methinks you have always been grounded Jude,while thinking ahead,that's why you inspire so many with your poetry!Bravo!

Being choosy gets us the best of all worlds...I really like this poetry because hidden in the silver-lined clouds, there is clarity here...youth carried us here to this place where so many of us have put our dreams into a clear face, unblemished free of life's scarring acne...I think this says so much about looking at our beautiful faces in the mirror and liking what we see reflecting back, Jude...introspective, healing, and a rite of passage...

s

Well done ..glad I stopped by..take care OK...Hugss

Just make sure you are when lightning strikes. Seriously, good retospective.

Ron

"Who you are is where you were when" Jude. The philosophy of one man, professor Morris Massey. Who avers with strong convincing evidence, that we are all made people emotionally by the age of eight. Unless we are exposed to some significant emotional event subsequent to that age. The death of a parent, a war, etc. May peace and love be always with you my friend. Jon Michael

Looks like you've been in my brain. Always a joy to read your poetry.

This reminds me of the work I did on the maintenance of a sense of self and identity when I was studying dementia (!!!!!!!! :)) I read that time is like an arrow, connecting our past with our future and we can only stand strong in our "now" if we have a firm grasp of both: where we believe we have come from establishes who we are in the present and the direction we will choose to head in the future. Neil Young's "Old Man", written when he was apparently "24", still holds good today and his Heart of Gold and Hurricane still manage to root me with a very strong notion of where I've been and where I'm moving on to.



Hand-picked, stone-washed pebbles of memory sit loose in your pocket like Tootles' Lost Boy Marbles, Kartero! The present with its uncanny yet not wholly surprising and somehow quite familiar "unforeseen" is like Peter Pan's shadow, a promise of the Neverland that forever exists just beyond our peripheral vision and evidenced by the accumulating dream tokens littering the avenues and city streets around you...



And Amber's right: it WAS 5 o'clock in the UK when you posted this, nigh on! Time for a Bacardi in Margarita, maybe, but right now, BST, it's gotta be Pimms! Let's all raise a glass - if our ageing pulse can stand it! :)) KoKtail Kate xx

Jude, I like this for so many reasons...it's brief and says so much...and although we're often told to live in the "here and now," I think the future and our dreams are meant to live and be alive. As for the past...it's a nice place to visit occasionally...but staying there takes us no where. I especially like these lines, " i look forward to viewing unblemished horizons scanning far-off waves and distant islands." This is a "keeper," Jude...it goes into my library.

Jude, I love the clarity in this piece. Just like those first two lines that play with the concepts of memory and choice.

Axilea

"...for a minute i thought this was about drugs ;)"

fortunately I was as you were, right...or was it wrong...damn memory...fading...e

"i look forward to viewing unblemished horizons
scanning far-off waves and distant islands"

Keep your dreams alive Jude. Look forward and wait for the surprises yet in store.

Love,
Marcia

I like how you cherry pick the concepts here, Jude, keeping the poem taut and succinct...the impact heightened...selective memory 'choosy' and feeling in more than one way.

John

Ah, it's only all an illusion anyway Jude, Blessings! Jasmin Horst

Sometimes when I close my eyes I can "feel" time flowing past my face like a breeze. Very nicely created and expressed, Jude. Love and peace to you,

Regis

Are our horizons ever unblemished? I'd like to make them that way; but I usually find that "life's impending display" is indeed a cloud here and there, creeping on that horizon, waving a menacing finger. Maybe that's what the title suggests to me. Liquid dreams "grounded" in reality. Bring sunscreen and an umbrella just in case.

Jude,
Time is indeed fleeting by. We must capture those moments that mean so much and live life with gusto. Living in the past only stagnates our growth. (this I know that you know) Your energy is more hopeful and positive in this poem..I am so glad to see you back. You stayed away too long!..I missed your poetry.
Sometime soon, that distant island will be a reality and then there will be no time to have stone washed memories to think of.

Remember it's always 5 o'clock somewhere! Margauritta time...

Peace, light and love,
Amber

Good choices of words to catch that feeling of time fleeing by. ..lvoe "stone wash of memory."

yea though we walk through the valley...it is too bad we don't start out in youth with the knowledge we gather along the way...good one Jude...
fee

i know what you mean, well stated!

At 51, I am thinking these same things. Well written. x