If…..…Table For One…....From ‘Emergence’ Magazine……
by Bernie Bell - 09:13 on 09 September 2025
If…….
I’m still reading ‘The North Road’ by Rob Cowen…..
https://theorkneynews.scot/2025/08/25/the-north-road-by-rob-cowen/
…… and have just read the following……
“In 1636, and with no prospect of Charles calling another Parliament, Cromwell’s name appeared on the manifest for a ship bound for America, seeking a passage for his family to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The reason given: ‘…..disgusted with government’.
The authorities intervened. Permission denied. Too many radical Englishmen with intent already fleeing to foreign shores where they might freely devise and design.”
What if Cromwell had gone to America? Think about it – the difference that would have made to……. let’s call them the British Isles.
The Irish have long memories, and my Auntie Annie-Kate spoke of Cromwell, or ‘Crummell’ as she defiantly called him – as though he were yesterday – he did a lot of harm to Ireland.
That one decision - that one turning point – IF……
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Glass of red wine in one hand
and a purple pen in the other.
If I had antennae, they'd be quivering.
The booth to my right wraps
around two men, complaining
about the wives they fear to lose.
The booth to my left guards
female travelers with inscrutable accents
planning tomorrow's adventure.
And over there a young couple paying
more attention to their phones than each other,
heads oddly tilted in my direction.
Just another evening's eavesdrop.
It's not a sin, if you're a poet.
https://bartbarkerpoet.com/2025/09/08/table-for-one-please/
And my response was……
“That brought back memories for Mike. When he first went to work in Lowestoft, staying at a B&B for 3 months, and I was still living in Stroud – he grew to resent the evening ritual of ‘Table for one please’.
Then – we got our house, I arrived and it changed to ‘Table for Two please.’
'Table for one’ is a very evocative line.
I’m sure you can make a poem out of those two lines, and the difference in life that they hold.
I’ll have a go……
‘When….. ‘Table for one’
Becomes…..’Table for two’
There’s no longer a reason
For feeling blue’
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From ‘Emergence’ Magazine……
by Eve Driver
“because attention is so much more like water than anyone told me—
it is just as hard to hold enough of it in our palms
to let someone else have some”
In six poems, Eve Driver dwells on the fragility of paying attention to beauty, silence, and growth amid the drama of an urban existence. From her Brooklyn home, she asks forgiveness from unwatered beets; ruminates on fading blueberry stains on sidewalks; and finds a soundless snow storm to be a mirror of her interior world. Knowing attention to be a form of love, though we so often fail to offer it, Eve practices recognizing the movements of generosity and emptiness, abundance and scarcity, within both Earth and self.”
https://emergencemagazine.org/poem/this-vast-artifice/
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