Tom Harding
Funeral
by Tom Harding
The clouds went on, shaking their sieve
Adding to a sour day all around.
All purpose was missing,
On a weekday torn from routine.
The depressed bodies
Mooned like tourists
Amongst the trestle tables,
Eating to keep from talking,
Black jackets wet with an odor of mold.
I sat watching out the window
Where the clouds continued
To weep on the hill.
The...
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Wednesday 25th April 2012 10:32 pm
Sunday Evening
by Tom Harding
As the clouds pass,
The tall grass
Flashes blue in the breeze,
Dusk settles inwards,
Invoking times steel trap
And herding men's minds
Through routine.
All across the town
People are setting aside books
And model sailing ships.
In dark small houses
They are brushing their teeth
And climbing into freshly
Laundered white sheets
Beside loved ones.
While...
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Monday 23rd April 2012 10:42 pm
Jury Duty
by Tom Harding
Trying to make the world pure!
Now some dusty moth is
Banging noiselessly
Against a closed window
Trying to reach the new moon.
It makes you cold
To watch it,
In the shivering dark,
While your wife and cat
Sleep soundlessly.
It irritates you enough
To end it’s life,
Then return to bed
Amongst the sleeping bodies.
The moon climbs high...
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Saturday 14th April 2012 9:03 pm
We Were Not Serious People
by Tom Harding
Our mornings were free then,
We sat in cafes on tree lined streets
That reminded you of Paris.
We flirted but made no advance,
We were not serious people,
The seriousness of our lives hadn’t begun.
We talked about love and Hemingway,
We talked about the war
We were sincere
We drank coffee until noon
In cafes on tree lined streets
On w...
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Tuesday 10th April 2012 9:51 pm
Titles, Another Life
by Tom Harding
The walls of the town
The blue hills
The wind pulling blossom
The cotton dress
The white curtains
The moving trees
The canopy and empty garden
The walls, the street
The white walls of the town
The women
The yellow stone
The white curtains
The light of early evening
The swallows
The white dress
The walls of the town
The spring! the hills! the b...
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Monday 9th April 2012 1:17 pm
Office Poem 1
by Tom Harding
Crucial Conversations
A learning tool
That will give
You the skills
To prepare for
High-stake situations
With a proven technique
Transform anger
And hurt feelings
Into powerful
Dialogue
Make it safe
To talk about
Almost anything
Be persuasive,
Not abrasive
Master robust
Language
To manage expectations
Resonate with your stakeholde...
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Sunday 8th April 2012 12:23 pm
New York, Honeymoon Poem no.3
by Tom Harding
Leaping inside their bright world
While colourful predatory taxis move
In the shadows of the street.
Someone saws wood
Someone practices cello
The limbs of the trees
Blow towards one another
Crossing arms
Close enough
For the birds to hop between.
People shuffle close
On the warm street
Cascading like leaves
Into the dark subway.
To...
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Friday 17th February 2012 5:25 pm
I remember the morning...
by Tom Harding
I closed the book
On our memory
The wind blew about
And knocked over the bins
Someone kept telling me
It was spring
But I knew it was winter
As the windows and doors
Had frozen shut
And everywhere people went
They kept blowing into their hands
Muttering to themselves,
Engrossed
In the work of their lives
Even the homeless man
Tucking froz...
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Wednesday 15th February 2012 9:53 pm
Folk Song
by Tom Harding
The cook buried his daughter in the soup.
The groom severed the head of the bride and fed her remains
to the horses.
The children rank amok in the village while the sky filled with crows.
Nurse maids fed spoons of brine to the landowner’s baby
While the old women of the town stirred crows feet
Into the...
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Tuesday 14th February 2012 10:39 pm
Famous Scenes Of Sadness (01/02/12)
by Tom Harding
The birds wake
Singing news
The world’s survived
Coffee, paper,
Mothers on television,
Screaming over brothers
Sons, husbands
Hysterical shawled heads
Like horses,
Open mouthed
Consuming grief
The backdrop
Some Guernica scene
Of gored limbs,
Shattered houses
One more morning awake
Some tragic blunder,
A bombed wedd...
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Wednesday 1st February 2012 9:45 pm
A Story
by Tom Harding
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Sunday 29th January 2012 10:44 pm
Recent Comments
Ann Foxglove on Sunday Evening (Sat, 28 Apr 2012 06:18:11 pm)
Ann Foxglove on Funeral (Sat, 28 Apr 2012 06:16:22 pm)
ray miller on Funeral (Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:08:43 pm)
Harry O'Neill on Funeral (Fri, 27 Apr 2012 09:52:31 pm)
M.C. Newberry on Funeral (Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:01:28 pm)
Cynthia Buell Thomas on Funeral (Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:34:41 am)
Greg Freeman on Funeral (Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:59:44 am)
M.C. Newberry on Sunday Evening (Wed, 25 Apr 2012 01:21:22 pm)
Marianne Louise Daniels on Sunday Evening (Tue, 24 Apr 2012 03:43:43 pm)
stella jones on Sunday Evening (Tue, 24 Apr 2012 01:20:58 pm)
Tom Harding on Jury Duty (Wed, 18 Apr 2012 08:16:07 pm)
Yvonne Brunton on Jury Duty (Sun, 15 Apr 2012 08:21:48 pm)
Harry O'Neill on Jury Duty (Sun, 15 Apr 2012 05:04:26 pm)
Cynthia Buell Thomas on Jury Duty (Sun, 15 Apr 2012 03:38:51 pm)
Tom Harding on We Were Not Serious People (Thu, 12 Apr 2012 07:43:52 pm)
