Author: Sue Young

The Sea

We know what it does

How it does it

Where it goes

Why it comes

What it’s going to do next

Yet are still mesmerised

By the waves

Lapping on the shore

And the tides going in and out

And the diamonds on the blue

When the sun is shining

And the fury of a storm

Foaming at the corners of its mouth.

Quote Of The Week

‘If you yourself are a shy one, then please try not to settle for living in your isolation cage. Take every opportunity a stranger or colleague or associate may offer and run with it. There is no need to be scared of people or believe that what you have to contribute is worthless. Take a chance, get involved and slowly the cage will open.’

Bob Mortimer – And Away

I Hope Your Troubles Don’t Hurricane Your Life

I hope your troubles

Don’t hurricane your life

I hope extreme emotional turbulence

Doesn’t undo you.

I hope you overcome

The hurricanes of life

And they don’t define you

Or make you bitter and twisted

Or frighten you

Or unkind you

And make you indifferent

Uncaring

Or apathetic

But as with most things

Hurricanes disperse

I hope your hurricanes

Drift along

Expend energy harmlessly

Into the ocean

And melt off into the mist

Where they can do no harm to no-one

Especially yourself.

Watch it go.

Quote Of The Week

‘I was never going to have things the way I wanted them, no matter how vivid they seemed in my imagination. In a way, life itself was an improvisation, in which I was going to have to deal with what came to me and not think about what should have come.’

Never Have Your Dog Stuffed – Alan Alda

A Safe Haven

A Safe Haven

In the mind

For some

Is a tiny place

A box room

A seven by twelve foot prison cell

No toilet

No light

Infested with cockroaches

But in others

A Safe Haven

Is a beautifully decorated mansion

With fragrant gardens

A peaceful place

A beautiful sunset

A sprawling landscape

Rolling hills

A county

A country

A continent

For some, sanctuary is small

With no room to breathe

Or to turn around

What does it take?

To extent or expand one’s safe haven?

A serene cove

In a quiet harbour

Or a desert

A tundra

How abundant or sparse

Are our safe havens?

If you’re never had a safe haven before

There’s always hope for one

To be written into your world

Painted into your soul

It doesn’t have to be

Just for the few

Self destructive

Self sabotaging minds

Will see their safe havens

Boarded up

And a sign that says

‘Dangerous, derelict building.’

‘Keep Out!’

Sometimes you have to

Open it back up

And renovate

Life is hard enough

Without a safe haven

To call your own

And it costs nothing

In running fees

It’s yours

And yours only

And no-one else’s

A priceless place

A private place

Of time and space

Your sweet, secure

Safe Haven

Slow To Anger

Insults will put you down

If you let them

A jibe here

A stab there

But a criticism

Or an inneundo

Like a rotting wInter leaf

Before spring

Can sail away on the wind

If you’re slow to take offense

It’s tiring to be offended

Day after day

An exhausting round

Of mind games

Of word wars

Of battles that can’t be seen

Blood shed covertly

Will hurt just as much

But they know not what they do

Accept failure of others

Even if they can’t keep their hurt in

Long enough

To keep from hurting you

Sometimes, it’s not personal

If a glass falls

Its many shards will scatter

In all directions

And chances are

One or two willl cross your path

But sometimes, it is personal

Smiles and knives have been sharpened over time

And tipped with poison

With you in mind

Perhaps for many years

And expertedly pointed

At your back

For a well aimed

Well planned

Bullseye!

But whether it’s wrong time, wrong place

Or accidently on purpose

You can nurse a slight all day

And all it does is take away

From what is important

To you and your life.

MidLife Crisis

The desire to relive youth

Comes on like a contagion

A midlife crisis is an apt word

To describe the malady

Many go there

But some never return

A clock can be biological

Ticking loud enough

To cause ears to bleed

And heads to explode

And minds to claw

At the walls of time

Like a trapped animal

Remembering suddenly

Things never done

Places never been

Hearts never explored

Lands never conquered

Dreams never realised

Emotions never felt

Repression never lifted

Oceans never explored

Projects never finished

The clock can be cerebral

A desire or need to ram

And jam in, as much as possible

Like filling a suitcase to bursting

So it can’t be closed

Easily

Red sports car

Leather jacket

Guitar

A younger model

A need to re-affirm

Masculintiy

Femininity

Desirability

Or all three

And a hope to escape

The existance one finds themselves

Embroiled in.

The midlife crisis is actually

Three quarters of the way into life

Creating an air of desperation

Suffocation

Drowning

Falling

A need to fall

Sweet surrender

To practice for that other surrender

Of death

But hopefully

Once the crisis is over

You come away – unscathed

Without leaving too many casualties

In your wake

And it’s back to reality

Normality need not be

Stale soup and slippers

Instead, it can be sanity

And staid need not be stagnant

And dreams need not be broken

And summer can burst through

The illusion of spring.