I’m in London right now visiting my daughter Amy. I read here that John Lennon’s original draft of his A day in the life recently went at auction for £810 000 & that took me back to the first time I heard that masterpiece when I was an innocent boy of 15. Years later it inspired this (less lucrative) poem:

A day in the life

You imagine the solidity of
bricks      mortar      suburbs.
The transience of music & memory.
rehearsing the school musical
in the community Hall in Camden
At the cast party the camaraderie
of shared experience.
When you could have a wild time
without booze or drugs wearing the new pinstriped flairs
And the whole night playing
that one new record over and over
called Sergeant Peppers.
Every track a fresh view of
the world.
Thirty five years on taking a shortcut
you find yourself in the same street.
Everywhere beige courtyard homes.
The music and memories more
concrete with time

The Hall, gone.

(© rob walker 2006 from micromacro)

Thanks to The Group literary arts magazine for putting up our (Ben & my) bibliophobia in the latest online edition. We join the esteemed company of Larry Buttrose, Sue Bond, Nike Bourke, Blazenka Brysha, BM Buttrose, Sam Cooney, Jack Feldstein, Matt Hetherington, Belinda Jeffrey, Kavita Jindal, Adair Jones, Mark Kovan, Angela Meyer, Mark Mordue and Billy Marshall Stoneking

(Image by OverTheMoon)

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