One Year on My Hundred

Neil Willis

• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781398402553
• eBook ISBN: 9781398402577
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Poetry
• Index: Literature

In the vibrancy of nature's year, the author dances through fields of flowers in his wondrous relationship, ever-thinking to be married. Smiles and fast pace leave little time to pause and to just be. After the death of his father, he realises that the very things that make him so happy have become scars to his thoughts.
His mind's comfort zone throughout is under the protective canopy of the trees. Every day, the changing skies affect his well-being, and by looking upwards, he wonders of the liberty of flying and what lies beyond. Maybe there is a heaven.
Set to the backdrop of Hazlemere and the Buckinghamshire landscape, the book allows the reader to realise the beauty of life; however, each person needs an angel, whether religious or not.
While in Barbados, he walks happily on beaches, yet the sands hold the sadness of the death.
Sewn through the pages are ribbons that are his show of emotion and pride.
This is a book where each poetic piece is complete in its own right but it needs to be read from page one to the end to appreciate how the common themes pass through.

The War Years Pentalogy

Twenty Hundred to Southampton

Slow, every minute of the clock, ticked.

As the steam train’s bags were load,

Backward plumes to billow fog built,

Haunting, each and every chimney blow.

Heartbeat rhythm, wheels across tracks,

Would meet each, torched-lit rails’ gaps,

When it pulled away slow.

Hoarse was the steam train’s blow.

As light from station lantern glowed,

Nervous flame licked to evening wind,

That stretched to a cobbled shadow,

That reflected glimmer as walls napped.

Bricks highlight over arches, lapped,

We stood in the half-light thrown.

Deep were the steam train’s woes.

Step into carriages, doors closed,

The latches clicked, handles turned,

The slide of glass, brass windows lowed.

Uniformed men for country and king,

Their regiment boots shined to sheen,

Catching the train to wartime zones.

Leaving children to their homes.

The first whistle blew, we rub nose to nose,

Timetable letters flicked in turn,

Their fast tapping, as though sending in code.

One last kiss to keep your dreams,

This my promise, to know what might be.

The final call from mute megaphone.

I’m just another soldier

To the wartime zone.

The station clock tocked the last second slow,

Master’s whistle shrilled to a kick,

Southampton twenty hundred hours must go.

Platform wives hold their great esteem,

A kiss to air is love, luck and go free,

Yet inside each, their anxious heart froze.

To wave fast hands

To faster train blows.

Tear handkerchiefs to every eye goes,

Open windows, l...

Table of contents

• Poems of Love
• The Love Hundred
• The War Years Pentalogy
• Thinking Bridge
• The Mansions of Wycombe
• Barbados Skies
• The Wedding