This poem was commissioned to write by Artist Carolyn Blake about one of the paintings in her book The Unchanging Traveller published in March 2022
Motionless pensively alone on the platform
My young life returns lucidly to me
From the small window where I once lived yet transformed
Perfectly bridges my past to the present once again to see
As vividly as incandescent colours suspended in a rainbow
Stretched over and through the rain soaked clouds
Burst and flash across my mind's eye they ebb and flow
Yet those far far distant experiences as a lonely child
Took flight intangibly alighting aboard the trains
Watched from the window overlooking the rails beside
Under which my bed did lie sometimes my playing waned
I was drawn and stretched up to watch mesmerizingly beguiled
Eyes wide with wondrous curiosity sustained
Of rolling carriages balanced on noisy iron wheels filed
Shrouded in trails of coal dust and scalding steam untamed
Silhouettes of passengers yet only a glimpse barely reconciled
The night trains that whistled and awakened me
From either a nightmare or a faded dream
Sleepy still my eyes trailed dark ominous shadows of trains
Snaking across my bedroom ceiling as if somehow dangerously derailed
Deep into the night they trundled on and on
The sound echoed and echoed then into silence tailed
I tried to imagine the carriage's destinations
So longing to discover and unearth
Seaside mountains undulating vales a strong fixation
Foreign countries of the world I wanted to traverse
Yet they were kept within my inner landscapes
Until I had grown and fled the parental nest from birth
I am glad those old trains set me upon my trails
I have seen and been challenged by all of life yet still prevail
Now I have been drawn back to Leamington's tales
Where the joys of home never decline to set sail
For reflection introspection a quieter time
Where my heart and soul can be peaceful
Lying between those silver lines secrets lain silently
To be forever held my life's history permanently assigned
Copyright Natasha Anne Kelleher All rights Reserved October 2021
Image Friends of Leamington Spa = No Copyright Infrin
gement Intended