Behind the Times
A man lives behind the times.
He has abandoned the world
because he doesn’t live there anymore.
There’s no way he can link the past
with the future.
New books, new music, new ideas and new values
trouble him.
Will his thoughts ever break
free from the past?
For another day disappears.
Unable to repair the damage of the years
he is burnt out inside.
Modernity has slipped through his fingers.
He knows only what is gone, not what
is to come. Cast adrift from current mores
the voice of progress cannot be heard.
Should even his thoughts be airbrushed
from history?
He has lost something but doesn’t know
what it is. Time will pass unlived.
The status quo will persist. Yet he may still
translate old into new.
There is no official timetable for change.
Alan Ford
I have been influenced by the output of Neil Astley's Bloodaxe Publishers. Also Carol Ann Duffy, Clive James,Thomas Hardy, Douglas Dunn's early work and other anthology poets. I have written eight fiction books, including the satirical ghost series such as Princess Diana's Ghost on Amazon. Other published works include various articles,short stories in Brilliant Flash Fiction, and Academy of the Heart and Mind magazines, song lyrics and poetry. The lyrics have received placements in Song of the Year and the UK Song Contest.The poems have appeared in Conclave, Down in the Dirt, Blue Lake Review, Academy of the Heart and Mind, Scarlet Leaf Review and Ariel Chart literary magazines.