Publisher's Synopsis
Who: Lockdown Larcs was born to David Alan Larcombe, in his 70th year, a son of the Roman Heritage City of Bath, he has been psychometrically labelled "The Ultimate Realist."
When: In March of 2020 the COVID UK lockdown began shortly after downsizing to two bedrooms. Suddenly both daughters needed to be back with us. Luckily a bed-settee/TV room bailed us out, and a priceless time was enjoyed together listening, sharing, and connecting again. In this period of containment, rhyming insanity descended. Why: Anger and frustration at watching the daily news media's inane blame game, and the world's response to the horrendous George Floyd incident. Something sparked - why is everyone polarising with increasing enmity? What: Streams of rhymes came through; lineage connections, the need for sharing introspective values. The scale of harmonisation worldwide is huge and daunting - there are so many sources of prejudice. The world's population has tripled in just my lifetime and there's a blindness to ecology consequences. Surely there are pathways for ALL to be ONE, with each other and Earth? How: I have not got a clue! It just tumbles out in rhymes, with some structural rephrasing to get it all to fit. The main driver was the "ONE and ALL" theme, to which I added "The matter of" to reflect the "lives matter" context. During the second lockdown in February 2021 I revisited these poems and "Heartbeat's Song" was born, which represents a dream and shows how rhyming insanity came to me. Evolving: After a year, realising it was not going away, I joined Allpoetry.com. This has been a tremendous learning experience and inspiration, connecting with others around the world, and sharing our creations and feedback. It provided opportunities to experiment with different forms of writing through prompt contests, some of which are included here. Gender, Colour, Country, or Creed, it matters not... I hope you connect, and don't find it too "Ultimately Idealist!"