The Writing Business comical poem 559 by Angela Lansbury

Communication is a worldwide farm

Writers, like farmers, feed the hungry world, 

While the weather does wonders, or wreaks harm

Write drama, alarm, pass nuggets of charm

Instruction manuals are daily meat

Everyone needs guides, we all need to eat

The promises and hopes of each nation

A team, finds a theme, communication

Bus time tables, toilet signs at stations

At Toastmasters we listen, learn to teach

A set of tools within everyone's reach

To distill a clear message, with a joke

In a crisp five to seven minute speech

Right recalled wrongs, pen poetry and songs

Like icing preserves and decorates cake

Lullabies help restless babies to sleep

Rhythmic songs while you work, keep you awake

Businesses make losses in their first year, 

Be prepared, don't waste time on fears and tears

A cook's first home-made food, feeding only one

Cookbooks and pubs make money, profit, fun

Even a student starts hopeful and keen

But even beginners need small money

They needs lots of input for small output

Like worker bees, produce runny honey

But what I like is solid, thick, honey

It's crunchy and munchy and costs more money

So I can buy, guiltlessly, dear honey

I need to write what sells and makes money

To start a business or book's a worry

You sit up half the night - until daylight

There's hope, after years of experience

You learn what sells and you get it all right.

At last, writing's is easier and quick

The result's writer's and readers' delight.

-ends-

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Memories of My Friend Kim poem 462

A writer's chair. Drawing by Angela Lansbury. Copyrright.
 

I looked for Kim

Happy Kim

Kim who I'd be glad to greet

Kim whom I'd been glad to meet

She wasn't there

An empty chair

If she wan't here

Then why? Then where?

When we first met

I can't forget

She was seated in a crowd

A happy group luaghing loud

I smiled at her, she smiled at me

I walked towards her joyfully

Alas, I could not see a seat

Nowhere to drink, nor talk nor eat

The others shurgged

I felt unloved

She moved, so sweet

So I could have a vacant seat

Next day I rushed

For breakfast in the dining room

I saw her table, I was crushed

A man declared, 'No room! No room!'

She and I were conspirators

 So, when we were able

We both sat at the same, cosy 

Small, round, supposedly full table

Was there a space?

Someone said, .'No!'

I stood,  perplexed

Prepared to go

I'd say goodbye

And what do next?

An empty chair

Yes, there was, no surpise

Kim gave a smile

A slight, slight, nod

She rolled her eyes

I thought I'd sit, 

And so, I sat

So Kim and I 

Could have a chat

I said, loudly 'When your friend

Comes back, I'll move,'

I played that game

Their missing friend? She never came!

This year I looked

Kim wasn't there

A mutual friend

I found an empty chair

I spoke politely to her friend

And then, at last, gave him a stare

I asked, 'And Kim

Please tell me, dear

Where is Kim, why's she not here?'

He paused, cleared his throat

Breathed in, and sighed

'You didn't know?

Last year she died

'She had cancer, yes, far too young

You didn't know?

I suppose, when it's your time

You have to go.'

I could not spoil, his day, his holiday 

If he knew more, he didn't want to say

 I could not spend more time upsetting him

He stared at the floor. I said no more

I cannot find her photograph

Yet see her smile

And hear her laugh

She was tall and she was slim

Nobody else had heard of Kim

So I'm bereft

Now she has left

I do not want to spoil my day

Nor yours

Yet she won't go away

And so instead

Censor my head

Search constantly for her photograph

For in my head an ever fading photograph

I still recall her smile and laugh

When the slightest sad thoughts begin

I overlay my thoughts of Kim

With glad memories I can't forget

The joy, the welcome, when we met

The way she cunningly 

Found me my place

With raised eyebrows, 

A cynic, friend's face

And so I smile as I think,

Of conspirators, a nudge, a wink

A happy person, tall and thin

My happy memory of Kim.

-ends.

Written in memory of Kim Byles at Swanwick writers Summer School at the Hayes Conference centre, Derbyshire, met annually between 2014 and 2023. Died of cancer. Into farming. Wrote a novel, never publsihed. Created a play which was performed by a group. Had a writing buddy in SW England, in Devon or Cornwall. If anybody has a photo of her, I would like to have it.

Very poignant. Despite my efforts to end on a happy note, this poem makes me cry, reading it aloud.

I asked on Facebook if anybody knew any more. Geof contacted me and gave me her family name. I found an obit and some lobvely pictures of her looking happy. I feel much better now. The picture of her on the hay bale is so jolly.

She died Dec 23rd 2023.  Husband Ross. She wwas born in 1956 and died aged 67. About ten years younger than I am.

https://funeral-notices.co.uk/notice/byles/5164792

https://kimbyles.muchloved.com/Gallery/Pictures#image-gallery-1

It may seem odd to honour her with a poem loaded onto my comic poetry site. But her obituary asked for mourners to wear cheerful colours. Humour helps us cope with lifes downs as well as augmenting the ups. 

The picture below shows her laughing atride a hay bale. I wonder if that was on her family's farm.

She was a fun person.

She had arched eyes and looked straight at you.

One thing arresting about Kim, was the way she looked straight at you. She also asked you about yourself. A very engaging personality.

Geoff Parkes sent these

Kim Byles far left. At Swanwick Writers' summer school.  

Kim and her husband. Photo by Geoff Parkes.

Kim's writing room. By the outdoor swimming pool.

-ends-

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Every Day There's Work And Play by Angela Lansbury

Every Day (there's work and play) 

by Angela Lansbury

 Every day the bright sun comes out 

Every day the robins hop about 

Every day windfalls when a lawyer reads a will 

Then the postman brings the taxman's bill 

 After breakfast we work, at eleven stop to munch 

Then we work or study then stop for lunch 

We read of the wars and troubles far away 

As the children in the schools laugh and play

 Along the street, the dogs are walking 

The garden goes quiet, the cat is stalking 

The birds see the cat so they don't stay 

When they see a cat it's best to fly away 

 We go to the doctor and he gives us a pill 

We go to the dentist and he gives us a bill 

Everywhere old people wave goodbye 

New babies born smiling get tired and cry 

 Every evening someone gets a kiss

 Somewhere some spend a day or night of bliss 

Some do right and some do wrong 

Tides go in and out, the world spins on 

 You can have a dream and make a wish 

That oceans and farms are full of fish

 That the world will always be full of men 

And the night will fall and the day start again 

 You can travel and see new smiling faces 

Stay home see old smiling faces

 Travel and see new exciting places 

Books and albums show home's old places 

 You can fly like a bird 

Or cruise on the sea 

Some things cost but others are free 

Try somebody new or stick with me 

 Every night the singers croon 

Lovers walk home by the light of the moon 

Poets re-use the same old rhymes

 Because they've stood the tests of time 

 Every day the bright sun comes out 

Evening morning the robins hop about 

Yes, the world will always be full of men 

And the night will fall, then the day's dance starts again. 

 -ends- Copyright Angela Lansbury Jan 8 2017