Friday 31 August 2018

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




Thursday 30 August 2018

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


Wednesday 29 August 2018

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 

Tuesday 28 August 2018

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

Monday 27 August 2018

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  



Sunday 26 August 2018

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






Saturday 25 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 





Friday 24 August 2018

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 

Wednesday 22 August 2018

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 







Tuesday 21 August 2018

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 







Monday 20 August 2018

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 





Sunday 19 August 2018

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 



Saturday 18 August 2018

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 





Friday 17 August 2018

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 







Thursday 16 August 2018

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 



Wednesday 15 August 2018

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 



Tuesday 14 August 2018

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 









 








Monday 13 August 2018

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


Sunday 12 August 2018

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