Lincoln Lockdown Made Me Do It

By StealthWorks

We are COVID veterans together.

We have felt the suspension of plans and certainties, apprehension for our own health and for those dear to us, separation from family and friends.

These poems came about in the empty space, the clear table that COVID left in its wake. The palate cleansed allowed thoughts to percolate and mature; sights ‘seen’ frequently over many years were seen as if for the first time, the mystery and majesty of sunlight both in summer and winter, early and late.

When we have everything, we can never have enough but when we have less we can appreciate the gifts that surround us, the blessing of presence. Feeling separated, these were an attempt to connect with friends, family, myself.

Inside you'll find musings and bemusings on life after death, life before death, depression, dogs, cats, the wonderful world of nature around us, the mysterious world within us, politics, palmistry, children. Speaking of nature, she never got the memo. She just carried on. As should we.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781398493926

StealthWorks

Peter Jackson was raised in Ireland and studied Natural Sciences at Trinity College Dublin. In his late teens/early 20s, he hitchhiked extensively around Europe and to/from India. He was briefly a microbiologist before moving to England to join the Royal Air Force as a navigator flying mostly on Victors (air to air refuelling) and Sentry aircraft (the radar/eye in the sky), involved in several of the recent conflicts. He married Helen Blake in 1973 and is the proud father of Owen, Orla and Niamh. He lives in Lincoln and Javea, Spain.

Book preview

Lincoln Lockdown

Made Me Do It

StealthWorks

Austin Macauley Publishers

Lincoln Lockdown Made Me Do It

About the Author

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Foreword

1. What Has COVID Ever Done for Us ?

2. Nature

3. COVID-19

4. A Sadness

5. On A Lighter Note

6. If I Was a Tree ...

7. The Sentinel

8. The Existential Angst of Thomas the Tree

9. Well there you have it !

10. For Johnny Fincham Palmist & Wise Man of The East (Norfolk)

11. The Last Leaf

12. T(ea) is for Tyrant

13. An Incomplete Poem

14. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

15. Do Trees Cry …?

16. Tea For Me

17. Feeling Blah

18. Post Brexit

19. How To Read a Poem

20. 2021 ... What Kept You?

21. Murphy Who Lives at No 12

22. Life Without a Tail

23. Sleep

24. A Haiku (Get You !)

25. Stand Tall

26. Life After Death ?

27. God Speaking, A Poem for The Faint-Hearted

28. Musing Murphologically, A Ditty of No Consequence

29. If One is a Greyhound, Why Try to Look Like a Pekinese ?

30. Last Wednesday

31. More Than We Deserve

32. Early February ...

33. A Cat Never Blinks First ...

34. A Kind of Magic

35. Exponential

36. The Black Spot (Treasure Island)

37. An Irish Airman Forsees His Birthday

38. Fanfare !!!

39. Bracebridge Quarantine Blues

40. How Long Have We Got ?

41. The Weight of Words

42 Confessional

43. The Constant Gardener

44. Waking

45. Recent History

46. Blank Page

47. An Irish Airman Foresees the Coming of Autumn

48. Things Unseen

49. Part Of Me

50. Situs Inversus

51. Post-Olympic Blues

52. Night

53. Autumn Tiptoeing Past My Window

54. Happy Birthday Peter Pan

55. An Early Stroll

56. Waking Badly

57. Dorian of Wilde Fame

58. The Yellow Brick Road

59. Happy Birthday Ed

60. Punctuation

61. Life Is So Unfair

62. Eclipse

63. I am a Superficial Person

64. Stagecraft

65. Sometimes the Day Comes all at Once

66. The Miracle of Me

67. For Bobby

68. Who Are You ?

69. How Do You Feel ?

70. The Session

71. Regrets

72. My Staff

73. Heroes

74. The North Wind Made the Vikings

75. Words Worth

76. First the DNA Dance

77. Thoughts Thunk

78. Normal

79. Perchance to Dream

80. Pavlov’s Dogs

81. The Timid Iceberg

82. Speed of Sight

83. A Lesson Learnt

To Summarise

Friends and Family

84. Hello, My Name is Peter Boyce

85. Helen Birthday Card

86. Niamh’s Birthday

87. Om

88. Time Flies By (for Aoife Age 4)

89. Born Ready (for Gaia Bear – 3½)

90. Milo, Good Luck on Starting School

91. For Sophie on Day 732

92. Anabella Dawn’s Birthday

93. Welcome To Rossa !

94. A Feline Farewell

95. Andy the Spotta

96. The Caistor Drive Drive

97. My Friend Les

Poems B.C. (Before COVID – 2017)

98. Pedigree

Father/Son Expo ’67, Montreal

99. Invitation

100. Moses

101. Confession

Copyright Information ©

About the Author

Photography by Calvin Taylor Lee

Peter Jackson was raised in Ireland and studied Natural Sciences at Trinity College Dublin. In his late teens/early 20s, he hitchhiked extensively around Europe and to/from India. He was briefly a microbiologist before moving to England to join the Royal Air Force as a navigator flying mostly on Victors (air to air refuelling) and Sentry aircraft (the radar/eye in the sky), involved in several of the recent conflicts.

He married Helen Blake in 1973 and is the proud father of Owen, Orla and Niamh. He lives in Lincoln and Javea, Spain.

"This is a delightful collection.

Peter explores many existential issues that face us. He

quizzically examines life, age, time, identity, and

feelings. As he himself says: he has a degree in

curiosity!

He certainly shows it with self-deprecating humour, and

appreciation of nature’s beauty and variety, and the

complexities of the human situation. He gives no

definitive answers to the puzzles of life, but sows

tantalising hints of the depths that surround us.

This is a collection worth exploring, and re-reading. It

has many valuable insights.

I heartily recommend it."

– Dr Timothy Jackson, Specialist in Public Health Medicine (Retired), Poet

"All of us dealt with the challenges of the pandemic lockdowns in different ways. Peter wisely chose to record his innermost thoughts and feelings in a series of insightful, moving, courageous and often amusing poems. This collection of his works will resonate with all who have the privilege of