Author: Charlie Alford

I like to think I'm a story teller. I love stories. I believe the world is filled with stories just waiting to be told and learned. I enjoy travelling down the road less travelled, with my iPhone and journal in each hand. Here you'll find all my poetic musings... Enjoy!
Posted in #napowrimo2015, England

NaPoWriMo 23/30 Happy Birthday Mr Shakespeare

Posted on by Charlie Alford

Inspired by the bards birthday and it being St Georges Day in England. Love my homeland…

My soul searches all the small ancient nooks

but the verbal spaghetti isn’t clear

despite the exhaustive amounts of books

I say, Happy Birthday Mr. Shakespeare.

England’s heart beats for you and our St. George

April twenty-three painted red and white

stories of dragons falling to his sword

and your words immortalised in the night.

The sun rises and we are still breathing

ancient castles, vast woods, and national pride

shaping the might of Albion’s dreaming

twisting and turning along with the tide.

I am a child of this lovely island

with her future out there on the horizon.

Posted in #napowrimo2015

NaPoWriMo 21/30

Posted on by Charlie Alford
Sun flashes on the tram floor
sparkling dark blue
the seats above are green 
guarded by shiny poles
all the space is taken
bags on laps, between feet
next stop miller street
earphones play soundtracks 
the tram hums along
smartphones need two thumbs 
two eyes bow the head 
glasses slide down the nose
facial expressions in post-work mode
next stop St George’s Road.

Posted in #napowrimo2015

NaPoWriMo 20/30 Tea inspired by Air Supply

Posted on by Charlie Alford

Tonight I came home from work and realised I’d forgotten to buy tea (this is a disaster for us British folk) and Air Supply “All Out of Love” started playing in my head (I’m random like that). So tonight I wrote a poem that can be sung (badly) along to the tune of the aforementioned song.

Feet on the cold floor with my head by the door
thinking of you all day
I know your lost too but who knows what to do
bewildered in urban grey.
I wish you’d come home and forever stay
if I could I would let you grow
It would take me some time, and plenty of wine
but I know how from that show, from that show.

I’m out of you tea, I’m so cold without you
Where are you right now, escaping without me
I’m out of you tea, I can’t live without you
I’ll go to the shop and exchange some money.

I found you at the shop and carried you here
placed you among the fruit and nuts
my hand goes to you, get ready for the brew
the door is about to shut
I can smell your leaves at the end of the cup
as I pour the water on
your smell drifts over, like the cliffs of Dover
the lovely place you are from, you are from

I’m out of you tea, I’m so cold without you
Where are you right now, escaping without me
I’m out of you tea, I can’t live without you
I’ll go to the shop and exchange some money.

Posted in #napowrimo2015

NaPoWriMo 19/30 Someday

Posted on by Charlie Alford

cold and alone
will she ever come home?
echoes of yesterday
fill the faded floral wallpaper
when will she breathe again?
she is cold and alone
dreaming of life
touching the music
that consumed her
stories comes to end
she’s waiting for
another chapter
she is cold and alone.
reality isn’t easy
familiarity and comfort
every day is a challenge
she says smile
pulling the weights
from the corner of her mouth
opening her eyes
hoping for ‘that day’
he did say ‘some day’
she is cold and alone
in her floral home.

Posted in #napowrimo2015

NaPoWriMo 18/30 Found Twitter

Posted on by Charlie Alford

Hitting the road

Hours of highway

I blame Wednesday

the problem is not the problem

it’s the attitude towards the problem

happiness is in Nippy’s Iced Chocolate

Seriously with the adverts…!

Watching Doctor Who

deciding on breakfast

My get up and go, got up and left

sunburnt in a thunderstorm

there’s no place like home.

Lunch in Chinatown

smooth landing despite the weather

getting career advice from clients.

Tram conversations

Australian’s are the biggest pirates

yesterday we wore t-shirts, today we wear hoodies.

“Don’t think of it as death,

think of it as leaving early to avoid the rush”

A poem inspired and constructed from the tweets I posted last month @AlwaysChum 

Posted in #napowrimo2015

NaPoWriMo 17/30 Death of a poem

Posted on by Charlie Alford

Placed neatly in the wooden box
the lid is grazed by graceful fingers
over the long years you took some knocks
and now your voice echoes, lingers.

Creating a dance of letters
the words fell from my pointy pen
nights trying to make you better
but the sun was setting, my friend.

We should have sung at our first chance
thrown those words out into the sky
but shaping had us in a trance
and now your words will never fly.

You are the reason I am me
Therapy from reality
helped me conquer the how to be
helped unlock the insanity.

Your voice may have faded away
Your words dissolved into nothing
and this empty blank page will stay
but your memory will keep on living.

Posted in #napowrimo2015

NaPoWriMo 16/30 Terzanelle

Posted on by Charlie Alford

I feel the immensity breathing
splashing through the expectations
finding my salvation in you

in our connected emotions.
Somewhere in this fog is doubting,
splashing through the expectations

loneliness screaming from your eyes.
Invisible tears calling out
somewhere in this fog is doubting

this reef is empty without you.
I will search for eternity
invisible tears calling out

to my destiny, my lobster.
Am swimming through the deep ocean
I will search for eternity

for you, as you are my someone.
I feel the immensity breathing
Am swimming through the deep ocean
I feel the immensity breathing.

Day 16 Challenge:

Today, I challenge you to write in the form known as the terzanelle. A hybrid of the villanelle and terza rima, terzanelles consist of five three-line stanzas and a concluding quatrain. Lines and rhymes are chained throughout the poem, so that the middle line of each triplet is repeated as the last line of the following triplet (or, for the last triplet, in the concluding quatrain). The pattern goes like this:
ABA
bCB
cDC
dED
eFE
fAFA or fFAA.

You can use any meter or line length, though you may want to try to have all of your lines in the same meter! (And you can always fall back on that old favorite, iambic pentameter).

Posted in #napowrimo2015

NaPoWriMo 15/30 The drunk poet

Posted on by Charlie Alford

Like a door,

battered faded wood

you’re distraught with each other

Oh, drink!

Kindly withdraw!

A sign swings in me

Ma, always said;

“I defy your sighin’ and blubberin’

Can ya go in a sec

Since ya gone so far.

Why? Your coffin heavy”

Each friendly lions paws will close.

Table your pen, many

kids in the school hall

back down,

only you

have sworn faith.