3 Poems by Peter F. Pike

Come Fly with Me

With arms outstretched, gravity’s force we scorn,
flying on wild imagination’s wing.
By currents of enthusiasm borne
our soaring liberated voices ring.
Way, way above the greensward down below
we climb alluring pathways through the air;
hovering in the slightest winds that blow
describing wid’ning circles—then we dare
ascend still higher in the azure sky.
Diving, banking at a breathtaking pace;
performing vic’try rolls before we fly
to interstellar realms of outer space.

    With immense excitement we zip and zoom
    in venting boyhood’s super-sonic boom.

Bioinfo

Peter was born in Bristol, UK in 1933. The first seven years of his life was being brought up on a Council Housing estate at Knowle West. He was born in the Great Depression. Just after the Second World War broke out in 1939 because Bristol was considered a strategic city he was evacuated to a farm near Tiverton in Devon. While he was away from home the house his parents were renting was bomb damaged. His parents moved to Exeter which was considered a safe area. So in 1942 he and  his  brother and  two sisters were reunited with their parents. Just after that Exeter was badly blitzed in German revenge raids. Although he was a fairly bright student at school, he suffered severe headaches because he was anemic. (Not discovered for a couple of years). He wanted to be an architect, but failed to matriculate, so he decided to emigrate to Australia when he was 17. Life was difficult initially as wages were quite low for young people and all his money went on board and lodgings.   He worked in various industries mostly in Sales for electrical supplies. Then he branched out into hardware and tools. Peter opened his own paint, wallpaper and hardware shop and soon opened a second outlet. Things turned out badly as the area he was trading in was chosen by the Vietnamese to settle. Although he got on well with these people, it wasn't long before they set up businesses in opposition to him, and he went bankrupt. He was close to retiring age, but he worked in Real Estate for a couple of years before retiring. He bought a computer off a neighbour, who was importing components and assembling them. In order to learn a bit more about them he made an arrangement with his neighbour to work a couple of days in exchange for some tuition. He was only there a few days and started to work full-time, so he spent another couple of years assembling and repairing computers. In the meantime he joined the Fellowship of Australian Writers NSW Inc as he was interested in Creative Writing. He finished up as the NSW President of that organisation. FreeXpresSion was developed when he was the President of the Liverpool Branch.

    Peter is a Christian (Anglican persuasion) He’s married and has five children. (Two boys by a previous marriage and three girls to his current wife, Lorraine. Peter has fifteen Grand-children and seventeen Great-Grand-Children, with another one on the way.