Tag Archives: poetry by Ian D. Hall

Early November Snow, Inspiration In Central Park.

By late afternoon

I felt it might snow.

The crisp chill air

that breathed silently in Central Park

became sullen

as the

drop in temperature caused

a fed-up call girl

to smirk at me

and turn a cold shoulder

at my faded glory park bench

companion and I.

Studiously ignoring each other,

he in the middle

of humming a tune, repeatedly to

himself

as random messages and inspiration

were pulled from the ether

The Retraining Of Jo The Banker (A Short Alternative History).

He was sure that the Government would support him,

He expected no less

as a taxpayer, albeit one

who paid with other’s cash

when they weren’t paying attention.

But how surprised was our Jo

when the Westminster circus

told him that his job

was no longer viable,

he would have to retrain,

to change direction.

As he felt the three-day growth

of hair on his cheeks, and the curry

he had with the boys

from a rival firm,

The First Memory I Hold.

There are others,

I am sure,

That if I put my mind to it, if

I allowed myself to put under

and

Have my mind probed,

Mined of coal, the hope of diamonds

Springing

Eternal, I would dismiss them,

For my first memory is

One of exclusion,

Watching a blank-faced nursery school teacher

Explain to my despairing

Mother that they had no room

For a boy

Like me.

Ian D. Hall 2020

A Room With Some Sort Of View.

A comfortable prison, I have all

I have in two rooms, staring

back at me, pulling me in

to different worlds

and dreams, an art filled life

but one

that I fear returning from.

For the jungles that tigers

roam and stalk

their prey at night

and the Martians

crashing into the common

near Woking Station,

holds less alarm and sense

of trepidation

than knowing I am a prisoner

of my own making.

too institutionalised

The Landfill.

Take me to the landfill

and leave me there

to be torn apart by the razor

sharp beak of the seagulls;

savagely squawking as they fight

for the morsels

and the remains of sweetmeats.

Place me on a pyre

of my efforts and strike a match

underneath the kindling

doused in petrol and regret,

and leave me to burn

as my body melts away

to smoke

and the black circles drifting

in the wind….

How We Changed Time At Number 19.

We have re-named the days of the week

in our house, to more reflect the times

we have become accustomed to experiencing.

The months as well, have undergone change,

but instead of March to

whenever, they have been designated

as before this crap went down, the first upward

curve has become when we chose to be stoic,

and anytime since is now, I can’t remember, was it last

week, or back when June was actually a thing.

The moments between the hour are reserved

Another Unacceptable Casualty As The Suits Wages War On Poetry.

Ignore poetry

at your peril,

even a teenage crush

that rips your heart apart

as you find meaning

to your tears and anguish

can be found to be more beneficial

once explored in any shapely

form and luscious lips worth kissing

will do more for your soul

than feigning interest

in the rights of a triangle

tilted on its side….Ignore poetry

and when hoping to court

your love with words,

think back to the sentence

A Short Poem For Julie And David At Fifty.

Could you have imagined

as In-laws looked on

at the Warwickshire lad who

swept the nurse off her feet,

what fifty years would bring.

A half century on, time has been

and what a time it was,

from a still black and white photograph

as family joined, a celebration

that has been at sea and the comfort

of dry land, did you imagine

ever

that the life you have shared

would have been

before playing Cribbage