{"id":1996,"date":"2019-08-20T17:14:06","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T16:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=1996"},"modified":"2023-11-12T11:44:34","modified_gmt":"2023-11-12T11:44:34","slug":"my-fathers-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=1996","title":{"rendered":"My Father’s Things: The Optical Level: Thames Valley Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The World Turned Upside Down….<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I am currently working on a project called ‘My Father’ s Things’ which is a series of drawings I did last year to stay sane amidst the chaos of my life then..don’t ask…the chaos has departed and is now far away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the first draft of the first poem that I plan to attach to the drawing above. The entire sequence will eventually be published in a pamphlet hopefully through the Carousel as a riso printed publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sequence of drawings and writings will be exhibited in September as part of Castle Ruins III at the King Billy Pub Nottingham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/508541923226021\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Optical Level<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Gun metal grey-green, heavy in the palm
My father’s optical level
The metal worn through use, a record
of my father’s presence as is the smell
of leather case and faint aroma of tarmac
as if his hands sunburnt and grimy with tar
still waved at me on thsoe frosty mornings
I helped him set levels somewhere below the downs.
A ritual since the age of 14 as I earned pocket money
holding the levelling rods, red and white striped
icy cold that stuck to my fingers as I held them straight
waiting for the hand raised, a signal that he had the reading.
Then another wave to move back up the slope and start again
tied together by the upside down image of cross hairs
rising and falling on my hand then the rod
like a bomb aimer looking for a target

One morning we are out early.
Steam rising from the power staton cooling towers.
Stood in early morning sun on a former airfield at Harwell.
The airfield the Dakotas lifted off from before dawn on D-Day.
Carrying the last memories of men destined to fall
caught in the cross hairs of German gunners.
The rattle of munitions cascading from a thousand guns
blurring the coastline and making the earth move.

Turning the world upside down.

Like the poor pilot spinning out of control
trying to bring things back to a level.

I stare through that old telescope and call to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right, right..back a bit.

That’s it we’re level now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roll out the string and mark the foundations.
Knock in the pegs and start to build again.
A nation fit for heroes on a sunlit morning
when the smoke had cleared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We heard birds singing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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‘My Father’s Things’ based on this by Waits..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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