Pause Awhile

My grandfather, who sadly passed away quite a few years ago, wrote this poem.

Pause Awhile
Look about you, pause awhile;
By-pass the road of time.
Stand in the vale of meditation;
Open the recesses of your mind.
Increase your awareness of creation,
Then wonder how it can be
That man lives in isolation
From God's magnanimity.

Look about you, pause awhile;
Let your wilting soul absorb
The invigorating wine of beauty
From the vinyards of our Lord.
Take time to say a "thank you,"
To he who created all;
Who made for you a garden,
In the wastelands of turmoil.
-Ernest Unwin-


The poem quite clearly shows that my grandfather was deeply religious. I am agnostic, I believe that people can choose what they think and their religion, it doesn't bother me. But being a bit of a scientist, I need proof of what happened so I choose no religion. I find it much easier.

Hope you enjoyed the poem xxx

A post totally unrelated to the blog...

I watched The Social Network today and that it was quite a good movie. Not the best but far from the worst too. It didn't bore me or anything like that I found it a good watch. It also gives you an insight into facebook, though that insight is most probably very one-sided and I reckon that it tries to make Zuckerburg look as good as possible and makes the Winklevoss twins look slightly bad. Over all I would say it's a good, if one-sided, film that is suitable for slightly older audiences (12 and above).

Phoenix House

At the moment I am reading a book called Phoenix House by Carenza Hayhoe. I am sorry to say that I have not gotten very far as I don't have much time to read. Though, from the looks of things, it seems like a very good book that is well written. You can read about Phoenix house and about Carenza if you go to http://www.carenza.net/index.htm

I shall post about the book again once I've finished it.

The Teddy Bears Picnic

I wrote this short story for English homework. What do you think?


The Teddy Bears Picnic
It was a long drive and the further I travelled the deeper into nowhere I descended. The ebony sky bore on it an eerie full moon and shining stars that drilled right into my soul. Finally the journey came to an end by a rampaging river. Looking over the river as I stopped the car the massive ruins of an ancient castle came into view. Apparently a distant uncle left it to me in his will; if I wanted it. I'd heard about strange happenings in the castle, but were they true? I guessed I would just have to find out.

An old rickety bridge was my only route to the derelict castle, the angry wind constantly bashing against it made it groan, it felt like it was going to crumble beneath my feet. As I got closer to the castle I realised how daunting a building it would've been in it's prime, without missing stones and a crumbling structure, but in a pristine condition. Even though it was half fallen apart it seemed like a strong and sturdy building, a few bits of work here and there and I would sell it in no time. As I walked around it a ghostly feeling sent shivers down my spine, I felt like I was not alone, but I had to be, I was in the middle of nowhere.

After I had finished surveying it I grabbed my mobile and called the only hotel in the area. A smug sounding woman picked up the phone, “Hello, Blue Blossom hotel, how may I help you?” I didn’t like her already. “Do you have any rooms that I can stay in for the night?” I asked, desperate to get the conversation over and done with as quickly as possible. “No, we’re fully booked for the next couple of weeks!” She rudely answered, hanging up straight away. ‘It’s a good job I bought my sleeping bag.’ I thought to myself, I didn’t want to sleep in that eerie castle.

I laid my sleeping bag out in a reasonably sheltered part of an area outside of the castle and swiftly climbed in it, making sure I was covered up, as my lips were turning blue like those of a corpse and my teeth were chattering non-stop. Curled up into a ball I felt so small and vulnerable, the thick forests that surrounded me were like a prison, they made me feel trapped. The smell of the fresh air was mingled with the unmistakable scent of death, causing me to tremble with fear.

I kept drifting in and out of sleep, never properly dozing off. Every time I was about to go into a deep slumber terrifying dreams would wake me up in harsh cold sweats. After what seemed like a millennium trying to get to sleep I gave up and went for a long walk around the castle grounds. The sky was pitch black, not a star to be seen. It didn’t feel quite right. I fumbled in my backpack for a torch as I couldn’t see more than a metre in front of me. Once I had found it I turned it on, but after just a few seconds of light it turned off, even though I had put new batteries in it that day.

I heard a strange noise coming from the castle, like a little girl singing, so I followed it. Within a few minutes I was walking through the heavy doors of the castle. As soon as I was at the end of the long corridor a sudden gust of wind blew the doors shut. But I walked on, mesmerised. As I got closer I began to make out the words that were being sung. “If you go down to the woods today you’re sure for a big surprise...” It was definitely a little girl. Her singing was ethereal, as if she was a ghost.

Slowly I pushed the door open and the singing stopped. I looked around the room that was decorated like a Victorian nursery, but the little girl I thought I’d heard was nowhere to be seen. Everything was covered in layer upon layer of dust and cobwebs were found in every crevice of the room. There was an old rocking horse in the centre of it, it’s plastic eyes looked scared, as if they had witnessed something horrible. The walls were blood red. As I got closer to the walls I realised that they weren’t painted blood red, but they were splattered in actual blood. I began to run, I knew something was not right the moment I pulled up to the castle, why didn’t I leave there and then? I wrestled with the door handle but the door wouldn’t open. I was imprisoned. I turned around to see the rocking horse simultaneously going back and forth. Was it warning me to run? An old music box startled me when it began playing the tune to ‘The Teddy Bears Picnic’, the song I heard being sung.

I felt a cold, lifeless hand touch my shoulder and spun round instantly. I wanted to scream but all that came out was a faint rasp. “If you go down to the woods today you’re sure for a big surprise...” She sang once again. Her pale face and hollow unblinking eyes were trained on me. She had long, white hair that trailed all the way to the ground, it looked almost see through. She wore a plain white night gown that seemed to be glowing. Her nails were very long, as if they hadn’t been cut for an eternity. She pointed her spindly fingers at me and turned me into her puppet. With a tiny movement of the hand she could make me do anything she wanted. She forced me to walk up to a dresser and open the top drawer. The only contents of it was a newspaper article from 1895. 1895? That was over a century ago! The headline said ‘Young Girl Murdered by Father’. The 1st paragraph of the article read ‘Josephine Wraith, aged only 8, was brutally murdered by her alcoholic father Lawrence Wraith. In a drunken rage he stabbed her to death with a kitchen knife. She died almost immediately.’. Along with the text there was a picture of Josephine, sure enough it was the girl in the room. She then made me open the middle draw off the dresser and got me to pick up a knife, it was covered in blood. She raised her hand and, sure enough, I raised mine. With a simple thrust she had me stabbing myself to death. Again and again the knife went in, until  my body gave up and I found out what it is like to be dead. Through my glazed over eyes I could see her grabbing a teddy bear. My soul was still functioning, but my body wasn’t. She extracted my eyes with her long nails and replaced the plastic eyes of the bear with mine.  I felt my soul leaving my body and entering the bears. She left my body in the room but took the bear.

She wandered through the dense forest until she came out onto a clearing where dozens of other teddies were sat around a blue and white checkered picnic blanket. Their eyes looked just like mine, I knew the same thing that happened to me had probably happened to them, but I had no way of communicating with them so I had no choice but to sit there doing nothing. Then she faded off into the night, ready to claim her next victim.

Persephone’s Victim

I wrote this poem in yr 7 for a competition. I had to base it on a painting by an Italian artist called Arcimboldo. He was best known for creating imaginative portraits made entirely of fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish and books. Basically, he painted representations of these objects on canvas arranged in such away that made them look like what he was painting.

Persephone’s Victim

I sit here in my meadow

Stuck, roots far down

Unable to move around

My legs trapped in the ground

A bee buzzes around my head

But, as my arms are blanketed in ivy,

I’m unable to swat it

One comes in my ears and out my nose

It’s whirr drives me mad

But when it goes I feel so alone

Another tear fulls

But all it does is drop to the turf

Watering the roots that keep me here

Anchoring me further to the ground

Keeping me from moving around

Will anyone ever be proud to call me their friend,

Or will I be alone forever?

It's the end of the ride

I wrote this poem on the ferry yesterday coming back from the French Trip because I was bored and my friends abandoned me for sweets. I didn't want to go so I just stayed at the base where we had to sign in every hour.

It's the end of the ride
Waves tossing and tumbling
Destroying everything in the way
The stomach of the sea angrily grumbling
All through the night and day

One small wooden boat
Battles through the waves
Struggling to keep afloat
As it travels its path is paved

The adventures it's had
The perils it's faced
With the captain and the lad
Through a long life it's slowly paced

Though the end is near
It's lived its life
Soon to come is a moment most feared
Its time for it to meet the knife

A storm is brewing
It's almost done
Forever it's been stewing
There's nowhere to run

Waves of 100 feet come barging
They're ready to feed
Nearer and nearer they are charging
The predator has the lead

Waves crash into the woodworm infested planks
Shredding them like paper
As the waves release their angst
The boat can no longer caper

To the sea bed it slowly sinks
The bodies of the captain and the lad inside
Gallons of water it quickly drinks
It's the end of the ride

P.S.
Please tell me what you think. It would be great if any criticism was constructive so I can improve my poetry.