Five Wonderful Poems by John Drudge

 

Around Us

 

We rode our bikes

To Place Dauphine

A springtime oasis

From the growing crowds

In the city

And sat on a bench

In the shade

With blossoms falling

From the trees

Onto the hard sandy ground

And ate a basket lunch

That you packed in the morning

As a surprise

Watching the old men

Tossing boules

With scientific accuracy

As the woman

With the big Swiss dog

Smiled at us

As she passed

And you took my hand

And kissed me

In the cascading light

And suddenly everything

Was gone

And we were one

As the river ran silently

Around us

Moving

 

Pedestals

Are precarious real estate

As we teeter and totter

Between what’s right

And what is

Falling one way

And then the next

Into the barren

Bottom of the barrel

Blind in our ambition

Staged in our resolve

And moving

Into the beckoning

Of our final

Sorrow

Autumn Days

 

They stroll along

The Boulevard St. Germain

Filtering golden light

Through lofty eyes

Worn and wrinkled

Like old money

Long beyond love

And fresh water beginnings

Mingling loudly on terraces

And in well-lit corners

Of cafes

Waiting for something

Beyond existence

In the creeping silence

Of lost tomorrows

Longing to be alive

And to know it

Replete in splendour

In the setting sun

Of autumn days

Nowhere But Here

 

I walk past

The old women

Selling peaches

On the Rue Mouffetard

Enjoying the anonymity

Of wandering

From street to street

And bar to bar

Without a care

On this warm spring day

But for the occasional need

For shade

And the less occasional need

For sobriety

Resting in a chair

In the Luxembourg gardens

Listening to nannies gossip

While children play

With boats on the pond

Trying to forget

Everything in the world

But this unfurling

Now

Santorini Sunrise

 

As I try to write

In the early hours

The deep of the blue

Is beyond

The bright whiteness

Of hope

Beyond contrast

And curved stone

The rhythms of history

And sirens of distraction

Stirring old movements

Through hewn caves

With something always

Forgotten behind

Pieces of mosaic

And woven fabrics

Of time

A cauldron of sentiment

Explosions of hesitation

Breathing into eternity

Falling

Through tangled lives

And forgotten dreams

To be made anew

In a succession of instants

Across this empty page

 

John is a social worker working in the field of disability management and holds degrees in social work, rehabilitation services, and psychology.  He is the author of three books of poetry: “March” and “The Seasons of Us” (both published in 2019) and New Days (published in 2020). His work has appeared widely in numerous literary journals, magazines, and anthologies internationally. John is also a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee and lives in Caledon Ontario, Canada with his wife and two children.