I remember the cringiness
of watching parents dance.
Last night I realised
those dancers are now me.
At a party last night, I realised I’m not one of the ‘old’ people dancing…
(13.10.24)
© Ben Quant 2024
Photo by Baptiste MEREL on Unsplash
Just for fun
Poem 312 – We Won
Tonight we quizzed,
Wore bread, threw tea,
Hung necklaces
Of shoes in glee.
Tonight we cheered
And did our best,
Played games with bread,
Bemused our guests.
Tonight we made
Ourselves complete
And utter fools
With spoons and feet.
Tonight we won,
Yes everyone had fun,
And when we left
We left as one.
Tonight we enjoyed our own version of Taskmaster at church as part of our harvest celebrations. Very silly. I hope the owner of the glasses forgives me!
(04.10.24)
© Ben Quant 2024
Poem 308 – On Meeting Neil Hannon
Let’s get the obvious out of the way,
the biggies like thou shalt not kill,
or covert thou neighbour’s wife or ox.
(I’d like to think that surely now
we’d not equate a cow and a woman
or see them both as property).
And then there’s those that allegedly linger
Like not eating mince pies at Christmas
or providing a range to practice archery.
But what exactly is the etiquette
regarding bumping into one’s hero
in a queue for the urinals in the interval?
Is a nod of the head appropriate?
I would guess so. My quandary is,
what is our stance on autographs?
A real encounter at a Duke Special gig. None of us were knew how to respond to his presence.
(30.09.24)
© Ben Quant 2024
Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash
Poem 301 – Mind the Gap
Please mind the gap, tread carefully or
Risk falling through the grasping crack.
Beneath the step awaits unseen,
A doom which hides below the tracks.
You hear the scream of biting brakes,
But nothing is as it might seem.
That sound? A mighty creature’s roar,
As along the tracks it eagerly streams.
This beast that lurks unlit by light,
Over the eons has gone berserk.
And now its hand your ankle grasps,
To pull you down with just one jerk.
There’s not much time, so please act now,
Don’t hesitate, and you’ll be fine.
Don’t hang around, because you’ll find,
Upon your bones he’ll gnaw and grind!
I had a meeting in London today, and wrote this on the tube; the phrase ‘mind the gap’ demanded some form of comic verse. To be read out loud with expression!
(23.09.24)
© Ben Quant 2024
Photo by Tim Hüfner on Unsplash
Poem 300 – Aaaargh!
All this jostling and bustling,
My to-do list is hustling,
Tasks shoving and pushing,
To get the first look in.
The long-term and urgent,
Are scarily convergent.
They’re shouting, demanding,
Screaming, commanding.
They’re fighting and scrapping,
Wrestling and grappling.
Practising mad tricks,
With devious tactics.
I can take it no longer,
It’s driving me bonkers.
I swear there’s no doubt,
It’s time to scream out…
‘Form an orderly queue,
All you things to do,
There’s no need to run,
I’ll get you all done.’
But the truth of the matter?
The list’s getting fatter,
And by the close of each day,
The end’s further away!
For a whole variety of reasons, September to December is always the busiest time of year for me, with one thing following hot on the heels of the previous! Experience tells me I’ll get it all done, but there are days when it feels more than a little daunting.
(22.09.24)
© Ben Quant 2024
Photo by Ryan Snaadt on Unsplash
Poem 292 – The Weekend
There’s nothing so sweet
As the Saturday treat
Of lying in bed
Such a lazy head!
Off to church Sunday morning
No doubt I’m still yawning
Singing songs to our maker
There’s nothing much greater
But when Monday comes
And the alarm starts to drum
And pounds in my head
Oh how I long for my bed!
A rare treat of a lie-in this morning. Much appreciated.
(14.09.24)
© Ben Quant 2024
Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash
Poem 275 – A Day in Haiku
Does TV beckon?
Time travel thirty-two years
Serve at the foodbank
Write a daily thought
Prepare a final goodbye
Do Toddler accounts
Cook veggie curry
Stick to a difficult no
Tidy the kitchen
Reflect on Greenbelt
Catch up with the family
Write today’s poem
It’s been a varied and busy day, not unusual in my line of work (church minister). When trying to write a poem a day, on days like this the haiku comes to the rescue. Here are four of them.
(28.08.24)
© Ben Quant 2024
Photo by Eric Rothermel on Unsplash
Poem 270 – Lilian’s Boast
Last night was the night
that the storm came to town
shouting, ‘I’ll huff and I’ll puff,
and I’ll blow your tent down!’
But we weren’t deterred
by the threats that she made
we gathered here regardless
ignored her tirade.
So she huffed, and she puffed,
with all of her might,
she blew at the tent,
through all of the night,
it wibbled and wobbled
like one of mum’s jellies,
it lost all its structure
like a middle aged belly,
but every single time
that she thought she had won
it would pop right back up
to the place it’d begun!
Storm Lilian visited Greenbelt last night, with 40mph winds. The star this morning is a slow one as the site is made safe – much festival kit was not put up beforehand just in case. It’s not going to put use off though!
(23.08.24)
© Ben Quant 2024
Poem 266 – Distracted
I’m at my desk with pen in hand
or fingers on the keys,
I really ought to be getting on
instead I feel unease.
There’s something squatting in my mind
right where my work should be,
a mental barrier holding back
my productivity.
I keep on putting it aside,
whilst grasping my mind’s reigns,
only to discover that
I’ve picked it up again.
Perhaps the perfect answer to this
wretched predicament,
is to give in to it and to give it all
until my joy is spent.
My fear, however, of this tactic,
is if I give it a go,
the joy will never ever cease
and ever onwards flow.
And so to solve it instead I wrote
a poem about my plight, and
now back to work I must return
and hope it’s put to flight!
Returning from holiday to work is always a challenge… especially when another break, this time at Greenbelt Festival, soon beckons.
(19.08.24)
© Ben Quant 2024
Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash
Poem 256 – For Five Days of Scotland
For five days in Scotland my true love packed for me….
Five bat-ter-ries
Four khaki t-shirts
Three pairs of socks
Two walking boots
And a can of insect repellent
Almost all set for five days under canvas near Blairgowrie… (Batteries for the lantern!)
(09.08.24)
Ode for the Day 