views in verse on father and son

Dear Father

We bypassed your counsel
For enlightenment of the age,
Dylan,Simon,Morrison, Lennon,
The 60’s marked
The turning of a page.
A place
Where we reached out
For a new found freedom
Not a goat
Chained to a stake
‘Liberty’ - surprise!
Is a basic right,
Not mere acceptance
Of mandate

Our parents however
Somehow seemed immune
To the great change
That was moving along
Without them
As Ginsberg, Kerouac & Leary
Laid waste to
Whatever pretext remained standing
Of the world that they had known.
The Beat Generation had delivered;
Free thinking philosophies,
Organically grown

This new era was however
Still marching in a shadow
In the yoke of a sullen call
Beating to the time
Of yet another war
That seemed to
Sour one’s own precious youth
Unprepared victims in its path
All the while dreading
That heartless free-fall threading
A number that could so easily
Send you off to die
And everyone knew it wasn’t cool
To resile, recluse or ...cry

The unlucky ones
Marched off together
Few Aussies thankfully
Died in its wake
Though most
Didn’t came back the same
And could only routinely
Be drawn or
Fall into a lure
Of bright flowers lain
In an adverse culture
That casually offered
Little comfort
And a cold, closed refrain

So Dad,
In these years
You were cast asunder,
As I recklessly resolved,
These pitched conflicting forces
But I did come back to know you
As you too came to change
Given ample space
into your autumn years.
There was indeed
A great love of life embraced
From the lost years, together due

Until you pained
Into dementia
And I was more than surprised
When I could not
Adequately contain my loss.
My grieving done there...
Your death
Then transformed me
Into a much more welcome tranche
One where
A rolling stone was at last
Now free
To softly gather some moss

Sent from my iPhone Grahame J Flynn Views in verse

Views in Verse on 'reflection & direction'

Reflection & Direction 

(QVB, Sydney)

Her statue commands
Out front a building grande
Guarded only by an iron boar
A living monument, mate
To an Ozzie Queen
You can shop there floor by floor

Should say, the tourists do...
By the bus load, friend
Only they can afford the booty
And it’s decadence abounding
Space for the kids to run round in
Up in the rafters they’re serving hi-tea

You’ll get great photo shots
Of European clocks
Formal tolling at the top of the hour
The facade stands bright
Riche ‘glowing’ at night
Dedication to a monarch’s power

So, you can feel like royalty
In our main streets ‘Dig’
Though such adoration does cause some confusion
For as much as we’re free
In our dust red country
Time to re-think our constitution...?

From my desktop Grahame J Flynn Views in verse

Views in Verse on age old questions

Age old questions

In your darker moments are you beset by worry of ‘what life has left for you?’
Introspective windows into your days; atonement for what might have been?
While searching yourself rigorously for the positives…
Are there indeed consolations here to glean?’

When examining your latest unexplained spray of nasal hair,
Do you pose to consider ‘whatever else may have changed?’
Beyond unfounded parental ambitions, the lesser path followed…?
You’d say, ‘yeah, I’m pretty well much the same’!

Nor should we be given to Shakespearean rhetoric on a cold untimely death
‘Fear no more the heat of the sun…’ …it’s coming to an end
Or Bob Dylan’s ‘old men with broken teeth, stranded without love’
So many street-people, all too often, have a ready smile to lend

Are your friends furthermore rabbiting-on about their health, raining on the parade …?
These dalliances, again, must be met with a positive spin
We’re here for a short time, let’s make it a good one
Perception rules, in face of the truth, in this world we’re living in!

from my desktop Grahame J Flynn Views in Verse