Category: Poems

Touching peoples lives like a butterfly

He did it for me, I tell no lie

He makes all feel special when he lands

Reaching out to me to touch my hand

Fluttering around a crowded space

Bringing a smile to me and everyone’s face

Then he leaves, fluttering away

To come back when it suits, another day

A room full of people have met a new friend

But will he ever flutter back again?

Maybe, maybe not, if he passes by

To call him a friend is really a lie

A room full of people over time disappointed

He came and stopped, I felt loved for a moment 

I laughed and relaxed, he stood by my side

I wanted his words, no need to hide

He upped and left as if on a whim

He meant more to me than I to him

I wish I had kept my heart locked away

To bring into view another day

But I became joined to my sanguine friend

Will the pain ever end

I need to be free, my soul ties strong

To be released is what I long

I must move on, scream and forgive

To get a new focus, my life to live

Be gone sanguine friend, flutter some other place 

Don’t need you here I must re-enter the race

When he is gone, it leaves space for the new

A fresh belonging, through and through

It’s time to live again

January 2023

John Lowton

How long have I been silent, watching, listening, observing the signs around me, holding my thoughts like treasure of great value. I have been patient for so long, a weary traveller waiting to cross. 
Our separate journeys have merged together, a point in time, a holy place, a place of expectation and reverence. Silent pilgrims, broken and honed by the distance covered.
Across the river the snow is melting on the towering mountain peaks, fuelling the river into a frenzy, ever flowing wider and deeper.
Oh to reach that place, to feel the fresh murmurings of spring, the Spirit of  God blowing over the land. Yet, separating us from the distant promise, the river flows, deeper and wider still. To reach the other side involves faith and courage, for none have ever reached the far bank when the river was shallow, in low flow; the only way is by faith, jumping in, out of your depth.
Now is the time, the moment to cross, to be out of your depth.
The melt water itself flows due to the Spirit warming the land,
For there is no crossing without faith, they run together hand in hand.

John Lowton
January 2023

Can you hear me coming closer?
The sound of hooves, thundering and wild 
Windswept and unbridled, galloping unchecked, mane cascading and flowing behind 
Is it right to try and change how I was created?
Born, never to be captured, never to be trapped and boxed into some religious conformity
To serve tradition, laced up in a tight restraining girdle, hiding the risk of being different
To end my days having only explored a small confined space in my mind 
But was born to worship in a huge creative landscape, born to explore the outer edges of who who I am
Born to journey and not stand still, born to experience danger, holding on only by my finger tips
Born to display colour, black, dappled and chestnut
Every colour of the rainbow following the seasons of my life
Born to be passionate, born to live life, bands of humanity travelling together

It’s time to live again

John Lowton
December 15th 2022

Of the earth a grassroots city
No need to mock, no need to pity
Open your eyes and you will see
The land gives wealth, the earth is key
Vision outworked from within the ground 
A healthy variety can be found
Not imposed from above
But fed and watered with hope and love
Rich in history, culture, flowing
Textiles, Mills, colour, sewing
So next time you consider, open your eyes, walk tall
A broad ford to cross, inclusive to all
The city of Bradford, a place of inclusion
An ethnic wealth, a colourful fusion
You say your poor, yet you’re rich
In confidence and strength set your pitch
For such a time, the day is here
On show to all, no need to fear
The City of Culture, a deserved acclaim
Its Bradfords time to get some fame

It’s time to live again

John Lowton
January 2023

I avoided a banana skin, in the road for all to see
Yellow and black and slippery, it could have derailed me
It would have stroked my ego, scaling a lofty height
Status and importance, well within my site
But truth be said my soul cried out, to maintain a different way
Colour, life, new energy, definitely here to stay
I really don’t seek the profile, I really don’t seek fame
To continue my current trajectory, an outrageously noble game
If I climb up on a pedestal there’s only 1 way to go
Crash, bang, wallop down to earth, everyone will know
So I’m grateful for the banana skin, that it came into my life
I didn’t need the tension, I didn’t need the strife
So please bare with me, let me serve where life and glitter flow
Feeding my soul and others around, a healing seed to sow

It’s time to live again

John Lowton
January 2023

Whatever was I thinking, I dutifully fell in line
My whiteness overtook me, thinking white all the time
But the angels in my City, are brown and black and white
White European in my mind, all a standard height
White wings, pale skin, all the eyes are blue
Supernatural beings, but it isn’t only you
The angels in my city are Bollywood, punk, rough sleepers
Watching the pathways in and out, they truly are gate keepers
So if you are white with wings, take your place in line
My City is multi coloured, in variety it will shine
It’s time to live again
John Lowton
Dec 2022

When will I find the real me? 
Was I lost as I journeyed alone?
Forced and shaped where I didn’t belong,
Worked and moulded into a vacant lot.
A lot that happened my way in life
Or, perhaps I never even set out,
For the person journeying was an imposter
A dark actor brilliantly masquerading, 
Using my gifts and entrenched in the drama.
I fully believed that he was me, 
As he wrote the script for all to see.

But my life took a turn, 
A twist unforeseen in the stalls.
I entered the show with life and colour,
The final act, who would imagine? 
Creative, flamboyant, dramatically  different,
Proof read from Heaven to fit the occasion. 
No part in the play for the intruder,
Banished and outcast, unmasked, forlorn
I really have been reborn.

It’s time to live again

John Lowton
Dec 9th 2022

How long does it take to start again?
How long does it take to be believed?
Change can be a lonely place
Mistrust the shackle in the race

How long does it take to start again?
Familiar lies have been my friend
To set my face, truth to choose
The deceitful friend I now must lose

How long does it take to start again?
I look the same to my friend
Days or years, how long to face
For truth to find a resting place 

How long does it take to start again?
Willing to change and make new friends
For few of the the old will believe what’s new 
Truth is living right in view

So how long do you need for your friend to change
To believe the truth of a live transformed
One week, one year or maybe never
It takes belief to travel together

It’s time to live again

Shhh, can you see me hiding
through the crowded room, I’m gliding
Bothering no one, eyes not meeting
And when they do it’s Oh so fleeting
Please don’t address me, don’t engage
A frightened rabbit in a cage
A little awkward, I don’t exist
Hidden in a shrouded mist

I must survive, never offend
A happy child an easy friend
Angelic eyes and white blond hair
Always shy but ever aware 
Of my childish looks and bashful persona
Everyones friend and yet a loner

Pleasant to all but lacking touch
To talk to girls was all too much
My fear and panic, I ran away
If only I had the courage to stay
The childhood trauma and lack of touch
The combination proved to much
Seeking comfort to ease the pain
Medicate to keep me sane

The controlling behaviours, a sinister song
Deep inside a need to belong
A call from the deep, a tender sound
Acceptance and love must be found
A rhythm of hope for this broken soul 
Pain and healing to make me whole

It’s time to live again 

John Lowton Nov 22

Love is to allow someone the choice to walk towards the precipice, knowing they might never return 

Love is to deny the urge to be the rescuer and to embrace the pain of a broken heart

Love is to see a part of you suffering time after time and not to intervene

Love is not knowing and still hoping whilst getting darkened whispers from afar

Love is hearing lie after lie and still believing

Love is to realise you are not the answer and point the way to the giver of life

Love is choosing to live alone rather than being someone else’s fix

Love is not being the provider for another’s compulsions

Love is allowing pain to be the healer

Love is never to stop praying and always watching

Greater love has no one, than he lay down his life for a friend

John Lowton      November 2023