
Anti-Social Media

Like unmined diamonds
Their feelings lay buried.
Their dazzling beauty, concealed.
Suppressed but perfectly preserved.
Unchartered, undisturbed.
Unexplored.
And it would take an explosion
To erupt their true exquisiteness,
The enchantment of these jewels
Would be unsurpassed, unparalleled;
But neither held the catalyst.
Neither would light the touch paper.
So there the rough diamonds lay.
Pure and magnificent.
Unhandled by human touch.
Unscrutinised, they held their enduring beauty.
Unfathomable enigma.
For all eternity.
Copyright © Sophie Harrington
A poem from an old teenage years notebook.
Cherish every opportunity
And tell them how you feel
Regrets are such bitter torment
Punishment if you don’t make
Each chance count.
Don’t let another day go by
Impermanency demands you live
Every day as if it’s your last.
Mortality is our reality.
Copyright © Sophie Harrington (2017)
Need to savour life? Also read Slow Down.
Time goes by too quickly
If you believe
You cannot
Enjoy the little things
You realise you
Get older
Can’t ever imagine you’ll
Last forever
You believe you must
Make the most of it
Frequently
Feels like a month
Passing one day
Often think
You must
Rush
You must not
Find time to play
Always
Busy
Making sure you are
Enjoying every second
For the moment
You live easily
To fill a day
For you
It seems like an age
Since you are a child
(Now read from the bottom up)
Copyright © Sophie Harrington (2016)
Like this poem? Try Slow Down
I originally posted Slow Down in 2015
No amount of scrubbing
Will clean these grubby nails.
These small hands keep scrabbling
At rocks, all kinds of shale.
Tiny digits seeking out
Any kind of critter.
Lifting up the stones to scout
Before they reconsider.
They scatter as light invades
Their community disturbed.
Futile efforts to barricade
Are nearly always curbed.
He deftly scoops the woodlice
As they start to flee.
Tweezer fingers so precise
When he wants them to be.
If he could handle a pencil
With such dexterity
There wouldn’t be the immense hill
He seeks for scholastic clarity.
If this could be his classroom
How happy he would be.
We count the flowers in bloom
And use chalk rocks for literacy.
Your gentle love of nature
And wonder at the earth
Makes you my personal teacher
And reminds me of all it’s worth.
So let’s explore the garden,
And play amongst the leaves,
Because as you grow, you’ll harden
To all a five-year-old perceives.
Copyright © Sophie Harrington (2016)
Try Sophie Harrington poems for parents? – Read Slow Down or Little Boys or Little Girls
Slow down, it’s not too late
Leave the dishes, they can wait
He’s asking you if you want to play
Don’t say no and turn away.
I must cook your tea now little one
I have to finish cleaning now I have begun.
He walks away, you carry on
He’ll soon stop asking, he’ll soon be grown.
He pulls your trousers and says please play
But you’re trying to put his things away
I can’t right now, my precious one
Just wait a while and I will be done.
But later comes and it’s time for tea
Bath time next and bed you see
You must learn that he won’t stay
This little for long and want you to play.
Put down the saucepan and run outside
You can count while he tries to hide.
He’ll remember this and so will you
These precious moments are oh, so few.
Copyright © Sophie Harrington (2015)
More of my poems for parents: Back to School and Birth of a Naturalist
My poem was also published on Netmums website http://www.netmums.com/children/slow-down-a-poem-for-parents
It had a great reaction on Netmums’ Facebook page, with almost 1,400 likes and 545 shares on that site alone!
Green buds of hope unfurled from seasoned branches in the radiant glare.
Their tender fingers opening with naive certainty,
Oblivious the clear, cloudless sky would bring a view of sparkling infinity in hours.
The insulating security blanket had rolled back to reveal
The infant leaves’ first glimpse of the starry night sky.
A marvel of hypnotic celestial clarity
And the gnawing bite of bitter frost.
Sophie Harrington 2018
In a world of distractions
Of virtual interactions
It’s easy to squander the now.
To fret of the future
Of how life will treat you
Wastes the precious now.
Reliving past blunders
Distracts today’s wonders
And takes the focus off now.
So savour the present
Ignore petty discontent
Live in the moment – now.
Copyright © Sophie Harrington
Haiku seems pointless
You’re just getting to the point
When it comes to an…
Sentimentality
Keeps messing with my head,
It takes a pleasing moment
And makes it magnificent instead.
Nostalgia paints it golden
Makes it altogether pure:
A rose-tinted yearning
Is what I wistfully endure.
I long for a future
Where I’m not dissatisfied.
I want to find a place
Dreams and reality can collide.
Copyright © Sophie Harrington (2017)
I saw the world in black and white
And everything seemed clear
Assured of what was right and wrong
Of all that was loved and dear.
But as I grew, the grey seeped in
And with it my uncertainty.
I saw that decisions made
Were not fuelled by perversity.
Life is much too complicated
To always get things right.
You can’t judge someone’s choices
Unless you truly know their plight.
To utterly understand decisions
To see the world’s vast views
You have to do the impossible:
You’d have to walk in their shoes.
Copyright © Sophie Harrington (2017)
Bombing down the leafy snicket
Clinging to my brother’s back.
He was late back from cricket
Now he’s cycling like a maniac.
Mum asked him to take me
To the Brownie hut.
He quickly gulped down tea
And a jammy doughnut.
I’m balanced on the BMX stunt pegs
He saved up for his back wheels.
My dress bunched between my legs
So it won’t catch sending me head over heels.
The sun is winking through the trees
As we zoom down the alley.
I can feel the spring breeze
While he pedals madly.
My calves keep catching on the tyre
But I don’t make a noise.
Even though it feels like fire
I want to be one of the boys.
I won’t be a cry-baby
I ignore the no cycling sign.
As we whizz past a lady
I’m on cloud nine.
I love having a big brother
Who can do this.
He’s not like any other
And I’m his little sis.
Copyright © Sophie Harrington (2017)