Like a ray of light

Marylyn smiled when you spoke -

Remembering you in your classroom; like a kindly god -

Your charm like a ray of light, sweeping across our faces -

The Bear

Wareham 

January 2026

At the Boston Tea Party

Knotted beams held up uneven ceilings -

Jake marvelled at a picture of the Gruffalo -

Baristas crafted exquisite cappuccinos -

Rain fell on the ancient roof -

Boston Tea Party 

Salisbury 

January 2026

Each shelf filled with wonders

The quiet rooms were filled with books -

A youth with silver bangles and torn jeans sashshayed past the Memoires de Casanova -

I was beguiled by orange Penguins -

There were mazy corridors of Percy Westermans -

Tiger Standish getting his man -

Biggles with his manly gaze -

A grandfather clock with stilled hands -.

Each shelf filled with wonders -

Puddletown Bookshop 

January 2026

You think of what you should have said

Mel said you think you'll go on forever -

We were in Java -

Outside it was raining -

The sea and the sky touched the edge of the world -

Here we were warm, brought coffee by a slender girl -

I saw her thin dark wrists, how she wore her young beauty, like a dress made of cobwebs -

You think of what you should have said Mel said -

But then it's too late -

Java, Swanage 

January 2026

When you smile

Thinking of you walking here -

Next to this pale sea -

How you bring colour into the world when you smile -

Swanage

January 2026

Fevered with love

I took these photographs of you when I was fevered with love -

You lay naked on your summer's bed -

Your lovely body healing all my wounds - 

January 2026

Each day now

All I saw was bathed in light - 

Made wonderful and strange - 

The calm water touched the empty shore -

There was one leaf on a bare tree -

The pale blue sky was cloudless -

Stillness fell from heaven -

I saw all my years in the clear icy air -

My name written in scattered shells -

Each day now the edge of the world came nearer - 

The stillness deeper, the light more radiant - 

Shipstal Point

Arne

January 2026