Patrick B. Osada

Warfield, Berkshire, UK

Patrick B. Osada is an editor and also writes reviews of poetry for magazines. He recently retired after ten years on SOUTH Poetry Magazine’s Management Team and as the Magazine’s Reviews Editor.  His first collection, Close to the Edge was published in 1996 & won the prestigious ROSEMARY ARTHUR AWARD.   He has published six collections, How The Light Gets In was launched in June 2018.   Patrick’s work has been broadcast on national and local radio and widely published in magazines, anthologies and on the internet.  For more information about his work and a selection of his poetry.   Visit www.poetry-patrickosada.co.uk

Two Poems - Castaway - Switch

Poem completed 1^st May 2020

CASTAWAY

Our Captain says it’s for the best —

left here and safe, but on my own —

they leave to carry on the fight

against a daunting, unseen foe.

Marooned, while life goes on elsewhere,

I have this island — do not share

the quiet air, the song of birds —

all I survey is for myself.

And as I hope for fresh supplies —

my only contact with the world —

I look out from my vantage point

across green seas to distant shores

where there is other island life

and lonely people making do,

surviving in their solitude

when days can feel like life unspent.

The clouds make mountains in the sky —

I wonder, will there soon be rain?

I wish that it was long ago

and I could reach you once again.          

Poem completed 20th May 2020

SWITCH

The certainty of our uncertainties :

that daily rush to work or kids to school,

with trains delayed and traffic jam’s misrule;

such deadlines, tiredness — stress guaranteed…

Like hamsters in our wheels from dawn to dark,

no time to contemplate the ‘how’ or ‘when’

as work demanded everything back then —

breaking the day, a coffee’s my bookmark.

Next all ceased! That was then, here’s the new now :

each day the birds — no traffic noise — just song;

time to relax and learn to slow somehow,

accept that jobless days may not be wrong —

whilst something’s in the air we must allow

that life’s no longer ours to live head-on…