birthday note on turning 60 by pd lyons (and now I’m 67 and feeling pretty much the same. How cool is that?) with photos

1974

the old fellow near the sea

today ends my fifth decade. to morrow i will be 60.

the sixth decade begins at 5:54 am

bringer of the new dawn

 ever aging scorpion.

sometimes i think it has not happened

sometimes when i think of that certain little boy

i still get tears.

sometimes when i think back,

teenage, marriages, children, lovers, others –

reminding myself  of the good and of the not so very good –

reminding myself that I really  did the best I could.

but you know i am the luckiest man i know.

i have ended up in a country foreign to my birth

with a family of my own…

i  think i am in the best health ever.

no smoking for over 15 years

steady yoga meditation

and always did and still do love to walk –

there are miles of my life upon

mountains, shores, countries, continents

and  along those meandering pathways between the worlds.

and while i know all things come to an end –

as of right now i have not!

how cool is that?

cheers

.

photographer unknown

Twilight Zone Episode Love Story by PD Lyons ~ read by the author

a girl, a bar, a friend, a gin, a city ~

a bit of memory lane

from the book ~ As If the Rain Fell in Ordinary Time, by PD Lyons, 2019

 

that afternoon she came into the bar

told me she had something to tell me

could I please come outside?

Please.

Sure I said.

I remember a light spring day

maybe even summer

we stood together on the little concrete steps

front door of the bar

I was probably leaning against the railing

most defiantly smoking

she stepped down on the side walk

looking up she said

listen,  I just have to tell you…

some other guy she met, really thought he was the one.

 

I’m so sorry she said but I had to tell you.

I offered to buy her a drink – for old times’ sake

No she said

I’m sorry I made you sad

 I’m sure you’ll find someone too.

Good bye

she paused

thanks for being so understanding.

 you really are a good man you know.

 

and left.

 

 I went back in joined my buddy at the bar

I lit a smoke ordered us a round

in those days

we were drinking gin on the rocks with a twist

we were smoking Phillip Morris like the attorney general was a loony tunes

we were betting on the NFL like it owed us a pay check

 

Anyway before she came in

I had been telling him how I was in a bit of a jam with this young girl

she was so into me

didn’t have the guts to break her heart

 

and then she comes along and dumps me

Jesus, he said after I told him, that was like some twilight zone episode love story

 

Thank you to the judges and to Erbacce Crew. I am humbled and honored by this. Cheers Alan!

 P D Lyons Winner of the 2019 erbacce-prize for poetry

The annual erbacce-prize for poetry is open from January 1st to May 1st every year. It is entirely FREE to enter thus it attracts top quality poets world-wide… in 2019 we had close to eight thousand entries and all were judged ‘blind’. P D Lyons was the outright winner! Below is the book we produced for him… it is sheer quality poetry, the whole book encompasses a simplicity coupled with deep insight; a truly beautiful collection which reveals more each time it is re-opened… (perfect-bound: 112pages)

Through the generous support of  Westmeath County Council a limited edition of 50 numbered and signed copies are available to purchase direct from the poet at €20.00 to include standard postage world wide. I still have a few left contact via comment or pdlyonspoet’yahoo.co.uk

Twilight Zone Episode Love Story by PD Lyons ~ read by the author

a girl, a bar, a friend, a gin, a city ~

a bit of memory lane

from the book ~ As If the Rain Fell in Ordinary Time, by PD Lyons, 2019

 

and so it goes… by pd lyons (re edited and re dedicated to the supreme court of merika)

In My Country

Women walk on eggshells

The way they dress is a rapist’s defence strategy

Their silence confers consent

Their bodies always up for grabs

In every way

There is no privacy especially of the womb

They may be legally and religiously sacrificed on the altar of boys-will-be-boys

They may be murdered at will

But have dubious right to self defence

They are not heard

They are not believed

They are not counted

Their labour not valued

That they are

Our mothers

Our sisters

Our daughters

Our beloved

May be conveniently ignored by law now

Legally 

They are property

of the god

of the party

the state

.

 

re edited and re dedicated to the supreme court of merika 5.5.22 pd lyons

not what breaks your heart

not what breaks your heart,

but what hardens it –

this causes true harm – Djanet Tozeur

 

unknown photographer

Mother Nature by pd Lyons

I am blue skies

trailed with perfect black birds

over an autumnal tree line

I am an ocean so blue

it makes everything else seem white,

A forest of shadows so deep any midnight would be envious

I have been the heat from which the iron of this planet ran .

I have been an ice so deep that for a thousand years the sun stood in retreat.

And you with self shackled minds,

dreams tinier than any, ever- living thing ?

what you do you think pursuers of poisons?

are there any poisons that are not mine?

what do you think deniers of your own senses?

where do you think the chemicals for those thoughts come from?

I have seen stars begin and watched them dwindle.

I have seen every living thing that has ever done so,

and will see every one that ever will be, born and die.

Do  you think I who hold on to nothing care about what you do?

Ah fish gold fish swimming not

the time light travels

the time sight registers

the time thought conceptualizes  ~

that which we call fish

already moved on

the truth of it unperceived.

 

 

Ah fish gold fish swimming not

watercolor collage paper

thought for today ~

Don’t think stuff up Figure stuff out

birthday note on turning 60 by pd lyons

1974

 

the old fellow near the sea

 

today ends my fifth decade. to morrow i will be 60.

the sixth decade begins at 5:54 am

bringer of the new dawn

 ever aging scorpion.

 

sometimes i think it has not happened

sometimes when i think of that certain little boy

i still get tears.

sometimes when i think back,

teenage, marriages, children, lovers, others –

reminding myself  of the good and of the not so very good –

reminding myself that I really  did the best I could.

 

but you know i am the luckiest man i know.

i have ended up in a country foreign to my birth

with a family of my own…

i  think i am in the best health ever.

no smoking for over 15 years

steady yoga meditation

and always did and still do love to walk –

there are miles of my life upon

mountains, shores, countries, continents

and  along those meandering pathways between the worlds.

 

and while i know all things come to an end –

as of right now i have not!

how cool is that?

cheers

.

 

 

photographer unknown

no look away for america

no look away

it is through the gathering of our broken hearts

that hatred be

defeated

 

sorrow shared is not weakness

it is a statement of intent