Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
WAITING ZONES
By P B Taylor
It is a course that when you die
There is the eventual waiting zone
It doesn’t happen just like that
You must wait with an irritable patience
I saw bliss naturally as I died
And the waiting was horrible
As I waited slowly for her to come
And the doors creaked ominously back
But you didn’t come, and I wondered, wondered
I had waited for the Ages to go by
And you did not come to me
As a hell consumed your personality
I even travelled to those gates
Yes, the very gates of hell
Then you became there, fleeting
It was only then, then I realised my mistake
Overseas March 1982
Phillip Taylor MBE was born in Amersham and educated at London University and the Inns of Court School of Law. His working life was spent, firstly at the BBC in London, in the Ministry of Defence and the Army, and then as a barrister at law and mediator at Lincoln’s Inn after he was called to the Bar.
He was Chairman of the Society of Civil Service Authors Poetry Workshop from 1982 to 1986 and contributed to their annual anthology FOCUS. His poems and short stories have appeared in journals, magazines and newsletters and some have been broadcast by the BBC. He has produced several poetry collections since 1972.
The Poetry Workshop was founded by Bill Barnes in 1970. It was a part of the Society of Civil Service Authors (founded in 1935) which now known as the Society of Civil and Public Service Writers.
WAITING ZONES
By P B Taylor
It is a course that when you die
There is the eventual waiting zone
It doesn’t happen just like that
You must wait with an irritable patience
I saw bliss naturally as I died
And the waiting was horrible
As I waited slowly for her to come
And the doors creaked ominously back
But you didn’t come, and I wondered, wondered
I had waited for the Ages to go by
And you did not come to me
As a hell consumed your personality
I even travelled to those gates
Yes, the very gates of hell
Then you became there, fleeting
It was only then, then I realised my mistake
Overseas March 1982
Phillip Taylor MBE was born in Amersham and educated at London University and the Inns of Court School of Law. His working life was spent, firstly at the BBC in London, in the Ministry of Defence and the Army, and then as a barrister at law and mediator at Lincoln’s Inn after he was called to the Bar.
He was Chairman of the Society of Civil Service Authors Poetry Workshop from 1982 to 1986 and contributed to their annual anthology FOCUS. His poems and short stories have appeared in journals, magazines and newsletters and some have been broadcast by the BBC. He has produced several poetry collections since 1972.
The Poetry Workshop was founded by Bill Barnes in 1970. It was a part of the Society of Civil Service Authors (founded in 1935) which now known as the Society of Civil and Public Service Writers.
