Paul Tristram- Three Poems

I’m Not Afraid Of Repercussions…I’m Scared Of Stagnation

“Why are you so reckless?”
she asked from the fortified window
of her cold and lonely, self-absorbed world.
“Why are you not?”
I responded and walked away
not waiting for a reply
for even she herself did not yet know that answer.

© Paul Tristram 2014



A Signal Post A-Pointing

I remember walking up a road in Tonna
well past midnight in my early twenties,
drinking a flagon of Merrydown cider,
punching passing bus stops and screaming
up at the Heaven’s in confusion and anger.
When from over the trees to my left
a Barn Owl half-circled across the road
and landed- as white as a spectre
and as silent as a grave- upon the next
streetlight coming up in front of me.
I just stopped in my tracks, spellbound,
it remained perched there looking at me
for a good half a minute or so
and then flew off again and that was that.
I stopped being so angry and formulated a plan
involving travel and self imposed exile.
A couple of months later I was on a train
leaving the country with £2:50 in my pocket
and a carrier bag with one change of clothes.
Sometimes in life you can end up in a rut
and not be able to see the woods for the trees.
It is times like these that I take a look around
for a signal post to appear from the Universe
then quickly get out of that frustrating forest.


© Paul Tristram 2014



You Need To Stop Analysing It…Or It’ll Go Off, Mun!

You cannot fix the past,
nor make it any better
for it’s gone!
They said what they said
and they did what they did,
whether it makes any sense or not
is irrelevant.
You cannot change people,
they are what they are,
they are still witch-burning each other
constantly, in this civilized modern day.
Enjoy quality time with the few good ones
and stay away from the bad ones
and when one turns sour
don’t waste your energy arguing
for it is obviously time
to close that door and walk away.
Learn from your mistakes
(That’s what they are for!)
and keep moving forward.
The past is merely an echo
which belongs behind you
while your smile is showing you
the right way to go.
Forgive yourself, forget about them,
good riddance, they’re gone now.
And by damn just look at you shining
all the more wiser and stronger for it.


© Paul Tristram 2014



Paul Tristram is a Welsh writer who has poems, short stories, sketches and photography published in many publications around the world, he yearns to tattoo porcelain bridesmaids instead of digging empty graves for innocence at midnight, this too may pass, yet.

You can read his poems and stories here! http://paultristram.blogspot.co.uk/