Inner Inspiration
POETRY
Lyrics and Film together
Can Inspire
When that inspiration is from inward reaching outwards,
I now sense four simple yet essential components to wellbeing
that sense of Innermost Being
that sense of Engagement with the Universe
that sense of Instance laser-focussed
that sense of Spontaneity
On the Moment’s Spur
I become rested
The inner beat slows,
The outward expression is becalmed
Inspired by the Film and Soundtrack of The Children Act and which is available here on Spotify and composed on 28 August 2024.
The scene depicts a Circuit Judge on a train journey from London to Newcastle-upon-Tyne (the role of the judge is played by Dame Emma Thompson). A Judge is deemed to be on circuit when they travel to a jurisdiction within England that is outside the Capital, London.
This applies to England, and it is important to note that in Scotland we have a separate legal jurisdiction, where the structure is similar but the terms and titles are very different. The function of both jurisdictions is broadly the same.
These lines were inspired by the soundtrack in the film entitled Train Journey and composed by Stephen Warbeck.
I love this music.
I love this piano that speaks,
Yes speaks,
This gorgeous melody.
Memories floating.
Free flow over chords,
Minor and Major and Minor again
Fluttering of flats and sharps…
A Butterfly,
Waves rippling.
Oh yes,
Memories.
The InterCity racing the countryside
County by County,
Shire by Shire.
First class,
Letters, papers, books, thoughts even,
What days those were!
Long past now.
I love this music.
Melody interconnecting
Outward and inner self.
I go where no one else can go.
I go where no one else has been.
I go alone.
There is peace in aloneness.
I love this music.
Racing through the countryside.
Thinking, pausing,
Those papers again.
Papers I should not read,
Papers, diagrams, drawings just for me.
Lines that prove that I am loved
in the way that I can never have.
Newcastle
Liverpool
Blackpool
Oxford
London
Luton
Folkestone
Dover
And the glorious County of Kent
of former days,
Northumberland and Tyneside.
The Scottish Borders.
My inner self bestirs ancient roots…
A room
People I’ve met not,
Yet who know me.
Ancestors
Self
Descendants.
This indelible bond.
The saying is true
Our ancestors live on within us.
I love this music.
This Line racing through Britain,
Intercity first class
Gentle rocking, the chords in harmony.
The piano’s beauty brings to me
All that has gone before me,
Memories, wondrous.
Always alone.
I love this music.
Echoes of the great composers.
The wonder…
Why are poems so beautiful?
I love this train.
The seclusion.
The peace and independence.
That which family and friends
have no ability to grasp,
Comprehendeth not.
Ian Bradley Marshall
17 August 2025
All Rights Reserved
LIVERPOOL
©2025 Ian Bradley Marshall © 2025 Kenneth Thomas Webb
With thanks to the BBC, to whom all rights are reserved in respect of the image used.
Composed 28 August 2024
Lyrics and Film together
Can Inspire
When that inspiration is from inward reaching outwards,
I now sense four simple yet essential components to wellbeing
that sense of Innermost Being
that sense of Engagement with the Universe
that sense of Instance laser-focussed
that sense of Spontaneity
On the Moment’s Spur
I become rested
The inner beat slows,
The outward expression is becalmed
© 2025 Kenneth Thomas Webb © 2025 Ian Bradley Marshall
Gallery
Britain Stormy Late Summer
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.
