Teach Me To Number My Days

Tags

insight, Isolation, meditation, pandemic, questioning, self-analysis

Image: Abacus HB Wikipedia

Weirdly I wrote this in 2019, before the pandemic. It seems appropriate now…

TEACH

Life has many lessons: what have I learned?

Maybe I should not have stayed in teaching.

Who was doing the teaching anyway?

And can one really teach old dogs new tricks?

 

ME

Too much of my life has been about me.

You might be a much better focus now.

Yesterday’s me is different from today’s.

You are a different companion too.

 

TO NUMBER

 

I decided to try and work it out.

Crusoe should have had a calculator!

They say that age is only a number.

Twenty four thousand days I have wasted.

 

MY DAYS

 

I seek forgiveness for those I have spent

in self-serving; not in others’ service.

Often I did not stand up; be counted,

but I reach out to you through poetry.

 

TEACH ME TO NUMBER MY DAYS

 

Numbering can be about gratitude –

that we are here, albeit so briefly.

Rossetti enumerated her love.

Noah counted pairs solicitously.

 

 

We count the minutes on The Doomsday Clock:

to reach midnight, we only count to two.

Teach me to number all the days I’ve left,

thus I will eke out all my time with you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Man and His Dog

Tags

dog walking, Isolation, lockdown walks

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart

Selfie Borealis, or Northern Insights

Tags

Borealis, insight, Isolation, lockdown, Northern Lights, self-analysis, self-portrait, selfie, thermal imaging

New app toy.

Solitude in Lockdown. A new way of regarding isolation.

Social Distance Platform

Tags

Covid 19, Isolation, social distance

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart

All By Myself

Tags

Isolation, loneliness, pasture, Shetland pony, solitude

Feeling a bit ‘put out to pasture?’

Photo by Candia

Isolation

Tags

Isolation, solitude

Photos by Candia

Now and Then

Tags

coronavirus, Covid 19, Isolation, loneliness, social distancing

Photos by Candia Dixon-Stuart

Please Mrs Butler 2

Tags

Allan Ahlberg, Educating Essex, hoodie, Isolation, Mrs Butler, Please, Stephen Drew teacher

‘Do you remember that poem that used to be in all the children’s anthologies?

I asked Carrie.  ‘Please Mrs Butler’ by Allan Ahlberg?’

It was grey, wet and a typical half term.  She had managed to sneak away for

a coffee to preserve her sanity.

Oh, yeah, she said, giving me a puzzled look.  Why do you ask?  It used to

annoy me as the kids used to recite it whenever their teachers set poetry

memorisation for prep.  They liked doing the whining voice.

Oh, it’s just that I remembered that the Deputy Head from the programme

‘Educating Essex’ is Stephen Drew.  So, I couldn’t help writing an updated

version.  He is a media personality now.

Oh, I remember.  There was a Derek Drew in the original, wasn’t there?

Pass it over, she said, taking out her varifocals.

Please Mrs Butler 2

Oi, Mrs Butler,

teacher Mr Drew

keeps picking on me, Miss.

What should I do?

 

Check into Isolation.

Leave those fags here with me.

Go and have your nose powdered.

You’re going to be on tv.

 

You, Mrs Butler!

That p* Mr Drew

took my hoodie from me, Miss,

which he has no right to do.

 

Remove your baseball cap, love.

Hide your mobile phone.

Sneer at all the cameras.

You’re going to be well known.

 

Hey, Mrs Butler!

F* Mr Drew

is now a celebrity.

Why aren’t you?

 

Some of us have to teach, dude.

Micro-manage (not!)

Why don’t you open your textbook?

Knowledge can be quite hot.

 

No one pays me attention.

No one gives me much dough.

I always skip Detention.

I see no quid pro quo.

 

Just want to be on the telly-

to be a household name.

Learning’s for the pathetic.

Studying’s a mug’s game.

 

Please, Mrs Butler.

why did you have to start?

you wouldn’t give me an A*,

so I’ve stabbed you in the heart.

 

Yes, now I’m in Isolation.

I’m monitored in my cell.

Reality TV’s here-

so, didn’t I do well?