Hi all,

I had another kind donation of £10 from Brian towards my Acorns to Oaks Poetry on Demand fundraiser (thank you very much). Brian didn’t make any requests for the content but I was walking on the beach in the North east today and this was what came to mind. Hope you like it, Brian.

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At Whitley Bay

Starling perched on the promenade,

Above the sands, a lonely guard,

Pecking for scraps between the paving,

To satisfy some endless craving,

Down there, the sand and sea and stone,

Waves to the land are softly thrown,

Tiny grains packed tight together,

Part of a whole but alone forever,

With their like, sitting in place,

A thousand, thousand years with grace,

Until this relentless time it shifts,

And away, apart, each single grain it lifts,

If we, like sand, aren’t bound to each other,

Like a child who one day leaves its mother,

Will we all in time drift inexorably away,

Despite any wont to eternally stay?

For this universe with stars so far apart,

They were all as one at the distant start,

Time and nature split asunder,

To create the vastness on which we wonder.

And what of our starling up on high,

Who wears on her chest the whole night sky?

Does she feel creation’s plan,

Or is she simply its élan?

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Well, there you have it. I enjoyed writing this one. I think there’s a couple of lines I might add at some point but for now I like it as it is. Hope you do too.

Here’s a link to the fundraiser…

https://www.justgiving.com/page/richard-austin-1722088118449?utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=page%2Frichard-austin-1722088118449&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=pfp-share

And here’s me reading it…