5th August 1963

By Michelle Noble

  The ancient escalator,

                                 creaking 

                                 to an underworld

of dim lit platforms, 

draughty tunnels

snaking into dark.

                                 You 

standing tense 

alone on the platform

listening 

for the warning rumble

                                 the insidious suck 

                                 of turbulence, 

                                 the dreadful roar

                                 of the metal minotaur 

                                 exploding from the void.

                                 In that last desperate plunge 

despair filling the gap.

did time 

stand 

still

for seconds of regret

                                 before the impact?

                                 squealing slide of brakes

                                 on rails

                                 The gap you left

                                 never to be filled

Born in 1943 In North London. Lived happily in a flat with my mother and grandma, above a newsagent shop, where I was allowed to read the comics and books on sale, from the age of two. Everything changed, mostly for the worse, when my father returned from war. I was three. We all four moved to a house with a garden (I loved the garden), the advent of a baby brother and starting school.

I loved my convent schools and was given an excellent education. Took the difficult decision to go to art school rather than university and graduated as art teacher specialising in painting and ceramics in 1964. Further education included Postgraduate studies at the Central School of Art in London, in the 70's and an MA in Art and Design at Humberside University 1995. I'm a sucker for learning new things.

I was married twice losing both husbands through death not divorce, have two children, a boy and a girl and now two granddaughters. My first husband was a Yorkshireman and pined for Yorkshire, so most of my adult life has been in North Yorkshire, or since 2010, East Yorkshire near the Humber Bridge., a move dictated by a dicky heart and the nearest heart hospital, and not least my daughter.

I've had various careers from teaching all age groups, designing greeting cards, illustrating children's books, growing amity trees for twelve years (my favourite), museum work researching and putting on displays - my second favourite. Making gardens wherever I've lived, and throughout my life practicing art and exhibiting. Since 2004 writing constantly, mainly poetry.

People, landscape and history, colour, have informed my ideas and still do. I have a sneaky suspicion my father, an Irishman, gifted me with a touch of the blarney and the gift of the gab which aids me considerably in my writing.

Website: www.michelenobleartist.co.uk

Instagram: @michellenobleart