Wouldn’t it be great if the entries on this blog reached out and touched people who haven’t previously come across the poems that were written by Aidan Smith. Or perhaps were read by those who knew him but didn’t know he wrote poetry.
Please feel free to forward the weekly posts to people you know and encourage them to subscribe.
The more we can get reading these pages the better.
Thanks
Helier
Will you be a drummer boy
When you’re big and handsome,
Will you play the fife and drum
As you march along?
Will you wear a soldier’s coat
When you’re big and handsome,
Scarlet jacket, buttons gold,
As you march along?
Will you whistle soldiers’ songs
When you’re big and handsome,
Will you fashion manhood’s dreams
As you march along?
May you tread the ways of peace
When you’re big and handsome,
Nothing harm and no one wrong
As you march along.
Far from you the threat of war
When you’re big and handsome,
A drummer boy and nothing more
As you march along.
June 1980
I have pulled away from the shores of faith
And made for the open sea,
With the wind of reason cold in my sails
But no sirens calling me.
I have left behind the dogmas of youth
With their golden certainties.
No more for me at each end of the day
The comforting liturgies.
In the misty regions of un-belief
Where master and boat are one,
Without sextant, compass, landmark or stars
I must navigate alone.
But an aching grows in the heart of me
And a sadness fills my mind
At the thought of promises shared no more
And traditions left behind.
I’ll travel no more the Emmaus road
Nor see in faith’s cloudless light
A saviour revealed by the breaking of bread
In an inn at the fall of night.
In my questing to find the Tree of Life
Across the uncharted sea,
Perhaps I will find, when journeying’s done,
That its roots are anchored in me.
1988
I have a homing instinct for the stars 
You must be logged in to post a comment.