Riding high and feeling great
Now dashed and broken
Smashed upon some hostile shore.
So take your time
As it’s all your time,
But timing
Is absolutely all.
The Art of Daring
Is my favourite art
Not a brave challenge
Or a foolish dare.
But an art
That takes you far away
To where worlds collapse
As midnight strikes
And turns night back into day.
Where colours shake
And forms vibrate
Do you dare to dare ?
Leave your bones
In the dragon’s lair.
Not for the weak
Or the faint at heart
It really is an art
To dare.
The Other Side of Midnight
Whistle down the wind
Loud and clear
Over the hills and far away,
All the way
To the very end where midnight’s smile
Stops and your whistle disappears.
And wait for what you wake,
But do watch out
Take great care
For what you whistled for
The Wishing Well
To conjure a spell
From the wishing well
Is a dangerous game to play.
Gives you belief
But takes like a thief
For what you unleash
May have dangerous teeth.
To conjure a spell
From the wishing well
May invite living hell
And leave you a shell
From your head right down to your feet.
Tomorrow Never Knows
The sun is shining
But tomorrow may be grey.
It’s a fine, fine day
To put your wrongs to right
So don’t delay
And put things off
That which can be done today.
The Violinist
Was it
Ambition or a passion ?
That drove you hard
To make
Your violin so squeak
Years before it spoke.
Ambition or a passion ?
That drives you now
To bow and sing
Such fierce and gripping
Melody.
Ambition or a passion ?
That bodes you well
Your
Violinist fashion.
Geoff’s Boots
I dreamt
I stole
Your light tan
Cowboy boots.
Coz that’s what you were
A cowboy
Lost
And off the trail
Speaking big
And hanging on
By your crazy
Horse’s tail.
You didn’t have the guts
To be the man
You so freely spoke about
But luckily
I was already
Somewhat nuts
And relieved you of your ware.
I didn’t steal your boots
You reluctantly took them off
And handed me the pair.
The Garden of Eden
East is where the sun rises
Nowhere else.
The spinning Earth
Makes sure of that.
North is where the magnet lies
And nowhere else.
West is sun sleepy time
Every single night.
Where the good life lives.
There’s up and there’s down
There’s in and there’s out
There’s left and there’s right
As the East brings the light
And the West brings good night.
Dead Man Walking
A live man found a dead man lying on a beach
Last week
Frozen
Now thawed
And nibbled by fish.
But what really is the difference
Between a live man
And
A dead man
Lying on a beach
Last week ?
The difference is small
But
The meaning is all.
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this maybe you will like other books by Ben Gilbert:
The World Peace Journals – This is the true story of World Peace Trekking – a Nepalese Trekking Agency that the author owned and ran. It documents a Nepal not spoken or written about in other travel or adventure stories – not sparring the reader from harsh realities, corruption and madness; a sojourn into the Himalayas that succinctly captures the myths, history, geography and people in a way that shocks but also brilliantly entertains.
No Place Like Home – A perilous journey full of love, deception and delusion. Set in the dramatic and raw landscapes of the Basque Pyrenees, Biafra and the Belgium Congo, the story follows the plight of Jacques Freeman, a lonely brooding bachelor lamenting his days in the south of France after losing his home and family to a violent African revolution. Six powerful characters, three women and three men, interplay in this gritty and exhilarating novel.
Tales from the Marsh – Two short stories, Tales of the Marsh and Made in America, attempt to reflect living on the margins of modern society through the the closed world of small and neglected fishing harbours - one in southern England, the other on the western coat of America. It is here in these beautiful and empty spaces where the ordinary stays at bay, tough and gruff individuals seem to thrive.
Seven Million Year Itch – Ten very short stories.. “And now only this strange tree grew, alone and full of life, as if all the missing nature had fled into this one magnificent majestic thing. It was protected of course and the hotel built just to marvel at its beauty. Something always survives and this was it, a reminder of what was and could be again. But that was just too big a thing to ponder and she turned towards the hotel in the distance and felt that longing once again.”
Connect with Ben Gilbert:
Ben Gllbert is an explorer, outdoor guide and founder of The Blue Space guides' Co-operative - https://thebluespace.com - Ben is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
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