Category: Uncategorized

NaPoWriMo 2021 Day 29…ish

On By WinstonIn Bullying Yourself, Enlightenment, NaPoWriMo, Personal, Personal Responsibility, Poetry, Self Awareness, The Power of Words, UncategorizedLeave a comment

So yesterday ended as a bit of a disaster. I got it sorted out in the end, but by then it was too late to write this because I had to work today. Long story short, here’s yesterday’s poem. It’s all about not being nastier to yourself than you are to others.

Be As Kind To You

Sometimes in life I make mistakes,

That anyone may make.

I drop something, forget something,

A plate or glass I break.

If someone else did just the same,

I’d understand, forgive.

But when it’s me, I start to rage,

Surprised I let me live.

I use such names, say hurtful things,

I’d never say to you.

I’ve done this for so many years,

Inside believe they’re true.

But here’s the thing, I know they’re not,

Yet in that angry heat.

I grab those nasty, jagged chains,

With them, my soul, I beat.

I know so many do the same,

It’s no more true I swear.

We all have chains to beat ourselves,

They’re always waiting there.

So here’s a tip, I try to live,

Though often yet I fail.

Don’t beat yourself, there’s others who,

Would gladly wield that flail.

We all are human and must learn,

To value who we are.

Accept our faults not pick at them,

Pick at them ’til they scar.

Now please be kinder to yourself,

Kind as you’d be to me.

Speak to yourself as to your love,

Try for yourself and see.

I’ve listened to the voices in,

My head and now I know.

I’d not speak thus to those I love.

Why do I hate me so?

Speak gentler words that build you up,

Alone within your mind.

Don’t punish but forgive yourself,

To your own self be kind.

Cheers, Winston

NaPoWriMo 2021 Day 27

On By WinstonIn Enlightenment, NaPoWriMo, Personal, Personal Responsibility, Poetry, Self Awareness, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I struggle a lot with getting overwhelmed by the things I have to do. Then I don’t do them. Then I get more overwhelmed. Then I don’t do them… I think you see how that works. Well, I’ve been working at changing that. This poem kind of articulates that struggle for me.

The Way Forward

Sometimes the things we plan to do,

Do not go as we’d hope.

And then we stress and blame ourselves,

Step on that slippery slope.

Now from that stress, depression comes,

To sap our will to try.

It just gets worse the longer we,

Allow time to slip by.

Before you know it’s spiraled down,

So overwhelmed we feel.

And though we tell ourselves it’s not,

Our black despair is real.

But here’s a thing I’ve had to learn,

That’s not a healthy place.

If you give in, if you get stuck,

Believe you’re a disgrace.

You can get stuck, see no way out,

But that’s not true I swear.

You can get free, can break those chains,

Find your way back from there.

Like any trip, it’s that first step,

The bravest thing you do.

Once that thing’s done, take the next step,

And then another too.

There will be times it will be hard,

You take no step that day.

And maybe two or three go by,

You think you’ve lost your way.

But you aren’t beat so don’t despair,

Can’t lose until you quit.

So give yourself permission to,

Fail. Make your peace with it.

But from that setback rise back up,

Push on despite the pain.

For even just the smallest step,

Is still some kind of gain.

So understand you will despair,

But you don’t have to dwell.

For each step’s one step closer to,

Escaping from your hell.

Cheers, Winston

Sir Winston Churchill, for whom I was named, once famously said, “When you’re going through Hell, keep going.” It seems to apply here.

NaPoWriMo 2021 Day 25

On By WinstonIn Enlightenment, Memories, NaPoWriMo, Personal, Personal Responsibility, Poetry, Psychology, Self Awareness, UncategorizedLeave a comment

For many years, I allowed my past (or at least my perception of it) to dictate how I saw myself. Over time, I’ve revised that narrative. I’m working on becoming a synthesis of who I believe I was and who I believe I can be. Today’s poem looks at the importance of acknowledging the past but living in the now and choosing who we want to be rather than who we were told we are.

The Past Need Not Define

I sing the songs of long ago,

Forgotten all these years.

And as I sing my mind drifts back,

My eyes fill up with tears.

Where did they go the days and years?

Were they as I recall?

Were they so carefree and sublime?

Have I rewritten all?

The mem’ry of a summer day,

So sweet my heart will ache.

A certain smell and then a trip,

Down mem’ry lane I take.

But are those mem’ries really real,

Or something we create?

Do we just cling to what we need,

No matter love or hate?

If it can justify the things,

Which we think us define.

Then we will find just what we need,

And take it as a sign.

I do not think it matters much,

How accurate and true.

Each person’s mem’ries are their own,

So yours are true for you.

But do not let your mem’ries make,

A trap, ensnare your soul.

Remember now is where you live,

Don’t stay down in that hole.

Take comfort where there’s comfort found,

Learn lessons that you find.

Make peace, find peace, within your past,

To free today, your mind.

Cheers, Winston

NaPoWriMo 2021 Day 21

On By WinstonIn NaPoWriMo, Personal, Poetry, Self Awareness, Uncategorized, writer`s blockLeave a comment

Over two-thirds of the way through the month and it’s getting a little more challenging. But with a suggestion from my personal muse, angel and wife, here we are.

The Challenge

I hate it when I must work with,

Deadlines of any kind.

The very thought I might miss them.

Sets traps within my mind.

So every year I sit and face,

This challenge and my fears.

When every day a deadline looms,

Each day closer to tears.

There is no prize if I succeed,

Nor penalty if not.

It’s in my head the whole of it,

That’s where the battle’s fought.

I set the goal, I set the pace,

It all is up to me.

I am much harsher on my self,

Than someone else would be.

I love to write, I truly do,

But now it is a chore.

One that I do but grudgingly,

While thinking “Nevermore!”.

But I won’t quit, will stay the course,

Deliver on my vow.

There’s just nine days that now remain,

I’ll get through them somehow.

So bear with me, I’ll bear with you,

Until this task is done.

And once this month is over then,

Words once more will seem fun.

Cheers, Winston

NaPoWriMo 2021 Day 15

On By WinstonIn Enlightenment, Joy of Sail,, Loving Life, my blessed life, NaPoWriMo, Poetry, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I’ve been drawing sailboats lately, so I thought to incorporate that phase into my writing as well.

The Joy of Sail

A ship of wood, a ship of steel,

Or carbon fiber tech.

It’s sails belled with steady wind,

Warm sun upon the deck.

The wheeling gulls cry loud and free,

Beneath cerulean skies.

The ocean swells lift up her bows,

And salt spray stings the eyes.

Now see her fly across the waves,

Is there a finer thing,

Than canvas wings spread to the wind,

Oh hear her rigging sing.

Horizons beckon ever on,

What may await us there?

Some tropic isle with swaying palms,

Pack ice and polar bear?

It matters not what we may find,

The voyage is the goal.

The joy of sailing o’er the sea’s,

A blessing to the soul.

Cheers, Winston

NaPoWriMo 2021 Day 12

On By WinstonIn COVID 19, NaPoWriMo, Pandemic, Personal, Personal Responsibility, Poetry, Science, Society, Uncategorized, Values2 Comments

I am well aware that not everyone will agree with today’s poem and that’s okay. This post reflects my views on the current situation. Thank you for keeping any comments polite, respectful and brief.

COVID 19

This virus, such a tiny thing,

How quick, how far it spread.

Around the globe in just a year,

There’s near three million dead.

“It’s not so bad.”, some folks maintain,

“It’s no worse than the flu.”

At least until someone who died,

Is someone close to you.

They can’t conceive or won’t believe,

Why everything must stop.

And every step that we can take,

We must ’til cases drop.

Now wear your mask and wash you hands,

And stay home that’s the plan.

Now close the restaurants and bars,

Close any stores you can.

There’s no cabal with some grand plan,

To strip your rights from you.

The powerful elites don’t care,

‘Bout little fish like you.

Your “rights” aren’t more important than,

All those who’ve yet to die.

Unless you’re one who’ll tell me that,

This all has been a lie.

I beg you don’t say this to me,

I’ve heard it all before.

And I’ve no wish to go around,

Go ’round and ’round once more.

This virus, such a tiny thing,

Makes such a huge divide.

Some swear our fear has made us blind,

Some work to stem the tide.

I’ve diabetes, heart disease,

Health issues by the score.

Up until now my Docs have worked,

To keep me from Death’s door.

So I’ll rely on their advice,

To get me through these times.

And pass the lockdown as I do,

Composing little rhymes.

Cheers, Winston

NaPoWriMo 2021 Day 11

On By WinstonIn Drawing, Loving Life, My Art, my blessed life, NaPoWriMo, Personal, Personal Creativity Project,, Poetry, Sketches, UncategorizedLeave a comment

As you may have seen in previous posts here, I also enjoy drawing. I had really stepped back from it for while when my daughter was young and I was busier doing Dad stuff. She is out in the world now and I have started re-investing my time in visual art. I’m never going to be a great artist, but it brings me great joy. That’s really what I missed.

Recaptured Joy

I loved to sketch, to draw or paint,

Although I was no pro.

A life I got then, as one does,

And chose to let it go,

Oh sure I doodled now and then,

But less as time went by.

And as old skills from mem’ry slipped,

Was less inclined to try.

But then at length I realized,

What giving up had cost

So I set out once more to find,

That joy which had been lost.

Once more I pick my pencil up,

Resume old exercise.

Draw basic shapes five hundred times,

Each one a different size.

Here I now sit and set to page,

What’s seen in my mind’s eye.

Though I’m not back where once I was,

At least I’m going to try,

I study and I practice now,

I draw all kinds of things.

But haunted by my past I won’t,

Draw unicorns with wings.

Cheers, Winston

NaPoWriMo 2021 Day 10

On By WinstonIn NaPoWriMo, Personal, Poetry, Uncategorized, writer`s blockLeave a comment

For myself typically the problem isn’t finding words. Words I’ve got in abundance! The problem is finding words that I can force into some form of narrative. That’s where the tricky bits are, and that’s the subject of today’s poem.

So Many Words, So Little Focus

I feel the words rush through my mind,

In search of some release.

I try to shift them to the page,

Find for myself some peace.

But any peace is too short-lived,

For always there are more.

A jumbled, meaningless tumult,

An endless, numbing roar.

I catch a few, a sentence make,

From there a couplet spin.

They are too few the words I free,

To calm the storm within.

Now once again, the chaos comes,

I give myself to it.

I dance within the whirling gyre,

Though here I plainly sit.

I clutch and grasp and wrestle with,

The words within my mind.

And when at last I dare to look,

A finished verse I find.

And briefly then I know such peace,

Before it starts again.

The words return, they rush and roar,

And fill up my whole brain.

And so it goes, the wheel turns,

The cycle starts anew.

To write until the storm abates,

Is all that I can do.

Cheers, Winston

NaPoWriMo 2021 Day 8

On By WinstonIn Loving Life, my blessed life, NaPoWriMo, Nature, Personal, Poetry, spring, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Since April is National Poetry Month, I try to do at least one spring themed entry per year. Here in Canada, winters are cold and long and spring is much anticipated. It is probably my favourite season.

For Love of Spring

To watch the swelling of a bud,

Then watch the leaf unfold.

The wonder of a world reborn,

From winter’s deadly cold.

The piping of returning birds,

Geese calling overhead.

With crocus blooms a welcome splash,

Of colour in their bed.

The days grow warm but no too hot,

The nights are still quite chill.

I love the spring, I always have,

And prob’ly always will.

I watch the swelling of a bud,

The bloom which opens there,

It’s beauty overcomes my heart,

All I can do is stare.

For spring is come, at last arrived,

All dormant things awake.

To stretch and seek this vernal sun,

All beauty now to make.

And I, eyes filled with wonder walk,

See wonders everywhere.

It’s spring and beauty fills my world,

With light and joy so rare.

So bring the sun, then bring the rains,

Wash winter’s signs away.

Then paint the world in brighter shades,

I’m loving life today!

Cheers, Winston