• About
  • Poetry
  • Fiction
  • Reviews
  • Essays
  • Marians on the Mawddach
  • The Artful Strategist

Flotsam and Jetsam

~ Assorted odds and ends

Flotsam and Jetsam

Tag Archives: Merton

Poems of Place: Merton Street, October 10, 1974

19 Sunday Oct 2014

Posted by Paul Christopher Walton in poems of place, Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Merton, Oxford

 

October is a month of ends

And shoals of dead leaves have gathered

Along the gutters of the cobbled street

In which the last of the late harvest chestnuts

Are darkened by the defiant sun,

Or lie disembowelled by ignorant wheels.

From somewhere in Merton, the sweet smell of wood fire

May mitigate against the chill.

But in coffee bars close-by, bereft parents sit contemplating

The prospect of an empty return, and afterwards the quiet house.

 

October is a month of starts

The newly-minted in over enthusiastic gowns

Or projective college stripes

Seek stationery deals in shops.

Or gather at the Fresher’s Fair

Eyes exploring eyes, voices hesitant.

In the Lodge amongst a group that’s dinner bound,

I recognise myself,

Arriving from a different world,

To learn new habits, think new thoughts.

But underneath the excitement of the moment

Did I know the consequences of this trip?

The no-going-back discovery

On this frontier

Between endings and beginnings

Which I crossed forty years ago,

And again, today?

 

Recent Posts

  • Rearguard Action
  • Come, Take My Hand
  • Ghosts*
  • The (Lonesome) Lockdown Blues
  • Fifty Shades of Blue
  • The of Power Place: A Seasonal Story
  • A Love Song to a Merry Wife of Waitrose*
  • Cynicus Historicus @Oxford and Yuste
  • Poems of Place: 60611
  • Poems of Place: At the M&S Café, Walsall

See Also

  • Artful Strategy
  • BA Business Life Brand Poetry
  • Côte Poets and more
  • Marians on the Mawddach
  • The Value Engineers

Archives

Follow Flotsam and Jetsam on WordPress.com

Copyright

This website and its content is the copyright of Paul Christopher Walton © 2013-22 All rights reserved.

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Flotsam and Jetsam
    • Join 79 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Flotsam and Jetsam
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar