THE OBSERVATION WARD

Selected Poems Of Sam Pharoah and Selected Reflections Of Simon Smith Jnr.

Editor: John Murphy

The man with the computer: Gerry Murphy

Another man with a computer: Gerry Corbett

Back-up Organiser: Pat Murphy

Back-up Adviser: Michael Murphy

"Rome wasn't built overnight"

John Murphy (c) 2001

INTRODUCTION

I refer to any complete document of mind on the web as a book, and this little book sheds some light on a vast and normally hidden feature of human endeavour. The endeavour in question involves that populous army of people who take to composing literature of the kind never likely to be published. In the normal course of events the poems and reflections to follow would never be published in any format whatsoever, and so published here they may help prove that that sad vast book of life - the 'book' of all unpublished material - is not quite as bad as you might have previously assumed.

John Murphy

CONTENTS

Introduction
The Wind
Freedom Cry
Untitled
Love Burns
Remember Me
The Pessimist's Philosophy
Untitled

THE WIND

[According to Carlos Castaneda Death presents itself as a wind - no metaphor.]

The wind comes
A changing swill
Where it blows
No one knows
The wind like a shadow
Stalks the shape shifter
Unseen by eye
It knows all
Sees all

The Bravest
Cannot kill it
The sword is to no avail
The sharpest lance will fail
The wind wanders
The world at will
And strikes
Mere men
For good or ill.

- Sam Pharoah

How large are the cumulative errors of the medical.
- Simon Smith Jnr.

FREEDOM CRY

Butterfly,
free butterfly,
how I envy you
dear creature.
No longer earth-bound,
you fly on silver wings,
rejoicing in your
new found freedom.
Hear my spirit
cry for freedom
from within this cage
of flesh and bone.
How I long to cast
aside
this earthly robe,
to free my inner self,
and rise like you
on silver wings
and fly away.

- Sam Pharoah

The dawn arrived as it always promised it would…As the darkness faded, a strange sort of happiness filled the air: the sound of a thousand crows waking from their drowsiness and taking to the air.
- Simon Smith Jnr.

UNTITLED

List to the story of a knight of old
as fresh today as when first told
about the Viscount Barry high
and a little drummer boy.
The Norman offered bags of gold
the drummer took it, so I'm told
a secret passage soon he found
hidden safe from all around.
Donegan's Fort was taken fast
for the drummer the die was cast
Lord Viscount Barry got his way
showed that treachery did pay.
The Barry-men got slow and lazy
that drove his Lordship Barry crazy
he said this drummer has to go
I decree that this be so.
His trial was fast
the die was cast
head hobbled on the green
but up he got
and took the lot.
And has long since been seen.

- Sam Pharoah

Man is the peninsula of evolution.
- Simon Smith Jnr.

LOVE BURNS

Love is not my friend.
it comes and lights
a fire within my soul,
then strips me of my wings
while I am still in flight.

"No more shall love
invade my heart",
so many times I swore;
but how, in truth,
was I to know
what Fate held in store.

For there you stood
before me,
and the flame
was lit no more.

I'd give the world
both sea and land,
if I was sure
to hold your hand.

Or even just for a blip
in time
to feel your lips
pressed close to mine.

But well I know
I'll be alone
until I reach
life's end.
For mine, I know,
you'll never be;
for love is not.

- Sam Pharoah

The slowest and most foolish will evolve in their own time.

- Simon Smith Jnr.

REMEMBER ME

When your day is at an end
and you feel you need a friend.

When your dream was not so good
and nothing is as it should.

Remember me, I'm very near
think of me, and I'll be here.

- Sam Pharoah

Dreams are the dip-sticks of the DNA.

- Simon Smith Jnr.

THE PESSIMIST'S PHILOSOPHY

Why am I afraid to love?
I guess I'll never know.
Why am I afraid to live?
It's just not worth the trouble.
What's the point?
it all will end
when the big man bursts the bubble.

- Sam Pharoah

Trees know nothing that they should't know.

- Simon Smith Jnr.

UNTITLED

Forever blow
the winds of change.
They twist and rend,
and rearrange.
All life 's a play
of changing scenes.

- Sam Pharoah.

Branches reaching for the stars never collect their fallen fruit.

- Simon Smith Jnr.

 

Snow melts in order of shape.

- Simon Smith Jnr.

 

The stars are there to lead the way; the wind will fill our sails.

- Simon Smith Jnr.