Tag: dailyprompt

A road trip round West Africa fifty years ago

Think back on your most memorable road trip?

A road trip round West Africa

Nineteen seventy five

Setting out from Kano

The place I spent two years.

I went by public transport

Things like transit vans

Not exactly scheduled

You have to hang around.

The first lap up to Zinder

A city in Niger

Not sure where to stay there

But had amazing luck

I met a fellow traveller

Who took me to his home.

They treated me so kindly

The neighbours all came round

They all shared their food with me

A thing I can’t forget.

Then across to Niamey Niger’s capital.

From there to Ouagadougou.

Who else has been there?

I mostly stayed with Peace Corps

US volunteers.

A memorable experience

But there was more to come.

Down from Upper Volta

As Burkina Faso was back then

To Ghana and to Tamale

A north Ghanaian town.

From there to Takoradi

Cape Coast and its forts

Beautiful but a history

That’s sadly scandalous.

We slept in former slave forts

Beautiful but sad

And dined on fresh caught lobster

Prepared and served with rice.

Then Togo and Dahomey

On along the coast.

A journey through a rain storm

The wipers would not work.

I’m struggling not to sleep

Daren’t distract the driver

Or we’ll be off the road.

We get back to Nigeria

But the borders are all closed.

It’s goodbye General Gowan

There’d been a military coup.

There’s a blackboard at the border

I’m scared to photograph

‘All Nigerian Officers

Should collect new badges of rank.’

I can’t get back to Kano

My French is not too good

So I head off back to Ghana

Extend my stay back there.

I can eventually go back home

Ibadan, Jos, up North

Six weeks extended travelling

A trip I won’t forget.

Not the end of the world… or is it?

In what ways do you communicate online?

It all went wrong with our heating

and we the wrong side of the world.

It’s all controlled by an online app

Or else we wouldn’t know.

It’s cold at home and frozen pipes

Could burst and cause a leak.

But Patagonia from the U.K.

Is far, far, far-away.

So we’re headed for Ushuaia

A town at the end of the world

There’s a problem at home

And we’re far away.

What are we to do?

The modern world‘s amazing

So different from when we grew up!

We Whatsapp‘d our next door neighbour

From the other end it of the world.

We asked them ‘check it out please‘

Our neighbours have a spare key.

First we turned our alarm off

From the other end of the world.

We’d no sooner sent the message

Than we got a WhatsApp call

And our wonderful next door neighbour

Adjusted the boiler as well.

They needed some more instruction

That we did via video call.

We guided them round

From the end of the world

With distance no problem at all.

It looked like a leak in the bathroom

Had caused the pressure to fall.

So we arranged a call by a plumber

From the other side of the world.

Now I am blogging about it

From a ship at the end of the world

And you are reading about it

From wherever on earth you are!

It’s not the world we grew up in

It’s a wonderful place to be.

We were far away with a problem

But it wasn’t the end of the world.

Postscript: Having drafted this I struggled to send it. An SSL error of some sort! Ironic?

I guess it’s empanadas

What snack would you eat right now?

I guess it’s empanadas

We‘ve had a few of those.

Travelling the Chilean coast

With Argentina next.

Our last stop Punta Arenas,

Through Magellan Strait

Ushuaia is up next.

There’s empanadas everywhere

A Patagonian treat

It’s mostly made of pastry

A little pastie thing

But stuffed with meat or vegetable

And usually with cheese.

The very joy of travelling

Is trying different things

We‘ve had quite a few of these

But I’m up for something else.

Making money from poetry

Come up with a crazy business idea.

A poet bleeds and breaks his heart
Spills it out on paper
The reader spares a passing glance
And treats it like a favour.

All the anxt and heartbreak there
The intellectual labour
Keep your troubles to yourself
Or share them with a neighbour.

Spare a penny if you’re kind
Spare it for a busker.
Nothing for the poet though
Empty words and bluster.

Skip around the mulberry bush,
Dance and skip and caper.
Another poem in the book
Isn’t worth the paper.

Right now I’m missing a mission

What is your mission?

Right now I’m missing a mission

I missed when they handed them out.

My mission is missing in action

I’m just kind of messing about.

A mission I’d just like to mention

Is not much what I’m all about.

I‘m not much a mission person

I‘ve yet to work my mission out.

The young are all very serious

They seem to have missions and plans.

But I am missing a mission

I guess mine’s to be an old man.

There were too many left behind.

Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?

No special thing that springs to mind

There were too many left behind.

Yet another packing case

Another move, another place.

As army brats we just moved on.

Never any place for long.

We couldn’t take it all with us.

Just move on. Try not to fuss.

So hard decisions. Sometimes tears.

We’d stay one place at most three years.

Precious things we’d give away

Leave them for some other boy.

So all I’ve left is wanderlust.

There’s no one home for such as us.

And so today we’re in Chile.

Life’s not so bad. What can I say?

Chile, Northern Patagonia – view from our cruise ship balcony right now.

Ha, ha, stayin‘ alive!

What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?

Well, you can tell by the way I use my blog
I’m an older man, no time to talk
Speak to me loud, keep me warm, I’ve been around
I’m fifties born
And now I’m alright, it’s okay
But maybe look the other way
Or if you can try to understand
How seven decades affect a man.

Whether you’re older or whether you’re younger
You’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Feel the body breakin’ and maybe it’s a shakin’
But you’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive
Oh, can you walk?

Well now, I get low and I get high
And if I can’t get either, I really try
Got troublesome feet need comfy shoes
I’m an older man and I just can’t lose
You know it’s alright, it’s okay
I’‘ve lived to see another day
Or ask again if you understand
How seven decades affect a man.

Whether you’re older or whether you’re younger
You’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Feel the body breakin’ and everything a shakin‘’
But we’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive (oh)
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive (oh)

Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, yeah 
I’m stayin’ alive

Well, you can tell by the way I use my blog
I’m an older man, no time to talk
Speak up loud and keep me warm
I’ve been kicked around since I was born
And now it’s all right, it’s okay
And you may look the other way
Perhaps by now you understand
How seven decades affect a man?

Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, yeah
I’m stayin’ alive

Whether you’re older or whether you’re younger
I’m stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Feel the body breakin’ and everything a shakin’
And we’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive (hey)

Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah (ah, ah, ah)
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, yeah
I’m stayin’ alive

Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah (ah, ah, ah, ay)
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, yeah
I’m stayin’ alive

Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah (oh)
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me, yeah
I’m stayin’ alive

From an original song by the Bee Gees – a band from way back then. I‘m blessed with good health and looking forward, God willing, to a good few years beyond the three score and ten I‘ve already had. Wishing each and everyone reading this an equally long and healthy ‘health span’.

Today because we‘re all at sea.. I‘ll take a little time.

What could you do differently?

Today I can write differently

We’re literally at sea;

I’ll try for better poetry

Spend a little time.

I tell myself repeatedly

Not to write so rapidly

Jotting thoughts down randomly

With here and there a rhyme.

It changes things appreciably

Approaching them quite differently

As hopefully you’ll clearly see

When I just take more time.

Today I‘ll write more carefully

Organise more thoughtfully,

Use a structure that’s less free;

Has more consistent rhyme.

So today we‘re all at sea

And there is more time for me

I didn’t write so hurriedly

I tried to take my time.

Billboard on a Freeway!!

If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?

Billboard on a Freeway?

The premise won’t translate.

Advertising hoardings

Are banned on motorways.

In the U.K. they’re illegal

On busy motorways.

We just like our drivers

To focus on the road.

So I’ve a ‘Freeway Billboard’

I guess it’s U.S.A?

My message to Americans,

‘Have you picked the right road?’

Here’s some words I did before….

Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?

Day Two in Santiago

Another busy day.

I’m bound up in the present

So hope this is ok?

I don’t dwell much upon the past

Or think too far ahead

I’ve sufficient on my plate

Dealing with today.

Here’s some words I did before

I hope they‘ll do today?

I had to drag them from the past

But hope they‘ll be o.k?

The past is past, it’s gone it’s flown.

No point dwelling on regret;

It won’t come back.

The chance’s blown.

For all we sit and sigh and groan.

However much we sit and fret.

The past is past, it’s gone it’s flown.

The things back then we wished we’d known.

Lessons we learned we won’t forget.

It won’t come back the chance’s blown.

There may be chances to atone

A different option, better bet.

The past is past, it’s gone, its flown.

We learned the lessons we have grown

The future hasn’t happened yet

There’ll be new chances not yet blown.

Let go the past, though don’t forget

We’ll grasp the future not yet met.

The past is past, it’s gone it’s flown 

The future we will make our own.