Big Ben strikes loud
Heard throughout town
Tells you the time
Strikes each hour out
Bong, bong, bong, bong.

Hear the rhythm of the chime in the words.
The ultimate iconic symbol of London.
Feels ancient, but it’s surprisingly new, for historic architecture that is.
Vibes of stability, reliability and ability.
Big Ben is

A national treasure
A landmark to navigate by
The backdrop to a billion photos and paintings.
Originality, copied in so many unoriginal ways.

Big Ben is

A political statement
A symbol of power,
A symbol of defiance,
A dream,
A legend

Woven into the stories of our lives. Even when we’ve never seen it in real life.
Big Ben building excitement 10, 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Bong!
Happy New Year! -the chimes continue as families and friends hug and kiss each other for a new beginning.
Muffled chimes, the soundtrack to a state funeral.
Regular chimes just another day in the Big city. Do we even notice them?

Close to, the noise is visceral. Ever been in speaker’s house when the chimes wrung out? It’s an experience.

Still the picture tells me more:
Time is alive; Time thrives; Time flies; Time dies;
Each beat marks out.
I want to shout.
Don’t waste your life!
Time to start now.
Bong bong, bong bong!

Time changes with the colours of our moods.
Blue Sadness sees each tick slowly pass.
Red Love as joy bubbles and babbles, giggles and races in a constant perpetual outpouring of bliss.
Black as Sorrow clashes and clangs it’s Doom laden steps. Eternal gaps between each one.
Green Interest spirals ever on. Twisting and turning with rapid, intense pulses: as ideas are devoured and connected with each step towards understanding.

Time is intimate, personal, precious, fleeting.
Time is distant, cold, long past. Passages of history eventually to be forgotten.
Time is capricious. Dancing past in elusive measures. We think we know what it means but we have no clue.

Time changes in an instant, to what’s before the event and dealing with the aftermath.
Stories need time, a beginning, a middle and end, with the pattern emerging through the space of time.

Colours exploding, sharing the different, each speck like a second, floating, merging with neighbours to create new colours, patterns, textures, like time allows our lives to weave into and around one another.

Each moment precious each second, adding to the whole. Some may pass unnoticed but some are indelibly etched on our hearts. Moments of great joy and sadness Moments of achievement. The moment when we recognize we’re in love.

The time we spend together, the times of reasons why we part.

Big Ben is so much more than a clock tower!