The Poetry of John P. Hindle

(A poem in response to Cancer)

There’s nothing you can do,
but follow the flow
and cultivate the river,
forget your old routine,
swapped for care and comedy,
nurture the goodness of today
and each step will fall easier,
let love cushion your feet,
hold your heart in esteem,
your courage and bravery
will set your demons free,
our friends call and say,
you are in their thoughts and prayers,
remember hearts beat for love,
you don’t need to let the fear in,
in these struggling times,
put yourself in God’s hands.

Your tears like a sea,
penetrate my skin
and flood my soul with sadness,
absorbing the unknown.

I listen to you sleep
and hear your heartbeat,
I am your shadow of disbelief,
and meditate in memory.

Reminded of Mother’s scare,
my heart anchored in pain,
our world split
in this time of faith.

Keeping the lamp inside,
we have a change in the rhythm of life,
in this sinking sand
our spirit needs to hold on.

What was I ever looking for?
Perhaps my father’s sense of adventure
or was I getting away from my mother’s control,
Was I rising from routine or ruin?

Comfort in the 9 to 5,
reason in rigmarole,
stability in work and business,
the ego and id in overdrive.

I always felt I couldn’t get enough life,
it gets addictive,
what you like,
what bounds can break you.

Underpinning my own existence,
all ideas form from consequence,
the rebel was roused
and in subculture found identity.

My Parka ready,
music in my ears,
Farah shirt,
Gola trainers.

Thursday club was Indie night,
my late night escape,
my search for freedom again,
at least I felt free on the dance floor.

I always questioned reality,
What did I want in the mundane?
dulling my senses and draining
the colour from my eyes.

Connected by streets and history,
blood lines like routes,
always takes you back to a place
where there is an innate connection.

The boundary lines bond
an unspoken language
and when you are there
no-one is a stranger.

When people look you in the eye
and you see their soul and spirit
acceptance is second nature,
What was I ever looking for?

As day draws to its climax,
red sun falls in patchwork cloud;
fragmented colours of pink
lie across the horizon
in fading blue sky’s canvas,
holding onto the day
in mid summer’s moment;
air passes bridges
and trees flower.

If this is paradise, then
I’m in heaven,
cocooned in Nature’s bosom.
For this time I reason with nobody,
nature is mine to see
what I choose.
Inspiration reflects from water.
The darkness cuts through
a thousand images,
as day folds gently
over the bay.

The colour of seasons squeezed on canvas,
like the voices echoing from the paint brush,
mixing the soft and the strong,
echoing and spreading
like the wings of a dove
released into the sea breeze,
waves fold and cast the summer aside,
the days begin to hide away,
looking into myself through layers,
visioning to reinvent myself.