Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday

by Nina Spink

 

You once made me a card

To celebrate my birth

With glitter and stickers

It brought much mirth

But greater by far

the message conveys

You took time to care.

To be treasured always

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Indispensable Friend aka Ode to My Hot Water Bottle

Indispensable Friend
(aka Ode to My Hot Water Bottle)
By Nina Spink

 

When it’s cold outside
And the night is long
When spirits are down
Life sings a sad song

At the end of the day
Work’s been a hard struggle
She’s always waiting
With a reassuring cuddle

Whether lying in bed
Or nestling in a chair
Off’ring warmth and comfort
She is always there

When your body is wracked
With those aches and pains
She gently soothes
And the tension drains

Enjoy the relief
That only she brings
Lifting the heart
Softening Life’s stings

So at those moments
When you’re feeling low
Take her in your arms
Feel that healing glow

Surrender yourself
In Heavenly bliss
She’s the next best thing
To a lover’s kiss

 

 

I was inspired to write this for a friend

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Farewell

Farewell
by Nina Spink

 

I watched you cross the room
with purpose, dimmed the light.
You pulled me in your arms
and took me, there, that night.

Confused and dazed you left me
My heart screeched out in pain
I knew then that I’d loved you
But would hold you not again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh3bleXWaCk

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The Photograph

The Photograph
By Nina Spink

I remember that day
The day you went away
that twinkle in your eye
and I promised myself I wouldn’t cry

Well I kept my promise
of a sort

I smiled and waved farewell
You nodded back
I was sad … you could tell
You put your hat on back to front to make me laugh
That’s when I took this photograph

I didn’t want you to go
not just then
Just a few more hours
until you had to leave
But it wasn’t to be
And you held me close and kissed me
On the forehead, like a small child

I choked back the tears as the door closed
and I wandered aimlessly for the next hour or so
I couldn’t sleep
Until it was time for me to go
to catch my plane
back to the same old same

This picture holds but an image
A moment way back in my past
And though in years the photograph may wear and fade
My memory of that time will last.

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Miss Lucy

Miss Lucy
by Nina Spink

She’s the best friend one could ever have
Never short of sayings to make me laugh
And when I’m careworn, down or sad
Her infectious smile melts away all that’s bad

I can never wait to hear her news
whether it’s about a dress or a pair of shoes
she thinks are perfect for me
they’ll be still up on her mac for me to see

She has a passion for capes
In fact anything that drapes
As long as its black or red
In which others wouldn’t be seen dead

Yes, she is a little strange and quite unique
Can recite “word for word” the song about a spinning leek
She’ll answer my questions that I haven’t said
And seems to know what’s mulling around my head

And on those rare occasions I may be in a mood
‘Cos she can’t make a decision about which food
to have, she’ll never let me get away
with a sarcastic comment cast her way

Having said that she is abundantly kind
One of the sweetest girls you could ever find
If you knew her, you couldn’t fail to see
just how wonderfully special is Miss Lucy

Note:

I wrote this little poem about my daughter.  She is very special.

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Online Friends

Online Friends

by Nina Spink

Bouncing in the dock
He appears but he doesn’t speak
I wait

I can’t initiate
I want to but I am shy
I wait

He’s otherwise occupied
I don’t want to intrude
I wait

He signs out

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Best Friends

Best friends

by Nina Spink

He speaks my name
And I can scarcely breathe
I turn my head
for a second I live

Then misty eyes
choking back my tears
times flooding back
from all those years

I’ve been away
For so very long
I’d remembered his voice
so rich, so strong

And yet once more
I feel this pain
from which I’d fled
to escape in vain

My eyes drawn to how
His arms about you clutch
All these wasted years
I’d longed for his touch

Faces smiling out
From ornate silver frame
I cant share that joy
For I still feel the same

Best friends for nigh on fifteen years
And yet you’ll never know
the heartbreak that I keep inside
my secret, not to hurt you so

So friend, again I’ll say goodbye
It’s time that I depart
For no, I don’t love him, not a bit
No …. Just with all my heart

This was an experimental poem of past, present and future feelings contained in one aspect poem. There is a change in rhythm from vs 1 – 4 (past) at vs 5 & 6 (present) and again vs 7 & 8 (future).
It was not intentional the rhythm change but I quite like it and quite by accident in my writings the past reads along quite speedy, breathlessly recalling past events. Then the present rhythm almost awkward – I can feel the downcast eyes, avoiding eye contact and shuffling feet. Finishing with the final 2 future verses almost a song of resignation and an air of moving away quickly.

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Self Reliance

Self Reliance

by Nina Spink

Why do people hurt?
Even unintentionally.
They continue along,
Never turning back.
Why do they do this to me?

Why do people hurt?
Acting spitefully,
Never contemplating the harm,
Sharp uncaring words.
Why do they do this to me?

Why do people hurt?
Often calculatingly,
Promising friendship
then backstabbing.
Why do they do this to me?

Why do people hurt?
Taking unconditionally.
Mocking my trust,
Only to lie.
Why do they do this to me?

Why do people hurt?
Loving passionately.
Only playing a part
while it suits.
Why do they do this to me?

Why do people hurt?
Offering tantalisingly
To listen and understand
then turn away
Why do they do this to me?

Why do people hurt?
feigning reliability
Deserting in my hour of need
Leaving me alone
Why do they do this to me?

Yes, people hurt
When we fail ourselves
We need others occasionally
But trust, depend on oneself
Self reliance …
A hard lesson learned for me.

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Look For Me

Look for Me

by Nina Spink

You say you look, but you don’t see
If you really looked, you’d soon find me.
I am always there in the shadows
In the dark recesses of your mind
Someone, something once forgotten
If you search you will always find.

I’m the gold of the morning sun
The warmth in the summer breeze
The glint on the ocean waters
The rustle of the autumn leaves
as you trample them underfoot
when stealing thru the wood
at night I’m the moon watching
all you do, both bad and good

I’m there when the rain trickles slowly
down your face and soaks your clothes
when the biting winter winds come
and the frost as it chills your nose
I’m the sunshine as it warms your limbs
bringing laughter and joy and light
to your world otherwise tinged with darkness
a bleak landscape, of struggle and fight.

I’m there on the crowded platform
amongst all the bustle and jostling din
I’m there in the screaming silence
to quieten your raging soul within
To be always there when you want me
to be discarded or used when it suits
A listening ear, an emotional prop
A lover to soothe painful wounds

Feel me in the empty hotel room
In the delight of hot steamy showers
In the comfort of a white, snugly bathrobe
In the hugs in the early morning hours
that keep you close and wanted
the warmth and gentle caress
of longings stirring once forgotten
oh! soft lips as they gently press

I’m there in each of life’s frustrations
In the music inside your head
Unravelling your innermost secrets
in words your world is bled
over parchment of life as a canvass
a self portrait gradually revealed
displaying the colours of past times
a soul wounded once, now healed

I’m clothed about your body
In your outer and inner wear
I’m the memory of familiar places
The sadness that brings a tear
I’m a part of all your regrets
All your failures along the way,
things you had meant to achieve
The words you had meant to say

I share in your disappointments
In your unkindness and selfish acts
In your “take now, pay later” attitude
Your weakness to stop in your tracks
I have watched you drowning slowly
In your self made agony
A self inflicted demise
It’s hurt to stand by and see

But I am there when you feel abandoned
When Life deals you a hand to pass
When it seems that your only friend
Can be found at the bottom of a glass
I’m the hope on the distant horizon
The expanse of the infinite sea
stretching out with endless opportunities
of life’s challenges, that’s where I’ll be

If you’d look you’d easily find me
A voice who’d always answer your call
and then you’d suddenly realise
You’d really never lost me at all

Nina Spink
June 2009

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The Flower of the Garden Gate

The Flower of the Garden Gate

by Nina Spink

I grew flowers in my garden
Tending them with love and care
They grew beautiful and strong
Their fragrance filled the air

They were a joy to look on
Both inside and without
The sun displayed their beauty
The rain their scent would shout

My garden was a walled one
With safety held inside
No weeds or exotics ventured
To spoil or there reside

The sun shone and the rain fell
Each season throughout the year
Then one Summer warm and gentle
A new species did appear

Attracted by its fragility
Charmed by its beguiling shape
Its strange and vibrant colours
It adorned my garden gate

And this lovingly I tended
Its frail nature nurtured strong
Enticing birds and bees and beetles
My garden full with song

I grew to love its strangeness
Its raw yet heady perfume
Surprised at passions stirring
A most intoxicating bloom

I didn’t see its tendrils
Spread out to hold me fast
Mistook them for a friendship
Not heart’s sole deadly grasp

All Summer long I lingered
Within the garden safe
Each day and night I’d visit
The flower of the garden gate

Never tiring of its beauty
Enchanted within its scheme
To have found my perfect blossom
I was happy in extreme

As Summer languished idly
My blooms that year to die
I watched them fade before me
Not realizing, so would I

Spring green brought forth its beauty
Yet again my gardens bloom
More beautiful than ever
But lacked that strange perfume

Though many a year has passed
Through sunshine, wind and rain
My gardens filled with flowers
No gate flower appeared again

Now Winter visits my garden
Earth covered with blanket deep
I mourn the passing Summers
For Spring my eyes do weep

And oft times when I glance back
Once beauty held my being
Hot tears of silent longing
Endless flows from eyes unseeing

Despite my desperate yearning
and memories long since held
I am blessed it came to visit
if only once, it dwelled

I should not bewail its passing
But rejoice in err it came
Buying untold joy and passion
Its payment … enduring pain

I will forever treasure
The gift of love so great
With wonder tinged with sadness
Oh! my flower of the garden gate

NS
April 2009

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