by Steve Tanham
On a day of scarecrows
The little patch of oil, beneath your sump
Called to me
To put aside Wray’s springtime pride
And ride my early miles, again.
➰
Where teenage fingers
Cold or burned, begged broken thread
To mend and seal
The engine’s heated flow
And let the boy get home
➰
And sliding frozen rump
From frozen saddle, fingers stiff
To feed and heal
In mother’s kitchen
The willing price of independence
➰
Where scarecrows end
The little patch of oil, beneath your sump
Sang to me
To put aside Wray’s springtime pride
And ride my life, again.
➰
©Stephen Tanham
The Wray Scarecrow Festival takes place in the lovely north Lancashire village of Wray each year in the first week of May. The beautifully restored pre-unit Triumph motorcycle was a complete surprise
Sun in Gemini 
Every now and then I feel this same yearning. Usually in Waitrose car park! We see some beautiful cars on our way to the shop, and I imagine myself behind the wheel, free to go wherever my mood takes me… sadly, my driving days are long gone, but the dreams remain…
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Sigh… yes. My BMW is long gone, replaced by a hybrid… ‘Yearning’ is a good word. Thank you for the reblog x
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Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
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A lovely poem, Steve.
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A most unexpected moment, Alethea! Thank you 😎
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Reblogged this on Sue Vincent's Daily Echo.
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Thank you, Sue x
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Oh Triumphs and Indians are the best!!! I LOVE motorcycles, and wish I still had my old Honda 350 CB! I love getting the scarecrows into your wonderful poem. They so belong there! Thank you for sharing it.
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Your old CB350 would have been valuable now, would it not? A bit of a classic. We didn’t have much money – no-one did, back then – but my Dad bought me a Ducati 250 for my sixteenth birthday. I loved it. That was the start of my love-affair with biking. On and off, I’ve had many bikes since. It’s not used much, but I have a 2005 BMW GS1200 gathering dust in the garage. I use it on hot summer evenings, when I ride around Lake Windermere and stop to have my coffee from a flask. The Wray Scarecrow festival is a celebrated annual event in the Lune Valley. The Triumph was one of three being exhibited outside a private house in the village… the owner’s pride and joy, I think!
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Wow! I know the Ducati as well, and the BMW’s are beloved much here. When I was younger we had one of the first BMW cars in California. I used to race cars after the most horrible accident while being towed in my tiny MG Midget soft-top. The driver was driving way too fast with a tow line way too long on a dirt road with deep shoulders. The car suddenly dipped into the shoulder and because of the speed, broke the rope and rolled end over end 2-1/2 times. I had no seat belt because we were not having them at the time believe it or not. This was at White Sands Proving Grounds where I worked and had a secret clearance. We watched and recorded missile shots from Green River, Utah. I did get some internal injuries, but could not get help on the base because we were civilians. So we drove to Alamogordo, and the only doctor available was an osteopath, and he did virtually nothing. Had some broken ribs and other injuries. Anyway, that was what started me into driving different cars in slaloms, etc. and I never won the first several years because that was what I wanted to do. but one day I just got into the car and drove and just felt at one with the car. That day I won first in class, and you know, when I finally went to get that trophy after someone had to tell me I won, I just looked at it and it meant nothing. It was that feeling of oneness with the car. From that day on, I won lots of times, but it never meant anything. It was just the experience and the amazing feeling. Thank you very kindly for sharing that experience. It brought back good memories of how no matter what we go through in this life, we can overcome it if we let go and just be a part of existence.
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What an adventurer you are, Anne! And that now serves you well as you explore a new world, one that underlies the others in its power and it’s glory… x
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That is absolutely the truth, Steve. Yes, I have actually led an adventurous life, but without the knowledge we are gaining in The Silent Eye Mystery School, it is a thin experience. Thank you most kindly.
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Take it and make it your own, Anne x
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