Tragedy or Comedy

If the newspapers are to be believed, today is officially 'Blue Monday', a term coined somewhere deep in the corridors of a Welsh University that seems to have stuck. If the post-Christmas blues are still affecting you and the winter blues are leaving you down, perhaps that is a fair point. My blogger dashboard has stepped in with a bit of hope though- this just happens to be our 200th post. Happy birthday to us then and, despite half of this week's theme being Tragedy, maybe we can all do a little to lift spirits as we look ahead. 


There are always plenty of things going on in the world all around us. Plenty of moments just crying out for a poem to be written and so, as has become my way of late (principally out of laziness and lack of prior blog research), the post this week is yet another new poem. 


On any given day of the year, there is something about Blackpool- if you look hard enough. A diversity, a very stubborn resolve to carry on and the miles of coastline on offer can get you thinking and this poem came as a direct result of that. Well, a rather selfish mixture of these factors anyway. 


The  sticking point was this: don't have any real tragedies in my life. My first thought has not been on estranged family members, global disasters or, as is the case for one blogger- dead chickens (my condolences, Lindsay). The most worrying thing in my life tends to be something me related and so the worry, as I imagine with most relationships, is argument related. 


With Lara quitting smoking and me being as nit-picky as I am, there have been flashpoints but I'll take this opportunity to say just how proud I am of her 16 days and counting. 


So where do you go to get away and think? I tend to find myself on the seafront somewhere- the loudest, quietest, angriest and most tranquil place in the town, in various measures. Oh, and I was picking up Simon Armitage's latest offering (Death of King Arthur) at the apostrophe-free Waterstones and caught the sunset last night- that in itself was reason enough to eek out a poem. 


Hope you enjoy and as always, thanks for reading. 
S. 


Idyll.
Blackpool Sunset, Jan 2012


Through my eyes I see just what I want you to see,
the coming together of the heavy gang,
a dust cloud, blown up over silver sand.


This is the light to live in, my dear
the shimmering water and the blossoming sunset
all a part of the twilight- the familiar dusk.


See there, the gentle promenading couple
Casting shadows together as long as their back story
twice both their growth, to be precise.


And in this evening, with the sun set just where it is
I find the breeze soothing red cheeks, the cloud of starlings
have dispersed and oh, the beauty of it all


wish you were here with me, for this.