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

one of the things i love best about still being alive

lilly-gator ATP (all terrain pup)

one of the things i love best about still being alive is:

suiting up in that old 3/4 dark almost black green wax coat, slipping on the knee-high wellies (reinforced so nothing can pierce the sole) zipping up every zip, snap, hood, buckle etc and going out in the near dark of winter walking with the little jack russel for company – even when the rain is hard and wind is strong or maybe i should say especially when, like tonight the moon late rising one star amidst the breaking clouds, mud n bog n field n down along the grassy banks the lake waves like an ocean, occasional squawks of errant crows not yet settled for another winter night. nothing stops the little dog, she is an atv of heart and blood, through the hedge rows, along the rocky shore catching waves, like some mad moon in orbit she always returns to me and we walk until we find our way back hardly able to see, she knowing there’s some treat, a bit of old bacon or such, me knowing that there’s something sweet from the oven and that michelle and morgan have the fire tended and after a bit of washing up and maybe a cup of black coffee, i get the evening meal started and i suppose that’s more than one thing, its truly somethings i love best about still being alive.

and that coat you know, did you ever have one? you can go out in any weather and not mind, as if you sealed up every bit of whatever was and is good in your life and it settles all around you keeping anything cold or harsh or wet away – but you know not really away, because somehow you still feel every bit of weather and you really wouldn’t not want to feel each and every inch of it, but rather that magic of the coat is somehow it transforms even the most daunting winter night into something you can’t wait to experience?

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

lily amber lyons, Rest In Peace

 

 

RIP
lily lyons
best friend and leader of the lyons pack
no heart ever so big
no loyalty ever so true
so beyond words
we are proud today of our own broken hearts
may the joy and love you created here for us
match you where ever it is that you now roam

lily lyons fore abbey 25.3.14

 

BARK

 

World Animal Day October 4th

 

 

World Animal Day is on the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi, who is Patron Saint of Animals and the Environment, and it is celebrated all over the world on October 4th.

 

 

How will you celebrate World Animal Day?

 

  

 

 

 

 

,

 

Should The Question Beg For Answer

Should The Question Beg For Answer

will the water be beautiful?

will I thank every drop of the sea?

the sky, will  it  be so blue,

I’ll find ships sailing in the clouds?

and emearald and hawthorn

would i lay down there again?

rise to wander mists by fairy lakes

secret women drift in sleek wolfhound shapes

lead by old and limping men

between hedgerow  and dirt lanes?

speak with mallard fox and silent swan?

their stories told of long ago

when black cats and tabby cats,

small black terriers through stone walls and brier

sure and steady tacked

all possibility of horses

                                                                                                                                   (for Lilly n the gang)