A prayer for inspiration:
Rain on me your streams
Of dream-like verse and vision,
Wisdom by which to see
With clarity, and metaphor
To help us soar beyond.
Short on time and inspiration tonight!
(07.09.26)
Arts & Literature
Poem 989 – Variations on ‘My First Kiss’
She bent down close to me
And gently brushed her chin
Upon my head so tenderly,
Kissing my newborn skin.
She bent down close to me,
I see her face approaching near,
A tear upon her weary eye,
I try to smile a newborn grin.
She bent down close to me,
I see the most delighted tear
Appear upon her weary face.
She bent down close to me,
Her face whitened by the effort,
And placed her tied lips upon
My cheek and then my head,
Gently cupping me in her hands.
‘My little boy,’ she said, and as she did
Her tiredness fled, ‘My little boy
I dreamt of this and now’re you’re here,
I daren’t believe it’s true,
Your little weight alone betrays it.
She bent down close
To me, I see
Her eyes fill up
With life at last,
And soft her lips
Kiss my head
And lift my heart,
‘My son, you’re here!’
Had fun at a workshop at Greenbelt on using rhyme in different ways in poetry. Here are some of my efforts circling around the same theme.
(31.08.26)
Poem 984 – Another Day Done
One word at a time
A poem for every day
A habit is formed
Keeping the streak alive
(26.08.26)
© Ben Quant 2026
Poem 942 – Did Will Play Football?
After a meeting of minds
it seems the word on the street
is we’ve got the beating of them.
But here I sit conflicted
as on the final night
we’re visiting The Globe.
Can footie displace the Bard?
Can I follow the game on my phone?
Or wear an earbud to listen?
I’m sure the answer is no,
on each and every score –
pun definitely intended…
I’m hoping that the title
is not a sorry omen
it’s Love’s Labour’s Lost.
England play Argentina tonight in the World Cup semi-final. I’ve just realised that if they win the final is clashes with our trip to The Globe… Now there’s a quandary!
(15.07.36)
© Ben Quant 2026
Photo by Hulki Okan Tabak on Unsplash
Poem 901 – Between the Curtains
A relocation,
Imagination creation,
Transportation of the senses,
Translation from our world
Into another,
For just one moment
The stage becomes reality,
Reality a stage,
Leaving us transformed.
We went to see Stage Kiss on Tuesday (not the photo), a fantastic show which we thoroughly enjoyed. There’s something about live theatre that has the power to take us elsewhere.
(03.06.26)
© Ben Quant 2026
Poem 897 – A Beginner’s Ballad
I’m trying to write a simple ballad,
A form of rhyming poem,
It uses lines with four accents,
Then three to move without relent,
Mix them together, let them ferment,
And the lines will keep on flowin’.
And now I’ve reached the second stanza,
It doesn’t seem so hard,
I’m certainly glad I gave it a go,
And tried it out, just never say no,
But now I fear I’ve reached my plateau,
I’ll never replace the Bard!
I’m reading Malcolm Guite’s terrific ‘Galahad and the Grail’ at the moment, which is written in ballad form. Rather than always alternating between 4 beats and 3 beats, he mixes it up, my favourite following the above rhyme and beat pattern. Thought I’d try it out, nothing serious this time but I may come back to it.
(30.05.26)
Poem 894 – Intentions
A pantoum today?
That was my true intention
But now? Too late. Haiku?
I don’t know where the days gone? Tomorrow!
(27.05.26)
© Ben Quant 2026
Photo by Jeison Higuita on Unsplash
Poem 890 – Driven Away
Today’s been dulled by miles of endless road
And, somewhere south of Kettering services,
I mislaid my muse upon the motorway.
I didn’t do it by design, believe me,
it simply slipped away in silent protest
at the hours of mindless apathy.
Most of today has been spent on the road enduring hot, boring miles.
(23.05.26)
© Ben Quant 2026
Photo by Haniel Espinal on Unsplash
Poem 884 – Following to find out where it goes
Taking a word to start a sentence.
Letting it roll around the tongue
and fall upon the page before
eagerly following where it goes.
Will it descend the depths of Hades,
take us to dark and gloomy places,
or raise us up to mountaintops,
to seek sublime horizons light?
Sometimes it will lose its way
and stumble into deadend wastelands
but other times, its serendip-
ity, delightful metaphor and glee.
Oft the line meanders through
the daily stuff of life, the common
everyday, in search of meaning,
or simply keeping hopeful track.
Today, my word has ended here,
a final stanza whereupon
it makes its stand. And now
it calls its friend and end, full-stop.
I didn’t know what to write today, so I just wrote…
(17.05.26)
© Ben Quant 2026
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Poem 859 – Lines
Tonight a crisply crafted stroke
Gave satisfaction in a well
formed line, brought pleasure not in verse
but household chores, the ironing…
Between work and home there’s not been much time for writing today
(22.04.26)
© Ben Quant 2026
Photo by Aleš Čerin on Unsplash
Ode for the Day 