WHOEVER ~ I Stand Agape
Dimension
WHOEVER ~ I Stand Agape
September 2025
Ten years ago, July 2015, I was looking out across the Mersey Estuary towards New Brighton on the Wirral. The beach is famous for the Iron Men, iron sculptures by the Sculptor and Artist, Antony Gormley, notably, as he saw himself.
Public opinion was divided, but when the contract ended and they were due to be removed, opinion had changed, so some of the original one hundred remain in place.
I find myself watching them either disappear at high tide or reappear at low tide, and they are a very important part of the British and Irish Nations.
Part I
The tide is out
Retreating.
Gormley stands proud
Everywhere, there, even here.
Curious…
Why does a man
need to make
a hundred statues
of himself?
Moreover, Naked!!
Salt upon the air
Wind in my hair.
The P&O
making good headway
into the Port of Liverpool.
Slicing through
great bow waves …
Sand in my sandwiches
Grit in my teeth
The same today,
Those lines I penned
Fifty years ago,
Long before
I realised my need for writing.
Part II
The clouds lean landward,
Riding 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 Cotswold!
Shining black boots colliding…
Meriel giggling,
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 cupboard, that stench!
Forced mental imprisonment,
Forced mental solitude
by man’s inhumanity
arrogantly prosecuted
as their god’s righteous judgment.
Huh!
Righteous be damned!
This I know.
WHOEVER is a thousand times
larger and more humane
than that deity conjured up
by Tanakh, Koran, Bible …
any sacred writing!
I respect them all.
But neither am I a bull
with a nose ring!
WHOEVER is not
for wiping out nations,
enslaving other nations
Conducting ethnic cleansing.
All that is nothing more than
Than the musings of men scribing!
Or an apostle pacing back and forth,
his scribe keeping pace
With his master,
Through his Quill as it scratches
the pelt of parchment.
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
Four hundred years apart! [iii]
So it’s up to the individual
The likeness ascribed to You.
Father, Son, Holy Spirit…
This Trinity.
For me, a triangle is better suited
…this 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.
But this 'eloquent' perspective
does not limit me
In my wonder of You,
My reasoning with You,
My always arguing with You.
If WHOEVER is angered by argument,
then WHOEVER is not the God for me!
This, I know, full well.
Part III
Llandudno looks close today.
The silver path would take me
to her wonderful promenade.
The Irish Sea beckons
Dublin calls,
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 I see
why I see
Whoever 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 again
on my return
Ah!!
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 they pounce,
as men did
seventy years ago this week
over these very skies
and shorelines
throughout these Isles [vii]
3 September 2025
All Rights Reserved
LIVERPOOL
© 2022 Kenneth Thomas Webb
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 and his Queen Consort, a Jewess.
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.
vii. Battle of Britain 1940
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.
