| Poetry Anthology Family & Friends |
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| Written &
copyright by John Good Graphic design by Mark Foshee |
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Reunion Old traditions often have an almost magical power. After all, there are reasons why they survive for sometimes hundreds of years. A Cymanfa Ganu is a gathering of any number of church choirs and congregations to sing in joint celebration. |
| Listen to John's take on the poem.
Alternately Reunion. |
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So-and-So (One side of a phone conversation) I think everyone at least occasionally looks back at the good ol' days. It’s just a question of whether those memories make you regretful or grateful. Many, including myself, experience a little of each, with the scale tipped–most days!–towards the sunny side. |
| Listen to John's take on the
poem. Alternately So-and-So. |
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Scattered Stones Memories have a life of their own. They come and go according to no known rules, but can be strengthened by storytelling. They can be passed on in the same way as family heirlooms, which in fact they are. Whether you strongly believe in an afterlife or not, recollections, in one sense at least, keep our ancestors if not alive, then relevant, even vibrant. |
| Listen to John's take on the
poem. Alternately Scattered Stones. |
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Garden Path Email messages are often cryptic, at least one I received recently was. Unlike face to face conversations, phone calls or even old fashioned letters, emails often seem lacking in subtle colorings of meaning and/or feeling. The email that inspired the poem that follows, came from an old friend who lives on a different continent and, like myself, is in his early 70s. He wrote that one summer evening he was enjoying a walk in his garden. At one point in his narrative, a suggestion of melancholy enigmatically and perhaps intentionally crept into his writing. |
| Listen to John's take on the
poem. Alternately Garden Path. |
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Gate-crasher Maybe I’m naive, but I sometimes feel that relatives and friends who are no longer with us are, on some special occasions, still part of the gathering. You might say that at 71 I’m senile, and that maybe true, but even as a child I thought this. In fact I find it’s a reassuring thought in this age of enforced isolation and rampant alienation that we have loving companions who are never far away. |
| Listen to John's take on the
poem. Alternately Gate-crasher. |
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50th Birthday Gift Living abroad is entirely an adventure when young. The focus is on looking outward. As the years pass, and the focus turns homeward, the delayed cost of the adventure, although maybe not prohibitive, becomes appreciable. |
| Listen to John's take on the
poem. Alternately 50th Birthday Gift. |
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A cold day in the sun Unexpected turn in late spring Sliding windows wide on their tracks I watched the curtains dance macabre Asked the breeze to freshen the presence of Family whisked away down ghostly jetways — International skies — All the time wishing miles-away-faces Familiar scent etched on beds, windows, walls Would linger, present for the next 50 years |
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Lie Lightly Losing a mother sends every son and daughter in search of something to cling to, in a rising tide of disbelief. |
| Listen to
John's take on the poem. Alternately Lie Lightly. Read a story about Vi in Gwenllian and Vi. |
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Hard Landing Love of family and friends, in retrospect, has a cost. Well, it’s more like a ransom that only time can redeem. |
| Listen to John's take on the
poem. Alternately Hard Landing. |
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A Dancer & Oh My Love Delight in watching a woman, my wife, as if dancing, become ever more alluring. |
| Listen to John's take on the
poem. Alternately A Dancer & Oh My Love. |
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Father |
| Listen to John's take on the
poem. Alternately Father. |
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San Anselmo Reprise Two expatriates, at one time living near
each other in Southern England, then Northern
California, meet from time to time to recollect, make
music, look forward, exchange dreams, bandage old and
new wounds, and seamlessly resume a friendship spanning
over 40 years. There are always major changes, but, at
heart, the important things remain unchanged. William
Blake understood this.
"The bird a
nest, the spider a web, man friendship."
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| Listen to John's take on the
poem. Alternately San Anselmo Reprise. I also wrote Similar Weather while at the same friend's house. |
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The musical
accompaniment was composed/improvised and recorded
in the same
room in San Anselmo California, in which the poem
was written, over a period (on and off) of many
years.
A. Hindson: Engineer and Percussion Assemblage J. Good: Flutes, Words, Whistles and Voice. |
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getting over a loss...
Kyle ...creativity
heals
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| Listen to John's take on the
poem. Alternately Kyle. |
Kyle Harris |
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