The Ruins Of Time

One of my poems. From PART I: PULSE of Something That Comes Close, my debut published collection. Available to buy in paperback from Amazon Books, and as an eBook on Kindle, Kobo or Booktopia. Additional information at the bottom of this post.

Image by Spike Deane

the ruins of time

looking for the man I used to be

or could become

I stumbled over ruins of imagination

scattered in the landscape

of the make-believe

which some call memory

and there

as if ‘a stranger

in a strange land’

I tried to read the ruins

pausing over half-familiar artefacts

and smiling wistfully

at something

not quite recollected

yet almost re-assembled

in the mind’s eye

those faint figments

seldom last a lifetime

nor do they show themselves completely

or in ways that give us certainty

and we will never hold them firmly

once again in trembling hands

not that we ever did

(a fact we soon forget)

those ruins shaped us

once upon a time

when all we knew

or thought we knew

was how to look ahead

towards a far horizon

perpetually receding now

like a joke we can’t recall

Something That Comes Close is the debut work of Scottish-born writer Dougie Herd, now living in Australia. Reflections on becoming, on the joy of simple things, on life's hopeful journey. Sometimes sad because life sometimes is. But never despairing or despondent. Cos life's too short.

• Pulse: memory, life and death, loss, dislocation.

• Place: here and there, then and now, home and somewhere else.

• Encounters: the unexpected.

• Foolish Things: some of which are not entirely pointless.

• Waving: the possibility of renewal, the necessity of change, the inevitability of silence.

Words by Dougie Herd. Illustrations by Spike Deane.

Buy your paperback copy at Amazon Books.

Available also on:

• Kindle Store

• Rakuten Kobo

• Booktopia