Pickpocket time

Swift-handed pickpocket time
Tries to steal the spring from my step
And the smile from my face

I must constantly refurbish my soul
Worn down by the endless ticking-off
Of swift-handed pickpocket time

The world proposes skin-deep remedies
Vainly promising to lift the weight of days
That steal the spring from my step

But alone in dark hours, my patient soul
Meditates with ink and paper
Until a smile returns to my face

Swift-handed pickpocket time
May steal the spring from my step
But not the smile from my face

For poefusion – firstly the friday five (pickpocket, heal, refurbish, propose, face), and secondly the form of a cascade poem. I’ve played around quite a lot with the lines, and added an extra verse that’s very close to the first one, but I think I’ve still kept the basic feel of a cascade.

Monkey mind

Chattering, wriggling, niggling
The monkey on my shoulders
Can’t keep still

You’re too lazy…
Your dreams are foolish fantasies…
They’ll never happen…

Why bother trying?
Your mind is too blunt…
Will too weak…

Thought after thought
chases its tail – restless, futile
Lost in undergrowth

Remember when you…
And when you failed to…
It’ll happen again…

Only if they…
Or if you can avoid…
But what if…

You ought to…
Why can’t you ever stop…
You really must…

Pen against paper
Whispers a subtle lullaby… until
the monkey sleeps

The nagging voices
The ghosts of old memories
Fall sweetly silent

And the mind
No longer monkey-scattered
Writes.
Lives.
Now.

For me there is a real magic in writing. Somehow it focusses me, calms me, and allows me to focus very clearly and purely on something. Sometimes so much that I forget to eat, or ignore the fact that my feet are getting cold and I ought to put slippers on.

When I first started blogging my mind was churning with endless thoughts and reflections on my old relationship. Hopes and fears and if-only’s made the space in my head feel untidy and uncomfortable. But writing settled down the churn a bit, allowed me to take individual strands and explore them until they stopped bothering me. So that I could move forward, rather than round and round in circles.

And when I saw the prompt on readwritepoem, to write a poem about being in the moment, I wanted to find a way to convey this feeling. I’ve also tried my hand at a lune chain for the first time. You can read how other poets have responded to the same prompt here.

Oh, and the photo is one I took a few weeks ago – her face seems so innocent that it seems unfair to attach her to this poem, but I couldn’t resist sharing it. And the monkey mind often pretends to be sweet, innocent, and on our side!