For many years I have been a avid poetry reader,I tend to favour the action or story telling poets such as Tennyson, Masefield, Browning and if I'm truthful even Robbie Burns but without any shadow of a doubt my favorite as to be Rudyard Kipling.
Being the son of a serving soldier in my adolescent years I found that my schooling was somewhat disrupted by constant postings abroad to sunnier climbs, which was a great way of seeing parts of the world that other boys between the ages of four and nearly fifteen could only dream about, whereas I was able to live the dream.
But even this was not enough to satisfy the pictures I could conjure up in my minds eye. Kiplings, graphic tales of India's north west frontier as in: "East is east, and west is west and never the twain shall meet, till earth and sky stand presently at God's great judgement seat". Or John Masefield's "I must go down to the sea's again,to the lonely sea and the sky, and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by" Or to be facing the Russian cannon on the heights over Sevastopol in the Crimea in the words of Lord Alfred Tennyson and "The charge of the Light Brigade" and back to the North west frontiers with Kipling once again and "Gunga Din" The last few words are unforgettable. "Though I've belted you and flayed you, by the living God that made you, your a better man then I am Gunga Din". And even the more modern poets such as Alfred Noyes, "The Highwayman". And not forgetting the classics such as, Robbie Burns and the "Lady of Charlot", the list is endless.
Being the son of a serving soldier in my adolescent years I found that my schooling was somewhat disrupted by constant postings abroad to sunnier climbs, which was a great way of seeing parts of the world that other boys between the ages of four and nearly fifteen could only dream about, whereas I was able to live the dream.
But even this was not enough to satisfy the pictures I could conjure up in my minds eye. Kiplings, graphic tales of India's north west frontier as in: "East is east, and west is west and never the twain shall meet, till earth and sky stand presently at God's great judgement seat". Or John Masefield's "I must go down to the sea's again,to the lonely sea and the sky, and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by" Or to be facing the Russian cannon on the heights over Sevastopol in the Crimea in the words of Lord Alfred Tennyson and "The charge of the Light Brigade" and back to the North west frontiers with Kipling once again and "Gunga Din" The last few words are unforgettable. "Though I've belted you and flayed you, by the living God that made you, your a better man then I am Gunga Din". And even the more modern poets such as Alfred Noyes, "The Highwayman". And not forgetting the classics such as, Robbie Burns and the "Lady of Charlot", the list is endless.
For hours I would read the great poets, but the one poem that I cherish above all else, and yet again another from the pen of Rudyard Kipling "IF".
I have tried to live my life by adopting the Morals that this poem teachers, I have tried many times and many times I have failed. As a proud Yorkshireman, I have a tendency to call a shovel a shovel without trying to fancy it up for the benefit of other folks, which constantly gets me into hot water with bureaucrats and those in authority, all of which I take with a pinch of salt. But when so called friends shun you for speaking the truth then that's dirty cricket.
A few chosen passages from "IF"
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
Yet many including myself still allude to that " If I could have my time over again" or the best one of them all "If Only". I have come to accept that this life is not a rehearsal for the next, and even if it were we would never know it. So be thankful for what you have and live your life as though this day was the last, for one never knows "For whom the bell tolls".
Now in my twilight years I can look back to those boyhood days in Hong Kong, Singapore and Africa and feel content that the road throughout life as had its ups and downs, it's stony patches and it's smooth, it's laughter and it's tears. Would I change much of my life, well certainly there are a couple of things I would change but we don't get the chance to apply the "If Only" theorem, so we might as well get on with it.
To quote the greatest crooner ever namely old blue eyes "That's Life" and I did it "My Way". Which I suppose it means that my poems have served me well " I Think".
