Along with reams of short stories, and longer attempts at fiction, I’ve written countless poems over the decades. The bulk were written in my teens and twenties and I literally have folders full of handwritten and typewritten compositions.

I’d been threatening to put a selection into print since the mid-90’s. I remember discussing it with an old girlfriend in ’95 but a number of things always seemed to stop me. Part of that was not really being sure if I wanted to share them with the world, part was never having the time to go through what was amounting to thousands of bits of paper – ranging from typed and formatted finished compositions to hand written stanzas on the back of paper bags, or anything I had at hand when inspiration hit.

A few years ago I finally got round to sorting out a collection and published them under the title “Wild Card Symphonies”. Consisting of three smaller volumes of my work, “Wild Card Symphonies”, “Cry To Me”, and “This Graveyard Heart”, the book totaled just over 120 poems. You can buy a copy (plug plug) through Lulu on one of the links at the bottom of the page if you like what you read and want to have more.

Keep In Touch

The moon was low and yellow

Just visible above the horizon

And I’m trying to forget old lovers,

Trying to regain my own mind.

All the streets around here

Hold their own memories,

Some even hold their own names.

This isn’t a place I should be

All this is doing is making me remember.

Secret meetings in a park,

Birthday wishes in the club house,

Valentine kisses in a doorway,

And promises of forever in the car.

I can’t forget, it’s not that easy.

—

I woke up yesterday remembering

Of a lover from three years ago

Saying ‘keep in touch’.

I haven’t seen her in two

And I realise now how much I miss her,

And I realise how much I’ll miss you.

I saw you today for the first time in weeks,

I’m still in love.

I still so desperately want your touch

And to be able to talk to you.

—

I met an old friend who I’d once shared a few months with

We rekindled the spirit for an evening

And took it further than before

Now she wants to ‘be friends again’

But I know it’ll never work.

We haven’t really spoken

For the last few years

So why do we reckon we’ll be friends now?

We needed that evening

And now it’s out of our systems

And we’ll leave it at that,

Like it never really happened,

And we’ll carry on our lives,

And we’ll probably not do the talking.

—

I need someone close so that I can talk to them,

I need someone here so I can cry.

I’m feeling my hurt and loneliness

And I feel I’ve almost had enough.

I don’t want us to be strangers

But I’m not sure that I could,

I could be ‘only friends’.

I’ve missed you for so long now,

And it makes me so hollow

Not to feel you next to me at night.

(KEEP IN TOUCH; By A R J Abranson; 10-08-95/21:51)

My poetry anthology, Wild Card Symphonies, is available to buy now on Lulu in both Softcover and Dust Jacket Hardcover.

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Wild Card Symphonies, Cry To Me & This Graveyard Heart are Copyright ©2015, Angus Abranson. All rights reserved.
Cover design by George C. Cotronis (Ravenkult Studios, www.ravenkult.com) Copyright © 2015 Angus Abranson
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
No reproduction in part or in whole without prior written permission from the author of the copyright owner.