The quiet satisfaction
Of getting to the weekend,
Resting weary feet whilst
Looking back to see
The path that we have travelled,
Surveying with satisfaction
The turnings we have taken,
And admiring once again
The views and scenery.
This may turn out to be a significant week at work.
(20.06.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by Ran Berkovich on Unsplash
I only meant to write a poem,
A simple rhyme to celebrate the day,
A one off, no more than that.
I didn’t mean to blow the bloody doors off,
Or take the world by storm,
Or change the world one verse at a time.
On that score I guess I succeeded!
But here I am six hundred poems later
And it seems I’m unable to stop.
Like a wave that keeps on rolling,
I keep on washing stanzas on the shore,
And splashing innocent bystanders
With iambic spray or alliterative verse.
So here’s to rolling up my socks
And paddling in poetry
For just a little longer.
I had no idea that those few lines written for National Poetry Day in 2021 would be the start of something.
(19.06.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
Poetry tonight?
That was my intention, but
Gardening won instead…
Self explanatory!
(18.06.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Just like an overactive child, the robin
Twitches upon the empty feeder ring.
Surveying the ground below, he studiously bends
Before furiously fluffing his tail feathers.
Next moment he’s scrapping his beak across the metal,
Before swooping and scurrying across the ground.
Back and forth he travels, up and down,
Impatient, never standing still.
Spent dinner watching a young robin through our windows.
(17.06.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by Valentina Curini on Unsplash
Today like Moses I parted the sea
Only, it wasn’t water instead waves of grass
And I struck not a staff but shunted a mower
No horses drowned although grasshoppers jumped
and I didn’t reach Canaan just the end of the green
Sir Isaac Newton said momentum equals
an object’s mass times its velocity.
But where is time in that? Experience says
that time can have momentum, that driving force
that urges onwards, ever resolute.
Yesterday’s year becomes tomorrow’s week,
eighteen years a day, with time opposing
speed, becoming faster as I get slower.
We said farewell to a local minister today. It feels as if she’s just arrived, and yet it’s been 18 years. How does that work?
(15.06.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by Ahmad Ossayli on Unsplash
It’s been a long hot summer’s day
and now the light’s beginning to fade;
we’ve flung the doors wide open to let
the evening breeze come in.
Its cool fingers tickle my toes
and gently blow along my legs.
The newborn apples dusted on
the tree begin to swell.
Outside a grasshopper is singing,
its serenade a tribute to
the passing day, as is the scent
of summer barbeques.
It’s been a hot, if blustery day after the rains of yesterday. Gradually summer is arriving.
(14.06.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by Brian Garcia on Unsplash
An hour of conversation,
That reaches around the globe,
Transcending barriers of language,
And animosity shown.
Taking time to listen,
And talk about our lives,
Comparing holiday plans,
And things that make us thrive
A mutual love of camping,
Shared music of the soul,
A common concern for family,
One humanity unfolds.
Another Friday, another Conversation Café, our informal group for those with English as a second language. Use one of the highlights of my work.
(13.06.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Looked on eBay
There heard temptation’s echo
Bought a saxophone….
After being tempted by a sax in Lincoln, a bit of research turned up a bargain. I succumed.
(12.06.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
We arranged our raffle tickets
Upon the table top
To such surprise we found
We’d almost won the lot!
A true story from tonight’s competition!
(11.06.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Ode for the Day 