Getting on the ferry is a bit of a lottery, riddled with potential irritations, I’m very picky where I sit, and I can’t really relax until the boat has left the terminal and only then if certain criteria have been met, in a perfect world an empty boat with a nice friend.
I worry about unbridled sneezers, sniffers and snorters; snoters sniff constantly and the worst snorgers who every few minutes draw air up the back of their nose as if they are drawing up phlegm.
I also worry about shouters, these are usually old men or women who for some reason don’t sit together even if there is an adjacent seat but then engage in nonstop, distant conversations.
Then there is the game player, music and its scratchy sound effects and the unbelievably loud mobile phone calls.
Not common but sometimes encountered the paper slapper. This individual cannot read the paper without constantly slapping or shaking it.
Then there are people who I know who don’t sit next to me, these are little embarrassing moments made worse by me always being early on the ferry and in my vulnerable but favorite seat adjacent to the exit door (far side).
Last but not least the habitually late arrivals, the time dysfunctional arriving hot and bothered seemingly surprised at being late as if it’s a rare occasion.
The best ferry rides are when I quickly fall asleep and wake up at my destination, that extraordinary joy of the oblivious ferry ride.
Australia, 2020
Still alive and 78 is nothing that I could have imagined as being the way it is; born in the 2nd world war years and living my youth in Brixton London, a great place to live but I always felt a failure, especially academically, couldn’t spell, my writing was atrocious, I felt left behind by my friends as they went to their promising futures, this was more and more evident as we moved in to our teens. A life of non-choice followed regarding work; any occupation requiring form filling or a letter (no computers) was out of reach. My first sense of success came at the age of around 34 a deeply traumatic relationship event changed my life and a stream of poetry came forth automatically no matter what subject I pondered in the context of relationship produced a poem mostly in one draft. The second revolution came this year with the experience, I can do anything, this is not thought more a revelation. So singing, painting, piano, wood craft, fearlessly undertaken and teaching children with real empathy and care.
78歲仍然活著，沒有任何事情是我想像的那樣。出生在第二次世界大戰時期，在倫敦布里克斯頓（Brixton London）生活，但是我總是覺得失敗，特別是在學術上，不能拼寫，我的寫作很殘酷，我覺得我的朋友留下對他們有希望的未來而言，當我們進入我們的青少年時，這一點變得越來越明顯。 在工作之後有一個非選擇的生活;任何需要填寫表格或信件（無電腦）的職業都是遙不可及的。 我的第一個成功感發生在34歲左右，一場深刻的創傷性關係事件改變了我的生活，無論我在關係的背景下思考的主題是什麼，都會自動產生一股詩歌，主要是在一個稿子中產生了一首詩。 今年第二次革命帶來的經驗，我可以做任何事情，這不是更多的啟示。所以，歌唱，繪畫，鋼琴，木工，無所畏懼地教導孩子們，真正的同情和關懷。