An evening in

An occasional poem

Photo by Zane Persaud on Unsplash

I don’t recall what the occasion was over 30 years ago, but Dani had obviously set out to make a special evening of it. I can’t remember what the sad ‘phone call was, either. The poem speaks of a Friday night and the date at the bottom when I started it is a Friday – so I must have been inspired to put keyboard to inkjet almost immediately.

We’d have been living in an end-of-terrace house, and our first Little Man would have been sleeping upstairs. We didn’t have a TV back then, and Saturday evenings were usually spent on the lounge floor surrounded by reference books – dictionary, thesaurus, books of quotations – learning to do The Times cryptic crossword. But that was Saturday: what was Friday all about? I can’t remember!

Dani’s the romantic in our marriage. I probably ruined it by beetling off to write about it. And now, I’ve dusted it off to ruin the moment once again…

	For all you made of Friday night;
	For steak and salad, candlelight;
	For every plan that slotted right
		Into its place;
	For shadows dancing on the wall;
	For creativity to haul
	The courses round a sad phone call
		With gentle grace;

	For coffee in a quiet room;
	For absent mates and pals, with whom
	The silence would have died, the gloom
		Have dimmed the fire;
	For something sparkling in your eye,
	Unspoken something, even I
	Could sense and answer by and by;
		For that attire;

	For steady satisfaction, grown
	In time to steady pleasure (prone
	To disappear if sought alone);
		For every time
	There’s evidence you’re not a prude
	(From one who was and may be, who’d
	The chance to try and then eschewed
		The daring rhyme);

	(Your toleration shown since then
	Outdoes my efforts even when
	I offer ink-dots, though a pen
		Would better do.)
	For ardour even I can trace:
	That grinning, winning, lovely face
	Which brightens up your pillow case
		Thank you.  Thank you.

More of my poetry

The restless week (8 March 2025)

The warring week (8 April 2025)

The angel who didn’t really care (18 April 2025)

Goldilocks and the 3 learning outcomes (28 April 2025)

Floods and Rainbows (9 June 2025)

A cautionary tale for those sitting exams (23 June 2025)

It’s less intense in tents, or is it? (7 July 2025)

Our bodies sown into eternity (28 July 2025)

Tin Soldier (8 September 2025)