Photograph: [Public Domain] WikiArt
Beyond poetry
“Words can move any mountain.”
Dean Fraser has been a full-time poet since 2014. He is the resident poet on local TV channel, That’s Lancashire, and also presents the radio show Beyond Poetry, which is syndicated to community radio stations across the UK and heard by over a quarter of a million listeners each week. He regularly tours the UK, visiting libraries, galleries and other relevant venues to perform live. His poetry is also contained within the National Poetry Library archive.
In this week’s guest post for The Culturium, the Quantum Poet offers us an insight into the truths he has discovered in daily living and the integrity he has intuited on his journey through human existence: “All my poetic life, I have dreamt of creating a beautiful poetry collection encompassing all that I love.”
To the Mountain to Freedom
She had journeyed far from the valley below
Through many trials compelled to undergo
Ascent the hardest choice and yet no choice
Listening as she had to her own inner voice
Her focus, her life spent climbing upwards
Often two steps forward, one backwards
Determinedly she continued her endless quest
Grateful to know the mountain, deeply blessed
Looking back she sees obstacles now long gone
She knew they would pass if she only pushed on
Trials and tribulations tested if she’s faint hearted
Immeasurable distance from where she started
Her ascent to the summit, her own path taken
One dimensional existence long since forsaken
And yet the path now also seems to be gone
She pondered with an open mind thereupon
Panic and worry having long since been banished
Looking back every obstacle has now also vanished
Considering her journey in her own mind’s eye
Dawning realization hit her, now she could FLY!
—Dean Fraser, The Mind, Body and Soul Poems
(On the Threshold of Eternity).
Photograph: [Public Domain] WikiArt
SO MANY WORDS the power of words …
Words
Words
Words
So many words
So many words
So many words
Words of threat
Words of bullying
Words of thoughtlessness
Words can crush any potential
Words
Words
Words
So many words
So many words
So many words
Words of encouragement
Words of support
Words to lend a loving hand
Words can move any mountain
—Dean Fraser, The Mind, Body and Soul Poems
Photograph: [Public Domain] WikiArt
Seasons of Reasons
The whole forest awakens into Spring
Buds and leaves freshly formed on trees
Bluebells carpet the ground
Soon, very soon all life reborn
In anticipation of Summer
Summer sun a forest resplendent
Harmonic balance of existence
Birds share their songs generously
Warmth filters through canopies of branches
And it seems so long ‘til Autumn
Autumn brings a gentle winding down
Scenery thrills in red, gold and green
A thousand scents vie for attention
Squirrels preparing as a warning
Soon it will be upon us, Winter
Winter and a forest turned white with frost
Mist drifts eerily between the trees
Thinking back through time it seems so close
Those fresh Spring days, halcyon Summer sun
The preparing for sleep time of Autumn
We start out in our Spring, our leaves unfurling
Maturity comes and we reach our Summer
Cease growing and our Autumn arrives
Winter brings an opportunity to re-thing, change
Seek the path of growth—experience eternal Spring …
—Dean Fraser, The Mind, Body and Soul Poems
Photograph: [Public Domain] WikiArt
The Jacket
Her most treasured possession
Fraying
Veritably threadbare
Once brown
Now no longer
Original colour faded out
Existing only in memory
As he does now
Grandpops
Her adored Grandpops
Three years since he passed away
His jacket
The one he wore come rain or shine
Became hers
Only hers
And the emotions
Which came with it
She wore it every day
His jacket
Come rain or shine
He somehow feeling closer
Protecting her even now
As he once had
What now?
As the jacket
His jacket
Borrowed from him
On permanent loan
Now worn by her
Gently wears out
She cries
Tears of despair
What now?
No amount of cleaning
Of repairing
Patching up
Can save it
Things wear out
Memories don’t
What now?
A suggestion arrives from afar
Grandpops lives in you
In those treasured times
His words of love
Of humour
His jacket
Your jacket
The symbol
Of all he was
Find an exact replica
Have one made if needs be
Like when it was new
When Grandpops wore it the first time
It’s the remembrance
Deep inside
Your new jacket
Worn
In honour of his jacket
It will still hold the memories
Every single one of them
New jacket
Same old warmth
So she did
And it does
Comforts her
This new jacket
Exactly like before
Worn with love
What of Grandpops old jacket?
Framed, it hangs in her den
She smiles up at it
And dances a happy dance
Just as she did with Grandpops
So many times
Wearing her
His jacket
—Dean Fraser, Beyond Poetry
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Photograph: [Public Domain] WikiArt
Never Meet Your Heroes
Melting clocks
The memory persists
A moment of genius
Pure sublime
Symbolism
And yet so much more
Inspired so many childish artistic endeavours
My tentative ventures into art
Paint
Immortalized in my paint
Still the memory persists
Drawing me in
To see
Needing to see
Reach out into the painting
What was the artist feeling?
Could I feel it too?
Compelled to witness first hand
And I did
Tiny in proportion
This giant of influence
In the gallery
Having it to myself
Quiet time of the day
Stood
Studying
Stunned
And I felt
Well
Less impressed now
Oddly considerably less impressed
—Dean Fraser, Beyond Poetry
In 2006, I travelled to The Museum of Modern Art in New York to fulfil a childhood dream to see Salvador Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory and found myself slightly underwhelmed, although I did love discovering Vincent van Gogh—he hadn’t been lost, I just never really noticed his work before!
