Yorkshire Writers' Lunch

Trigger Warning: Death & Grief I cared for you darling till life ran out. I held you, your last breath was in my arms. I asked you to come back to me, not to leave. Though all in vain, you were taken from me. You slipped away without saying a word Quietly and in the moment, unexpectedly. We could not have known it was the day The angels would come and steal you away. Without warning or drama, just peace and calm I placed your head into my arms. It was already too late to save you, Just to hold you was all I could do. As tears overwhelmed, my eyes were full, Knowing I'd lost you forever and this is all. Your eyes will open no more to see me again. All we had and shared had come to an end. A final goodbye, the end of life. I walk on alone but on which path? Becoming lost in a world, sinking deep, While all I have left are the memories I keep. Precious and treasured within my heart, Safely keeping for the rest of time. A wandering soul drowning in tears, Flooding into my world, f...

Have you ever wondered, as you look up at the night sky, just what would happen if there were no more planets? Don’t worry. Well, not at first, anyway, because there’d be little effect. The Sun holds us in place, so we could continue jaunting round and round in orbit for a few more million years. But we would miss the brightness above us – no more Venus, the morning and evening star; no Mars, no Saturn or any other planet/star that we can recognise. Eventually though, we’d have more space rocks being thrown at us and potentially hitting their target. Jupiter is the one which usually deals with that danger and throws them into touch. It is also the other planets which help to keep us in place, so Earth’s orbit might change and/or the axial tilt might change, with possible catastrophic results. Aren’t you glad you won’t be there to see it? But we have already lost one planet and who knows when another might, arbitrarily, be transformed? Remember Pluto? No, not that yellow-coa...

  Those precious summer holidays, memories from the past. Two whole weeks of pleasure, hoping the sun will last.   Running towards the sparkling sea, buckets and spades to hand. Dad struggling with the deckchairs, as we race across the sand.   Lots of goodies to tempt us, hot dogs and fish and chips. The tangy taste of vinegar, lingering on our lips.   Candy floss and sticky fingers, sugar in our hair. Waffles soaked in jam and cream, devoured without a care.   The excitement of the funfair, screams and laughter fill the nights. Climbing on our favourite rides, beneath the flashing lights.   Those precious summer holidays, memories from the past. Two whole weeks of pleasure, hoping the sun will last.

  Sunday evening after tea. Always the same time each week. He would take his watch out of his waistcoat pocket, pause, compare the hour and the minutes then reach for the brass key at my base and start to count the turns under his breath until we were both ready to face another seven days. Then my chime, the voice of my movement, wound until all my wheels danced to a steady beat. The glass was closed, the key replaced and I felt primed, taut. She never liked my black, slate body with its mock Corinthian columns and its polished dome. I remember hearing her ask him why I had pride of place. ‘Why can’t we have a pretty ormolu timepiece with a gentle ting-tang instead of this monstrosity?’ He thought me a thing of substance, something which seemed to fit his self-image, upright, solid. He died more than 20 years ago and afterwards, she reluctantly shouldered his weekly routine. At first, I feared she would lift me down, take me to the pawn brokers three doors further down the...

  Hi, I’m Alex, here to give you the story of my latest journey … as it unfolds. If you’ve followed me before, you’ll be used to my style. Laid back, a little laconic as befits a seasoned traveller, plenty of humour. If you’re a newbie … welcome! To start painting the picture for you, I’m on a ship which set sail from Narvik on the west coast of Norway. As it happens, I’ve been to Narvik once before. This was in 1968 when I arrived by train from Kiruna in northern Sweden, famous for its iron ore mining. Back then, I went immediately south, to Bergen, to catch a ferry to Newcastle. On this trip I’ll be travelling north and then east, enroute for Kirkenes which is on the Norwegian / Russian border. Unknown territory for me! And probably most of the other passengers. It’s described in the brochure as an Arctic Immersion journey, (AI for short) but I’m hoping we won’t experience that literally! And there’ll be another AI dimension to the trip, more of which in a moment. Now, let...

  If yin and yang                      snapped in twain would the little circles                                pop out too? Could there be more pieces                                we can’t yet fathom? Philosophy may well have got there                                                    well before me, examining the fragmentar...