Explore Writer Not a Fighter – free poems and free stories.
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About the Author and his free poems and free stories…
Kevin Mahoney was endearingly (or sarcastically?) referred to as Oldkev by his son-in-law, and when it caught on, his daughter used it now and again. But Oldkev was a spritely 69 years old then. Now, seven years later, he rather likes that nickname.
Primarily, he wants to safeguard his writings to give his kids and grandchildren the possibility of reading any of his humble writings. He can’t cut up the books into eight pieces but a website enables him to share them. See the copyright statement at the very top of every page.
Oldkev was born in the East End of London in 1948. At least, in a newly built council estate made of incredibly long terraces of identical houses just outside the real East End, which was so badly bombed most houses were ruined.
School life was easy, because Youngkev took the easy route. He saw no reason to learn. Parental guidance was in the form of one question, “Finished your homework?”, and the answer was always just one lie. Most of his school work books remained empty as did his head. Oldkev regrets that now. Yet by some strange freak of nature he was good at maths, which was good enough to get him his first job, at sixteen, working with computers. Half a lifetime later he has a great family and has learnt a lot, from his travels, his work, friends and family – including his grandchildren.
It was his work though, that taught him how to write, communicate and to have some confidence. His greatest education, however, was indeed the twelve months that he travelled through Africa and the Far East. Those travels also developed his compassion towards other peoples, his love of nature and his understanding of the differences in the social welfare of people in lesser developed lands. It was a drive across Northern Sahara that inspired Youngkev to write his first ever poems – you can see them here under “1. Naive Poems”.
Kev always wrote for his own pleasure, no one else, was pleased when family and friends took an interest. He never seriously attempted to publish with a renowned publisher. So he is happy to let you read his free poems and free stories but be aware of the copyright. If you would like to purchase one of his self published books that would be cool but, if not, that’s fine too.
This site is dedicated to my family.
Free Poems – What’s the story?
Each of my free poems is represented by one blog post. There will be over 100 free poems and free stories as time goes on. The author hopes to post between one and six each month.
There are a few things he would like you to realise and to consider when commenting on any of the free poems…
- The naivety of a not very well educated young man.
- In spite of the above an awareness of pollution and capitalism in the 1970s, at least in some of his free poems.
- As a young man travelling through Africa he was searching for a true religion and as an older man found atheism.
- Each poem posted contains a short description of what inspired him.
- He is not impressed by a number of his poems but is happy to have written them. He has a few favourites, can you guess which ones? So what do you think of them – please comment.
- Please don’t judge his writings by this first page. Popular web search engines enforce certain conditions, otherwise known as bad habits if you want to be a writer. This really niggles Oldkev although internet can contain a whole lot more of bad and hazardous stuff. You will notice some of his comments about internet in his later writings.
Oldkev really hopes that you enjoy some of his free poems. There is a bit of humour, some politics and a lot of nature and environmental issues, even in his earlier free poems and free stories.
Free Stories – Why’s that?
Oldkev thought of setting up this website to give his kids and their kids the chance to read his writings, even when he is long gone. The kids, of both generations, are all very dear to him, his in-law kids too. He would like to think that some of them may even find a favourite poem or story and think of him sometimes because, in his opinion, that is all that is left of us after we die – memories in the minds of people who knew us.
So, he thought, if it is all going up onto the web then why not make it public. However, to make everyone aware of it he needs to obey the search engine god and continually repeat his search keys, “free poems” and “free stories”.
To get the attention of SEG (the Search Engine God) Oldkev prays to SEG to get his website high up on the search results. But SEG also demands that Oldkev writes lots of content, a minimum of 2,500 words, even if poor Oldkev has nothing more to say on his home page. Oldkev fears that SEG is bending the rules of English grammar and is making the reading of this home page a bore.
So, SEG, Oldkev has not put any of his free poems on this page but two free stories. They are not as good as his unforced, self inspired writings but hopefully they are a good enough sacrifice, dear Lord SEG.
Free Stories: Number One
You might wonder why this story is called “Number One” but Youngkev knows…
You see, Youngkev was just seven years old and in love. That’s him in the picture (created by Adobe’s AI) on the right. He is in the middle in the dark blue jacket with red buttons. They were all in fancy dress fitting for the East End Street celebration, “Victorian London”. And! That is her, his loved one, Marion. With her curly red hair and in her blue frock she tried desperately to keep up with Youngkev because she was quite fond of him too.
The problem was neither of them were aware of how the other one felt. They just walked home from school together most days of the week. Marion lived in a road parallel to the road where Youngkev lived. Those long, long terraces of houses each with two rooms upstairs and two downstairs all coloured a dull brown of pebble-dashed plaster – and every road was identical. It was like living in a maze, a nightmare maze, where you would never get out. But his walks home with Marion made the sun shine down so brightly that each terrace became bearable. Most days they would walk home together, laughing and joking but never knowing how the other one felt.
Little did Youngkev know, that he would write free stories about her many decades later.
For Youngkev Marion was “Number One”, so whilst running the victorian street race he was a bunch of nerves. He knew that he could get past that boy in the front and win the race. He wanted to be the winner, the number one, for Marion. Yet he did not want to leave her behind. Should he run holding her hand or tear off ahead to win the race. Although he had not yet learnt what romance is, he found it exasperating and frustrating – just like those terraces in which they lived, there was no end to his insecurity.
Youngkev never won that race. He stumbled over the cobbled stones and fell flat on his face. In an instant the crowd had gone, the victorian street race had been blown away. He lay on the floor looking at his scuffed and blood stained knee and it hurt him. It hurt him because he had been in a day dream, just imagining the street race whilst running to catch up with Marion, who had left school a few minutes earlier without waiting for him. School was over for the summer holidays and she had promised her mum to get home quickly because they were going on holiday to Southend.
He had almost caught up with her when his foot kicked the kerb (there were no cobbled streets in the extended East End) and he went flying. His chin was grazed too and his nose was bleeding. He sat on the kerb holding back the tears in case Marion had heard the fall and came back to help. But she didn’t. She never knew of his predicament and he never knew why she left early without him.
A day or two later Oldkev’s Uncle was at home for lunch as was his big brother, Tel. Uncle Bill was a great one for teasing and Tel was always up for a chance to annoy his brother. During lunch uncle Bill said to his sister, as if Youngkev was not in the room, that a few days earlier he had seen Youngkev walking along with a girl. “OOOOH, Kev’s got a girlfriend!” his mum shrieked, rudely. “Wooo,” said Tel, “I’ve got a romantic brother,” he scoffed. Each of them had mocking voices and thought, obviously, that it was very amusing.
Youngkev was easily embarrassed and forever unsure of himself. He was also upset that Marion had gone home without him. Now, as Oldkev, sixty nine years later, he no longer remembers what happened next. After six weeks of school holidays he returned to school and seems to remember that he never saw Marion again. Or did he? Perhaps she did not go on holiday, maybe she and her family moved away? He will never know. He just remembers the embarrassment and would never have a girlfriend again. At least that is what he thought until he met Ann just three years later…
Any more free stories?
The following free story is to satisfy the wrath of SEG. There are no free poems on this page but if that is what you want Oldkev has put all of his free poems here.
Youngkev’s Travels
The First Shock!
Youngkev left school at sixteen, with just one successful exam, Mathematics, under his belt. That had been enough, however, for him to get his first job as a computer operator for a hire purchase company in the city of London. For the first time ever he had found a real interest. He studied, at the expense of his employer, how to program the punched card machines which, unlike todays computer programs, were programmed by plugging wires into boards that were then plugged into the machines that followed the electrical impulses and did what they were programmed to do – print out finacial reports based on the data punched into the cards.
He learnt that the new generations of computers were programmed with written instructions that were entered in punch cards and compiled into machine instructions. His employer soon moved to this generation but employed programmers that already had experience in programming the latest computers. His employer allowed him to work in the new, air conditioned computer room, as an operator, but no more programming. He sold his car and purchased a programming course that today would be online but then was handled by post with instructors. It was enough for him to get a job as a trainee programmer working on the very latest computers.
Five years later Youngkev had attained the job title, “Senior Programmer”. That job had been his dream and, with his incomplete education, he thought that he had reached the summit of his abilities. What to do next?
Fortunately for him computer programs were put together like Stonehenge in those days, it took years to release a new version, so Oldkev thought that he could take a sabbatical. He had not only developed computer systems but, also, a desire to see the world. He would leave his job behind, buy a jeep and travel to Africa and who knows where?
It was early in the year of 1972 and Youngkev’s plan was to save everything he earned, buy the jeep, and to head off as soon as possible.
At lunch one day, with his best mate Clive, he explained his plan. Clive, a crazy kinda guy, said just one thing, “Right mate. Finish your lunch, let’s get back to work now, and hand in our notice!”
“Err Clive,” replied Youngkev, “glad that you want to come, no problem, but we need money to buy the jeep and to live on until we get somewhere and find work”.
Clive came back down to earth and so the plan went on, and as expected it took nearly six months before they gave one months notice to their employer with the intention of leaving in October.
It was early September when Clive dropped the bombshell. “Hey Kev,” he said, with the confidence of a crazy guy, “we’ve got another one!”. Youngkev understood his mate too well and was sceptical from the start. “What Clive? What the hell are you talking about?”. Then it came, the explosion, “Yeah, another one. A mate of mine is coming with us.”
“No fucking way!” was the only thing that Youngkev’s brain could convey to his mouth, and a mixture of frustration and anger came out like a rash on his in his face. The conversation continued…
“How well do you know him Clive?”
“Well,” began the reply. Youngkev would be a little more open if his mate knew the other guy well, maybe it could work. “Well,” repeated Clive, “I play football with him.”
“So he’s in your team and you’ve known him a long time, or what?”
“Or what, actually. I played against him last week, never met him before, but we got chatting in the pub after the game and I told him about our plan. He’s up for it, he wants to come.”
Youngkev had learnt, as a senior programmer, how to handle staff, the younger programmers on his team. He had stubborn ones, lazy ones and one with certain personal problems. But he never had a crazy man on his team. However, this crazy man was his best mate so he would try and give Clive a chance (before he rejected the totally stupid idea).
“Ok Clive, This is what we’ll do. We will meet your ‘mate’ and I will talk to him. You will shut the fuck up and stay quiet the whole time I talk to him. What’s his name?”
“Tony, thanks Kev.”
So we met Tony. Clive actually stayed silent for the most part. At first it was much like a job interview where Youngkev imagined he would tear up Tony’s imaginary C.V. and tell him to go somewhere else (using rude words) and with someone else. But, as the ‘interview’ went on, Oldkev began warming up to this new guy. Mind you, they were in a pub, and the beer was slowly warming them up and began breaking down the barriers that Oldkev had put up. Oldkev liked Tony and being impetuous he said to both Tony and Clive, “Ok, so we don’t buy a jeep, it’s a VW bus from now on”.
Unfortunately after Clive went to Australia Tony and Oldkev lost all contact with him. They’ve searched the web and many social platforms but to no avail. Now fifty two years later Oldtony and Oldkev are still good mates and they see each other as regularly as they can. Some shocks can turn into blessings!
Novels & Childrens Books
Ok! That’s enough about free poems and free books, let’s move on to the final sections of this blog.
By the way. If you end up having nightmares about “Free Poems” and “Free Stories” then Oldkev apologises. SEG is responsible, not Oldkev. He just wants to go to bed now. because Worshipping SEG is hard work, 🥱😴.
Oh, yeah! Before Oldkev dozes off he just wants to point out that he has written four children’s books, one for each of his lovely grandchildren. The first, for the eldest, cannot be sold. Oldkev is not an artist so he downloaded some images and changed some of them, or all of them – he can’t remember, so to respect copyright laws he cannot sell that one.
The second children’s book was illustrated by a friend so he just needs consent. The third was illustrated by his late mother. He inherited those paintings and chose some of them to write a story around them. The fourth children’s book contains royalty free images from pixabay so there is no problem with them either.
Oldkev also compiled two books of his favourite poems. One for his daughter entitled, “Why Are Animals” and for his son, poems about Africa called, “The Afroverse”. All of those poems can be seen in this online collection of free poems.
Finally he has written two short novels, one is a spy thriller based largely in Africa and the other is a fantasy which analyses some of the most critical things going on in the world in 2022, as discussed by some historic characters – both deceased and alive. Its title is, “Burn Down The Children’s Playground”. Its cover on the left is a link to the post where you can read a synopsis.
Image by syaifulptak57 from Pixabay