Tuesday 5 May:

I’ve also actually ‘tried’ to write some prose (definitely not poetry!) - vaguely related to the current crisis, but I just don’t have the skills. It’s frustrating because ‘writing things down’ seems to be a very good part of the ‘healing process’. I came up with this in response to an email from Emily Gould (it was ‘bashed out’ quickly, so probably makes no sense!):

It all seemed to happen so quickly.

Suddenly, a pandemic engulfed us…

We hadn't been here before, so we were all at sea.
We were asked to ‘stay at home’ and change to a new way of living.
It was tough, but that's life... and sometimes death.
Some of us oldies even began to wonder...

Had we already hugged our loved ones for the very last time?  

Such sobering thoughts shake us to our souls.

Scary unknowns, stark possibilities... life's uncertainties.
And yes, we made lists of things we would do if we came through it.

We would hug all our families and friends.

We would meet up in cafés and bars, go to cinemas and galleries.

We would jump on to buses and trains.

We would walk along beaches.

We would arrange to have picnics and sketch out of doors.

We would huddle in queues.

We would never forget the simple pleasures of life.

When this is all over…

And yes, through it all, huge positives did emerge.

We learnt to live more simply.

We were humbled by the kindness shown by people.

We didn’t drive cars; there was no daily rush; the planet began to breathe again.

We could see clearly in more ways than one.

We rediscovered things that we thought we’d forgotten.

We learnt new things about each other.

We talked to loved ones ‘almost’ face-to-face and kept in touch.

We learnt how important friendships were.

And yes, we also learnt some huge lessons…

We must stop greed and profit taking over again.

We must limit the power of corporations.

We must have politicians who want to work for us, not themselves.

We must work towards having a more balanced media.

We must value the workers and reward them accordingly.

We must look after our beautiful world.

We must treat all people with kindness.

When this is all over…