Till This Day

Gavin Varley

Description

This collection of poems spans a time of my late teenage struggles in the world of a new millennium. With parents both suffering cancer at the same time and a new girlfriend (now wife) having her own massive health struggles but also adding support to a very tumultuous time in my life. I don’t know if these poems help understand the meaning of life at all but they certainly were a therapeutic way to take out the emotional garbage that bombarded me. In reflection reading them back it eats at my absolute being how much I have persevered through and still have time to laugh, love and have fun with my kids and wonderful wife now.

Sujets

• Poetry

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris AU
• Date de parution: 07 juin 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798369491188
• Langue: English

Extrait

Till This Day
 
Poetry Collection
 
 
 
 
 
Gavin Varley
 
 
Copyright © 2023 by Gavin Varley.
 
ISBN:
Softcover
979-8-3694-9119-5

eBook
979-8-3694-9118-8
 
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 04/26/2023
 
 
 
Xlibris
AU TFN: 1 800 844 927 (Toll Free inside Australia)
AU Local: [phone] ([phone] from outside Australia)
www.Xlibris.com.au
852901
CONTENTS
Foreword
The Lamb
The Story Begins
Today Is A New Day
11Th September 2001
Sad Day
Waiting For The Bus
THE FUTURE SONNETS
Close The Wind
Chop And Tango
Fee Is Payable
Still Sorry
Love Is?
Flashpoint
Fresh Ocean
Breathing Without A Spine
Stolen Picture
Dwell
Anti-Clockwise
Far
Echo Quake
Equilibrium
Liberty
Stereotypical
Mutiny
Warmsense
Means To An End
6 Months
A Little Bit Of Craziness
Recipe For Disaster
A Conversation
Humanising
A Rose For You
Valentines Day
Feel The Same Way
The Sound
Only One
One Violin
Aftermath
Take Me Home
Ancient City
The Sun On Monday
Finish On A High
Have I Stopped
Filling The Gaps
Caged
Answer Too Late
Black Roses
Decline
Be The Same
Take Me
Moments Silence
Shimmer Of Hope
Life After Tradegy
Not Sure
Drifting Passer
Scenic Route
I Am Nothing But Human
See The Sights
Night In Disturbance
Till Death Do We Part
Train Tracks
One Last Freedom
Daily News
Electronic Empire
Connections
Violet Honesty
No Questions, Only Answers
Force Feed
Raw
Bloody Wool
Confusion
Giggles
Love You Now
Better Than Perfect
Never Let Go
My Promise
The Safe
Faster Than The Speed Of Light
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Dedicated to Ineke, Sijbren and Kurt.
FOREWORD
So, sometimes things in life are easy.
I am not sure what those things are but what I can say that decades of stress, anxiety, dealing with health problems in the family, losing loved ones have been both the burden and the reason for pushing so hard in life.
When I read back on these poems, I wrote 23 years ago, I see a young man who is madly in love with his now wife, Ineke who has been by my side forever and I am very grateful for that and her continued support.
That young man is obviously myself --- but I must admit that looking back it feels like a different person, impacted by watching the September 11 attacks on the world trade centre on the TV, it is also hard to realise that those images are still horrific today, but I can also see my personal struggles with mental health, lack of functional family life, lots of pain and really exhausted from everything!
I dearly miss my mum, grandparents and it is sad that cancer can eat away your parent’s health, extended family’s health too and make them suffer severely, it is awful that they both had to endure it at the same time. It is even worse that one had to pass away and the other one scarred emotionally and physically, I felt lonely in these formative years of schooling and some of this poetry I considered taking out the emotional garbage!
Yet excuses do not work if it’s just life (right?). I have been thrown so many curve balls since 2001. I am still alive and kicking, scratching and clawing to have an okay life. I feel incredibly grateful to have two wonderful teenage boys now in my life who are both invigorating and exhausting at the same time.
Enough excuses and complaining though because I finally self-publishing some of my poetry I have written. My most popular poem, (I once won an award for it); “The Lamb” and “The Speed of Light” – the later I read at my Year 12 farewell in front of hundreds of people and my mum hiding behind a pole crying her eyes out is included. I welcome criticism, feedback and banter through any mediums you can find me on.
So, enjoy these smatterings of recollection and rawness for somebody who doesn’t deal with problems very well and hasn’t figured much out in twenty years. Yet, I feel rewarded that some things seem good life after lots of darkness there is still a burning light inside of me.
THE LAMB
The innocent die painfully
Executed for the sake of preserving the
Fat man’s bankroll
Money and politics are oblivious to the lamb
A sheep cannot pay tax but will be sold as
Chops on the supermarket shelf.
Should we slaughter the young that don’t know,
Black from white?
Does the butcher have any remorse when he
Slices and dices with his bloody knife
Do you stop and think how cruel it is?
How psychotic and dirty the minds of the greedy and the rich are?
Does anyone care?
Is there any emotion spilt with the blood of the lamb?
Or is their just ignorance of the problems you avoid
To live a happy life?
When the walls of Jericho fall down around you, will you run?
Or mend the walls?
Will you confront the problem of the world or
Use honey to cover the bad bits?
I hope you can swallow Evil better when you sweeten it
Because I will eat it raw to show that
This is food for thought!
THE STORY BEGINS
Why Fair Maiden do you feel such things,
Happiness is a virtue that I hope to bring,
Life’s dramas are not documented, displayed or rehearsed,
Then why did I forget to write the script!
It should of been planned before I started,
But No, I act on instinct and with my heart
Height of my passion brewds over the fact
You were once mine.
Time passes by, but not wasted.
I long to see what I want to have tasted.
The fruits of your soul, your love, your beauty
Never have such words meant so little
Compared to the real thing.
Happiness does not gage on its range so that others can measure
But more people keep themselves locked away-
From what they truly feel!
TODAY IS A NEW DAY
Everyday,
It takes my breath away,
Like a reckless train;
Out of control
And going insane;
Feeling no fear
As the wind blows against me,
The forces that
Pulled me back,
Have let go,
And brought me near,
To the final step of faith,
As I fall,
I trust that as
Everyday sunlight breaks
It falls
Only to rise again,
So that I will be saved
By learning from my mistakes
And not tempted
Into decay
As this is a new day.
11TH SEPTEMBER 2001
A day like any other,
But the morning tragedy
Had rocked the world
Like an International Earthquake.
The Giant has been caught
By a low blow...
The twin towers,
Brothers that died
Together,
I see that the world has been
Turned on its head,
As we are not safe from the
Evil,
Of the invisible
And spineless scum.
The world will unite
In the attempt to avenge
The death of the innocent
And the next event will only be
Fatality.
SAD DAY
An event etched into the memories,
A rare site to the western world,
And a haunting event for those
Connected to the innocent victims,
But in a way we all are…
The way we live has been preserved
And we hope to keep it,
Never will we allow it to be
Destroyed by the consuming passions
Of the unrighteous man,
But we will forget our differences,
And our neighbours will be arm and arm
With us on the fields of War…
The War will be fought for the good of humanity,
And to defend the innocent blood spilt
At the fall of the Towers
And all the terrorist acts
Committed in the name of
Stealing my identity
And my happiness
That I once felt,
In my free and powerful nation.
WAITING FOR THE BUS
Beeping from the horns,
As the streets light change,
The busy workers hustle down the path,
With their brief cases and mobile phones,
But I sit on the bench,
And watch the world pass me by,
Until the bus, I want, turns up.