Uplifting local poetry
TONY Sheldon is chairman of the club that runs Jazz on a Sunday.
Like so many others, he came to Jazz during the Trad Boom, and was smitten from the moment he saw Chris Barber at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester.
His wide-ranging musical tastes as well as jazz include country and western, folk and light classical.
But for him music was never his only passion; he spent more than 50 years in football, playing, coaching, refereeing and in administration, being heavily involved with Salford City F. C. and was also the co-founder and Vice-President of the international Cricket Memorabilia Society and an avid theatre-goer.
Tony underpins his valuable contributions to the worlds of creativity and sport with his experience of a lifetime in business administration and voluntary work., and in 2007 had a booklet of poems, prose and songs published.
The pieces were written as a dedication to his wife and suitably named ‘To Life’.
A NEW TOMORROW
My body says I’m eighty
But my mind says I’m not
Who are you kidding mate?
Because I haven’t lost the plot
When I look into the mirror
I don’t like what I see I don’t recognise the stranger
Who is looking back at me
But nothing could be quite as strange
As the thoughts that drive my life
And I never fail to thank my luck Supported by my wife There are always things I need to do
To make the world a better place
And no pandemic crisis
Could be big enough to face
The enemies of world war two Were easier to track Than an unknown deadly virus
That creeps up from the back
Lockdown, Lockdown, Lockdown
Is all we seem to hear And while safety must be paramount
The words themselves strike fear
And so we have to sit it out
With different shades of calm
And try to do the right things
To keep our families free from harm
Humour lightens up the dark
With smiles the biggest factor
Enhanced by silly stories
Which bring laughter after laughter
It may seem to last for ever
An ever which will never end
With trauma, sadness and loved ones lost
Not knowing how we will descend
But we will come out of the other side
As our live will slowly mend
It may seem just a bad dream
Or a Sci-Fi Film on screen
As we await the new tomorrow
And a new normality seen