The Very Next Day
Same place, same time, same tree
But definitely not a day
For groundhogs
I’m sitting on my window sill
Staring into space
It’s raining
Yesterday it was sunny
I glance intently
At my Bonsai tree
With admiration
Has it changed?
As usual there’s music playing
In the background
I’m chilled
“You Are My Everything”
My tree looks magnificent
Solid, robust, regal
It looks as if it will be
There forever
Here forever
The sunlight’s not on the trunk
But the rain hasn’t changed the tree
It is still a tree
It is still a great tree
It is still part of nature
And life is special
Fleetingly a rabbit hops into view
And disappears behind a bush
My heart melts
I give it a name
I call it “Radish”
It’s pouring with rain
I watch the swallows swooping
Round corners of old farm buildings
The rain makes no difference
To my mood
It’s the same as yesterday
I’m chilled
In fact I’m horizontal
Life is crucial
Life is real
But I don’t need to control it
And it doesn’t need to control me
Instant karma
I bet you wonder
What type of tree my Bonsai is
I’m not going to tell you
Why don’t you take a trip
To Argyll and Bute Hospital
To a peaceful Fir Grove
And see
Better still
Why don’t you find
Your own Bonsai tree
Perhaps then you’ll find
Instant karma
Peace with the world
Like me
I wrote this in july 2009. This is one of my best poems. Freddie likes it. I wrote it when I was at the most relaxed point in my life. My Social Worker had encouraged me, a few days previously, to learn to relax and take in all things in life. She did this by telling me to focus on something. I did this by focussing on my "Bonzai tree" which was actually a giant Oak in the hospital grounds which is a hundred years old. I basically sat on the window ledge of The Intensive Care Unit for three years just staring out the window watching what was going on and writing things down. I have never achieved such Karma since and am beginning to feel I need to get back into this realm. I was stuck on the locked ward for 95 days so it definitely could have been a Groundhog Day. I've read it fully again and I still think the poem's great.
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