Dreaming of New England lawns ...

I'm reading The Virgin Suicides -

I'm alone on the yellow ship -

Pines shade the rocky shore -

Their long shadows cross the bright water -

I've taken off my father's watch -

There, under the resin scented sky, I dream of New England lawns -


May 2019

On board East Meets West
Off the Lycian Coast, Turkey 

The turtle ...

For a moment I saw it -

Where cool turquoise touched the bright air -

This ancient shape -

This graceful mystery -

Each one of us -

The time we took for a single breath -

Turning towards each other -

Wide eyed, laughing,

Lost in the wonder -

May 2019

On board East Meets West 
Off the Lycian Coast, Turkey 

The sisters remembered their girlhood ...

The sisters remembered their girlhood in the afternoon garden -

The small sister falling into the waves -

The anxious father -

The forbidden streets -.


Each memory uncovered another memory -

Reading Jackie -

Dancing to Top of the Pops -

Wearing eye make up like Twiggy's -


May 2019

Ferring 

Hunter Gatherer ...

We ate a vegan lunch in Hunter Gatherer -

Richard had read his poems here -

His poems were like shy animals -

His soft voice their gentle net -


May 2019

Hunter Gatherer
Southsea

Barney ...

Barney's an Irish Terrier Jo said -

He's twelve years old -

If he doesn't want to do something, he won't - 

Barney had an air of beautiful languid melancholy -

Wallace gazed at him with awe -

For him, Barney was a creature of legend -

A gentle prodigy -

A wonder -


May 2019

Scarborough 

The freebie ...

Every chair was full -

The radio was playing Flowers in the Rain -

A new customer came in -

Andy pointed with his scissors -

I put down Carp World -

Hey Will Andy called out -

Would you like a freebie ? - 

My man here's training -

A young tattooed god stepped forward -

It's a freebie -

Andy turned to the man whose hair he'd just finished cutting -

Sir he murmured -

Would you be thinking of an eye brow trim ? - 


Monday 13 May 2019

Barnets
Wareham

Choosing a tattoo ...

Not far from the Vaults, I came across Rob's Tattoo Studio -

I'd just eaten a bacon and egg roll inside the Vaults -

A kindly bruiser had taken my order -

Do you want the egg broken ? he'd asked -

I lingered outside Rob's -

I thought about getting a tattoo -

I gazed at the designs in the window -

Which one would I choose -

A bass guitar ?

A dragon ?

A Confucian sage ?

Yes, the sage -

But not yet, I thought -


Thursday 9 May 2019

Eastborough
Scarborough

Masters of the dangerous bend ...

Grizzled silverbacks were vaping in Valley Road -

They wore oil stained leathers -

Their motorbikes were like brutal sleeping animals -

They stroked their knotted beards -

Lords of petrol -

Masters of the dangerous bend -


11.39
Saturday 11 May 2019

Valley Road
Scarborough 

Walking unknowing ...

We walked through the Italian Gardens -

There were bluebells under salt rimed trees -

Wild garlic flowers -

A view of the sea -

A cloudless sky above The Esplanade -

A girl with dark eyes was serving teas inside The Clock Cafe -

Waiting for my scone,  I gazed at the bleached photographs on the wooden wall -

Women wearing long white dresses -

Children riding gentle donkeys -

The young men who would later go to France -

All walking unknowing across the sands -


14.40
Friday 10 May 2019

The Click Cafe
Scarborough 

New ships ...

Old stone kept off the wind -

I'd climbed the high hill to the castle -

Left behind the church and the town -

Up on the cold walls I could see the wild water -

The long white waves making the sea road to the north -

There were buttercups amongst the salty grass -

Purple flowers growing from the stone -

I stood in a roofless hall -

I climbed the stairs where seagulls watched me pass -

The shard of the keep against the sky -

The wind carrying the years in from the sea -

The chapel, half buried in the earth, a nest of prayer -

The beacon waiting to be lit -

New ships to cross the sea -


11.30
Thursday 9 May 2019

Scarborough Castle 

Two worlds in Scarborough ...

A willowy barista crafted my cappuccino -

Through the window, I saw the high chimneys of the seafront villas -

Wallace rode a wooden trike through the pristine space -

There were photographs of Edith Sitwell -

A vase of austere flowers -

White walls, abstract art -

Yesterday had been a different world -

The harbour alleys, the narrow stairs -

Pub doorways, the music of jukeboxes -

Glimpses of afternoon drinkers -

Tattoo parlours, the Market Vaults -

The man with the beard of a prophet -

The soiled sleeping bag opposite Greggs -

The words of the girl to her lean mad eyed boy -

Don't be long - 

You heard - 

Don't be long -


10.00
Wednesday 8 May 2019

Woodend
Scarborough  

At the Clifton Hotel ...

I saw the poet's turret room from the rainswept Parade -

I followed the curving reef of sad hotels -

Long waves broke upon the shore -

I glimpse khaki on the stairs -

I look for a word written on the postcard sent back from France -


11.00
Tuesday 7 May 2019

Clifton Hotel
Scarborough 

First day in Scarborough ...

We ate scrambled eggs in the warm kitchen -

Wallace dreamed his dreams of trains -

Outside, rain fell on the high rooftops -

Pensioners wore bomber jackets -

Nippy taxis sought out fares -

Half empty hotels faced the sea -


13.59
Monday 6 May 2019

Scarborough 

LNER ...

I murmured the letters -

LNER -

The long train left the city of dream memory -

I remembered the riverside terrace of Somerset a House -

The egg cast in bronze -

The fountains in the courtyard -

The melancholy river gods -


The edgelands are flying past -

Garages -

Golf courses -

Retail parks -


I'll seek out tea Anne says -

Tea will be seven carriages away -

She stands in the narrow aisle -

We judder and quiver -

The train's like a bucking bronco she says -


14.50
Sunday 5 May 2019

Train to York

Reaching up ...

I saw the face of a friend I'd not seen for forty years -

Changed, yet not changed -

I remembered him playing the shining piano -

The summer moon above the trees -

The promise of the future -

Reaching up with searching hands -

The ripening fruits just above our heads -


May 2018

At the Count ...

I walked amongst the comrades -

I was one of many -

No longer silent -

Blown through the world like smoke -

Touching nothing -

Voiceless -

I was one of many -


Friday May 3 2019

Weymouth 

Sally tells me about the events ...

On all the bridges there were brave dancers -

Songs were sung to the glass towers -

Policemen wept -

The people wore the clothes of change -


Friday 3 May 2019

Weymouth 

The non voter ...

No -

Throwing down coat - 

I've just come back from work - 

No - 

Holding back lunging Staffy - 

Closing splintered door - 

No - 

I'm not voting - 

No - 

I'm just not voting - 

Saturday 27 April 2019

Swanage