In life you see people,

People with their own ideas.

They want to go their way

No matter how it affects others,

They do not give to anyone,

They just take.

You then see people,

Who need to help others.

Not thinking of themselves,

Not expecting any rewards,

No matter how much it costs them,

They just give.

In life you come to realise

That when you give,

When you help people,

You always get more back,

More back in return.

The words go onto the page

Gliding in the ink

As they form on the vellum

Like diamonds from the sky

Bringing beauty into life

For people to read

As they see

The gold in your words

Flowing like a tapestry clinging to the world.

As we go through our lives

Sometimes we want it to change.

Things may be going wrong,

Life may be a struggle.

So we go looking,

Looking for someone to change our life.

It can be a long hard struggle

But with experience of life

We eventually come to realise

That in looking for that person,

That person who will change our life

All we have to do is look,

Look in the mirror.

There I was driving along,
Quite happily going to a shop.
Music playing in the car
As always,
When this piece started,
Started playing.
I have heard it so many times,
I have played it,
I have sung it.
So what was different this time?
Because as I listened
Tears came to my eyes.
Why did it happen this time?
I was in a good place in my life,
All was going well.
I may have changed
And my loving emotions
Are more prevalent,
Music always affects me,
Sometimes with tears
But this piece I know so well.
So why did the tears come,
These tears of emotion,
Come this time.

Yet again I stop.
The power that music has over me
Makes me stop and listen.
I have to listen,
I become the music
As it goes through my body
To my heart and mind.
I seem to leave my body
And follow the notes into the ether
As they sail away to infinity,
Always there for me to hear.

I walk the streets and see these people
Looking down at their screens,
Wires dangling from their ears,
No interest in what’s happening around them.
Others walk and their faces so sad
As though the troubles of the world weigh them down.
I walk from the streets into nature
And still they are there,
Missing so much of the glory around them.
Just looking down,
Not a smile to be seen.

I walk my life in happiness
Despite any troubles in my life
I am still here,
And each day I get up
I know my life is good.
The smile comes upon my face
And I know that smile
Will be seen by all that I pass
When I walk the streets,
Or walk with Nature.

Why does it happen to me?

Suddenly I hear some music

And my world stops

As the sound penetrates my mind,

Goes through my heart

Into my soul.

The tears flow from my eyes

As music so wonderful

Reaches me from the heart of the player

As she blows the wonder of her music

Into the ether,

And forever for me to bathe

In the wonder of her sound.

My path to Paradise was started so many years ago
As Dufay, Tallis, Byrd and Dowland put notes down
Only to be modernised by Bach and Handel
As they led the way for Mozart to stun the world
Which woke up Beethoven and Tchaikovsky
To produce their wonderful way with notes
The glory of Verdi and Puccini’s words in music
Showing the way for Rachmaninoff and Scriabin
For Mahler, Debussy, Sibelius and Ravel
To move forward to the place that others took
And Barber, Cage and Reich moved forward
To that place where Richter and Adams continue
To pave my way to Paradise.

Music has always been with me,
All my life it has been there.
Classical and jazz ruled
And have lasted the test of time.
I was there in the sixties
When the world was changed,
And life became open to the world.
Where the old music was changed,
Changed into the modern sounds.
The modern sounds were fine,
But still in my heart classical and jazz
Ruled supreme.
There were songs of the time
That I saw as being for slow old people,
But now I am a slow old person
And accept that those songs were good.
And the older I get
The more music I listen to,
So that I now listen to music
That I would never have done
In my youth.
I now know that there is so much music,
So much music to listen to.
But there is also
So little time.
I believe I know a great deal
A great deal about music,
But it has come to me
That the more I know about music,
The more ignorant about it
I realise I am.
So much wonderful music
Is still out there
Out there for me to hear.

We sat drinking coffee
Looking out across the lawn.
The raindrops falling like diamonds
Enriching our lives as they fell.
Then it happened,
It appeared before us.
A rainbow shone,
Shone on our lives,
Showing us all
That our lives were good,
And all will be well
Within our own worlds.