A flying visit
Or snatched opportunity
Wrestling passing time
Grabbing a few hours with my Dad – more time spent on the road than with him, but worth it.
(28.06.26)
Time
Poem 899 – Devoted
A precious afternoon
With no prior agenda
Devoted to each other
Listening and reminiscing
About old times, old friends
And sharing time together
‘Cause nothing else matters
An afternoon spent with an old friend whose time with us is drawing to its end.
(01.06.26)
© Ben Quant 2026
Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash
Poem 878 – The Endless Mountain
Yesterday’s freezer has become
Today’s allocation of time,
No matter how much of it there is
There’s never enough to climb
Up to the summit, crest the wave,
To clear the endless email list,
To finish every job and task
Required to win the day, what bliss!
It’s been a busy day at the start of a busy week (I’m not complaining, in truth I like it this way!)
(11.05.26)
© Ben Quant 2026
Photo by Kerensa Pickett on Unsplash
Poem 798 – York Minster
This mighty edifice imposes itself upon
the horizon, a brutal slab of stone. It thrusts
into the sky distorting gravity;
we stand before its feet and sway.
Above an array of monarchs, saints and grotesques
stare down at us, distorted faces worn
by age and weather. Their bulging eyes follow
our fleeting lives that form and fade with the wind.
For the last few days, York Minister has been the dramatic backdrop to our lives, what an amazing building.
(20.02.26)
© Ben Quant 2026
Poem 698 – Stop Thief!
Last week I lost three hours.
This was careless I know,
But at some point along
The way, they were stolen,
Snatched from under my nose.
Whoever took them must
Have had a fit of remorse,
For yesterday, they sneaked
Them back, leaving my body
Confused and out of sorts…
My body’s more than a little discombobulated today (what a great word that is!)
(12.11.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by Caleb Toranzo on Unsplash
Poem 640 – Time
‘I’m trying to carve out time’.
What a strange phrase that is,
as if time were a solid
block of wood or stone.
It’s true that running out
of time can be like running
headlong into a wall,
immutable and solid.
But can time be chiselled into
shape? Be forced into
a form that fits our hopes?
Have violence done upon it?
Surely time is fluid?
It simply runs around
one’s fingers, flows away,
oblivious to our lives.
Today, reflection upon the book ‘The Unhurried Pastor’ and the constant demand of deadlines, has had me thinking about the nature of time.
(15.09.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by its cataline on Unsplash
Poem 612 – Just in Time
Distracted by the day’s events,
appointments, admin, strategic planning,
I almost forgot that I was meant
to write a verse in my fair hand,
of poetry before the day was out –
it didn’t need to be that grand.
My plan? To write each day throughout
the year, to capture thoughts and dreams,
moments of faith and times of doubt.
A busy day today, I almost forgot…
(18.08.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by Murray Campbell on Unsplash
Poem 562 – All I’ve Got
There’s been no time
for rhyme today;
this is my only poem.
I will return
to try again,
when the verse is flowin’.
It’s been a full day!
(30.06.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by noor Younis on Unsplash
Poem 547 – p=mv
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
Poem 470 – Back on Track
Today the clocks all say different times,
My sense of moment has been totally scrambled.
My brain is slightly discombobulated,
My words are coming out confused and jumbled.
The only saving grace is in the bathroom,
Where last autumn I forgot to change the clock,
Since then its screen has been an hour out,
But now I find it is, at last, tip-top!
Very bleary today after the switch to British Summer Time. It would be today that I had a delivery slot scheduled for between 7.30-9am – that’s 6.30-8am in yesterday’s time… Yuk.
(30.03.25)
© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
Ode for the Day 