Reading Davy ...

I'm reading glorious Sci Fi pulp - 

Each page is like gulping a dizzying spritzer - 

A joyous brimmer - 

I'm welcomed into a new world - 

There's a bright crazy sky - 

A fearless scapegrace for a hero - 

Weird creatures, breathless adventures - 

I see my younger self, reading a fizzing Michael Moorcock - 

No time has passed, no time at all - 

There I am - 

Lost in wonder - 

17.01

Friday 28 December 2018

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Remembering the prophet ...

No wave or ripple stirred the water - 

No wind moved the clouds - 

This silence - 

This crescent of sand - 

These islands with dark trees in mazy channels - 

This egret - 

This sky - 

All one moment - 

There forever - 

Remembering the prophet - 

Eternity in an hour -

14.30

Friday 28 December 2018

Arne

Dorset 

.

Climbing the high hill ...

Once more I climbed the high hill - 

I followed a pilgrim's road - 

Wherever I walked, that road had been there before me - 

Invisible, waiting for my footsteps - 

Drawing me to where sky and land met - 

Where the sea was a mirror of heaven - 

11.18

Thursday 27 December 2018

St Catherine's Chapel

Abbots

Dorset

The past like wood smoke ...

Logs smouldered in the wood burning stove - 

Boxing Day grandmothers nibbled Lemon Drizzle - 

I turned the pages of my prize -

Despatches from the Peninsula - 

I have the honour to be, &c. Wellington - 

Praise for a pious youth - 

His character was fair, and unstained by vice - 

Delicate engravings of deer parks and church towers - 

I loved it all - 

The decorous prose - 

The past like wood smoke - 

Its heady fragrance clinging to these pages - 

13.00

Wednesday 26 December 2018

The Granary

Town Quay

Wareham 

Dorset 

Icy pearls entangled in our hair

I gazed up at the end of year sky - 

We were walking to Redcliffe - 

The pale river reflected the clouds - 

We carried our thoughts with us - 

They were like icy pearls entangled in our hair - 

13.40

Wednesday 26 December 2018

Redcliffe

Dorset

I'll remember all of this ...

Soon I'll light the fire - 

I'll remember all of this - 

The soft rain falling on the sand - 

The brave swimmers, the dunes, the white shells - 

The blackbird in a leafless tree - 

The woozy flutes of Prosecco - 

The carols - 

The three ships on a gentle sea - 

Tessa's laughter - 

Pistachios in a blue bowl - 

Face Time magic - 

Later, the faces of dear ones in the dark - 

Holding their hands and not being afraid -

18.03

Tuesday 25 December 2018

East Stoke

Studland 

Dorset 

Sitting at the long table ...

I sipped a Aperol Spritzer - 

We sat at the long table in Sally and Richard's house - 

A jam jar was filled with Ferring Gold - 

Sally told us about the shooting lodge in the Cairngorms - 

The young god protecting the HRH - 

How they'd gone swimming in the lido at Stonehaven - 

The steam rising from the water - 

The stars above the loch - 

The emptiness beyond the dawn road - 

The fish and chips eaten each night in the northern towns - 

16.00

Sunday 23 December 2018

Ferring

The young are beautiful ...

We lolled against zebra throws - 

The slim bare legged girl wore a green sleeveless dress - 

I felt shy before her dazzling smile - 

It's our theme she said - 

The 1920's - 

We sat in our dimly lit cosy corner - 

The young are beautiful Anne said - 

17.30

Saturday 23 December 2018

Re-loved

Dorchester 

Each night I heard its voice ...

Beneath us, the sea filled branching caves -

We were walking to Durlston Castle -

The year was coming to an end - 

I remembered the wind from the edge of the world - 

A year ago, it had sought me out - 

It had blown through the small bright house - 

It ranged above me, even now - 

Each night I heard its voice - 

22 December 2018

Durlston Castle 

Swanage 

Dorset 

St Lucy's Day ...

The poet followed me across the sand - 

I glimpsed his dark pirate's face, the lace at his throat - 

I heard his diamond mark the glass - 

John Donne Anne Donne, Undone - 

I saw him put on a long white gown - 

No busy sun shone upon his tangled bed - 

I remembered his subtle passionate words - 

The eyes of those I read them to - 

I counted the hours left until the dark - 

I felt the heat of my secret heart - 

15.00

Friday 21 December 2018

Arne 

Dorset

Angels will come into my house ...

The white cravat, the unsettling sadness of the visionary gaze - 

The wonders he saw in quiet fields - 

The sickle moon - 

The shining tree - 

The painter of my dreams - 

He guides my steps towards a prophet - 

Angels will come into my house to speak to me - 

Friday 21 December 2018

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset 

Walking with Jimmy ...

We walked with Jimmy between tilting headstones - 

Somewhere here lay one of my dear dead - 

The memory of a gentle smile -

A keen gaze that never minded my foolishness - 

Afternoons in the small house -

Aunts, laughing, with their bargains from the market in Charlotte Street - 

An uncle with jet black hair - 

Walking with Jimmy -

Soft rain falling from the darkening sky - 

Tuesday 18 December 

Southsea 

A silk scarf still wrapped around his neck ...

When that door opens I expect him to walk in Richard said - 

So did I - 

This was the place he called the tavern -

He'd stand there, before the bar, a silk scarf wrapped around his neck - 

Casting his words and smile - 

I remembered him playing the guitar one gaudy night - 

Still young then - 

Earlier that night, standing by a jukebox in another tavern - 

Bruce Springsteen singing - 

I'm sick of sitting 'round here trying to write this book - 

The glamour of that song and moment - 

It was true what Richard said - 

Any moment he might walk in - 

Bought back to life - 

Shaped by our memory - 

A silk scarf still wrapped around his neck - 

20.00

Tuesday 18 December 2018

Southsea

Rain falling ...

We were listening to The Blue Nile - 

Paul Buchanan was singing - 

His voice was full of longing, pure and sad - 

Do I love you ? Yes I love you - 

Oh men and women - 

We were listening to him singing in the near empty bar - 

There was a girl with ripped jeans - 

Two glasses on the table - 

It was like being inside a painting by Edward Hopper - 

Each moment stilled, just before midnight - 

Waiting to walk in the wounded streets - 

Rain falling from the starless sky - 

23.35

Tuesday 18 December 2018

Southsea 

Remembered fruits ...

I've almost finished reading Tender is the NIght - 

I'll close the foxed Penguin I took from the lounge of memory - 

I'll roll up my beautiful map of sadness - 

I'll remember the fruits of a golden tree - 

16.54

Sunday 16 December 2018

Salisbury 

Rain fell unceasingly ...

Rain fell unceasingly upon the seaside town - 

The wind drove high waves across the bay - 

No flaneurs loafed now on the promenade - 

The Claw was silent in Funworld - 

I sipped potent coffee with George in a steamy eatery - 

My umbrella glistened with icy raindrops - 

The year was coming to an end - 

Invisible dear ones waited for me in a final garden - 

15.01

Saturday 15 December 2018

Swanage 

An unseen sea ...

I climbed the high hill to Saint Catherine's Chapel - 

I held in my hand the prayer I'd written - 

I wore a coat woven from one year's sorrow -

The wind blew across the salt rimed grass - 

Crows were strange dark fruits in a leafless tree - 

I left my prayer inside the Chapel - 

Carrying my love to those who'd left me - 

Crossing an unseen sea - 

11.00

Friday 14 December 2018

St Catherine's Chapel

Abbotsbury 

Dorset 

Peterloo ...

These fawning reptiles - 

This voluptuary, his spite coiled like a sting upon his tongue - 

These magistrates hissing in their cruel courts - 

These mill owners, with their dark coats and relentless machines - 

These curved slicing blades -

This anguish - 

I see it now, as I did in an England of steam and coal - 

The same reptiles - 

The same oily obedience to monsters - 

The same outrageous suffering, still belittled - 

Yet now with I phones - 

Talking heads - 

Sleek jowls before clever screens - 

New lies - 

Old wickedness - 

12 December 2018

The Rex

Wareham 

Dorset 

Old names over coffee cake ...

Over coffee cake with Len and Marylyn, all the old names came back to me - 

Once so important, so much part of who I was - 

I heard their voices - 

I walked, once more, across the wild playground - 

I remembered the sting of Ofsted - 

The bad magic of numbers -

But, above all, the sense of a common purpose - 

Of being more than one person - 

Of sharing a noble aim with others - 

No matter how imperfectly achieved - 

11.00

Wednesday 12 December 2018

The Granary

Wareham

Dorset 

Paul held up his scissors ...

Paul held up his scissors - 

The blades gleamed like strange beaks - 

If Gravesend is 1 out of 10 he said Middlesborough is minus 10 - 

We never got out of the car - 

The blades of Paul's scissors whirled through my hair - 

I thought of the wind straight from Russia - 

Gulls clustering above a stained coastline -

Rain falling on hollowed out streets - 

The kingdom of the edgelands - 

Cigarette smoke filling colourless rooms - 

13.15

Tuesday 11 December 2018

Paul's 

Wareham 

Dorset 

The books my dad loved ...

I want to read all the books my dad loved - 

To drink cassis with Dick Diver - 

To sit in the garden above the wine dark sea - 

I want to ask Jay if you really can recapture the past - 

I want to pine for the light at the end of the dock - 

To see if boats can sail against the current - 

I want to share Yossarian's astonishment at that Catch - 

That outrageous wickedness, that Catch 22 - 

I want to join the bombardier, naked in the tree - 

Each of the books will bring my dad back to me - 

Each page entering my head - 

Holding the book with his hands - 

Voicing the words with his voice - 

13.47

Tuesday 11 December 2018

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset

Winspit ...

We walked through the silent village to the sea - 

Leafless trees reflected December sunlight - 

Each wind-shaken house was warmed by old memory - 

Remembered names were cast skywards from winter fires - 

The deep valley took us to the narrow bay - 

Drystone walls bordered ancient fields - 

Windscupted trees, then hawthorn, marked our path - 

Below us, the fissured rocks were white with foam - 

A boy had been drowned here - 

The dark swell was like a curtain - 

If it drew back, we'd see him - 

HIs bright shape lost amongst the waves - 

12.34

Sunday 9 December 2018

Winspit

Dorset 

.

Moment by moment becoming invisible ...

I threaded my way through Wetherspoons early morning drinkers - 

I handed Gordon his latte - 

Already there were three beggars in Falkland Square - 

Each one sat before his small coins - 

Pinched grey face raised to the sky - 

Moment by moment becoming invisible - 

Saturday 8 December 2018

Poole

The sidewall's shredded ...

I skim read Carp World whilst the new tyre was beng fitted - 

Strange machines hissed - 

I tried to look burly - 

I knew nothing about tyres - 

I gazed at the pictures of speeding dream cars - 

The sidewall's shredded the tyre fitter said - 

The Pirelli will cost you seventy nine - 

15.33

Friday 7 December 2018

Cribbs Tyre and Battery 

Sandford

Dorset