Five-year-old Erbie Murat moved to London from Cyprus in 1956, and has lived and worked in this country ever since, attending school at Highbury Grammar, attending Southgate College, and The Open University. Erbie moved to Peter bough, in north Cambridgeshire over fifty years ago with his first wife, where he was heavily involved with his first three sons, three mortgages and several community focussed jobs in London, Cambridge, Leicester, Huntingdon and St Neots.

Erbie moved to the Fens nearly thirty years ago, after a long history of community involvement and voluntary work in Peterborough, whilst commuting to his various jobs: including serving as a senior city councillor for Peterborough City Council; running for Parliament for the City; and running for the European elections for North East London, whilst working for the London Borough of Islington managing homeless hostels.

He has been actively involved with the community in Guyhirn, Wisbech and across Fenland District that has included Chair of Wisbech Community Development Trust, Chair of Guyhirn Village Hall Trust, Vice Chair of Fenland Links, and six years as Town Clerk for Wisbech.  He 2 has for many years been the face of volunteering across the Fenland district by volunteering himself as the Manager of the Volunteer Centre Fenland, recruiting volunteers in and around March, Chatteris, Whittlesey, and Wisbech, and working closely with many charities and not- for-profit organisations.  Erbie has also enjoyed working with Citizens Advice in several roles, including as a specialist financial advisor.   He currently teaches children how to play chess in Wisbech library on Tuesday afternoons, amongst many other such interesting activities.

Life Cycle

Feel the power of the storm
As it blows clear
Your worries and your cares
My doe-eyed love.
Yes, there’s a gale a-brewing
On the reservoirs of life
With fingers strong yet gentle
Smoothing back the creases
Of a tired face
Bringing back the sparkle to your eye

The morning sun now warming
And the morning wind is cooling
An air-conditioned
Amply heated
Summer day is yawning.
Take the air about.
Note the sizes and the shapes
The colours of the flowers
Crowned glory of the trees
And the deep velvet grass

And a hop and a skip later
The rain on polished roofs
And the hustling cries
From the people who bustle
As here we sit
Relaxed just to watch.
A happy air overhangs
Every part of our being
Erasing all the worry
From our fevered brow

The waiting is now over
The Sun rides in
Over the full blooms
And very rich pink
Camouflage of trees
Interspersing whites and blues
In this wet richness of nature
Sparkling damply in the warm
Sun speckled air about
Our cocky ears

See the purple and brown,
And the multi-shaded black
Under the bright eyed
Green-red bush,
White petals strewn around,
Some flushed pale and pink,
Carpeting the unnatural
Yet beautiful solidness
Of concrete paving
Ringing ‘neath some running feet

And the green sea of grass
Swelling to subside
On the whisper of the breeze
Late morning thunder rolls out
Away in the distance
Almost too far for the ear
Murmuring power
In a knowing grow
Like a distant dream
Echoing, echoing, echoing

When the reality, directly above
Is deep and pale and blue
Hung far overhead
For our tripping mind to see
We choose to look
Yes, rains evidence falls here too
Falls drop by drop
From huge leafed boughs
Into multi-coloured pools
In a spreading pout

Patterning the smooth surfaces
Intricately ringing out
In ever larger circles
Fading to a rippling doubt.
Lapping at the darkening grey
Of their smooth concrete banks
While another droplet falls
carrying all the colours
Of an impossible rainbow
In the burgeoning light

And sometimes whipped
By a stronger blast
From low swirling winds
To a rush and a flurry
Of minute tremors
Subsiding quietly again
Between each puff
And peace prevails
In this little world
Tranquil within herself

Strange feelings from within;
Easy emotions overwhelming;
Brimming up, overtaking
All thought for the moment,
Quickly reaching danger-point,
The Souls counterpoint
Where the heart
Feels full to burst
With absolutely total feelings
Welling up from deep within

To relapse just as easily
Settled once again
The stream of life burbles
Like the one below our feet
Smoothing pebbles in its path
Singing as it dances
Over multi-formed rocks
Swaying dark green water weeds
Over every bump and swell
In time to its chattering flow

Toward the tiny falls
Into the Spring fresh lake
At its foot
And at the very last
With barely a tinkle it falls
Freshly swollen to overflow
By the recent majestic downpour
Now distance hushed
Forming a distant lead curtain
Beyond the blue skies

The Sun higher now
Even higher than you and I
On Muswell Hill’s peak
Broils the surrounds
Streaming wisps of steam
Through the optic haze
To the roof of sky
Re-formed once more
Into woolly fleeced clouds
Floating in the space above

Until the concrete bakes
While the grass slowly dries
And we walk arm in arm
Feeling cold on our toes
And hot on our brows
The shadows longer and thinner
No longer lingering
‘Neath the glistening bush
But darting out
Freckling the face of the Earth

The afternoon shadow not so dark
But darkly lighting up
Each blade of grass
And greying the daisy
And the horse in the pasture
By the railway tracks
Neighs at her neighbour’s foal
The old goat still chews
While the sparrows are darting
Around the larking lark

The day languidly ambles on
Hotter and sweeter with every breath
As we entwine each other
With sweet caress
The blackbird chases a butterfly blue
And the ants just don’t give
A fig for you, as they scurry
To their milking place
Where the aphids await
Fat and full and chewing cud

And the dusk comes on
As we come with each other 
Loving each nuance on this perfect day
And we sigh together
As master Sun goes down
In a blaze of glory
Outshone only by the distant dawn
All is peaceful and peace is fine
As the crickets awake
And the flies seem asleep

Lush green turning silver
Echoing the full bloom of the Moon
And the sparkling stars
On the upturned leaf 
Shadows fade into dusk
Clear water pools gone
To be replaced by reflections
Of tall thin poles
With bright yellow heads
Lighting our way to the night

And away in the distance
What look like regiments
Of fireflies darting about
Blinking red and yellow and white
To the incessant thrum
Of the cars on the Broadway
Disappearing under, and over
And through and through
Bright coloured graffiti and shafts of light
Vying with natures memorable sights

As we sigh again
Some hours have passed
The chill on our bodies glow in the dark
The trees sigh
The bushes whisper
The grass silently sways
In its untended splendour.
Nature is silent
As we dress once again
Even the cars seem to sleep

In the clear feeling light of night
That long since ousted the gently pregnant
Fragrant warmth of day
We dressed in calf made trousers
And red and gold velvet shirts
Pulled over the goose-bumps
That followed our nocturnal love
Calf high boots donned
Against the creeping chill
We resumed our rambling stride

The path followed deeper 
Under the all enveloping
Canopies of purple
Emerald and ruby
No wind zephyring below the boughs 
To reach us within this earthy womb
Merely rustling the treetops
Not to penetrate this deep recluse
Twigs snap beneath our uncertain tread
The owl hoots, blinking at the Moon
Low beneath a whispering cloud

And two cats are seen watching
As four green fire spots
By the trunk of an elm
Only to disappear
Easily with simultaneous blink
To caterwaul in love
In the private of a distant shrub
By the quiet stream
Burbling and babbling
And bubbling from beneath

We walk on with super ears
Fixated by every sound
And eyes assaulted
By shadow shapes around
Brushing against a myriad of leafy life
Springingly stepping natures turf
Savouring the crisp lazy smell 
And wet fragrance of the boughs
Tasting the freshness in the very air
As we hold each other’s hand

And sensing another knowledge
Of a life beyond all this
Unseen but all about
Defying all our senses 
Defying us to deny
The feeling of pure satisfaction
A deep sigh of pleasure
A realization of power
Welling up from deep inside
In tune with the universe in our stride

And the purple patches of the sky
Spreading to us as we emerge from night 
Inevitably heralding the dawn again
And so, we stop to savour
A moment in each other’s arms
To make love and rest awhile
In an open space
No wider than my height
Yet bigger than all reality
As once again we sigh