A radio's crooning ...

I'm sitting in Paul's - 

A radio's crooning - 

There's a framed photograph of Sean Connery hanging on the wall - 

He's wearing a suit with very narrow lapels - 

The Salavationist is standing outside the Post Office - 

Visitors in dripping cagoules walk through the gentle town - 

I can hear Paul murmuring something to an oldster in the barber's chair -

The Black Bear is open for a full English - 

In a few moments, Paul will cut my hair - 

I'll see my face in the mirror - 

Time will pass - 

10.58

Thursday 30 June 2016

Paul's Gents Hairdressers

Wareham 

Dorset 

Long memory will fall upon us from the sky ...

This afternoon, Penelope and I looked at maps of the Northumbrian coast - 

In a few weeks time, we hope to walk on Inner Farne - 

We will hear the voices of sea birds above hallowed stones - 

The cold waves will break upon the rocky shore - 

Long memory will fall upon us from the sky - 

Our companions will feel the wind upon their faces - 

Seals will watch us with forgiving eyes - 

16.00

Wednesday 29 June 2016

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset

I'm reading Gurdjieff ...

I'm reading Gurdjieff now rather than John Rentoul's tweets - 

I've had enough of apes being given Ming vases * - 

Annick first told me about Gurdijieff - 

She showed me her copy of Ouspensky's Tertium Organum -

She blew dizzying smoke into my mouth - 

Later we went to The Wykeham Arms - 

I saw UFOs flying over St Catherine's Hill - 

The cathedral cast its ancient shadow - 

Man lives his life in sleep I read - 

 

* When Boris Johnson became editor of The Spectator, his friend and biographer, Andrew Gimson, said it was like entrusting a Ming vase into the hands of an ape - 

20.42

Tuesday 28 June 2016

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset

Forgetting Referendum Blues ...

Swimming, I thought, would make me forget my Referendum Blues - 

I'd put on my wetsuit, and swim in the blameless sea -

I found the wetsuit inside a neglected wardrobe, curled up in a nest of tweed - 

I bought it ten years ago in St Agnes - 

We drove to Studland in the red wounded beast - 

Qashqais filled the National Trust car park  - 

We walked past dads in shorts towards Knoll Beach - 

Fearless children braved the icy zinging waves - 

Dogs chased tennis balls - mums towelled daughters dry - 

We made our camp amongst the dunes - 

Tweets counted for nothing whilst I was swimming - 

Afterwards, I lay upon the sand - 

Peeling off my suit, I felt the wind upon my skin - 

My mind was emptied of thoughts - there were no words upon my tongue - 

13.30

Monday 27 June 2016

Studland 

Dorset

We've got Britain back ...

I walked through the empty precinct -

I'd just taken my mum and dad to church - 

There were only two diners in McDonalds - 

Later I would drive through the colourless  estates - 

I would buy The Mail on Sunday in a convenience store - 

Rain would fall on the narrow gardens - 

Strange dogs would roam the banjos - 

This was not a place for chinos - 

There were no young men with Assyrian beards - 

A man on a mobility scooter would tell me we've got Britain back -  

10.00

Sunday 26 June 2016

Havant 

What words would they find? ...

I knew what would happen before I glimpsed it on my I phone screen - 

The sad hollowed out towns had spoken -

In the shabby parades, in Poundlands, outside boarded up shops, the dispossessed had found their voice - 

What would they say, I wondered, when nothing changed?

The cruel wind would blow through their forgotten streets - 

What, then, would they cry out?

What words would they find?

18.00

Friday 24 June 2016

East Stoke 

Dorset 

They imagined themselves wise ...

I marked my cross with the ballot pencil -

It was early morning - 

I'd walked past the sheep grazing in the water meadows - 

In polling booths all over the divided land, innocents imagined themselves wise - 

09.30

Thursday 23 June 2016

East Stoke

Dorset 

It's no longer England ...

There's nothing more we can do Cherry said - 

It was the day before the Referendum - 

Cherry had sensed my desperation - 

I'll be there at the count she said - you know what it's like round here - 

I thought of the woman in Anne's yoga class - 

We're losing our Britishness she'd said - 

I remembered the man outside Budgens -

He held his e cigarette like a stiletto - 

It's no longer England he'd said - 

11.00

Thursday 22 June 2016

East Stoke 

Dorset 

No cruel voices could enter our silence -

The first Lord Portland could ride from here to Bath without leaving his land - 

The man with a beard like Joseph Conrad and half moon glasses smiled a shy courtly smile - 

Penelope and I were walking the Stour Valley way from Blandford to Bryanston - 

Climbing up the winding path, we'd heard birdsong in the hanger - 

We'd glimpsed a wide river and walked into a field of white poppies - 

Dreams had haunted each pale flower - 

I first came here fifteen years ago the man said - 

I'd lived in Suffolk - the winds would blow in across the sea -

The third Lord Portman died soon after the second - the fourth sold the estate -  

I admired the gentle garden, the book filled rooms in the gracious house - 

House Martins flew above the mossy rooftops - 

A sheep grazed amongst indolent bees - 

We smelled the perfume of the earth, the scent of ancient roses - 

The air was sultry, heavy with the past - 

No cruel voices could enter our silence - 

12.30

Tuesday 21 June 2016

Bryanston 

A couple would soon dance the tango amongst the poets ...

Walking by the river towards Ridge, we walked in the footsteps of Percy F Westerman - 

He'd moored his houseboat here, within sight of Lady St Mary - 

His rollicking tales for boys had once sold in their tens of thousands -  

I remembered Bernie telling me that he'd read A Lad of Grit - 

We were in kitchen where a couple would soon tango amongst the poets - 

Bernie was laughing dangerously - 

He'd spend the cold months in Tenerife or Morocco - 

I think it was the night Richard was later trapped under a fallen bike in the hall - 

16.21

Monday 20 June 2016

On the banks of the Frome

Wareham

Purbeck

Dorset 

The organist lets slip a secret ...

After the service, I held my mum's hand, helping her up the steps -

The choir had finished singing - 

The shops were opening in the High Street -

A youth unlocked the shutters of Poundland -

Then the organist started playing Beethoven's Ode to Joy - 

The noble music filled the Norman Church - 

Canon Tom shook my hand - 

Naughty he grinned - we shouldn't be telling you what we think - 

11.00

Sunday 19 June 2016

St Faith's

Havant 

The audience groaned at the mention of their names ...

Outside Specsavers, a man begged for small coins - 

He held a tin whistle to his lips - 

I heard a few notes of the piteous music -

Saturday shoppers drank Americanos in Costas - 

Three withered oldsters handed out Brexit leaflets - 

I was on my way to a public meeting - 

Shaun told us of the plans to close the A&E and Maternity Departments at the hospital - 

I remembered the calm professionals who had saved my life - 

The Conservative MPs had declined the invitation to attend the meeting - 

The audience groaned at the mention of their names - Drax, Syms, Ellwood, Tomlinson - 

11.00

Saturday 18 June 2016

Spire Hall

Dorset 

 

The liars wear golden crowns ...

I'm reading Celine's Journey to the End of the Night - 

These times need a savage voice - 

*

Hollowed out words are on every tongue - 

Beautiful suits hide putrid bone - 

*

The music starts up, the age old deceitful tunes -  

The bright souls are extinguished - 

The liars wear golden crowns - 

20.19

Friday June 17 2016

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset 

 

Creech Barrow ...

We followed the narrow path upwards through waist high bracken - 

A dragonfly followed us - 

We breathed in the dizzying scent of tangled fronds - 

Dark clouds moved across the sky - 

We saw a kestrel from the summit of the hill - 

It hovered above the green world, beyond the need for names or song - 

Under the turf were hallowed bones - 

Rivers flowed into the pale harbour -

Cattle grazed on the windswept fields -

Soon we would hear thunder - 

Rain would fall upon the ancient land - 

11.20

Friday 16 June 2016

Creech Barrow

Dorset 

  

Letterboxes ...

I saw many letter boxes this morning - 

Some gave a glimpse of a pristine carpet, others of a mean hallway - 

Each house let slip a few of its secrets - 

I might hear someone cough or shut a bedroom door - 

A radio might be playing a love song - 

The bottom step of the stairs might be covered with broken toys - 

Each front door guarded a small yet precious world - 

13.00

Wednesday 15 June 2016

Delivering leaflets 

Wool 

Dorset

Their faces were like like unsettling masks ...

When I mowed the lawn, I forgot the braying headlines - 

Earlier, I'd thought I was living in The Thirties - 

I was sitting next to Auden in a dark bar - 

I, too, was living in a low dishonest decade - 

I scooped up grass cuttings in my hands - 

I walked bare foot over the fragrant lawn - 

I forgot the hateful headline in The Sun - 

I could not recall the features of the big beasts urging Brexit - 

Their faces were like unsettling masks, half formed, melting, floating in the air before me - 

16.00

Tuesday 14 June 2016

East Stoke

Dorset 

A secret plan ...

I started delivering Labour In For Britain leaflets this morning - 

I pushed leaflets through the letterboxes of bungalows - 

Cold Callers were unwelcome here - 

Pensioners mowed lawns - 

Empty lounges were like stage sets - 

Shining cars filled up narrow driveways - 

Dogs barked in small gardens - 

I glanced at The Daily Mail in the local Spar - 

There was a secret plan to open our borders to 1.5 million Turks - 

13.30

Monday 13 June 2016

Wool 

Dorset

The framed photographs on the mantlepiece -

Are you married? my mum asked me -

Yes I said, showing her a photograph of Anne on the I phone - 

Do you have a home? she then asked - 

Yes I said, showing her another photograph - 

There's the house - there's the apple tree - look, there are the apples on the branches - you've been to our home - 

She pointed to the framed photographs on the mantelpiece -  

Who are they? she asked - 

That's Sophie - that's Tessa - that's Lucille - that's me and Nick with you when we young -

Thank you she said - 

I often look at them and wonder who they are - 

17.39

Sunday 12 June 2016

Staunton Road

Havant

In the hidden kingdom ...

The twilight garden was a hidden kingdom - 

Blackbirds sang in pollarded trees - 

Tall shrubs screened the gentle lawn  - 

A dragonfly circled the emerald pool - 

A chimenia was full of fragrant ash - 

Terracotta pots brimmed with flowers - 

Seabirds flew overhead - 

In the greenhouse there was a fine crop of Ferring Gold - 

16.00

Saturday 11 June 2016

Ferring

West Sussex

At the referendum stall ....

Johnson's a buffoon - 

The white haired bruiser laughed, joshing the Lib Dem lady - 

I don't care - let's have President Trump over here! - 

He pointed to the Remain leaflets - 

What will you do with all that when you lose? - 

Post them to you said the Lib Dem lady - 

A young mum approached the stall with her Brexit mother - 

She said if we leave what will stop them mum? - 

It's accountability - they'll do what they like - you know we've been to the food bank - they're Tories mum - 

A thin matron offered to buy me a coffee - 

Where's Drax? a man asked - why wasn't he at the hustings? - 

He's behind his wall I said - 

14.45

Friday 10 June 2016

Swanage

Dorset 

Casimir and Lidia ...

I walked through the silent garden - 

The doors of the gracious house were open - 

A mist obscured shapely trees - 

I glimpsed beautiful naked figures, men and women, cast in bronze - 

The artist told me she had cast her first figures when she was seventeen - 

She showed me two splendid heads - 

That's Casimir she said - there's Lidia - 

I gazed at the two heads - 

At any moment, I thought, they might part their brazen lips - 

11.30

Thursday 9 June 2016

Steppes Hill House

Langton Matravers

Dorset

Book are like birds ...

I'm reading The Quest for Baron Corvo in the sunlit garden - 

I bought the book on the Southbank - 

I handed some small coins to a rogue wearing a trilby - 

I wonder who has also turned these yellowed pages - 

Books are like birds I think, flying from hand to hand -

16.30

Wednesday 8 June 2016

East Stoke

Dorset 

The Turkish converses ...

I put on my Turkish Converses this morning, lacing them up under a pale sky - 

I remembered buying them in Gokova market - 

I held gaudy currency in my hand - 

The lean patron smiled - 

You are this size he'd said - I will take your old shoes - 

He watched me try on the pristine footwear - 

Yermi bes he said - 

He folded the notes away in his wallet -  

In the Cafe Pastane, I'd admired the long white laces - 

I flexed my bare feet against the soles - 

Now, I thought, I could walk to China - 

18.18

Tuesday 7 June 2016

East Stoke

Dorset

A hero would now walk with us in our small world ...

I took the red wounded beast to the hand car wash this morning - 

The bold Serbs were undismayed by the state of the upholstery - 

While I sat in the diner, reading Carp News, they jet washed the tyres - 

A wiry boy scrubbed the seats with potent cleansers - 

The radio under the poster of Sarajevo played a 1980s anthem - 

A wheezing man left his Skoda with the Serbs - 

He read the pull out from The Sun about Muhammad Ali - 

I remembered watching the Sonny Liston fight on the glowing Ferguson - 

I was twelve years old - 

Next morning in the playground we were kings - 

A hero would now walk with us in our small world - 

13.00

Monday 6 June 2015

Car Valet Diner

Holton Heath

Dorset 

Dorset Arts Week ...

Golden tapestries hang from the walls of Saxon churches - 

Travel worn sketch books are opened in dimly lit parlours - fragrant dust spills from their glowing pages - 

 

There are sinuous bronzes in quiet gardens - 

Louche artists open their disordered studios - 

Red spots mark paintings sold to incomers -

At the Boilerhouse Gallery, a man will play delicate guitar - 

All this week I'll find beauty and strangeness in the hidden villages - 

14.30

Saturday 4 June 2016 

Corfe Castle

Dorset  

A bundle of Gollancz ...

You've taken a photograph of my father's books - those were his books - 

I turned to see a tall woman, smiling, straight backed, wearing beautifully distressed clothes - 

She stood by the quirky memorabilia which had caught my eye - 

He was a conscientious objector she said  - he knew Kingsley Martin - 

When I was at school, the Headmaster asked me to remove my CND badge - 

I said no - and that if he made me, there'd be an article about it in next week's New Statesman - 

I was one of the Woodcraft Folk - 

I spent a lot of my childhood naked - 

On the hill behind my father's farm there was a CND sign carved into the field - 

The Ordnance Survey never showed it on their maps - 

14.30

Saturday 4 June 2016

The Arty Bazaar

Corfe Castle 

Dorset 

Elaine smiled her siren's smile ...

Catherine was playing reels for the Southsea Poets in the Aurora Cafe - 

I was sipping Merlot - 

Richard had three poems sleeping in his pocket - 

Catherine's beautiful legs were hidden by her gauzy trousers -  

A man wore a lascivious trilby - 

Audi Maserati ran his hands through his amazing hair - 

He then read out a poem about a piano and Jean Luc Godard - 

I saw my reflection in the mirror - 

My blue shirt was open at the neck - 

Elaine smiled her siren's smile - 

21.00

Thursday 2 June 2016

Aurora Cafe

Southsea