I see the hill to a hard road ahead
Slippery climb through earth
Wet, sliding and falling
Hit the ground, teeth grinding
Against pain as I force myself on
Enduring to win and take back
My power , my path.
©️AilsaCawleyPoetry 2020
I see the hill to a hard road ahead
Slippery climb through earth
Wet, sliding and falling
Hit the ground, teeth grinding
Against pain as I force myself on
Enduring to win and take back
My power , my path.
©️AilsaCawleyPoetry 2020
He preens in preparation
For the next adoring patient
That will bow and scrape
At his little polished feet
His moustache waxed in exact points
Pudgy flesh over stubby joints
He sees it a necessity
Definitely not a vanity
To have the latest silken cravat
Hiding from the public his newfangled
Words set to confuse the people of the day
As he sticks out his chin indignantly
And waits for you to pay
Ailsa
©️AilsaCawleyPoetry2020
Ekphrastic challenge with Paul brookes at wombwell rainbow
Apparition
I see you standing on the stair
Feel the chill that takes the air
Cold fingers run down my spine
Like the nail trails a line
I see you standing at the door
Watch you standing evermore
The touch familiar on my back
My mind is beginning to crack
I’ve seen you daily for so long
I no longer think that something’s wrong
Accepted that you are dwelling there
The space is large enough to share
Do I see the features,? you have enquired
Is it something all in your mind
I have accepted that this apparition
Has passed the life and death transition
I wander out to see the sun
To tell myself that you are gone
I turn to see you behind the pane
Window steams from your breath again
©️AilsaCawleyPoetry2020
Ekphrastic challenge November with Paul Brookes @PaulDragonWolf1 thewombwellrainbow
I came to the island a city lass
Something clicked and moved
Into a place
An empty space
I didn’t know was there
But I started learning
Some said the island hooked me
But it didn’t hurt
More like wrapped in nana’s arms
Being told I’d found my peace
With vast seas and
Seas that crash or whisper
I kept learning
Many scoffed at this silly dream
After all it’s life on an island
Things are slower here
Because everyone knows
That to hurry makes you deaf
To nature’s teachings
And you never stop learning
Never stop learning.
©️AilsaCawleyPoetry2020
Do you see me, really?
Not who you want me to be
Or think I should be
Would be if I shaved my edges off
So you could see what you want
And I would be what you’ve desired
All these years your vision skewed
Have you ever once seen me?
Looked at me closely without distaste
Because I’m not who you envisioned I’d be
When you first started pushing, pulling at me
Trying to remove my awkwardness
Angry that what was there wasn’t desirable
I’ve noticed you still trying to cut
Little bits off when you think nobody sees
But here’s the thing
Even those who don’t know you have it
The vision to go beneath your veneer
They see you too and you’re blind to it.
Ailsa
©️AilsaCawleyPoetry2020
She lived there alone, but not lonely in her home on the hill.
It was nothing fancy, no frills adorned the door. Only the old Rowan tree that curved over it.
Her years seemed to have gone on forever and she knew that one day soon, they would, as with every other creature end. People named her the wise woman and it was not her wish. For names held power, or danger, depending on whose hands held them and whose mouths spoke them.
Few words passed old Elspeth’s lips. Morning greetings, or asking after someone’s health, an offer of a prayer for the return to health or a painless end to their life. A blessing offered for a newborn. The same as any other person in the village did.
The difference was Elspeth lived outside the village. Elspeth lived alone. Elspeth was a woman.
Her garden bloomed with flowers and vegetables , herbs and berries. She grew as much as she could because she liked it that way. Her life was a life lived for many years alone.
She had lived as a young woman and lost both child and husband in quick succession. She had dug the graves herself, being without family or friends willing to help her. Elspeth had been alone many years and was content in her own company. Safe in her solitude, she’d thought.
Until now.
Only today a man in a tall hat had sat astride a horse, calling her outside in the howling wind to answer questions of a curse she’d supposedly uttered over a child.
She stood tall. Told him she’d uttered no curse over any child and had said she hoped the child was blessed.
He spat at her, saying that the child was gravely ill and he’d been called to investigate the possibility of her witchcraft. As he left he disdainfully called her Cailleach and spat in her face, hissing he’d be back for her. Sooner or later.
She went inside her home, closed the door and for the first time, bolted it. Her anger and fear made her shake.
As she went to bed she knew one thing, she had to be careful as the man wanted to come back. He was afraid of her. Fear made men act strangely.
©️AilsaCawley2020
Hiding always hiding the skills inbred
Because they don’t pay the rent
Words, paint and music not for us
Learn the practical stuff
And get a nod of acceptance
If you’re different we’re afraid of you
But we won’t say as that would encourage
What we term your airy fairy ways
And high falutin ideas of a better world
We learn to hide until the mask slips
Artistically artful and cunning
In our way of showing work until
We cannot hide any longer
Don’t care if anyone gets it or laughs
At our need to show ourselves in the open
So when you say you kept it quiet, think
Did you ever tell someone they had ideas
Above their station?
Did you help teach the artist to be artful?
Teaching not preaching or leading
Words that said this was me
I can tell you how light is in everyday
Sun shining through a crack in curtains
The lightgiver taught me that
You don’t need baking sun
To warm a scared heart
You don’t need much of anything
To make a new or brighter start
Only one thing is necessary
A willingness for light to flood
As it washes away the dark
Ailsa
©️AilsaCawleyPoetry2020
Spillwords.com presents: The Son That Never Was, poetry by Ailsa Cawley who writes about the world around her and lives on the Isle of Skye with her family.
Source: The Son That Never Was
In lockdown land
In this new land our movements slow
Everything goes
At a pace akin to another time
When maybe worlds were less frantic
And the quick jive of life
Turned into the back two, forward one
That no-one knows anymore
Or we didn’t.
A few weeks in when we’re horror numb
And our new ways are beginning
We learn to keep our distance don’t touch
But we speak to people we’d not know
If it weren’t for this damn virus
That reaps the old without mercy
And culls them in it’s nasty grasp
Still I know it’s made so many say
That life is to be lived in a way souls can ease
The lungs of the dead are filled with water
They drowned so we can breathe
But if I hear it described much more as a war
The words get thee to hell you fools
May not be the only words I scream
I know that life has changed for us all
I’ve changed and so have you
So let’s look forward to brighter days
©️AilsaCawley2020