Port of Call
Andrew Fairbrother St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, Rome, Italy November 2, 2016 taken bu his Partner Darren Herbert and to whom all rights are reserved.
Copper Kettle - Front of House in conversation with Jan and Arthur Stevenson May 5, 2014. This is why the Copper kettle is priceless to this day. Our community relies upon it and thrives upon Andrew's hospitaliity and kindness that reaches out far beyond the restaurant’s facade, stretching far and wide through Liverpool, Merseyside and into Lancashire.
It is home
where my heart is
Decor reassuring
Warm
Inviting
Laughter, gaiety
or peaceful silence,
all on hand
and delivered
with perfection
A meeting place
for friends
near and far,
A bridge between
south and north
A rebuke to the
Great Divide
For daily conferences
by local businesses,
decisions made
beyond the stress
glaring screens, office
hum-drum chatter
and endless interruptions.
The stimulating invitation
The gentle alluring call
to take morning coffee
or afternoon tea.
Or something
a little more substantial?
Lunch or Brunch
or just a slice of toast
and marmalade,
I think.
A meeting place
where, alone,
there is no loneliness.
The hearty greeting
Front of House’s
instant assessment …
The remedy
quietly delivered,
if needed,
encouragement,
warmth,
affection even.
Secular, religious
right, left, centre
or no view at all…
Or increasingly in
these troubled times,
listless, urgent,
confused, worried,
doubtful of our future,
being bullied…
In here it all
is set quietly and deliberately aside.
Differences of opinion
are by way of conversation.
Anger is firmly deposited
at the door and left outside.
Here, the bedrock
underpinning all
- F r e e d o m.
Do I speak of some
place in my mind?
No.
For sure, this place
is real!
The discerning eye
sees the gentle reminder,
Loved ones friends,
Dad who underpinned
the Venture
now departed,
yet most delightfully present.
Here, but not here
and very much
the fabric now,
the Soul and Spirit of the Place, even.
Formal occasions rare
and thus heightened in meaning.
A welcome sojourn
to celebrate life renewed
A new day
Another dawn
A milestone passed by
in our own journey
to that day
when I too will cross
the Chasm
slipping quietly through the veil
No
I speak of the Copper Kettle
on St John’s in Waterloo
A mile from the Iron Men
returning windswept
in the Mersey gales,
In former days
walking over from the office
across the way
My welcome port of call
in storm and calm
where the kettle
forever boileth
Kenneth Thomas Webb
Liverpool
September 10, 2021
All Rights Reserved
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Das Vereinigte Königreich
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© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2021
One of the Fifteen Founding Members of Leaders Lodge
Composed April 14, 2017
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.
