I Stand Agape

Volume 1 2022

Written on the moment’s spur, looking out across the Mersey Estuary towards New Brighton on the Wirral. The beach is now famous for the ‘Iron Men’, naked iron sculptures of the Sculptor and Artist, Antony Gormley.

Public opinion was divided, but when the contract ended and they were due to be removed, opinion had swung considerably in their favour, and so some of the original one hundred remain in place. One finds oneself watching them either disappear at high tide or reappear at low tide, and they are a very important part of this Island People’s national heritage, and I speak not of England but of all four nations that make up our Kingdom.

Part I

The tide is out

Retreating

Gormley stands proud

Here, there and everywhere

Curious…

Wondering why a man

should need to make

a hundred statues

of himself!

Naked!!

Salt on the air

Wind in my hair

P&O afore me

making good headway

into the Port of Liverpool,

Slicing through

great bow waves …

Sand in my sandwiches

Grit in my teeth

The same today

Lines penned

Fifty years ago

Long before 

I realised my need for writing

Part II

The clouds lean landward,

riding in on the crest of the wave

White horses behind them …

Whinnying, cavorting

Leaping, bounding

Cantering, galloping

And I feel myself,

in spirit,

once again

at full gallop

across the Cotswolds!

Shining black boots colliding…

Meriel laughing out loud!

Her giggle, her shriek, even,

and then the challenge …

Right, Ken! Now you’ve done it.

Catch me if you can!!

Go beauty, go!!!

We fly across Worcestershire

The Rides

Next week …

Gloucestershire,

The Gallops

Mine, gleaming Chestnut

Hers, shining-rippling Black

Great Hunters, both

as we each challenge the other…

The full gallop!!

What marvellous days.

What wonderful days!

What dreadful days!!

Hidden in that evil closet,

that stinking cupboard!

Forced mental imprisonment,

Forced mental solitude

by man’s inhumanity

arrogantly prosecuted

as their God’s righteous judgment.

Huh!

Righteous be damned!

Balderdash!!

This I know.

My GOD is a thousand times

larger and more humane 

than deity conjured up

by Tanakh, Koran, Bible …

any other sacred writing!

I respect them all

But neither am I a bull

with a nose ring!

My GOD is not

for wiping out nations,

enslaving other nations

My GOD is not for ethnic cleansing.

All that is men writing!

Yes men!!

Not even women!!!

For those men

had no time for women

except perhaps

Queen Esther

And Paul’s Most Elect Lady

and even they were a

a four hundred years apart! [iii]

I guess it’s up to me

The likeness I ascribe to You

Father, Son, Holy Spirit…

…this is the concept of theism

that rests with me best eloquently …

… I reflect …

that taught me

when barely my head touched 

the table top

We are all the same

for sure.

But this 'eloquent' perspective

does not limit me

in my wonder of You,

my reasoning with You,

my always arguing with You.

If You are angered by argument,

then You are not the God for me

that I know full well.

Part III

Llandudno looks close today.

The silver path would take me

to her wonderful promenade.

The Irish Sea beckons me

Dublin calls,

I hear her sweet refrain upon the breeze.

Wind in my hair

Oh no!

My glasses - they’ve gone

Wind now so fierce

Can’t see them… …

Sheepishness!

You’ve got them on!!

A nervous giggle

Oh what freedom to laugh

these days.

To do the best of all …

To laugh at myself

Part IV

I stand agape!

Hushed.

A billion years at my feet

Now reader do you see

why I see

God in a thousand dimensions.

More even!

Why is it that I catch,

even feel, The Spirit

in the great Refrains :

Ancient Hymns and Psalms,

Processional and Recessional?

Yet despite

the beauty of the writing

find I none in later Composition,

just an enforced

confrontation with a prayer mat!

And yet now and again

I do feel His Presence there…

Part V

The Three Cs most surely:

Composition - Confrontation - Conundrum

So I’ll stick with

my three Cs

my life’s anchor

since I can remember :

Cool - Calm - Collected

Ha-ha - Memories

I even hear on the wind

the measured, gratifying

parade square

thirty-inch pace

Another famed saying:

Come on Gentlemen, Ladies

Keep the rhythm

Keep the pace

Peace - Good Order - and Discipline

That’s good, that’s good

Hold to the right there

Right Marker!

Hold them steady lad

as they pivot on you… …

Lass, bring the rear in tight

Part VI

The present again…

Sorry!

Meandering!

But then at my age

I’m entitled to …

It’s time for tea

Adieu

I will see you all again

on my return

Oh dear!

Now for the long walk back!

But the wind is with me this time

Part VII

Starlings, thousands

swoop low over the sands

An amazing sight

Gulls, a squadron

holding back, it seems,

before the pounce

as men did

seventy years ago this week

over these very skies

and shorelines

throughout these Isles

14 August 2022
All Rights Reserved

© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022

 Written on Saturday 18 July 2015
mid-afternoon,
Crosby Beach,
Liverpool

Liverpool Crosby Beach looking out towards New Brighton and Antony Gormley's "The Iron Men"

i The Iron Men by Antony Gormley on Liverpool Crosby Beach

ii Meanderings was published as the second anthology in October 2011 ISBN 978-1-908 128-31-7

iii. Recent research suggests that the Book of Esther was written in the middle of the 4th century BC (BCE) during the reign of Artaxerxes III (359-338 BC). But there is contention. In Persian sources, there appears to be no reference to a Persian king that had a Jewish consort, namely, a queen.

iv. BC Before Christ. BCE - Before the Common Era

v. AD Anno Domini ~ After Christ. CE - The Common Era

vi. Royal Air Force ~ Battle of Britain, which it is important to note that the RAF also comprised the exiled Polish Air Force, the Commonwealth and Empire Air Forces, and Americans who volunteered to join the RAF, many of whom were killed in action over these islands. These people must never be forgotten.