April 2020 – The Spoken Word

The maudlin man

The maudlin man
Eyes straining
To pierce shadows
From apparitions summoned.

The maudlin man
Eyes straining
To pierce shadows
From apparitions summoned.
Dancing at the edge of vision
Wisps of understanding
Tantalisingly close
Continue to elude.
And the sands of time
Slip too easily past
His passive grasping.

Sitting precariously
On a precipice
Fear of the unknown taunting.
Transfixed and paralysed
Incapable of moving
Back or forth.
Caught out in a maelstrom
One that threatens
To tear asunder all opinion
That beggars no fools
But that fool is him.
This maelstrom
Of his imagination
Of his own making.

Forget me not, he prays
For he is caught in a vice
That strangles all thought
All strategies.
His life compressed
Into a single moment.
With an incredible weight
Pressing down
That increases it’s hold
With each laboured breath.

Everything depends
On his next move.
Excruciatingly
Time stands still
Every muscle tensing
Rivets of sweat
Start to flow
And pour from his brow.
He grimaces
Exhales
Sighs
And ultimately groans.

For his traumatised body has failed him
Taking cues from a mind
That fears to decide
For he has lingered far too long.
And oh that sweet, sweet moment
That watershed moment
To change his trajectory in life
That opportunity…
Has past.

I traced your fingers in the air

My fingers achingly trace a path in the air
My fingers achingly
Trace a path in the air
Imagining your fingertips
Touching tentatively
A fleeting apparition
No longer there.

Spoken word on Covid-19. Its easy to forget how blase we were all about this before X-mas when it was something happening in a far away land. Now the whole world has been turned upside down.

I used stock video from Pexels site which I made black & white and added a number of effects in Adobe Premiere Pro. I liked how it started and ended with the same footage, but with the ending in colour.

The music was Royalty free music from https://www.fesliyanstudios.com which I treated in Adobe Audition to add effects such as coughing and laboured breathing… I hope I didn’t overdo that!

The poem was written over a few weeks as I tried to figure out what message I wanted to give. I guess I opted for realism. The future is uncertain and we can all hope and pray for the best. Hopefully, we’ll all learn from this and become a fairer and just society.

Take care of yourselves and your families!

I traced your fingers in the air (A COVID-19 poem)

My fingers achingly trace a path in the air

My fingers achingly
Trace a path in the air
Imagining your fingertips
Touching tentatively
A fleeting apparition
No longer there.
 
So inconsequentially it began
Yet another far off disease
Affecting others overseas
Drowned out by incessant noise
Dismissed by the humdrum of every day living
A second thought not given.
 
But slowly it took over lives
Incessantly the news focused on the pandemic
The growing horror overseas
A drumbeat growing louder and louder
The spectre  of death
Harder to ignore
Finally capturing our imagination.
 
And then suddenly it was upon us
Our politicians fumbling and stumbling
Posturing and prevaricating
Ignoring the playbook of epidemics
Putting off the hard decisions
Consigning our fate
Because of the lack of balls.
 
In the face of divided opinion
We did what we did best
With false feelings of invincibility
We carried on as we had
Oblivious to the facts
Living the lie of wishful thinking
 
And so a new regime finally began
One of working from home
With great uncertainty of the future
Livelihoods shattered in an instant
Now playing at social isolation
Against a silent killer
One that wore no mask at all.
 
A temperature was how it started
Another man flu we hoped and prayed
But after day three the truth was out, it turned
Breathing more laboured
A constant fever soared
Coughing fits became the norm.
 
I don't recall how I got here
In ICU
Alone and away from all I love and care
Sedated
I drift in and out of sleep
And for the last time
In my mind
I trace your fingers in the air...