Malcolm Whitby's Blog

A day before
A night before
Preparation, ingredients ready with family’s rapport
Packed roads, traffic redirected, the space is no more

Walking around with cautioned step
But exploring the various street in depth
Buying food, with drinks to intercept
Music in the air, the day into the night intersect

Night fall and the big market over take the streets
still lively and alive while others still in bed under the sheet
Counting Zs waiting for the morning to play its silver bell awakening you from your sleep
Morning greetings, the town quiet, no sound, peace
Everybody still asleep?
Knocked out from the earlier meet

It’s Christmas, the 25th finally, it’s here
You made it to another in the divine care
Cherish these moments with family and friends in prayer
Love to you, peace to you, prosperity to you and let next year brings no despair.

“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”

Hamilton Wright Mabie

An untapped force
Waiting to be unleashed
, potential revealed
Stored up greatness released
Budding flower, a young fruit blooms
Success looms
You only need to move, you only need to improve
Shine, you rising sun, illuminating requited passion
“Don’t stop until you are done”
Competition with no one
Only yourself to outrun
Don’t be discourage, there is so much you can be
You only need to believe
Giving spark to the young making it energetic
On the way you will meet kinetic
It’s potential all grown up
That’s just the beginning, you are now warmth up
Don’t ever give up

“Do not let the memories of your past limit the potential of your future. There are no limits to what you can achieve on your journey through life, except in your mind.”

Roy T. Bennett,  The Light in the Heart

Reforged an old poem I did way way back with the same name: “Potential“.

Reread it and thought it needed a bit of refreshing, a renewal, especially since I am adding it to the new collection ‘Thrice Unspoken’. I may do more reforging in the future…probably. Anyways thank you for dropping by, I really appreciate it.

You are a flower waiting to bloom
potential within, filling your waiting room
To see the world change its doom
to influence and to groom

A flower to be watered
A flower to be taken care of and to be nurtured
Your passion, your love, your energy, to the world asserted
A light that indicates hope determined
A presence that will always be enough

Always remember you are enough
Show the world that your inner strength is no bluff
Because God within you looms;

You are a flower waiting to bloom.

“Roses do not bloom hurriedly; for beauty, like any masterpiece, takes time to blossom.” 

Matshona Dhliwayo

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It’s hard to fight but easier to give up
when nothing works your heart locks up
sealing your emotions, sadness erupts

Wondering where did you go wrong
thinking everything was going strong
forgetting nothing is perfect, nothing is life long

How true? thoughts of the unreal future
fabricated to welcome the negative intruder
the heart unprotected, susceptible to this looter
waging war of emotional degradation
feeding misinformation

Eating away at your ability to be head strong
if not shielded by positive words from your self song
Friends, families sings along
and you are not lost but you belong

Who will hear? who will be there?
Will they see you or only the shadow with the real you blurred
“Hey!! are you ok?” remember to breathe when everything becomes disturbed

Step back, let those feelings be slowly retired.

“No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.”

—Virginia Woolf

The heart beats in tune
Synchronized, a melodic symphony
Too smooth for the enemy
Who are they? Trying to get into me
The devil’s henchmen, playing their melody
The soul tempted to dance
Wanting to waltz into the chaotic expanse

How do I free myself from these attack
I ask, perhaps, not to let my mind collapse
I listen to beats and I write these deeds
It’s a story, ballad of the mind on repeat
Save me please, as I sink in the void, the abyss eats

Nourished emptiness, digested mindfulness
Now its stomach is filled with philosophical awareness
Am I lost? Maybe I am on another journey to find deep epiphany
Hoping to hear reality’s song, jumping starting my heart’s symphony
Revealing life’s poetic euphony

“There is always music in life. You just need to have the heart to hear it.”

Avijeet Das

Episode 25 – War

A battle we know not of

Darkness hidden within the light
Lurking to swallow the worlds delight
Why? Out of spite?
To what end do they benight?
To overtake the day with night
Removing the noble knights

Sadness, hurt, depression dying earth
Soul lost, potential life gone, parents dying of hurt
Never to return, lost, no gone, returned to dirt

How do you feel? Remorse? Or…
A war, on going, bloodshed, what for?
What ever happen to peace? Does she exist?
Locked up like hope, Pandora lurks a drift

Left unchecked, children, teens will get devour
Adults even, middle age and elders in fear cowers

There is a war we know not of
Rumours? Leaving it up to you to brush-off
Or maybe to think about

To understand that a time to fight might be coming.

“God is the same everywhere.”

― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Thrice Unspoken 2023

Chapter 1 sneak Peak

Today we say goodbye to our old home in White house, Ewarton, St. Catherine. The memories here were precious, leaving behind friends and to think that I have finally gotten close to them, I was the quiet one, after all; it’s still a bit surprising that even I made any friends these pass years, both here and in high school, respect to my coolness everyone keep saying I possess, that must be it. Now that we are getting older, remembering there was much we wanted to accomplish, who knows if we will even cross path…wait, why am I behaving like I won’t ever see them again? There is always university or get together…probably, maybe. I must be anxious; well this change was sudden, and I didn’t have much choice in the matter.

It sucks, it really sucks that I am really leaving, for a new life? a new adventure? Who I am kidding I am not ready to start this cycle a new, making friends, it was hard enough the first time, taking into account my personality but it can’t be helped, to accommodate my father, Joseph French, new job and it facilitates an easier traveling route. I have been to the area a couple times, memory is a bit hazy since I was little when we visited and it was where pops grew up as a kid, a little town called Linstead. As the moving truck was loaded and everything was out, it was time to head out; as the vehicles left the drive way, one last look at the house, “I hope that who lives here next takes good care of you” Matthew now lost in thoughts while hoping that his new life would be smooth sailing but little did he know that a journey of change was being written.

***

East Avenue, Linstead, the town we are moving to, remembered visiting here when I was younger, to see Grandma, every now and again. From what I can remember, kids my age, 12 years of age and older were in the streets throughout the day, either up to no good, playing some kind of sports, football, cricket, as well as the occasional battle of the marbles, and that’s a battle for keeps, playing such a game means risking losing all the marbles you have so diligently collected. Yes, I too did part take in such festive when I had the chance and I have lost a number marbles too much to count while gaining some in return…I wonder how much have changed since then? Especially grandma, will she still attempt to fatten us, “A great man, eats his food leaving none behind, becoming strong for his family” she would say, I smiled without realizing by the thought of it.

“what are you smiling about?” Malina asked looking creeped out,

“Nothing, just a thought” I replied.

“Probably something perverted…” she mumbled returning attention to her phone.

“No, it wasn’t…” I replied feeling a bit annoyed by the thought, but she ignored. Malina French, my younger sister two years younger than I am and still in high school, give her two more years and she will be out. Malina will always be in her phone texting or post her many selfies she had taken. If we get along? Sometimes, other times we are at each other’s neck, the one that keep us in check is our older sister, Rosalia, it is said that she is of the more levelheaded one among us but I see different, acting as such because everyone expects it, but I do know she do genuinely want us to get on along. She is not here with us for the move, she recently got married to a business owner, *Carol Joseph*, I didn’t remember the details, I’ll ask again when they are back from their honeymoon.

We were now in Linstead, it is 7:00am, we had decided to leave out a little early to give us a more time to unpack as much as we can for the day. People were up and about already, waiting at the bank to beat the early lines, taxi and bus operators were trying to get their morning load, battling each other to persuade the annoyed traveler who is now see themselves as a victim of *public transportation harassment*. I chuckled at the show as we passed by, “I have forgotten this is what this town was like throughout the day…” I thought to myself. I looked in direction of Malina, she was still looking into her phone but now with the headphones in, she’s missing such a spectacle, pity. It was indeed a busy morning, and people watching at this time can sometimes be refreshing. I felt urge to write as we moved on from the area, I took a small pad, my pen and started scribbling what was in my mind, ended up becoming a poem, titled it ‘a day in our life, chapter none’. It’s surprises me that I didn’t wrote this one in my own company, maybe I am changing, probably. I haven’t shared any of my writings with anyone, especially my friends from White house, don’t think they know I do write ever now and again. I carry a small book everywhere I go just to scribble something when I get a chance or feel inspired to, you would think that I would be using my phone or tablet to do my writings, right? Nah I feel writing in a book feels more natural to me, it lets me flesh out the words in my head a lot easier. Life, the days I live is always giving something to write about, as well as my mind is a clutter of thoughts and wonder. It’s my second way of escaping the overwhelming reality, with listening to music being the first; It’s my escape.

Blurb

A new town a new beginning as Matthew French and his family moves from their old home in hopes of starting a new journey. Matthew, a reserved persona with a talent for the arts, copes with the rapid changes of making new friends, finding himself, the struggles of stepping out of his comfort zone, self-acceptance while managing to keep his parents pleased. He met his neighbour, different from anyone he has met before; could she be the key in helping him through these nerve-racking changes? or could he be the help she needs to spread her wings?
Come join these two on their life journey of discovering their true calling, possible romance and their everyday interaction with their school life and more. The story begins!
Welcome to the Ballad of the Mind
Coming Soon!

Author’s p.s

Something different from the normal poetry, sneak peak on a light novel I am occasionally working on titled Ballad of the Mind, genre: Romance, Music, Slice of Life, these cover the major ones, I hope. Let say it will mirror image of my life up now mixed in it or at least most of it will have experience of my life in it, think of it as an alternate universe to my reality. There is no set deadline yet for when this will be completed and be ready to be released; I am going to wait to I am near to finishing the first write through of the whole book before deciding until then please enjoy the a little sneak peak.

Thank you again for dropping by.

A tug of war with the trees
The wind dances to and fro with ease
The limbs stood no chance
As the harbinger of rain sounds the alarm in advance
A Sea of gray comes marching pass
As the sky rumbles shaking our glass

A shower came rushing in
Breaking it’s gate that no longer can hold it in
To wash the earth of it’s heat therein
Now it’s cool, now it’s calm, giving a feel of relaxing
Tranquil energy flows, sleep steps in
Or do I read and let the time pass, listening
To the sound of the rain on the roof
Days like these are meant to be aloof

Now the sky is clear and wide awake
the gray is gone, colour escape
Vibrant and bright again, Sun peaks through
Now evening comes and birds sing their tune
The rain is no more but its presence left its dew.

“I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.”

– Mark Haddon.

Where love is involved, I’ll be patient
where the heart yearns, I’ll wait for what is meant

To be, will be
Whether it is guarantee

That’s up to God decree

With my emotions on display
my heart waits to create

With love in wait

Waiting to be nurtured
Seed of emotion captured

Will she accept the flower that blooms within?
only time will tell,
until then I lay in dandelions, from my heart there in

As love in wait chimes in.

Not a daisy goes by where I don’t think about you.

Unknown

What was I thinking? My thoughts went missing

That time I almost pushed her away, friendship dismissing
Immaturity came visiting

I let him in and he went fishing

For negative energy to release unforgiving

What was I thinking?

Neglected her emotions, ignored her feelings

“Didn’t you care?”

Don’t mess it up because of fear

Don’t destroy it because of internal affair
A rarity of a kind soul, one that was there
of no obligation she volunteered

With feelings and kindness

Walking slowly forward with her trials and sadness

How could I? what was I thinking? that’s madness

As I pray for your forgiveness

I was, I am sorry for my foolish foolish rashness

“Not admitting a mistake is a bigger mistake.”

Robert Half