A momentary pause
This quiet stillness
That waits, anticipating
The unborn day
A chance to gather up
My thoughts and being
Before the hands begin
To tick again
One of my favourite times of the day is the brief interlude between waking and work, when the house is mine and the clock has stopped. Once it starts, it doesn’t stop…
(09.05.22)
© Ben Quant 2022
This morning’s prompt
A photo from this date
Taken a previous year
A smiling face looks out
I watch you past, eyes meeting
The younger you responds
This frozen moment lives
Superimposed on others
The album of our life
The weft and weave of time
The strands that cross the years
Entwining us together
Every morning my phone reminds me of photos taken this day in previous years. Today’s featured an arresting look at the camera as you walked past.
(28.04.22)
© Ben Quant 2022
The chimes of Big Ben ring as midnight turns
A sorcerer ushering in the year
Calling new lamps for old as in the tale
But can the past be ever truly left
Behind or does it haunt our every step
A shadow shading, or whisper shaping
The present intersected by the past
Two conjoined twins inseparable from birth
And so give thanks for what has been, for that
Has made you who you are and who you’re yet to be
Over the last two New Years we’ve wished for better ones to come, but regardless of what they’ve been like, these years are now part of us.
(01.01.22)
© Ben Quant 2022
We like to think that time is constant
The regular tock of a ticking clock
But in night’s depth that rhythm is
Vandalised
Jarred
Disrupted in strange discomforting ways that stretch the hours until you fear they must have
Snapped
Whilst dark
It’s light enough to see the time
Its face shines from the bedside table
As laying I wrestle with surreal
Fractured thoughts that flit and tussle
Uncomfortable limbs that ache and toss
And tasks for urgent morning attention
Yet unlike mine it does not age
But gazes fixed upon my weary
Brain that cannot comprehend
Its strange nocturnal ways
Not the best night’s sleep last night and no real idea why. Watching Doctor Who’s Flux finale got me thinking about the nature of time and brought last night to mind.
(05.12.21)
© Ben Quant 2021
As Dave’s Quartet begin to play Paul Desmond’s piece
I find myself asking what can be achieved
In this most frustrating length of time
Not sufficient to take on a major task
Like cooking a meal, taking the kids to school
Or saving the planet
But not too small to ignore
Long enough to play a tune, perhaps
Boil a kettle, read a letter
But only if you’re ready when the time begins
No room to get prepared within its span
‘Cause when the countdown counts the pressure’s on
Is five minutes long enough to compose a song,
Tidy a room, polish my shoes or pen this poem?
Turn back the clock!
Take five?
Five is not long enou….
The first thing in my diary this morning was taking a school assembly on Jonah, which was a delight, doing it as an embarrassing Dad rap with audience participation and beats. But all set and ready to go I found myself with five minutes to spare and wondering what could fill that time…
Dave’s Quartet refers to the famous jazz outfit, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, famous for their hit Take Five, penned by their saxophonist, Paul Desmond.
(18.10.21)
© Ben Quant 2021
Ode for the Day 