TALES of the SWAN-DYKE ~ 2 – OUR WORLD SO SICK

To celebrate the launch of my 2nd self-published booklet of 11 diverse poems and essays entitled : TALES of the SWAN-DYKE along with Illustrations and Authors Notes – I am happy to offer a signed, printed hard-copy for just £5 inc. post/packing for orders within the United Kingdom and £6.50 inc. shipping for orders outside the UK ! 

I wrote these poems and 1 essay during my COVID-19 isolation and over nearly 4 months

#NOTE ~ please email ME AT:-

stepheneede689@btinternet.com

Alternatively you can post a comment in the comments box at the foot of this page and I will forward details of how to make payment ~ PLEASE include your name and the address where you would like the printed copy to be sent + PLUS indicate if it is to be a gift.

Many thanks                                                                                  ~ edenbray

TO Celebrate this occasion I am re-posting all eleven parts – today I am posting the 2nd piece : OUR WORLD SO SICK!

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Foreward to the Publication

In March 2020 at the recommendation of the British Governments Scientific Health Advisers I entered a period of isolation as a ‘shielding’ measure due to my previous and ongoing health issues and to avoid the threat of Covid-19, a dangerous strain of Coronavirus which attacks the respiratory system, especially of older and susceptible, clinically vulnerable persons. The full total of Covid-related deaths will not become clear for some while but it is already huge on a world-wide scale. This pamphlet of verse and writings came out of that period of isolation.

Most of the writings were composed from notes made during daily, long, walks I made in the fields at the rear of our home in Lincolnshire with either Ruth, my wife or on my own. These writings reflect wider concerns over the pandemic itself, national issues that developed during this period such as BLM but also very real and more personal matters concerning growing old, loneliness, our future – plus mental and physical health worries.

This selection from the poignant ‘This World So Sad’ to the more comedic ‘Predestination’ or ‘the dog’ may at times seem controversial, they contain ‘adult’ words but each of these works is important to me in conveying the true ‘feeling’ of the time and together they hopefully capture the full rainbow of human experience. I hope the reader will catch the humour intended as well as the more serious points of reference.

Thanks for listening                                                                                        edenbray 06.07.2020

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OUR WORLD SO SICK!

…   …   …

…   …   …

I took a walk today down where the buzzards play

Drifting in and out of the fuzzy clouds golden grey

And the truth they say is all around you,

thinking about it blinds you

Theres always someone to tell you what you ought to know

…

Shadowed bundles of grass stacked up in a corner of a field

The sun in my eyes consistently strong is orange, out of range

Not everything in our world is sick and sad, dying and strange

Field grasses laid out in rows are green and the river is brown

…

On the day I decided to write it all down

the disharmony

In a paper book with an elastic band and a few damp pages

I’ve taken to crying a lot lately but it could just be the jar

Or the curtains that wont hang together when its dark

…

It was an old, mottled, reddish-brown pen, with a golden clip

Like my grandfather would have carried in his inside pocket

Filled from a bottle of blue-black with a rubber topped stopper

The short, tainted lever was hard to pull, stuck fast in its casing

…

I’m fond of old people they carry our history in a khaki back-pack

Living out their salad days, they tell us stories in different ways

Our world so sick and sad right now is not dying,

Sick like a sailors parrot

There were two buzzards circling above the path where I walked today

…

I finally got to write it down on the plain, wetted paper

The sun had gone in and the ink ran in the warp and the woof

By this time things like that didn’t seem so important anymore

Not as important as old people dying, not important like that

.

writtenbyedenbray07.05.2020

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…

… sick like a sailor’s parrot

…

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Dedicated to, with my sincere thanks and appreciation ~ all the brave members of the NHS and other essential workers who have laboured heroically and tirelessly during the Covid-19 pandemid to help us through this traumatic and sad time

. . .

edenbraytoday

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