St George's Plateau ~ Liverpool 2008
ST GEORGE’S PLATEAU
Friday 11January 2008
Eight minutes past Eight in the Evening ~ A Night I shall Never forget!
Although written almost fifteen years ago, working through the entire Index of First Lines
catches me unawares, when I come across material I have not seen in many years.
I reproduce this simply because we have,
the City and People of Liverpool,
on behalf of the Nation and People of Ukraine
just hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.
A greater honour could not have been bestowed upon us, the British People.
Let all of us stand resolute, determined, defiant, assured of victory
and that Ukraine will see the Russian invader retreat back to where they should be,
in their lands,
on their side of the Border.
Well we've arrived.
WE ARE LIVERPOOL.
WE ARE THE WORLD.
Thousands upon thousands …
A People alive
A City reborn
A Nation proclaimed.
Our eyes on the horizons
on land, sea and air
A community of peoples
from the four corners of the globe…
A testimony to transition
from Empire
to Commonwealth of Nations
The cultural hub of Europe
for three hundred and sixty five days.
The great bells of St Nicks peeling
at 20.08
The Earth reverberating beneath my feet
The air cold, knife-like, on edge
and yet linking us to the world
as it blows in from the sea.
The Scouser
The Young
The Old
The Mid Age
The Tots on Shoulders
Petals falling
Ringo singing
Drums beating
Orchestra soaring
The Peoples of East and West ~ ~
~ ~ Petrenko binding.
Paul, George, Ringo and John … The Beatles, Liverpool Waterfront 2021
Vasily Petrenko, in 2008-2010 as Chief Conductor of the world-famous Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.
Gavin Estler dashing by in raincoat to beat the crowds
Saint George’s Hall resplendent
‘The Empire’ glorious,
still with that splendour a month back
as HMQ entered the doors
The echo behind Her Maj’
of a City People whose cheer was even greater
than tonight – their very own Guest of Honour.
What a curious people we are.
So rebellious, yet so loyal too.
THAT’s LIVERPOOL.
Café Rouge, Met Quarter
Edith Piaf above the chandeliers.
A Restaurant abuzz.
Marvellous to see,
Victoria Street teeming,
Taxis ranking,
Neat lines with horses patrolling …
Ben!
“Sorry mate can’t stop now …”
as he practises his herding instinct
one ear holding,
tiny micro speaking.
A quiet laugh to myself
recording marshalling the crowds
thirty years earlier without such gadgetry…
just helmets, chin straps and long
shin-length-belted gabardines and gloves
Webb! You’re showing your truncheon strap
I’ll ‘ave you on a fizzer - get rid of it!
Okay, sorry Stripes!
… with haste and tuck no longer in view
Phew!
How times have changed, no longer saluting
but we are a people in the ascendancy again.
None will defeat us – that I know.
So here's to 2008.
Here's to us all
Here's to our Century!
This was written immediately after I had walked off Saint Georges plateau
last Friday, 11 January 2008 at 8:50 pm.
It took just a few moments even though my hands were rather cold …
but my heart was alight with fire!
We all were!!
5 June 2023
All Rights Reserved
© 2023 Kenneth Thomas Webb
Composed 11 January 2008
Published by Spiderwize in Idle Thoughts An Anthology of Poetry and Prose in September 2009
I’ve chosen this as the concluding image. The Mersey is unusally calm, it is winter and thus ‘bracing’. But chiefly because each morning and evening I told the time from my lounge by the Mersey Ferries just opposite me on their turn. When things became stressful, KTW would often be found enjoying a tea or coffee, and the wind in his hair … and this part of the Waterfront is still home now that I have, pandemic permitting, recommenced my other home … here, right here, in Liverpool, yards away from the two Liver Birds atop the Royal Liver Building. Grand!
Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.
