1) I love snow.
2) I love reading and read pretty fast and frequently.
3) I enjoy wine, red or white.
4) I smoke but I am giving up on Monday.I have the patches already.
5) I love writing and have self published one novel called Love Sex and Time Travel.The absence of a comma is intentional.
6) I also write poetry, well verse really, I don’t like getting tied down with rhyming, although I do use it.
7) My poetry is of the self searching morbid variety.Not like me personally but I find the metaphors are better.lol.
8 ) Last year in October I took voluntary redundancy after 10 years in my job.
9)This year I am writing a book called From Suffolk to the Seychelles. It will be published.
10) I like sausages and mash, fish and chips and steak.Not all at the same time though.
11) I am not frightened of dentists..lol.
12) I am a romantic…cuddles and kisses are for me.
13) I was born in Hackney,London at the Clapton Mothers Hospital in 1953.
14) I like all types of music, from rock and blues through to soul and Motown.I like modern stuff like Snow Patrol,Anathema and Razorlight.I even like some Country music and some rap or R&B.
15) I am chronically shy when I meet people.I actually shake before first dates with fear.
16) TV…I like Hustle,Heartbeat,Wild at Heart, Life on Mars and Doctor Who.
17) Films I like…Kevin and Perry Go Large,The Blues Brothers,The Downfall,The Green Mile,You Have Mail,The Exterminating Angel and James Bond films.
18 ) I am right handed and I sing in the shower.I shower at least once a day.I cannot get going in the morning till I have showered and had at least 2 mugs of tea.
19) I have all my own hair and most of my own teeth..lol.
20) I am terrified of flying but do it nonetheless.
21) I don’t like spiders or creepy crawlies
22) I do like dogs and geckos
23) I have always been a rebel,probably done me more harm than good though.
24) I have no tattoos or piercings. They are just so common nowadays and I don’t like following the herd.I feel that walking round with a few pounds of metal stuck in my body or the contents of the local Chinese takeaway embellished on my ass is particularly pathetic.
25) I am a spiritual person. I just do not like religion.God is within us and all around us if we look.I don’t need some self seeking priest/rabbi/imam trying to stuff their holy shit into me.They astound me with their hypocrisy and the fact that people believe them I find to be abhorrent.
Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to a few nurses in the hospital.
And this little old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this ‘anonymous’ poem winging across the Internet.
“CRABBY OLD MAN”
What do you see nurses?….What do you see?
What are you thinking……when you’re looking at me?
A crabby old man, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit……with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles his food…….and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice..’I do wish you’d try!’
Who seems not to notice the things that you do.
And forever is losing…………..A sock or shoe?
Who, resisting or not.. ……..lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding…….The long day to fill?
Is that what you’re thinking?
Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes nurse
You’re not looking at me.
I’ll tell you who I am……..As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding,…..as I eat at your will.
I’m a small child of Ten.with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters………who love one another
A young boy of Sixteen…..with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now………a lover he’ll meet.
A groom soon at Twenty……my heart gives a leap.
Remembering the vows……that I promised to keep.
At Twenty-Five, now……..I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide, And a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty…..My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other…….With ties that should last.
Forty, my young sons…..have grown and are gone,
But my woman’s beside me…..to see I don’t mourn.
At Fifty, once more,…..Babies play ’round my knee ,
Again, we know children…..My loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me……….My wife is now dead.
I look at the future…………I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing…..young of their own.
And I think of the years….And the love that I’ve known.
I’m now an old man………and nature is cruel.
Tis jest to make old age…..look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles………grace and vigor depart.
There is now a stone……..where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass……A young guy still dwells,
And now and again………my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys…………..I remember the pain.
And I’m loving and living………….life over again.
I think of the years…..all too few……gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact……..that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people………open and see.
Not a crabby old man. Look closer….see……..ME!!
Remember this poem when you next meet an older person who you might brush aside without looking at
the young soul within….we will all, one day, be there, too! (Much sooner than we expect to be there.)
The best and most beautiful things of this world can’t be seen or touched. They must be felt by the heart.