At the Crossroads

What skills do I have?
What skills could I learn?
Could I build a wall,
Or go work at CERN?

What skills could I learn?
Could I learn to fly?
Or go teach those kids,
Who daren't even try?

What skills do I have?
What do I do well?
Could I run a team,
And make that team gel?

What skills could I learn,
To help me improve?
Could I spin a deck,
And make the room groove?

So where should I go,
And what could I earn,
With skills that I have,
Or skills I could learn.

©️ Graeme Williams 2019

This was the final assignment of the Futurelearn course and  I really struggled to know what to write. Eventually I went back to the idea of a found poem and based it on a conversation in an Employability lesson where students had to decide what skills they had for a CV. 

Originally I wrote it in the third person but found it worked better in the first person.

The Rubaiyat of the Reluctant Commuter

The panic starts, I’ve lost my keys,
Until my wife finds them for me,
Then to the car to join the fray,
And off I go, reluctantly.

I make this journey twice a day,
First, off to work to earn my pay,
Then when my servitude is done,
It’s back I go the other way.

Not that I mind once I’ve begun,
Sometimes the journey can be fun,
With music on the radio,
When I’m alone I sing along.

But then I hit a contraflow,
And as the traffic starts to slow,
The DJ says there’s some delay,
But, sadly, I already know.

It looks like I'll be late today,
I should have gone the other way,
Now it’s too late; I’m in the queue,
All I can do is sit and pray.

I might as well admire the view,
No point in feeling stressed or blue,
There’s nothing I can do or say,
Just wait my turn to trickle through.

I drive along the motorway,
I did the same thing yesterday,
Tomorrow morning, guess I’ll be,
Wrapped up in bed; it’s Saturday.

© Graeme Williams 2012

Photograph taken from Lee Haywood's photostream on flickr and used under the creative commons licence.

The poem itself is an interlocking rubaiyat in which the first, second and fourth line rhyme with each other and the third line rhymes with the first, second and forth line of the next stanza and so on. The third line of the final stanza rhymes with the first, second and forth line of the first stanza.  

The Weather's Wet!

The weather’s wet, and skies are grey,
I wish I could just stay in bed,
But I must go to work today,

I’m safe beneath the warm duvet,
Not thinking ‘bout the day ahead,
The weather’s wet, and skies are grey,

If only I could stay away,
I’d rather be at home instead,
But I must go to work today,

"Get up, get out, and earn your pay!"
A little voice screams in my head.
The weather’s wet, and skies are grey,

A normal British summer’s day,
With forecasts of more rain ahead,
But I must go to work today,

I wish there were another way,
In which to earn my daily bread,
The weather’s wet, and skies are grey,
But I must go to work today.

© Graeme Williams 2012

This poem is also available on www.poemhunter.com. Photograph taken from Presence Photography's photostream on flickr and used under the creative commons licence. I must, however, apologise as his photograph is actually of Dublin in Ireland rather than Britain, but the photograph so matched the poem that I hope he'll forgive me.