Sunshine Award

Thank you to https://thewalkingowl.com for nominating me for this award.

You nominated me for “Dog’s Old Age” posted on 27 December 2018, saying you appreciated its spirituality.

How important is spirituality in your life ?
I think I find it in everyday situations with everyday people. If you can’t find it there you can’t find it anywhere. It has to be within us all the time, not separate or above us.

Where does your happiness come from ?
It comes from the everyday experiences and everyday people in my life. After several years of retirement I realise how much I used to rush through life, as did the people around me. It was hard for us to appreciate all we had.

Do I feel the divine in others ?
I am not sure how I do this. I do feel very strongly that  poetry should include children, animals, the elderly and the ordinary everyday mortals going about their ordinary lives.

What are your perceptions of self ?
I think I value myself, even when others feel I am not getting things right. Other people need to do this too, to become fully self aware.

How do I want to be remembered ?
I want to be remembered by friends and family for being who I am, not what others expect me to be.

Nominee
easyweimaraner.wordpress.com

Question:
I posted “Brownie” on October 9 2018, and you made really interesting comments on how to develop caring relationships between children and animals. It would be really interesting to read more of your views on this subject.

 

 

Foreign Teachers

Korean Government in 1995
decided to move forward
with English fluency as
they rebuilt their country
to a grand economy
after forty years’ slavery
under their militaristic
aggressive neighbour
then the maelstrom of
a border war.

Korea would learn to increase
imports and exports, develop
and produce goods sought
by countries who would pay
well. she would keep pace
with the English speaking
country which helped her
stand against her enemy
siblings at the north end
of her peninsula.

Korean government in 1995
set up recruitment of
native English speakers
to teach in state schools
and cram schools. No teacher
training, simply follow the
workbooks Korean style;
east and western cultures
met in a grand slam !

These foreign teachers expect
eight hours work day, take
sick leave and summer holidays,
argue with senior staff !

Why would they do that ?

Foreign teachers are
very hard to understand.

Previously posted October 2016.

Dog’s Old Age

In the garden Nana talks
with the man who will mow
her lawns, trim the edges.
Brownie is happy to see
them in the garden. She picks
up her old brown ball in her
teeth, runs across the grass,
drops the ball at their feet,
looks up hopefully, expectantly.
They smile, say “Hi Brownie”,
But they don’t play with her.

The visitor fetches his mower.
Nana goes inside and lies on
the couch as she has often
down over the past year while
her family talk about her
heart, doctors, hospitals,
operations, rest.

Brownie has come home after
a month at her doggy day care
place, with her mutt friend Whitey
with the black ear, five cats,
two turtles, twelve budgerigars.
Now other people take her on
her morning walks. Nana rests.

At twelve years old Brownie’s
arthritis is held at bay by
pills, diet dog food, long walks,
but rarely by playing with Nana.

Previously posted October 2016.

Healthy Living

On healthy food
healthy interests
sound learning in
school and university
she raised her children.
In their adulthood
she cycled, swam,
nurtured the environment,
labouring in her garden
growing many vegetables
and abundant fruit.
She fed them to her
grandchildren. She
painted, made play dough
models with them, took
them walking with her dog
around the leafy park.

Retiring from her long time
profession she reached
out to a fuller life in
home, family, environment.

Now her energy drained
as her heart imploded
weakness by weakness as
successive genes failed.

Full of medications now
her mind and body rest
often on her bed.

Previously posted October 2016

This post is a day early as we have vast quantities of relations
in our town this year. I may not get to the internet tomorrow.

From The Past

Four narrow strips of oak
frame two greeting cards
behind ivory card edging
and their mantling glass.

In lightly brushed water colours
seven geese pad along a
leafy lane on orange feet
with orange beaks held high.
Beside it gentle strokes
portray a goose with paddle
feet toes pointing inward.

This much loved montage on
my living room wall recalls
my soul mate friend who sent
these cards, her laughter at my
love of these stubborn birds.
Her handwritten messages inside
them told of her daily life,
of dear family and friends, work
and community in the days of
handmade communications
twenty years ago.

She is long gone, vanquished
by an illness science can not
defeat but her inner self is
memorialised by two framed
messages from the past.

Previously posted October 2016.

Silly Geese

Across the country road
the geese stepped out
from one verge
to the other.

Not to scare them I
drove slowly, then stopped
as they stood before  me,
staring, their paddle feet
squarely on the road.

Their drover looked at me,
at them, then rolled hie=s
eyes to the sky. Looking
up the road then down,
he waved me on around
his feathered goosey charges.

As I continued down the
road my rear vision mirror
showed that flock of geese
waddling into their new field.

They showed me why
we call a foolish one
“A silly goose.

Previously posted September 2016

Tupperware Party

A modest suburban living room
greets women young and middle
aged as they gather to shop
in comfort for sturdy plastic
containers sold on the party plan.
After a hard day’s work earning
a living, caring for children, they’ve
farewelled those children, the husbands
and grandparents all babysitting
for the evening. Now they relax on
sofa, armchairs and floor as they
view smartly designed containers
in the latest shapes and colours
artistically stacked on coffee
tables, occasional tables. In the
corner china, cutlery, cover
the dining table ready for the
supper set out in the kitchen.

Their interest is held by the sales
woman’s samples and brochures,
recipes and anecdotes; their questions
answered promptly, eloquently.
More foods and dishes are discussed
by working women who work for
most of the day wherever they are.

Finally supper, savouries and cakes,
coffee and tea as they question
the saleswoman, fill in order forms.
A comfortable evening, a meeting
of minds who spend their days
working for others but tonight
nurtured themselves while they
shopped for their families.

Busy Roads

In my paid employment
days I drove my vehicle
rapidly round town from
home to workplace to
supermarket to mall
to bank to vet with snuffly
rats then home again. Phew !

As I rushed around town
limited to roads – which other
cars used too ! – in front of
me these incidental nuisances
called pedestrians crossed
the road in front of me,
halting me by law ! When
I had so much to do !

As a pedestrian retiree
living simply on my pension
I walk to our shops,
walk around town when
disembarked from the bus.
Handy pedestrian crossings
aren’t always where I need
to cross the busy roads.

I wait for cars to let
me cross but often wait
in vain. So I step out
briskly through handy
gaps to cross the road.
Cars whiz past me at
supermarket entrances as
I sidestep along the kerb.

On our roads I am
disenfranchised
without a car.

Previously posted September 2016

Vehicles

Mummy and Daddy with
two little girls, baby
brother and a baby
paraphernalia mountain
crammed themselves with
bags of clothes and food
into their seven seater van
to visit the cousins with
two little boys in the
mighty megalopolis.

The city cousins sneered
at this van in their driveway,
said only people in
unsalubrious southern
suburbs drove such
low class vehicles.

Auntie Jo carries shopping
in her trundler, having no
car in her retirement
after three redundancies.
Grandpa in his new late
model car, retired after
thirty odd years in one
workplace, is most scornful
of her trundler as his chic
car purrs around town.

Mummy and Daddy would
rather pay the mortgage,
feed and clothe mushrooming
baby brother than buy latest
trends stylish appearance.
Auntie Jo would rather buy
a comfortable life than a
four wheeled shopping basket.

 

Previously  posted September 2016

Shopping Trundler

The shopping trundler
has a sturdy frame
with wheels which
squeak unrhythmically
under very heavy loads.
This stolid pack horse,
has made many trips
home from the supermarket
with its fit and healthy driver.

The rubberised backing on
the trundler’s bag is cracking
where it sags around the jagged
corners of the bulky loads
it trails home so frequently
behind its energetic driver,
transporting them as efficiently
as a four wheeled vehicle.

One passerby at the bus stop
said that the trundler is.
an old lady’s bag. What
does it matter when it
makes the weight of six
shopping bags so light ?