Conch

many a time tea

on blackpool beach

day trips with me dad all the time

when he had time

blowing her nose

an excuse me lost at sea

in winter gardens - indoor gardens

that’s yours my love that music

fox trot waltz

a winter garden

fresh warm

stay the day

conch

it’s just the blood in your head

you can hear it rush

to shut

it’s rough

cough it up

an excuse me

scared the life out of me change the scene

sea rough

a garden a-flower

a tower

a walk many a time

asleep

me

shells

May Cocker, Rosamund Blackham and Mary Arrandale

Stepping Hill Hospital

2009

Diphtheria

the ambulance bringing
ding a ling a ling

she can remember them ringing
them bells

it was one of the common ones
the cough
a sore throat easily contracted
diphtheria scarlet fever
five years old
the cloth stretching across the wall
my father raised a blade

the ambulance bringing

take swabs
of it the children terrified
isolation hospital
their faces
thought they’d be red
scarlet fever
diphtheria

ding a ling a ling

keeping them apart
lockjaw
didn’t talk
to em too scared
peered through a washroom window
one of the kids saw me said
I won’t tell
remember

them ringing the ambulance bringing
ding a ling a ling

them bells.

Dora Boulton, Frank Bryan, Olive Wilson
Cherry Tree 2009

This poem is part of the Patience project, for more information please visit http://patience-project.blogspot.com/

The inner part

in last week and three weeks before

bowel trouble

(nice)

test me kidneys

mind going round

which is what and what is

ignorance last week and three before

toboggans into bowel trouble

embarrassment

that you need

to tell them inner

things

(nice)

ungrateful bowels

heart and me blood test

results

unconvinced

test me test me trudges up

mind going round to ignorance again

anonymous 8th July 2009

This poem is part of the Patience project, for more information please visit http://patience-project.blogspot.com/

the speech therapist

when my love swears that she's truth

the words come down the wrong half

we can’t - we are – learning unlearned

I do believe her, though I know she lies

in the world's false subtleties
not the half, the other we will learn to speak

although she knows my days are past the best

helpless helpless, paralysed

I credit her false-speaking tongue
it’s coming spent, it’s half through

but wherefore says she is not, she is
hard to describe

therefore I lie with her, and she with me,
it’s half through, we hope it will

BE.

Anonymous

31^st July 2009

Overcome

overcome

Parkinson’s (face it)
face it, get involved, take part
in sports: the adrenalin temporarily
overcomes the Parkinson’s

(face it)
don’t take the pills as gospel
at 1am in the morning
you can be flexible

get a consultant who knows
about Parkinson’s (the bad doctors
do damage)
when I got diagnosed

I dropped out into sulks
refused meals
then decided
this was a waste (face it)

have a bout with life
live to the full
with
an incurable disease.



Ray West
11 June 2009

And for the peace of you

And for the peace of you I hold such strife
now counting best to be with you alone
sometime all full with feasting on your sight
then do I pine and surfeit day by day


Hilda Hewitt and Rennie Venus
2008

For the peace of you

And for the peace of you I hold such strife
Now counting best to be with you alone
sometime all full with feasting on your sight
then do I pine and surfeit day by day


anon
2008

The Giant City Awakes

The giant city awakes but
I am going down the pan
I have lied and cheated
my way through life
truth breaks through


anon 2008

a nearly man

I don't look in the mirror
only when I can't avoid it
every
other
day
when I shave

when I was younger
when I used to go to the dancing
bryllcreme on my hair
I had hair then
Old Spice
dab on

thats what we used to do
get ponced up
my features
altered
with
years

I've always been a nearly man
just
an ordinary Joe
a nearly this
a nearly that
I used to think I was

good at my job
I was a gardener-painter
a nearly man
ordinary Joe
in the street
I'm leaving

certain things
certain things denied
in your life
you don't tell
when you wake up at night
you go back

you go back to the war
to the POW camp
when the daylight's
not broken
through
go back years

waiting to sleep again
your wife snoring
next the marches
the POW camps
being captured
the treatment

yesterday gone
tomorrow's out of sight
the next day does not come
time's your own ambition
you are free
not tied to

your life
certain things
certain
things
you don't tell
a nearly man ordinary Joe

Harry Wantling
October 2006

golden lads and girls

they look like me
but
not
of
limb
they look like me
but aren't
like me
it's


a different youth


age:
look like me child
of flesh but
not
of brain
they know
such
a lot
of things these days



May Ferris
29 Sept 06

Stuffed cabbage

a speciality
attractive taste hungry
Hungary/stuffed cabbage

(I remember something bad happened to me)

makes you hungry directly
take separate leaves
powerful smell
hot water filled with green and onion
close and cook
good for the taste
everytime you warm it up it's better
in the oven
a tomato sauerkraut
filled with rice and onion
pickled cabbage
special way of rolling
cook together
cook it with
important
tomato
happy recipes
for generations
satisfying
make lots of
a bit of you
big dish earthenware
a happy thing to do
pickle cabbage
very good Hungarians at cooking
stuffed
handy

(I was there in that camp)

a gourd
fill it
right away
food for a long time
smell it ahead
food that lasted
cabbage
this food is very good
a long term food
improved
sauerkraut that extra
paprika
also tomatoes
and baking
warm people's heart
with the taste in the mouth
and
the expectation




Agnita
January 2008