Waiting in The Chipperies ...

The Chipperies was a whirlwind of orders - 

Two Haddock four pickled onions - 

Jumbo battered sausage - 

Saveloy and chips - 

Large cod two small chips - 

I waited in the sunburnt queue -

Three cyclists talked about hills - 

I remembered the beach - 

The zinging sea - 

The salt on my skin - 

The shadows of pine trees on the sand - 

18.00

Friday August 31 2018

The Chipperies 

Wareham 

Dorset

By St Augustine's Well ...

I saw the ribbon I'd tied for my dear dead - 

The water welled up from the loving earth - 

I cast my offering into the shining basin - 

I remembered the swallows above the harvested field - 

The gentle sky touching the ancient hills - 

14.00

Thursday 30 August 2018

St Augustine's Well 

Cerne Abbas 

Dorset

I've got a horse ...

I've got this horse - 

It's only got to do two things - 

Go down - 

Pauses - 

Come back - 

But when the rain comes - the form goes out the window - 

I don't know what those jockeys done - 

Those other horses I could have beaten them with 

pair of shorts on - 

13.51

Wednesday 29 August 2018

South Beach

Studland 

Dorset 

The heat of summer ...

My wet suit was a precious skin - 

It held the memory of my young body - 

I hung it from the apple tree - 

Water dripped on windfalls - 

In my heart I held the heat of summer - 

17.30

Tuesday 28 August 2018

The Old School House

East Stoke 

Studland 

Dorset

Tom Cruise can't die ...

It's all action Neil said - 

Right from the start, non stop - 

He filled my glass with red - 

Summer visitors filled the bar - 

They shivered in their dripping cagoules - 

An ancient asked for a Wainwright - 

We've been stuck in our camper van all day he said - 

Yet the movie made us forget the rain - 

There was crazy motor bike action in Paris, a sexy girl in leathers - 

There was a sidekick called Luther - 

There was double cross and treble cross, a purring villainess - 

There was fiery mayhem - 

There was Tom Cruise, dangling from a plunging helicopter, dodging merciless gunfire - 

Why don't you die sighed the lantern jawed assassin - 

He's Tom Cruise I thought - 

He can't die - 

21.45

Sunday 26 August 2018

The Rex 

Wareham 

Dorset  

The Halfords Apollo ...

A mobile bike mechanic will soon look at my Halfords Apollo - 

For years it was left unmourned in the ruinous shed - 

Mice had nibbled its sad tyres -  

Cobwebs festooned the frame -

Anne has rescued it from rusty oblivion - 

I'll ride it again, wearing a Red Indian headdress - 

I'll remember the first bike I ever rode - 

My dad, running behind me, holding onto the saddle -

My dad, letting go - 

The wind in my hair - 

The alley flying past - 

The new world before me - 

14.44

Sunday 26 August 2018

Walking in Arne ...

I watched the clouds reflected in the water - 

A yawl sailed past reed beds towards Shipstal Point - 

Earlier I'd seen Californian poppies - 

The long years marked a fallen tree - 

We lay upon the cool white sand - 

Walking back through the bracken we saw a deer - 

I carry with me the memory of her beautiful silence - 

I can still feel the heartbreaking innocence of her gaze - 

13.50

Saturday 25 August 2018

Arne 

Dorset 

The kite surfers ...

The kite surfers were carried aloft by their taut sails - 

They skimmed the bright waves - 

Spray marked the dizzying passage of their swift boards - 

They were like lean young gods, immortal for an hour - 

13.39

Friday 24 August 2018

Billy Winters 

Portland 

Femme nue couchee et jouer ...

I see a woman playing a flute in a midnight garden - 

Another woman listens, eyes closed, to the languorous music - 

She stretches out, half dreaming - 

Moonlight falls on their long elegant bodies - 

Dark greenery hides the garden from the world - 

The music is cast like a silken net - 

Clouds fill the pagan sky - 

12.30

Thursday 23 August 2018

The EY Exhibition: Picasso 1932 - Love, Fame, Tragedy 

Tate Modern 

Walking to Arish Mell ...

Two swallows flew before us on Bindon Hill -

Penelope and I followed the white path to Arish Mell - 

We saw a yacht with red sails -  

Chalk cliffs rose sheer from the calm sea - 

Earlier, we'd seen two horses, grazing the high hilltop - 

We ate ripe blackberries - 

We gazed down at the empty beach - 

Waves broke upon the white stones - 

We remembered walking the fells, the swift rain against our faces -

We were walkers - 

Our feet knew the shape of the land - 

12.00

Wednesday 22 August 2018

Bindon Hill

Arish Mell

Dorset 

Paul cuts my hair ...

Paul held high the shining scissors - 

Who cut your hair last he asked - 

Was it a woman ? - 

I can tell - 

Barbers have secrets, I thought - 

They can read haircuts like conductors read a score - 

Paul laughed his rasping laugh - 

Anyway he said - 

How are you dear boy ? -

14.20

Tuesday 21 August 2018

Paul's

Wareham 

Out of the shadows ...

I gazed at the Lady with Lizards - 

I was beguiled by her cool beauty, the mocking half smile about to part her lips -

Nearby was a self portrait of the artist - 

He looked like a lean condottiere - 

Each of his paintings held my gaze - 

The orchard with dark drowsy trees - 

The old men playing cards -

The soldiers frozen with terror in the Judaean hills - 

When I saw the painting called Death of a Peasant, my heart was wrung anew -

I was once more in the room with pale yellow walls - 

I touched my mother's forehead - 

I stroked her hair - 

Her cold head lay on the final pillow - 

12.02

Monday 20 August 2018

Henry Lamb: Out if the Shadows 

Exhibition

Salisbury Museum 

The passing of the carvers ...

Only shards of golden wood marked the passing of the carvers - 

They left last night - 

I would have liked to have seen them leave - 

The dreadlocked bravos with their stilled chainsaws - 

The gleam of silver on a tattooed arm - 

The tipsy farewells to the gentle town - 

The bravos singing one last song - 

Then driving away -  

Each one following his own bright star - 

09.30

Sunday 19 August 2018

Wareham 

Dorset 

Listening to Waterloo Sunset ...

I'm listening to Waterloo Sunset - 

I'm in a city made of memory and dream -

I'm with my dad in the National Gallery - 

We stand looking at La Grande Jatte -

He tells me he's reading Tender is the Night -

I'm smoking Gitanes in Gordon Square - 

I'm wearing a leather jacket - 

The streets are magical and lonely - 

I'm dancing to Jean Genie - 

I'm scribbling notes in a marble library - 

In Highgate the pavements are covered with Autumn leaves - 

A lift takes me down to a midnight platform - 

Trains are filled with invisible people - 

I see my face in the dark window - 

I'm crossing the river - 

I never knew the river was so wide - 

16.00

Saturday 18 August 2018

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset 

Washing away our names ...

Swim towards the sun Anne said - 

Close your eyes - 

I closed my eyes and followed her - 

We felt the warm sunlight on our eyelids - 

I imagined the calm sea rising to cover the world - 

We were voiceless, lost in the moment - 

The gentle waves washed away our names - 

17.30

Friday 17 August 2018

South Beach

Studland 

Dorset 

Nothing is lost ...

A sad train will take me north - 

I'll exchange chalk hills for pale fields - 

Slow rivers will flow under a measureless sky - 

A wind will blow through empty streets - 

Yet I'll remember a joyous September - 

Your age and wisdom - 

Your shrewd kindly gaze - 

How we talked about the Jeremy Kyle Show - 

How you wore bright colours - 

I'll see you again - 

I'll hear your voice - 

I'll share your smile - 

Nothing is lost if you hold it close - 

16.10

Thursday 16 August 2018 

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Flowers Barrow ...

We ate tart apples on Flowers Barrow - 

Below us was the sea - 

Ripe blackberries had stained my fingers - 

I'd traced the flight of a kestrel - 

A deep ditch still ringed the hill fort - 

Under wind blown turf I heard the voice of ancient memory - 

12.00

Wednesday 15 August 2018

Flowers Barrow

Dorset 

The door ..

There it was, amidst portraits of jowly sea captains, the door carved and decorated by Derek Jarman - 

I remembered the Super 8 films, the sailors singing Stormy Weather - 

I'd read Smiling in Slow Motion that languorous summer - 

We'd driven, monstrously hungover, to Dungeness - 

There were small fishing boats offshore - 

Driftwood was like seared bone - 

The beach was a strange radiant world - 

The garden was haunted by Paradise - 

We read Donne's words - 

We heard the pale waves breaking upon the shingle - 

That evening I ate a Greek salad - 

There was a white moon in a sky filled with stars - 

13.30

Sunday 12 August 2018

Poole Museum 

 

The fragrance of unknown fruits ...

I'm sitting in the Minster - 

Above me there are stars in a blue sky - 

A warm wind blows against our faces - 

There's a fragrance of unknown fruits - 

Our hearts are filled with longing - 

Nkosi sikeli' iAfrika the four singers sing - 

Nkosi sikeli' iAfrika -

13.00

Monday 13 August 2018

The Minster

Wimborne

Drawn from life ...

I gazed at one of the women the artist loved - 

His louche eye had caught her beauty - 

She had the face of a wounded angel -

Vulnerable, exquisite, sorrowful - 

13.17

Sunday 12 August 2018

Augustus John: Drawn from Life

Exhibition 

Poole Museum