An Indelible Truth ~ Second Edition (2024)
Poetry
An Indelible Truth ~ Second Edition (2024)
My Values I must keep.
My Universe I must keep.
Neither must ever be surrendered
either to any one or to any thing.
There is a time to hide in plain sight.
There is a time to speak non-verbally.
There is a time to allow an expression,
a bodily stance, non-threatening,
drawing a line in the sand.
This line?
A Boundary? Perhaps.
But not by means of a border.
Rather, in the manner in which my mother
had that gift, that knack, of speaking in silence
or by minimal gesture and almost monosyllabic…
That quiet observation in the eyes,
The sudden stance to stillness,
The quiet deliberation within the silence,
Then the perceptive gaze,
A movement I watched so often
when creating tapestries,
priceless heirlooms now…
Enough, and no more!
The moment as the line defines,
In the mind’s eye, the lines
demarcating
not merging…
Then the sands move with the wind,
The line drawn, departing
But indelibly drawn
Within the windows of my mind.
Yes, be true to myself.
Stand by the principles taught me
and which withstand the sands of time
and leave me the man I am now.
And to be truly grateful for this.
9 September 2024
All Rights Reserved
R.S.
LIVERPOOL
© 2024 Kenneth Thomas Webb
Digital Artwork © KTW 2024 unless otherwise credited
First published 11 February 2024 and again on 23 April 2024
Author Note
R.S. captures here the essence of three principles which, translated from the original German, read roughly as:
We have to change (or exchange?) and integrate everything into our own system, without feeling guilty.
Let us value what unites.
Let us respect what divides.
Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.
