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I make my home among timeless things.
The hills, the valley,
the neck of the river.

Borders, boundaries,
sketches on a map.
Limiting land with language and law.

Listen hard,
There are words of guarding,
not sharing.
The country hasn’t spoken,
the country knows,

my breath will not choke the air.
My sweat will not make the rivers swell.
My feet will not cause bridges to crumble

I make my home among timeless things.
Compassion, community,
a sense of whole.

Chris Hemingway is a poet and singer-songwriter from Cheltenham. He has self-published two collections (“The Future” and “Cigarettes and Daffodils” on lulu.com) and has read at Cheltenham Poetry and Literature Festivals. He is also developing a WordPress Blog and Facebook Group “Tell Me Everything You Know About Poetry, I’ve Got 15 Minutes”, title taken from a quote attributed to Phil Ochs.

What if Groundhog Day

replaced Christmas
as a winter festival ?

If Christ was succeeded
by a sardonic weatherman,
and the Virgin Mary
by a 90’s romcom stalwart ?

The groundhog;
prolonging winter
through a fear of it’s own shadow,
would cut a sombre figure
as a festive beast.

and TV schedules
would abandon their rich
vistas of programming,
for an endless cycle of repeats and reruns.
Oh, ok.

What if our faith
had just two tenets ?
to constantly look to the past
until your mistakes are corrected.
and that nothing can change.

What if you woke up on May 8th,
with a cavalier majority,
to say that it’s so ?

Chris Hemingway is a poet and singer-songwriter from Cheltenham, who, as well as previously on The Stare’s Nest has been published in Lunar Poetry and Caduceus magazines.  He has a self-published collection of lyrics and poetry (Cigarettes and Daffodils, available from lulu.com) , has appeared at Cheltenham Poetry and Literature Festivals, and recently guested on Winchcombe Radio’s “Poetry Waves” broadcasts.

The Silent Majority

It’s not the silent majority that concern me,

it’s those who claim to speak for them.

It’s not the whispers in the shadows that scare me

it’s those who seek to amplify them.

It’s not the faceless bureaucrats I resent

it’s the cash-rich smiles of their critics

It’s not the border footfall that worries me

it’s the footholds found from its exaggeration

Chris Hemingway is a poet and songwriter from Cheltenham, he has self-published a collection of poems and lyrics “Cigarettes and Daffodils” and has also been published in Caduceus Magazine and anthologies for two writing groups; Glos Ink (Gloucester) and Polygon Poets (Bristol).  Recently he has read at Cheltenham Poetry and Literature Festivals, as well as Bristol Festival of Nature. He co-runs the ‘Compound’ collaborative writing project for Cheltenham Poetry Festival and is a member of the “52” on-line poetry group.

A Walking Conversation with my 20-year Old Self

I was angry he said
how we kept electing these dangerous people.
And for those who didn’t use elections,
we kept selling them tools
to keep it that way.

We still do I replied
though sometimes we bomb them instead.
But despite everything,
in ’83 you nearly voted Liberal.
I know he said
I was worried that Labour were moving to the right,
did that happen ?

I nodded,
remember all those pictures of primetime celebrities
on the wall of that freezing lounge ?
I think I hated them as much
as Keith Joseph and Donald Rumsfeld
he said.

Some of them are in jail now I replied
and not many people had heard of Rumsfeld.

And what are you…am I..doing now ?
he asked, are you wearing Strummer’s “Blue and Brown” ?
No I said, just grey, their cautious cousin
though often it makes me uncomfortable.
He smiled, that makes me feel better he said

and do you still get anxious and depressed
about not getting picked for the Team ?
I do I said.
It keeps you young, stick with it
he replied.

Chris Hemingway is a poet and songwriter from Cheltenham, he has self-published a collection of poems and lyrics “Cigarettes and Daffodils” and has also been published in Caduceus Magazine and anthologies for two writing groups; Glos Ink (Gloucester) and Polygon Poets (Bristol).  Recently he has read at Cheltenham Poetry and Literature Festivals, as well as Bristol Festival of Nature. He co-runs the ‘Compound’ collaborative writing project for Cheltenham Poetry Festival and is a member of the “52” on-line poetry group.