summer holiday in Ireland</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Galway Bay</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"> </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">We sing</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">“ Watch the sun go down on Galway Bay”</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">But the rain pours down</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">The clouds race across the sky</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">Waves beat on the shore.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;"> </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">A Rainbow arches over the water</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">We race to find the end</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">Never reached the end of the rainbow</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">Or found the crock of gold</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">And the rain pours down</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;"> </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">Huddled in the car</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">Watching the fishing boats</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">Red Blue Green</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">Appear out of the grey mist</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">Fighting the white foam</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">To return to harbour</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">And the rain pours down.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;"> </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">We never see the sun</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 132.2px;">Go down on Galway bay.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> </p><div><br /></div>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-502165392465910802023-11-12T17:50:00.000+00:002023-11-12T17:50:22.259+00:00<p style="text-align: left;"> </p><p style="text-align: left;"> At a remembrance service this morning I was reminded of my father.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Here is a poem</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Dad</span></p></blockquote>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.1px; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">White hair, wrinkled face and slight smile</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">All his life spread among those furrowed lines</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Ploughed into his face by the stress and struggle</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">To understand the question of why this or that</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Mostly of sorrow and anger but some of joy.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">He never spoke about his war experiences</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">I had to find out from other people.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">How he had left his new born son to go and fight</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Or of the torpedo that dumped him in the sea</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Losing the gun he had been trained to fire.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">When he was rescued and back on dry land</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">They had found his team another gun.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">They dragged that gun through the desert sands</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">And up the spine of Italy into battle after battle.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Along the way, one by one, he lost his friends.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Then one day in a field there had been a bang</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">And he was left alone fighting a tank with a rifle.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">They gave him a medal for that.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">But they did not see him after he returned home</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Helplessly moaning while twisting and turning in bed</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">The sheets soaking wet and he weak as a baby.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">He came home to the brave new world but no jobs.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">He learnt about the dole and the search for work</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">To paint liners during the winter and buildings in summer</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">And out of work in the spring and autumn.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">No luxuries, no holidays but mum and dad managed.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Of course there was always the football to cheer you up</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Though supporting Southampton was no easy ride</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">But we laughed and cheered together at the matches.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">He was proud of his children and their education</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Watching their progress with mild bewilderment.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Drink to your memories Dad and reflect</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">That life was not all bad but could be fun.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.1px; text-align: center;"><br /></p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-47939544812853166762023-03-02T11:53:00.001+00:002023-03-02T11:53:39.768+00:00Finland and NATO<p> This is a passage from my novel Running After Maria. I served on ships sailing to Finland from 1965 to 1969. This is something I heard quite often.</p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">His eyes took on the misty look which I have come to recognise when a person to whom I am talking looks back with nostalgia to a by gone age. " I remember a winter when I was very young. Finland was at war with Russia, such a small nation but on our own because other nations had much bigger problems than to spend time caring about one small country on the edge of the arctic circle."</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>For a moment he scowled at the thought of the world standing aside and letting his nation down. " How were we to stand and fight against the superiority of Russia in both arms and men? The only weapons we had were surprise and an intimate knowledge of our country. To make use of our knowledge, our leaders decided we had to retreat into the forest, leaving the women and children behind in the towns and villages. Can you imagine how that affected the men of my father’s generation? Having to decide between surrender or abandoning their families to the enemy? " </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>He paused whether to add to his drama or because he found the memory too painful, I have no idea. All I can remember now is the football game was forgotten and I was spirited away in that moment to the forest, the trees and the snow. I saw quite clearly the sacrifice of the men as they marched away from those they loved. The first glimmering of what it means to be Finnish started to dawn and I paid close attention to what he said next. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>" For years my parents and their friends had been fed a diet of propaganda, telling them that the Russians were barbarians. All Finns believed that the Russian soldiers would rape all the women and enslave all the children. Despite this, the men gathered up their weapons and set off for the forest, leaving their women and children to fend for themselves when the Russians came. I remember my father telling me about how cold it was in the forest and the snow. They buried themselves in the snow and waited for the Russians to come. Nobody complained, the feeling of being one nation buoyed them up and defending the right to live in their country, of how they wished to live their own way, not live as others would try to dictate to them. They wanted to live their lives in their own fashion." </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>He paused again, looking round the stadium as though to bring all the spectators into his circle. " The Russians came through the woods in the snow all bunched up in a convoy as though certain they would not be opposed. The Finns lay still and let them pass, hidden in their white suits by the snow. When the Russians were surrounded, our soldiers rose up out of the snow and defeated them in a bloody battle. We did that! This small nation had defeated the Russian bear by acting as true patriots, bound together by our sense of being a separate nation. This is the story that is told over and over again in our schools until it is ground into the very fabric of our very souls. It makes each new generation determined to live as Finns. It swells the breasts of those who come behind with pride!" </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>He looked at me, his expression at first serious and then he smiled. " Of course that sort of thing could not last and we lost the war. A great many of my father's friends perished but he never lost his pride in what they had accomplished. We have all learnt from that example that nationhood and independence are worth fighting for. The very act of defiance teaches each generation that our roots lie deep in our blood soaked soil and that a part of every one of us is buried alongside those who died to try to preserve our freedom." </p><div><br /></div>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-21942268710251271602023-02-15T14:49:00.001+00:002023-02-15T14:49:28.276+00:00Poem for today<p> As I saw the change in Southampton port, this poem was composed.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Scrapbook of an Sea Port</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"> </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Arriving and leaving, sailing in and out</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Joy and sorrow, anxiety and bravado</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Immigrants, emigrants, home comers and visitors</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Human flotsam swept from the sea.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Ocean Terminal built to look like the bridge of a ship</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Greeting the rich, famous and the poor.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Titanic sailing to its doom</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Streamers filling the air joining ship to shore</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Laughter and excitement as the band plays.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Mauritania with four funnels smoking</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Ploughing through Atlantic gales</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">To the pop of champaign corks and caviar.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Queen Mary proud and elegant</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Luxury for the few, crowded for the crew.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Queen Elizabeth all dressed in grey</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Disgorging soldiers to fight far from home.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Liners full of hope and fear</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Black faces eager to sight the new land</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Not dressed for the cold and missing the sun.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Southern Cross off to a new brave life in Australia</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Brits longing for the sun and freedom.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Windsor Castle off to the Cape</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Waiting for the clock to play </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">“ Oh God Our Help in ages past” </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">And chime four on Thursday.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">United States big glitzy and brash</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">The fastest liner on the seas.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Ocean Terminal knocked down</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">The elegant front a pile of rubble</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">A compound for imported cars.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">QE 2 sails from a nondescript berth</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">With iron roof but still the fanfare.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Tokyo Maru modern but like a floating Box</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">All angles and slab sides and functional</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Like the containers she carries</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Arriving and leaving anonymous in the night.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Ocean terminal gone but ships sail in and out</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;">Always moving on.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 151.2px;"> </p><div>Eddie Gubbins</div>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-50089067539147746482023-02-12T15:10:00.003+00:002023-02-12T15:10:58.804+00:00Changes<p> Went to cheer my daughter on as she ran the London Marathon. We made our way to several spots along the route to see her pass and give her a cheer. One place we stood and watched the runners was the Old Surrey Docks and Canada dock. It was from here I used to sail as a ships officer aboard the Baltic Venture and the Baltic Vanguard bound for Finland.</p><p>This poem occurred to me at the time. In many ways it was sad.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Docks</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Water glistens below the bright flower beds</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Tall white buildings reflected shapes shimmering</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In sepia coloured liquid lapping redundant quays</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Rope fenders still clinging to the concrete walls</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Iron rails sink into the tarmac unnoticed now.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Voices heard laughing, shouting, crying, arguing</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">As children play in the shadows of their homes.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Once deeper voices shouted, swore, and laughed<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Broad backs and strong arms pushed and heaved</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cranes banged, whined, moved and whirled</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cargo loaded for distant exotic places</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dynamic energy spilt for the demands of trade.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now faded into folk lore, remembered by few.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Flats gardens and living people in their place.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the sky above, a lone seagull cries<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Reminded of the sounds of the docks and</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Shades of long lost ships tied to bollards and</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The ghostly wail of a ships whistle never to return.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 170.1px;"><br /></p><p><br /></p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-23373666963132287992022-08-14T23:31:00.001+01:002022-08-14T23:31:49.451+01:0014 August 2022<p> I have been watching the proms from the Albert Hall in London this last weeks. The music has been wonderful. Tonight it was a programme including Edgar’s chello concerto and Sibelius second symphony.</p><p>The Sibelius brought back memories of when I was sailing from London to Helsinki and Kotka with United Baltic Corporation. It was a wonderful time. I learnt to navigate a ship through ice because the Baltic Sea around the Finnish coast freezes in winter. Before the pandemic my wife and I sailed on a cruise to the Baltic Sea and had a day in Helsinki. We visited the Sibelius memorial and had coffee in a way out cafe close by.</p><p>This period of my life led to a novel Running After Maria.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVP74SWLAOHx23KwxwAkNgUsFX1Qzi7prZKhe__N9TmKDUc0-88w7fE9j0vA__4ETGdVP7isRaaAYtErsVtXjjoFBmwuWNIsG54sdMXwKHIpRkQOB8lz9_G0Rq9NLxdudnlrJHUYv7oURmXqhr4A6lWlKZK4R7fpqCvkrZpkPKbXTCyTygA_KlBTg/s2048/FA931496-28F2-4BAF-A4C2-08A5ABAB2F6F.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVP74SWLAOHx23KwxwAkNgUsFX1Qzi7prZKhe__N9TmKDUc0-88w7fE9j0vA__4ETGdVP7isRaaAYtErsVtXjjoFBmwuWNIsG54sdMXwKHIpRkQOB8lz9_G0Rq9NLxdudnlrJHUYv7oURmXqhr4A6lWlKZK4R7fpqCvkrZpkPKbXTCyTygA_KlBTg/s320/FA931496-28F2-4BAF-A4C2-08A5ABAB2F6F.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieeCJgD0KOnPplWNXfyl28-z-7y72UE22ZYuO3tx9n5g_-km96TLwu159JDo0QjvHXF9SC4K2Nw46dQjohqnooCG1GtEZ4hdoFpOtx1ltvdNWJLLq5cwq5JwVprPPM6hhrGLtd1ApaRe11kGKhETVrqnufUtgyTknqW4QXmdswRJfSaluqs0PBUQw/s2048/BE685682-41BB-4289-BE17-615487E96323.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieeCJgD0KOnPplWNXfyl28-z-7y72UE22ZYuO3tx9n5g_-km96TLwu159JDo0QjvHXF9SC4K2Nw46dQjohqnooCG1GtEZ4hdoFpOtx1ltvdNWJLLq5cwq5JwVprPPM6hhrGLtd1ApaRe11kGKhETVrqnufUtgyTknqW4QXmdswRJfSaluqs0PBUQw/s320/BE685682-41BB-4289-BE17-615487E96323.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-65325234810178900102022-08-13T19:34:00.003+01:002022-08-13T19:34:47.627+01:0013th August 2022<p> It is something which has been puzzling me for several months. Why have Leicester City run out of money? Did it suddenly happen because of the covid pandemic? Have the owners lost money on their duty free business? Unless I have missed it there has been no explanation. It could be they have fallen foul of the fair play financial rules. If they need to sell, let Tillman’s go for a substantial amount. I have always been of the opinion that if a player really wants away let him go. Obviously if the player refuses to play in trying to engineer a transfer while still on contract, that could be deemed a strike and the player should not be paid. There is always the danger of any move not working out. Two examples from Leicester City. Maguire moved to Man United and continually gets booed and Danny Drinkwater went to Chelsea and hardly played. </p><p>What is it about certain religions and free speech. Salmo Rushdi gets stabbed as far as we can tell for writing a book which did not agree with some peoples feelings about their religion. Are these people so unsure of their faith that they have to resort to killing anybody that disagrees with them. Surely their faith is steadfast enough to ignore criticism. Let us hope Salman makes some sort of recovery. </p><p>Which leads us on to the increasing tendency to try to stop people expressing a view which does not fit with your particular thinking. What surprises me as a retired academic is the way universities are bowing to mob rule in stopping speakers having a platform if their views are not in line with the most vocal students and staff. Some subjects are not straight forward but much more complicated than seems on the surface. Why are the British castigated over slavery when they were helped by Arab traders and dare I say it African chiefs. Don’t get me wrong slavery was abhorrent and still goes on in many parts of the world. </p><p>I see Leicester City lost. It looks like it is going to be a long hard season. Was it only six seasons ago when I was there as the Premier League trophy was given to Wes Morgan. Maybe it will not be as bad as I think it will.</p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-82725867342643857102022-08-12T19:35:00.005+01:002022-08-12T19:35:52.825+01:0012 August 2022<p> I watched and listened to farmers in the UK showing the affect of theBlack of rain on their produce. They are telling us the yields c outdated be down as much as 50% this year. I can sympathise with them. My bean crop has failed this year and the potatoes are down by a large proportion. It is not my livelihood I have to contend with but the feeling of having provided some fresh fruit and vegetables. It is all blamed on climate change. What none of the commentators points out is the drastic affect of the increase in population. The leaders must find a way to get the message across that the population of 5he world must be stabilised and then reduced.</p><p>I see everybody is complaining about delays in getting an ambulance and in a & e. They blame it on covid. Well four and a half years ago when I had my heart attack we waited over three hours for an ambulance, spent two hours outside a&e and three hours before I saw a doctor. What I am saying is it is not a new problem. What I can say is all the staff looked after me wonderfully.</p><p>I see British tennis players Dan Evens and Jack Draper have reached the last eight of the Canada Open tennis. It is a shame their matches have been put on in the vending in Canada which means after midnight in the UK. Most tennis followers will miss these matches. The organisers could have thought of putting them on earlier so British tennis fans could watch them.</p><p>Hearing people describe their favourite beaches on the radio made me think of a poem I composed some time ago.</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">The Call</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">By</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Eddie Gubbins</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The sea is calling, always calling </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Even when the sailor has long left voyaging behind. </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The sea calls, ever calls,</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Over the noise of this sometimes dreadful life. </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To sail away , to leave this life behind,</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But to where? </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That is what adds to the thrill. </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Let the voyage be long or short, </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Let the oceans be calm or fierce, </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the urge to sail away, </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lies man's eternal quest </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For something new. </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Why oh why does man always strive after the new </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When accepting the present would save a lot of heart ache. </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It has long been a mystery to me but, </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">More than in any other profession, </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The sea offers a greater chance to satisfy this need. </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The sailor never arrives </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Because each new port is a stepping stone to the next </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And on to the next </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Until the nomadic lifestyle grows too much. </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It maybe that the sailor observes other people </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Settling into a pattern of life which brings rewards </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Such things as family and home, </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Anchored to other views of living </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Rather than constantly on the move. </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So the sailor leaves the sea </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And puts down roots.</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Or does he? </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The sound of a seagull screaming , </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The wind moaning around the roof of his house </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The sound of waves lapping on the shore </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Will awaken in the hidden recesses of his mind </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The longing to feel the excitement once more </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As the ship goes silent, </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Ready to leave for the sea. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px;">Goodnight</p><p><br /></p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-27066747648343111072022-08-11T20:17:00.000+01:002022-08-11T20:17:12.339+01:0011th August <p> So there are to be hose pipe bans round the country. Watching the Commonwealth games, I noticed the hockey pitch was soaked with water sprays. I just hope the Football clubs do not use sprinklers on their grounds. I know the pitches are hard but the players will have to live with that. They will have to learn to keep on their feet. So says me who never headed the ball or made sliding tackles. Those around me did the heading of the ball. My job was to get the ball and make the telling passes. I have to confess not always successfully!</p><p>I see there was a meeting of the government and the bosses of the energy companies. How can anybody in their position earning £100s really understand what it is like to be short of money. Like the boss of Thames Water nd his £500000 bonus even though the company lost money last year. The bosses must live on a different planet. If he gave his bonus to those in energy poverty he could pay £3000 to 150 people without it hurting his standard of living. If all the leaders gave their bonuses up like this many of the poorest could be helped. </p><p>Things change and Liz Truss is leading the charge of those who have no idea how the world outside their circle lives. How can tax cuts help those who do not pay tax? The basis of our system is that the wealthy help the poorest who usually are not poor through choice but circumstances. Even the hated Mrs Thatcher knew this.</p><p>On a brighter note who will host the Eurovision Song Contest. It had to be outside London. </p><p>Things change as illustrated with a poem a few years ago. Published in my collection through Amazon in a Golden Age:</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">As we are all reminded in the words of the song “ Things they are a changing.”</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.8px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">The Golden Age?</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.1px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There used to be pubs on Market Square</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Named after heroes</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Lord Nelson, King George or Prince William,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Or mythical beings </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Griffin, Green Man or Unicorn.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">With a snug, a lounge and a bar.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Where smoke curled and swirled, round dark oak beams,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Like the smog in Bleak House.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.1px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Men in dull grey jackets and shiny ties,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lounged on wooden benches, </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">By tables scarred with stubbed out fags</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Topped out with over flowing ashtrays.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Drinking mild, bitter or boilermakers,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The consistency of the silt laden stream </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Which flowed at the bottom of the yard.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The drink went down to the thud of darts</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Or the clack of dominoes on a board.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.1px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Ladies sit with their men in the lounge</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Drinking port and lemon the colour of blood.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Or in the snug</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Gossiping about the pregnant teenager from down the road,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Or Mrs. Smith and her brood and her men.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The barmaid wobbled her large breasts</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As she pulls the pints for indifferent drinkers,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Thinking of rich men and sun kissed beaches.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.1px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A dyed blond night lady pulls up her skirt</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Revealing nylon clad legs and smiling,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Hoping that some man would talk and take her home.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The other women turn up their noses, shake their heads,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Making plain that she was an outcast.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now the pubs have gone.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Turned into banks and shops.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">New theme pubs have been designed,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">All chrome and leather,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">With flashing screens and loud music,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Where drinkers guard their bottles of larger </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Which come from God knows where.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.1px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.1px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The girls prance around, Salome without the veils,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Attracting the boys in only their shirt sleeves,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Even when the ice is on the ground and breath freezes on the nose.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Once at ten thirty, people would stagger home,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now they spill out onto the square,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Falling, vomiting, shouting, laughing, growling and fighting</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Before staggering towards the night club</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Where Mrs. Bennet's dancing school once stood, </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Teaching the young to twirl and prance </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To the beat of a dance band.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now lights flash, mist spreads from hidden blowers</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Bodies gyrate and grind.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Times change</p><p><br /></p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-64657917971726047742022-08-10T20:03:00.000+01:002022-08-10T20:03:17.867+01:00Wednesday 10 August<p> Another to us British hot day. Before it got too hot this morning did some tidying in the garden.Because I am reluctant to hose the plants it is looking rather forlorn and sun baked. The forecast is for it to get hotter tomorrow.</p><p>The crews of the grain ships leaving Ukraine must be nervous that one side or the other will stick to their bargain. When I was at sea as an officer on a tanker I can recall how nerve racking it was when the ship was arrested in Indonesia. There was a dispute between the governments over what 50 odd years later I cannot recall. We were stuck in port with armed guards on board. Eventually we were ordered to leave. The crews of the grain ships must be feeling just as nervous. You can read about my tim3 at sea in my semi autobiographical book Tales From The Sea by Edmund Gubbins.</p><p>I was struck by the analysis that given the Russian invasion of a democratic sovereign state Ukraine China believes they have the green light to invade Taiwan. Is it no coincidence that these countries are free democracies where their citizens are at liberty to criticise the government and vote them out. Both Putin and the Chinese leader cannot abide anybody disagreeing with them to the extent of killing their opponents. All most people want is to be left to get on with their lives and to speak freely when they do not think their leaders are looking after their interests.</p><p>I wrote a poem for my creative writing class some years ago called:</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Tinamenne Square</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.1px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Blood red, the flags flying above the Hall of the People</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Where Nixon met Mao</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And saved the world!</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Blood red the sun shining on the flagstones</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of Tinamenne Square</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A red halo around the monument to the people.</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Red on the spot where a man alone</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Like Canute forbidding the waves</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Defied a tank.</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Above the gate to the Forbidden City</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A portrait of Moa smiles down</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Benevolent as a grandfather.</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">All people are now equal</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But the people are pushed aside</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Black cars carry the great and the good</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Speeding along the street</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And the flags flutter blood red in the breeze.</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We are all free</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But policemen photograph every face</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As they emerge into the square.</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There is no God, says Mao</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">While people queue four hours</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Shuffling in awe struck unison</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Passed the body of their old leader.</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And blood red the flags fly above the square.</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">By the museum the clock ticks</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Counting the days, minutes, seconds</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Until the rest of the world will descend</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And maybe pull back a small corner</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of the veil that surrounds the peoples land.</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And Mao smiles down</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Grandfather to his people</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">More equal than the other animals</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the biggest farmyard in the world</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And the flags fly blood red</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Above Tinamenne Square</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Published in a book of my poems A Golden Age and Other Poems by Eddie Gubbins available from Amazon.</p><div><br /></div>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-57005442638152900452022-08-10T11:00:00.001+01:002022-08-10T11:00:26.000+01:009th August 2022<p> Here we are with the same problems. Lying in bed with my morning cup of tea listening to the Today programme. All the noise is about the Tory leadership battle and how to get through the crisis. Even to a long retired academic like me the solution of cutting taxes does not wash with those on low incomes and many pensioners. They do not pay national insurance or in many cases income tax. Cutting taxes will not help them. They need either a boost to their income or a payment to cover the cost of rising fuel prices. How can people on massive incomes like business leaders and politicians have any clue as to how these people can cope.</p><p>My next thriller Whatever happened to Sophie which I am writing is about this problem. It is the latest to involve Ken and Norman Food following Brotherly Love, A Legacy from Mary, For the Love of Pauline and The Daisy May.</p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-43199946374255087662022-08-08T19:51:00.002+01:002022-08-08T19:51:22.945+01:00Monday 8th August 2022<p> Sitting in the garden in the shade. It has suddenly become hot. Looking around all the plants are wilting in the dryness. There is not much I can do about that because it looks like the drought will last at least another two weeks. We do use a bowl for washing up which we the use the water to water the hanging baskets and flower pots. They appear to be staying the course and at least giving me a little splashes of colour.</p><p>I did get mad this morning listening to the poor dentists bemoaning their lack of money. Like a lot of people who are on high salaries they do not want to give anything back to the society which by their support enabled them to be where they are now. Why do the rich not want to pay their fair share? They hide their money away in dubious schemes knowing that they do not have to worry about where the next meal is coming from or how to pay the bills. </p><p>Trying to watch tennis on the tv with Andy Murray but it is raining in Montreal. We have no idea when the match will start. According to John Mac it only rains at Wimbledon. Now there is more tennis on tv from all round the world we know this is not true. The other question is what has happened to all the British women tennis players? All that money and nothing to show for it.</p><p>It is still warm here for the UK at seven thirty in the evening. The forecasters reckon by Wednesday it will be 35 here. I remember when I sailed through the Arabian Gulf with the temperature in the high forties so 35 does not sound too high. The trouble is as one gets older it is harder to tolerate these extremes.</p><p><br /></p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-294649135544189832022-04-24T11:50:00.000+01:002022-04-24T11:50:02.144+01:00The money lender<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">The money lender</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">The lady pulled her shawl close about her thin body against the cold as she approached the door to the bar, cuddling her baby under the shawl to try to keep it warm. Pushing open the door, she wiped the snow from her straggly hair and thin face before looking around. In a dim corner she spotted a man.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">He was sitting at a table counting some money. On the table a bottle of gin and glasses. In the shadows behind were two tough looking men. As she approached the table, she noticed the snow on the man’s hat brim. He has just arrived, she thought.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">He looked up when she stopped the other side of the table. His podgy face showed a hard expression his lips drawn into a thin line. There was not a hint of a smile and his eyes were like hard black ebony. He put the money away in a canvas bag and shoved this into the pocket of his overcoat. Reaching under his coat he withdrew a small note book from an inside pocket. Turning the pages he stopped when found what he was looking for.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ Ha Mrs Waters. I am glad to see you. That will be five shillings.”</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ Mr. Burke, I came to ask you to defer my payment this week. My husband has had an accident at work and is off sick. We have no money coming in. I cannot pay you.”</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">The man’s expression got harder, his eyes like coals. “ We have an agreement you and I. I expect you to keep up the payments as agreed. How am I to live if all my clients welch on what they owe me? If you cannot pay, I will have to send my associates round to take what is of value so that I have my money.”</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Mrs Waters tried not to cry but tears still ran down her cheeks. “ If you take anything from my home, I will have nothing. Besides there is not much of value left in the rooms. There is a good chance I will not be there when your men come. Unless I manage to pay the rent, the landlord threatens to throw me and my husband out onto the streets. If that happens, the chances are my baby will get ill and not survive. Have you no heart?”</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Mr Burke shook his head. “ That Mrs Waters is not my problem. If I let you off your payments, all my other clients will want to defer theirs. Now you will go away and find the money you owe. I am not responsible for what happens to you. All I am asking is for you to pay me the money you owe. That is not much to ask for is it?”</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Turning to one of the men standing in the shadows, he ordered. “ Escort Mrs Waters back to her home and see if she has anything of value to the tune of five shillings. Then come back here.”</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">The man took Mrs Waters’ elbow and escorted her from the bar. She shivered in the cold blast of air and wrapped the shawl tighter round her baby as she left the bar into a blast of freezing air.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;"><br /></p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-30996527085664854632022-03-08T15:25:00.001+00:002022-03-08T15:25:42.768+00:00<p> A short story from my book The Cigar and Other Stories.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Connections!!!</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.1px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.1px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>They are pervasive! They are everywhere! They flash! They make money for the government! They are not fair! Nobody likes them! They are an intrusion into everybody’s life! They are an echo of Big Brother from “ Nineteen Eighty four!” They should not be allowed to get away with this!</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So thought John as he changed into his black sweater and black trousers. As he pulled on his black jacket, his heart raced at the thought that he was going to stand up to this menace. By his actions this night, he and his friends would take one small step in ridding the world of these things. He did not have words to describe how he felt about their existence, creeping silently without notice along many streets on the edges of towns and cities. They must be eliminated and not allowed to proliferate like some alien species breeding their way to taking over the land.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Before leaving his house to join his friends, John crept into the bedroom where his daughter Lisa lay sleeping. He gently lifted the duvet and made sure she was comfortable. Lovingly, he looked down at her young, innocent face framed by that shock of blonde curls. He bent down and kissed her forehead. At the door, he turned and took one last look at her face framed in the small nightlight she always insisted on having beside her bed. She was smiling in her sleep, looking for all the world to John like a little angel in a stain glass window.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Carol, his wife, was sitting by the fire watching the late film on television and drinking her bedtime drink when he looked into the sitting room. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>She looked up, smiled. “ I will be in bed when you get back. You will be careful won’t you John?” </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>John kissed her cheek and smiled in return. “ I am always careful when on a mission. See you later when I get back.”</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>John had to admit to himself that Carol knew what he was up to on those nights he left the house late. She never objected, never tried to stop him going out, merely told him, as she did this night, to be careful. Whenever he thought about it, John was never certain whether she approved of what he was doing or not. Deep down he understood she let him get on with his campaign, avoiding any argument that might upset the domestic harmony and in doing so, effect Lisa. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Before leaving his house, John picked up the package he had prepared earlier in the evening, checked the contents and stuffed them into his shoulder bag.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Outside the house, it was dim under the widely spaced streetlights lining the road where he lived. As he came out of his drive, the lights of a car parked further down the road from his house came on. Seeing this, John walked quickly to the car. When he approached, the car door opened and he got into the back, depositing his package onto the back seat. There were two men in the car, both like John wearing dark clothes.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“ A good night for it,” George remarked from the driving seat. “ Terry has the hoods.”</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Terry grinned, his teeth white in the dim light. John took the black balaclava from Terry and placed it on the seat next to his bag. Once John was comfortable, George drove off towards the outskirts of the town. Near a cemetery and a park, George found a quiet parking spot, parked the car and sat watching the road. All was quiet. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>With a grin at the others, he pulled his black balaclava over his head, nodded to Terry and John and got out of the car. Terry and John followed, Terry carrying a folded light ladder, John a shoulder bag.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>With George leading, they walked towards the main road, keeping close to the hedge that surrounded the cemetery. As they approached the main road, George held up his hand as a signal for Terry and John to stop. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Looking up and down the road, George made certain that nothing was in sight. He shrank further into the shadows when a car came over the brow of the hill to his right and round the sharp bend in the road a hundred yards from where they stood. The car slowed quickly as it came towards the cemetery and passed the yellow box on top of a post near the edge of the road. There was no flash as the car sped away, before slowing at the traffic lights near the junction further down the road to their left.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Once all was quiet, George waved and the three men moved out of the shadows of the hedge and ran across the open space to the post. Terry assembled the ladder while George stood watch. John placed the bag on the pavement and arranged some cans and wires on the tarmac. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Giving half of these to Terry, John climbed the ladder. Hurriedly, he placed the wires around the yellow box and attached the cans to the lenses and the cover for the camera film. When this was done, he reached down, took the rest of the stuff from Terry and attached this to the back of the camera. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Sliding down the ladder, John lit the fuse as Terry folded the ladder away. George signalled for them to run and they quickly rushed into the shadow of the hedge by the cemetery. There was a whoosh and suddenly flames engulfed the yellow box. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>At this, George turned away and hurriedly led them back to the car. As they approached the car, they peeled off their balaclavas and slowed to a walk as though they were three men returning from the pub. By the time they were back in the car, the glow had faded.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>They laughed and applauded, patting each other on the back. Still laughing, George started the car and drove back towards the main road. When they passed the camera, it was blackened and drooping and obviously not working. They could not help letting out another shout of joy.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“ One less for the money grabbing government to make money out of,” Terry giggled as they sped back through the town to their homes. “ They should trust us motorists to drive safely without all this nineteen eighty four stuff. I know when I am driving too fast and always slow down.”</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“ See you in the Royal Oak on Friday, John,” George said as John got out of the car. “ We can talk about which one will be next.”</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“ See you Friday,” John replied as he shouldered his bag, waved to Terry and walked the few yards to his house.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>All was quiet in the house, the windows dark. In the hall Carol had, as usual, left the light burning. John took off his coat and hung it on its peg in the hall before going through to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee and stow away his bag. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>He sat for a while thinking about their campaign and how successful they had been so far. Though they had never tested his theory, he was convinced that most people supported what he, Terry and George were doing. Sighing, he rinsed his cup, placed it upside down on the draining board and went up the stairs. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>He looked in at Lisa. She lay on her back, her eyes tight shut, blonde curls framing her face and a beautiful smile on her lips. Crossing the floor silently, John kissed her forehead and closed the door gently as he left her bedroom. Carol was asleep, curled up under the duvet one hand under her cheek, her face looking so peaceful in the light from the landing. John took off his clothes, slid into the bed by her side and kissed her gently on the forehead.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The sun was shining on the park making the grass appear more green than normal. The flowers in the flowerbeds gave a flash of colour and the ducks on the pond looked up in anticipation every time anybody walked by. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The little girl skipped along the path, her blonde curls bouncing on her head and a smile on her face. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“ Look Mummy,” she called in an excited voice. “ The ducks want some bread. Did we bring any?”</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The woman walking by her side smiled and reached into her bag. “ Here you are. I didn’t forget. Now you be careful of the water.”</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The little girl with the blonde curls and washed out jeans, trotted across the grass to the pond. The ducks, as though they had been waiting for this moment all afternoon, came squawking and pushing across the pond to where the girl was standing. With an excited giggle, the girl slowly broke the slice of bread into pieces and threw them into the water. Her squeals of laughter were almost drowned out by the squawking of the ducks as they fought over the scraps of bread.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“ Come along,” the woman said taking her daughter’s hand. “ We have to get home to cook your daddy’s dinner.”</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The girl smiled her angelic smile and skipped along beside her mother. They left the park and turned onto the main road by the cemetery. Getting to a place along the road where there was a traffic island in the centre, they paused to let the girl look right and left and right again just as her mother had taught her. There was nothing in sight. The girl looked curiously at the blackened yellow box drooping on its pole like some tree that had been struck by lightening. She did not say anything to her mother. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>They started across the road, then there was a roar as a car came up over the brow of the hill turning sharply right passed the camera. There was a squeal of tyres, the car bucked and rocked and then a sickening bang as the car smashed into the little girl and her mother. They did not have a chance. The car was travelling too fast in the knowledge gained from the email grapevine that the camera was inoperable. After hitting the girl and her mother, the car skidded uncontrolled and smashed into a wall by the cemetery. Silence descended, broken only by the blaring sound of the car horn. People came running, cars stopped and the smashed car was soon surrounded by helpers.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>John followed the policeman down the long, dimly lit, concrete corridor. Their shadows stalked along the wall at their sides like ghosts accompanying Macbeth as he went to meet the witches. Their footsteps echoed off into dark side passages. John felt numb. He had felt numb inside ever since he had been called into the human resources director’s office that afternoon. A policeman had been standing there by the desk and as gently as possible had told him what had happened. </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>At the end of the corridor, the policeman pushed open a door, asking John to wait. John stood by the door hardly hearing the rumble of voices from inside the room. After a while, the door opened and the policeman waved him inside. The room they entered was white tiled with a row of what looked like over big filing cabinets to one side. In the centre were two metal tables with white cloth covered shapes lying on top.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>A man in a white boiler suit smiled faintly at John and motioned him over to one of the tables. Taking hold of the white cloth, he gently drew it back. The blonde curls were now revealed framing a bruised face. The blue eyes were closed. John nodded trying desperately not to sob out loud. The man in the white boiler suit replaced the white sheet. Walking to the other table he lifted the white cloth. Carol lay her face bruised and puffy. John nodded and turned away. The policeman held open the door to the room and led the way back down the corridor, the footsteps once more tapping their echoes down dimly lit side passages leading to the depth of the hospital. Shadows accompanied them like the ghosts of John’s past come to heckle him.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“ If those idiots had not damaged that speed camera, the car might have been going slower and might have been able to stop.” The words of the policeman dropped into the lengthening silence of their passage along the corridor.</p><div><br /></div>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-22904264491898062432022-02-28T16:19:00.001+00:002022-02-28T16:19:28.140+00:00The Chieften<div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">My aanti-war poem from the book of poems A Golden Age and Other Poems</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">The Chieften</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;">Blue flowers, dark stone, on some wind swept moor<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;">As I look, the wind carries the sound of sadness.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;">The stones fade, in their place a grave<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px;">Gaping dark in the early morning light.<br /></span>Lights of torches approach up the hill<br />Lines of people, men and women, all silent.<br />Around the grave men in chain mail standing<br />Sword points in ground, hands clasped on hilts<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br /></span>Heads bowed low.</div><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Four men carry a body on a stretcher</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Leather stretched between two spears.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A long forgotten chieftain, golden circlet on head</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Golden cloaked, sword grasped in hands</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">They lay the body in the grave to silence</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Except the whine of the wind in the gorse.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Dark stones are piled one on another, higher and higher.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When they are finished, a woman steps forward,</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Kneels and plants some blue flowers among the stones.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The men in chain mail lift their swords above their heads<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In salute to their departed chief, turn and march away</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To some other war.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Blue flowers bloom each year, the dark stones washed clean<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">By the falling rain.</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Eddie Gubbins</p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-1776183642367650372022-02-22T19:35:00.003+00:002022-02-22T19:35:29.117+00:00<p> A another short story from my collection The Cigar and other stories</p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">The Girl In The White Dress</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.1px; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">The ship I was sailing on, the Felipe, arrived in Balak Papan, Borneo, late one evening in 1963 as the big red ball of the sun was setting into the deep green of the jungle. The Captain’s orders from the company were to load fuel oil for Port Headland in Australia.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">As soon as the Felipe docked and was securely moored, the agent boarded and informed the Chief Officer the cargo was not ready to load and would be at least two days. This was in contrast to normal practice where the ship would arrive in port, load the cargo in twenty-four hours and depart. The delay in getting the cargo ready had some compensation for the crew. It meant they had an opportunity to relax and a chance for some time ashore.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">The weather was glorious the next morning when I took over the managing of the ship from the Chief Officer. The first task was to stroll around the decks to make sure all was in order before returning to my cabin to enter information into the safety log leaving the crew to inform me if anything needed my decisions. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">The phone rang in the middle of noting fire drills, lifeboat inspections and drills, fire fighting equipment inspections, maintenance and drills and the state of the lifejackets.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ Good morning, Third Mate. How are you this morning?” It was the Captain sounding amused and cheerful. “ Mr. Bolton the Managing Director of Eastern Operations is visiting the ship for lunch. He will be accompanied by his aide and his daughter. She has made a request to be shown round the ship while he is talking to me. As you are the youngest officer on the ship, you will be the ideal man for the job.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ Do I have to?” I asked politely, imagining a morning spent in the company of such a girl. “ She will be impossible. Educated in some private boarding school, we will have nothing in common Why not ask the second mate? He comes from her background and mixes with people like her all the time. He will know how to talk to her.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">The Captain laughed. “ Young Eddie, this is an order not a request. I have asked the Chief Officer to look out for the safety of the ship while you are entertaining Mr Bolton’s daughter. Try not to upset her too much with your social comments. I will send word when you are required.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">As I put the phone down, I had a mental picture of the Captain chuckling to himself as he thought about how I would be uncomfortable showing this teenager over the ship. I sighed, anticipating the morning was not going to be much fun for me.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Later that morning, a sailor opened my cabin door after knocking loudly and being asked to enter. “ Third Mate. There are a couple of official looking cars approaching the ship along the jetty. The bosun thinks it would be a good idea if you, as the officer of the watch, were on deck to greet whoever is in those cars when they arrive.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Standing at the top of the gangway a few minutes later, I watched curiously as two Mercedes cars approached the jetty. They stopped at the bottom of the gangway. Three white shirted, dark trousered Indonesian men got out of the second car and adjusted their sunglasses. They spread out along the jetty facing away from the cars and the ship. Like the bosun, who was standing by my side, I laughed out loud. The scene was taken straight from one of those B movies I showed to the crew while the ship was at sea.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Once the bodyguards were in place, the doors of the lead black car opened and a man stepped out. He was tall with slicked back grey hair and glasses, dressed in an immaculately cut tropical suit and shiny shoes. As soon as he was out of the car, he placed a panama hat on his head. Trailing him a younger man carrying a brief case and dressed in a short sleeved white shirt and white trousers emerged. Finally a girl followed. From where I stood she looked about fourteen and my heart sank. Her brown hair glistened in the sunlight and, like her father, she donned a hat and sunglasses as soon as she was out of the car. She wore a short white dress and white sandals.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">This was the girl I had been ordered to show over the ship. The duty seaman stood politely at the foot of the gangway ready to help if needed. I noticed like all the seamen who had stopped their work to watch, he ogled the girl.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Mr Bolton ignored the duty seaman and climbed the gangway unaided. The girl and the man with the briefcase followed. When they reached the top of the gangway where I was standing with the bosun, Mr Bolton nodded to me.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ Show me the way to the Captain’s cabin, Third mate,” he ordered without so much as a good day greeting. His accent was clipped and what I regarded as upper class.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">The girl looked at me with large brown eyes. Close up I had to admit she was pretty with a good figure and was older than the fourteen I had at first estimated. Her expression was the same as that adopted by the local Lady of the Manor for one of the local peasants she happened to meet. The next few hours were not going to be pleasant, I concluded.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ This way Sir,” I answered politely indicating the ladder leading to the accommodation deck. As he followed me I did notice he was looking round the ship as though checking all was in order. The girl looked straight ahead as though her surroundings did not interest her. The man with the briefcase trailed in our wake mopping his forehead with a large white handkerchief.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">After showing them to the Captain’s cabin, I returned to the deck and walked round the ship. As everything was in order, I went back to my cabin for a coffee and the safety log. I had not been there long when the phone rang. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ Come to my cabin and collect Mr Bolton’s daughter, Third Mate.” It was the Captain and he still sounded amused.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">I grunted into the phone but dutifully climbed the ladder to the Captain’s cabin. Deep within myself I was cursing the Captain. How was I going to show this apparently bored, spoiled girl around the ship without saying something out of place or upsetting her? I imagined the rest of the crew laughing behind my back at their egalitarian third mate looking after a girl from a very privileged background.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Mr Bolton smiled thinly when I entered the Captain’s cabin. “ Lydia is ready to be shown round the ship. I will leave her in your capable hands.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Lydia climbed to her feet from her place on a chair by the window, smoothed down her short white dress and placed her sunglasses on her small nose. She was almost as tall as me.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">I led the way out onto the boat deck and waited for her. The sun was high in the sky and the jungle looked particularly green across the river from the berth. Heat haze distorted the trees and the boats drifting with the current further up the river.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ Well Miss Bolton,” I said smiling. “What would you like to see?”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">She looked at me, though I could not read her expression with her eyes hidden by her dark glasses.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ If we are to spend the next hour or so in each others company, you had better call me Lydia,” she said without a flicker of emotion.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ Eddie,” I replied.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">She shrugged. “ Daddy said you would show me all over the ship. Lead on McDuff.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Taking her instructions literally, I led on. Viciously ignoring her white dress and sandals, I started with the engine room. Well not exactly ignored the white dress but took a certain pleasure in the thought she might learn what dirt was all about. I know now this was being petty and she most likely knew what dirt was like from mucking out her horses. She listened politely as the engineer explained about the boilers and the turbines. Followed me down to the propeller shaft and the steering engine room. Going back up towards the deck, I climbed the ladder behind her. Her dress was so short I had a good view of her sturdy legs and floral panties. Stop those lewd thoughts, I seemed to hear my mother saying.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Then to the galley to see her lunch being prepared and to the dining room with its white table clothes and silver cutlery and down the corridor to the games room. I followed this by walking along the deck to the focastle, the anchors and the chain locker. What amazed me was despite my best efforts, Lydia appeared as clean as when we first set out.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Finally I took her to the bridge, my territory. We lent over the chart table looking at the charts for the area. Rapidly I showed her the wheel and the magnetic compass on the top deck. Lastly to the radio office and the radio officer explained the wireless system. I had to reluctantly admit though I might have been prejudiced against her at first, by now the atmosphere between us was much friendlier.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">We stood on the bridge wing looking out over the deck of the ship and the jetty with its silver pipelines when we had finished looking around the ship. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ Would you like to come to my cabin and have a drink before you go back to your father?” I asked her tentatively.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">For the first time that morning she smiled. “ That would be nice. What can you offer?”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ I have beer, fruit juice, coke or gin.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ A cool beer would be nice.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">She looked curiously round my small cabin when I showed her inside and sat her down in a chair. After I had served the beer, we talked about ourselves. I found she had in many senses lived a sheltered, rarified life when compared to mine. It sounded great but there were drawbacks. Her father and mother had moved round the world on company orders. Lydia had been deposited in various boarding schools for all of her education. Then in the holidays, if she could not join her parents, she would stay with relations. Irrationally, I started to feel sorry for her.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ I take my A levels next year,” she remarked which told me she must be seventeen. “ If I get good grades I will be off maybe eighteen. “ I already have a promise of a college place at Oxford University.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ What will you study?” I asked politely.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ Ancient history.” She smiled. “ There is no need to pretend an interest in what my life is like. Daddy cannot order you to listen to me or take an interest in what I am doing.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ I am enjoying hearing about your life,” I answered truthfully. “ It is so different from mine.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ I did enjoy you telling me about what it is like going away to sea. I have only known one seaman and he never said much about his life at sea. Besides he is much older than me and treated me like a little girl. He works for the company. Vincent Burke.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">I laughed. “ We have a mutual acquaintance then. I was his cadet on the Halvid a couple of years ago.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ You know him then? I met him a few times at my Uncle’s for parties and weekends. What do you mean you were his cadet?”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ The Captain of the Halvid assigned each cadet to one of the officers. The idea being we followed them around and learnt the job. We ran errands for them and did the bits they found boring or dirty. Actually that is not fair as far as Vince was concerned. He is a gentleman and treated me like a friend. He is the only officer I sailed with who appeared to know rich and aristocratic people in every port he visited. Sometimes he would take me ashore to exclusive clubs and I would mingle rather nervously with influential men and women. He taught me a great deal.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ I met him at weekends and balls at my Uncle’s house in Yorkshire. His family appeared to own half the county.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ We have to get you back to the Captain’s cabin so that you can go to lunch.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ Thank you for showing me around,” she said as we entered the Captain’s accommodation kissing me on the cheek. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Over lunch Mr Bolton invited me to spend the afternoon with his daughter at the company compound. The Captain concurred with a grin in my direction.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">That afternoon, I rode through the refinery to the company compound in a car sent for me. Laid out like a village were the bungalows of differing sizes surrounded by manicured lawns and flowerbeds. At the centre was a clubhouse with bar, shops and a gym. Across the road from the clubhouse was a nine hole golf course. A bit apart from the other buildings was the large sprawling bungalow of the Boltons.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">The car dropped me outside and the driver instructed me to phone the car pool when I needed to return to the ship. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">I stood on the edge of the lawn for a while looking round and then walked along the path to the bungalow. A maid met me at the door and took me round the back where Lydia was waiting. She smiled in welcome. Pulled round her body was a wrap.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ Come on,” she said smiling and taking my hand. “ We must get to the pool.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">The pool was large, surrounded by tiled terraces with cushioned sun loungers. Lydia chose a spot and waved to other people sitting or lying on other sun beds. She pointed to the changing rooms at the back of the sun terrace and I quickly changed into my swimming trunks. When I rejoined Lydia, there were towels spread on the sun bed. A white coated waiter stood waiting, a tray in hand.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ I have ordered my drink. What do you drink?”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ A Bacardi and coke,” I replied reaching for my wallet.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Lydia laughed. “ You do not have to pay. Everything goes on Daddy’s account. In fact every member of the club pays for their guests because there is no cash used on the compound.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">It turned out to be a wonderful afternoon. Though Lydia had at first given the impression of a superior and stuck up girl, by the pool we were like any young people enjoying each other’s company. As we talked and swam, I came to realise Lydia must be lonely unless some of the other expatriates brought their teenagers with them. Also, when coming aboard the ship, she had to be nervous. Why she had been apprehensive, I could not imagine. Her upbringing must have taught her to handle such situations. That afternoon she grasped the opportunity to talk and be with somebody close to her own age.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">I was invited to stay for dinner at the bungalow of the Bolton’s that evening after our swim. The car took me back to the ship to dress properly. The Captain was there at the dinner and some of the other higher managers and their wives.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">After dinner, Lydia and I went for a walk around the gardens. It was very pleasant with the insects chirping in the shrubs, a soft breeze and the stars twinkling in the sky. To my surprise Lydia took me to a summerhouse at the bottom of the garden and we made love on a bench illuminated by the moon. A perfect way to end the day, Lydia remarked as we walked back to the house.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">As the ship sailed, I was surprised to see Lydia waving goodbye from the riverbank. There had been no promises of long lasting friendship or underlying love. Just a pleasant day spent in each other’s company.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"></p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-48665277187180921752022-02-14T14:49:00.000+00:002022-02-14T14:49:53.507+00:00<p> This is a post from my collection of short stories called The Cigar and Other Stories.</p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgVx7n2Zx0BYAFyqKROUy8bfbasvthSfxHwgCDU2Tb6r5QAdwNSWwD07AQ--04u1J1FDPthqT-MPHucW7eYOP92XTgxtUQ9_WCZ7l3wOxB3sbC-g9_ribv9rX-Y8u0U5_xz3NwixWPpitAbrCw3VboqBsyO40wofibIbyde5AziygwukMPDhJu3rkg=s4032" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgVx7n2Zx0BYAFyqKROUy8bfbasvthSfxHwgCDU2Tb6r5QAdwNSWwD07AQ--04u1J1FDPthqT-MPHucW7eYOP92XTgxtUQ9_WCZ7l3wOxB3sbC-g9_ribv9rX-Y8u0U5_xz3NwixWPpitAbrCw3VboqBsyO40wofibIbyde5AziygwukMPDhJu3rkg=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />Letter to Joe<p></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Dear Joseph</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Thank you for helping me move that wardrobe the other day. The charity van collected it the next morning, consequently it was not on our drive for long.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">I trust your foot is not too bruised and the swelling is starting to go down. The wardrobe was far heavier than I anticipated. It was an accident when it slipped while we were turning it onto its side to get it out of the door. It came as a complete surprise to me that you knew such words, let alone could say them with such force.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Has the skin on your knuckles grown back? I thought you said push when we were maneuvering it through the door. It would have got through easily without chipping the paint if your hand had not been in the way.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">The stairs are much steeper than I have ever noticed or it might have been the weight of the wardrobe that emphasised the slope. I know I was supposed to take most of the weight while you held it off the carpet and made sure it did not hit anything. It seemed to have a mind of its own and quite took over.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">People have told me there is a very good tailor in town who does invisible mending so your trousers should be as good as new when he has finished with them.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">As for the window at the bottom of the stairs, the glazier advised me that I should have toughened glass to replace the broken pane in case we try moving something down the stairs again. The glass he has put into the frame, which was still usable, is very nice with a slight pattern on the surface.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Now the blood on the carpet is a different matter. I have tried carpet cleaner but there is still a stain. My wife suggested vinegar but I am not too confident in her sources. I might have to get a rug to hide it. Have you any suggestions as to what design of rug would look in place at the bottom of the stairs? I have always valued your advice.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">The ambulance people were excellent. They patched you up in no time and whisked you into the ambulance without any fuss. Maybe I should have asked them to help me get the wardrobe down the rest of the stairs. They appear to have experience of getting burdens round awkward places without banging into things.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">I tried to phone you in the hospital but they would not let you answer the phone. Something about you getting agitated if you heard my voice. You have never told me about your having any heart problems. Hence, my writing this letter which I will give to Vera, your wife, to deliver.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">If you stay in hospital much longer, I will come and see you. A visit from me might cheer you up.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Regards from your dear friend.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Eddie</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"></p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-76721220653415222422022-01-27T19:27:00.002+00:002022-01-27T19:27:45.848+00:00A short story from The Cigar and Other Stories<p> </p><p><br /></p><p>I am back after almost a year since I last posted anything on my blog. It has been a fraught year trying to stay free from covid. Missing my family until last weekend when we got together. </p><p>As a start this is one of the short stories from my book The Cigar and Other Stories. </p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;">The Cigar</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">I was sailing as a cadet on the oil tanker Wifredo around the islands of Caribbean and ports along the eastern South American coast. It was a well organised ship and the Captain insisted that each cadet was attached to one of the ship’s deck officers. In this way the cadet would learn what duties were required of a ship’s officer both at sea and in port as part of their learning process. The officer I was to assist was the second mate. I followed him round the ship and sometimes ashore while he was working. Helping him in his jobs and running errands when ordered. Over time during the voyage we had become more than colleagues but good friends.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">That day the ship berthed in one of those South American ports bordering the Caribbean Sea to load crude oil destined for Europe. As was often the case, it was the middle of the night when the ship arrived in the port. After securing the ship, the second mate and I had watched from the catwalk as guards were posted, one on deck, the other at the foot of the gangway. I asked the second mate why in this tin pot dictatorship they needed to post guards. He shrugged not really sure of the answer.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ What are they looking for?” I asked as our bags were searched when we went ashore to deliver papers to the agent early the next morning.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ Subversive material,” he muttered while smiling at the guard.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">When we took over the loading of the cargo from the Chief Officer, it was mid morning. The water ballast had been pumped ashore and the crude oil was now about to flow into the ship’s tanks.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">As we opened and closed valves to start loading into one of the tanks, the sun was beating down on the black painted deck. Heat haze rose from the steel of the deck causing the structures to shimmer and waver. The only shade from the direct sunlight was under the catwalk which joined the amidships and aft accommodation. This was high above the deck to give safe passage when the deck was battered by waves while out at sea. Joining the heat haze was the cloud of gas from the open vent through which we measured the oil depth in the tank.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">By the amidships accommodation, a guard in his green uniform, gun slung over his shoulder, lounged against the rail watching our efforts. Ashore, another guard sat on a bench by the foot of the gangway chatting loudly to a refinery worker.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">I measured the oil depth and reported this to the second mate.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">He grinned. “ Another forty minutes until we have to change tanks. I’m off to the cargo office to enter the figures in the book.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ And get a mug of coffee,” I muttered.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ I heard that,” he laughed. “Privileges of yer officer class me boy. I’ll bring one back.....”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">He never finished what he was saying. Like a statue in a museum, he stood fixed to the spot, his eyes bulging from his head. I glanced in the direction in which he was looking and froze.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">The guard had straightened and was pulling out of his pocket what looked like a large cigar case. Calmly, he unpacked the cigar from its silver case, throwing the case into the sea.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">We stood rooted to the spot, unable to move. Both of us were silently willing him to put it back into his pocket but, after rolling it between his fingers, cutting off the end, he raised it to his lips.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">After that it was, to me, as though everything happened in slow motion. There was the lifting of the arm to place the cigar in his mouth, the reaching into a pocket and extracting a lighter, the hand going round the lighter, thumb on the striker and the cupping of the hands against the breeze.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">His thumb moved and the lighter sparked. Flame leapt from the wick. His head lowered until the end of the cigar disappeared into his cupped hands. He straightened and the end of the cigar glowed red.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">The second mate had ducked under the catwalk and I quickly joined him, hunching down behind one of the pillars. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Nothing happened.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">I took a quick look.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">The guard was standing looking straight down the deck through the gas cloud pulling contentedly on his cigar. All I could see was the glowing red end. It appeared to get bigger and bigger.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ You’ll have to order him to put it out,” I told the second mate trying to sound calm.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">“ Not me after what happened to Dick the last time we were here.” The second mate sank further into the shadows under the catwalk. “ All he did was let the national flag touch the deck when he was lowering it one night. The guard shot at him and arrested him. He spent two weeks in jail before the company could get him out.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">I stepped out of the shadows and took a measurement of the oil. About half filling the tank, I thought.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">A sound made me turn sharply and I once more froze to the spot. In measured steps, his gun slung jauntily across his back, the guard was walking along the catwalk towards the stern contentedly puffing on his cigar. Screaming at me from behind his back in big letters on the accommodation bulkhead. NO SMOKING in three languages.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">I stood rigid and glued to the spot. The measuring tape dangled unnoticed in my hand. Clouds of gas drifted upwards over the catwalk from the tank opening. The smell of oil filled my nostrils. My stomach was filled with ice.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Clank, clank, went measured footsteps along the metal grating over my head. Clank, clank, like some sound of doom approaching, the red tip of the cigar, big and round, bright even in the sunlight. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">As though out for a Sunday stroll round the village square, the guard passed overhead, leaving a trail of smoke in his wake. My eyes followed his progress but my feet were fixed to the spot. I wondered how much I would feel when the ship exploded.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">The guard walked out of the gas cloud and continued until he reached the end of the catwalk. Turning towards the port side, he strolled under the NO SMOKING signs, took one last puff on his cigar and threw the butt over the side of the ship.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 28.3px;">Looking in my direction, he grinned with pleasure. “ Very good cigar. Come from Cuba.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"></p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-49669956754646271402021-03-28T14:40:00.002+01:002021-03-28T14:40:54.246+01:00Climate change<p> At last there is a recognition that though we have to do things in the short term to affect climate change in the long term we have to grasp the nettle of the increasing population. A great many of the problems stem from the increase in the population of the world.</p><p>The increasing use of fossil fuels is driven by the numbers of people. When I look out of my window in the mornings the traffic density appears to increase year by year. As the population increases so the number of cars on the road increases causing more pollution. As couples have more children who grow into adults the number of cars on the roads increases thus pouring out more pollution. As families have more children the cars carrying them to and from school increases. Waiting at the school proximity with the engine running increases pollution. We have to reduce the population.</p><p>All the climate commentators bemoan the fact that the rain forest is being grub up to make room for agriculture. What they do not emphasise is the need for more food is directly a result of the need to feed an increasing population. </p><p>There is the movement of refugees and part of this is caused by increased population. What is needed is a concerted effort on the part of all governments, aid organisations and religious groups to spread the message that contraception is the best way of decreasing the population. This applies to the Catholic Church and some Muslim sects. Part of the governments aid budgets must be used to help groups trying to get this message across.</p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-77103838477437373862021-03-27T14:54:00.000+00:002021-03-27T14:54:37.236+00:00A Golden Age<p>I wrote this poem a while ago lamenting? the way in which pubs have changed in my lifetime. People say that after the pandemic is over the town centre will change out of all recognition to what was there before. This poem illustrates the change is not new. In fact there are a great many things talked about at present which are not new but have been happening through my lifetime. </p><p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">The Golden Age?</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There used to be pubs on Market Square</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Named after heroes</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Lord Nelson, King George or Prince William,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Or mythical beings </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Griffin, Green Man or Unicorn.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">With a snug, a lounge and a bar.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Where smoke curled and swirled, round dark oak beams,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Like the smog in Bleak House.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Men in dull grey jackets and shiny ties,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lounged on wooden benches, </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">By tables scarred with stubbed out fags</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Topped out with over flowing ashtrays.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Drinking mild, bitter or boilermakers,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The consistency of the silt laden stream </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Which flowed at the bottom of the yard.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The drink went down to the thud of darts</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Or the clack of dominoes on a board.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Ladies sit with their men in the lounge</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Drinking port and lemon the colour of blood.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Or in the snug</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Gossiping about the pregnant teenager from down the road,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Or Mrs. Smith and her brood and her men.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The barmaid wobbled her large breasts</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As she pulls the pints for indifferent drinkers,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Thinking of rich men and sun kissed beaches.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A dyed blond night lady pulls up her skirt</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Revieling nylon clad legs and smiling,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Hoping that some man would talk and take her home.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The other women turn up their noses, shake their heads,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Making plain that she was an outcast.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now the pubs have gone.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Turned into banks and shops.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">New theme pubs have been designed,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">All chrome and leather,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">With flashing screens and loud music,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Where drinkers guard their bottles of larger </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Which come from God knows where.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The girls prance around, Salome without the veils,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Attracting the boys in only their shirt sleeves,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Even when the ice is on the ground and breath freezes on the nose.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Once at ten thirty, people would stagger home,</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The poem is self published in my book of poems called Poems and Life available from Amazon. </p><div><br /></div>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-85415787621219805862021-03-23T09:52:00.000+00:002021-03-23T09:52:17.568+00:00The Storm<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For my creative writing class I was set the task of composing a pantoum poem. I had never heard of this form before but believe it is a form of poetry from Malaysia. I thought of a storm and the similarity to the situation we are all in at the present time.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Storm</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">From the east the wind blows strong</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Waves are high and length is long</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The ship shakes, shudders and groans </p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Engine races, slows and gives a moan.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17.2px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Waves are high and length is long</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Climbing the wave up to the crown</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Engine races, slows and gives a moan</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Fall like a lift plunging down and down.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17.2px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Climbing the wave up to the crown</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Water crashing over the rails and bow</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Fall like a lift plunging down down</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The angry sea smashing the prow</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17.2px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Onward onward we go praying for calm</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The ship shakes shudders and groans</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Fighting the waves and the boiling sea</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">From east the wind blows strong.</p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now with the vaccine we maybe sailing into calmer waters.</p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6199173849522362771.post-78155331321310991282021-03-21T12:42:00.000+00:002021-03-21T12:42:18.998+00:00Homecoming<p> The latest short piece written for my creative writing class.</p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline;">Homecoming</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16.1px; text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">The excitement was tangible as though it could be physically touched as I climbed out of bed that morning. It was like a tingling in the air as though we were on the brink of a thunderstorm. Unlike most mornings, Mum insisted my sister and I had a bath. When I returned from my bath, mum had laid out my Sunday best clothes on the bed. While we were eating our breakfast, Mum was humming and smiling as though her world was now a happy place.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">At ten o’clock, mum made me stand in front of her while she inspected me making sure my knees and hands were clean. She brushed my hair and straightened my clothes. Together with my sister we went out to the front gate. All the neighbours were there standing across the road under a banner which had been stretched from a house to a pole on the green. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Although I could not read very much I knew the banner read “ Welcome Home Fred.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">I stood holding my mother’s hand with my sister on her other side. Through her fingers I could feel the shivers and her thigh close to my face was also shaking slightly. My hands were sweaty from the tension. I could feel the excitement running through the crowd of our neighbours all standing waiting looking up the road.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">I heard the sharp intake of breath as a lorry with a kaki canvas cover over the back drew up on the main road across the junction with our road. A man in kaki uniform jumped out and caught the kitbag thrown from the truck. He straightened, heaved the kitbag onto his shoulder and waved to the occupants of the truck before starting to walk down our road. There were tears in my mother’s eyes and she gripped my hand even tighter than before. The man’s white hair shone in the sunshine and even at this distance and at four years old I could see he looked embarrassed at the attention.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">As he got closer, I recognised the man from the photo on the mantelpiece. Mummy kept telling me this is your father. It was hard for me to connect the photo to the man. Then my mother let go of my hand and a started to walk up the road. My sister cried daddy and ran after my mother. They reached the man and he was putting his arms round them, hugging them tight.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">“ Who is this big man hugging my mother and sister,” I asked myself. He looked over their shoulders straight at me his expression serious. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">That look was too much. I turned and ran back through the passage between the houses, my heart pounding and tears running down my face. I went into the toilet and slammed the door pushing home the bolt.</p>Edmund Gubbinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14706221323443608951noreply@blogger.com0