SEEN FROM THE REAR WINDOWS RECENTLY, SOLIHULL... (...including a fox, parakeets, a nuthatch & a redpoll...)

 

SNOW OBSTACLES... (My new poem about a painting by Knut Ekwall...)

 Snow Obstacles…

(From Knut Ekwall’s painting…)

Drifting wind-driven snow lying in piles and stacks

Has halted a steam engine in its icy cold tracks,

As passengers spew from the carriages stranded,

Encumbered by children and luggage, a group disbanded.

 A top hat from a glabrous fellow’s head suddenly flies,

Whilst a dog hangs from a wife’s clutch with terrified eyes 

And as her husband struggles with the remaining gear

Of hatboxes and a small trunk, a tramping child sheds a tear.  

A masked musician hauls his instruments, slack

Inside a holdall, as his companion carries upon her back 

A harp, as she clutches a colourful bag in the snowy squall,

Which causes another child to slide into an untidy sprawl.

Spilling like rats, the folks along an embankment toil,

Past spindly telegraph posts and deep snowy spoil;

Misty greys and faded hues surround a panicky scene,

As the human exodus obliterates the white landscape serene…

Pete Ray

13th December 2024…

Knut Ekwall (1843-1912) was a Swedish artist…

Glabrous, by the way, is another word for lacking hair, or bald… 

THE SAILOR'S CHAIN & THE INFANTRYMAN'S MISSING FACE... (Coleshill's war memorial, Warwickshire...)

 The Sailor’s Chain & The Infantryman’s Missing Face… 

(The Coleshill War Memorial, Warwickshire…)

Glum December drizzle mists the weather vane 

Atop an impressive church tower, which rises high  

Above the slim memorial, its solid cross proudly standing 

Above two servicemen, back to back in full battle uniform.

The sailor, his expression tense, clutches the links of a chain

And the coils of a thick rope over one shoulder lie

And although his figure has escaped time’s cruel weathering

The soldier’s face is disfigured by decades of rain and storm.

Spider webs neatly spun, hang from his helmet, quivering,

His stone face is worn away, as if it is wrapped in cloth,

Like he has been blinded or gassed, yet his resolve seems unwavering,

As his upturned rifle respects comrades slaughtered by an enemy’s wrath…

Pete Ray

12th December 2024…

The Latin cross dominates the stone figures, the inscriptions are cast in bronze.

The sailor is in good condition but the soldier’s face has been badly weathered into something one might see in a horror movie…

The memorial lends itself to WW1, WW2 and Afghanistan…

SHIRLEY BELTED GALLOWAYS, DECEMBER 2024...

 

The merged images...