Invisible hair ...

The crenellated folly overlooked the lake -

Two languid centuries ago, an aristo had ordered the stream dammed -

Now, tree roots were lapped by dark water -

Dragonflies were blue zigzagging marvels -

We walked on, towards the castle -

Festival tents were still being cleared away in the castle grounds -

Invisible musicians played their guitars, shook their invisible hair -


Wednesday 31 July 2019

Lulworth Castle
Dorset

Eavesdropping ...

I eavesdropped the Tuesday crocks -

They were between machines -

The Long Row and The Cross Trainers -

No one's died here yet said the one who looked like an ancient Captain Birdseye -

Not that I know of said the one who looked like Les Dawson -


Tuesday 30 July 2019


Purbeck Sports Centre
Wareham

A precious coat ...

A few more boxes to take to Sue Ryder - 

Then it's done -


Old books -

Tumblers -

Rayon scarves -

Clothes still shaped by the memory of their wearers -

That stoop -

That poorly back -


Giving my post code for Gift Aid -

Other hands holding a precious coat -


Monday 29 July 2019

Wareham  

The judgement ...

The court rose -

I remembered the words of the comrade from Greenwich -

They will look through the lens of The Law -

So it was -

A swirl of robes -

The bitter judgement -


Wednesday 24 July 2019

Court 69
Royal Courts of Justice
London 

Madeleines ...

This cabbage was my madeleine -

I remembered the parade of shops in Palmyra Road -

Getting potatoes for my mum -

The green grocer's hairy wrists -

The big notes in the Oxo tin -

There, in the market by the river, I was ten years old again -

I remembered running back across the road -

Shutting the gate -

Saying hello to Mrs Nicholson -

Going round the back of the house -

A voice from the kitchen I'd thought would be there forever -


10.15
Saturday 27 July 2019

The Market
Town Quay
Wareham
Dorset

The movement of the sea ...

The warm tide carried us towards The Fleet -

I felt seaweed brush against my legs -

A sea fret half veiled the Isle of Portland -

There was a beach of white pebbles -

We could see Billy Winters -

Later, we would sit amongst the raffish diners -

Now, there was just the clear water and the gentle waves -

The sky above -

The movement of the sea against my heart -


12.48
Friday 26 July 2019

Billy Winters
Weymouth / Portland 

Tracks of hares ...

The carvers have gone -

The young dreadlocked gods have put down their chain saws -

They gathered up their weather stained gear -

They left behind their shards of golden wood -

Tracks of hares upon the grass -


Thursday 25 July 2019

Wareham 

Disobey ...

The warm air smelled of cider and freedom -

Banners snapped in the warm wind -

I listened to the words of the young -

Disobey they cried -

Disobey -


Sunday 21 July 2019

Tolpuddle 

A forgetting of tomorrow ...

We sat barefoot in a secret garden -

All around was the city of stifling air -

Here there were butterflies -

Hidden flowers -

A gracious welcome -

A forgetting of tomorrow -


19.04
Tuesday 23 July 2019

Clapton
London 

A finish to stories ...

We saw the lake from the high hill -

Our journey together was coming to an end  -

There were shadows on the bright grass -

Trains arriving on time -

A finish to stories -


15.35
Tuesday16 July 2019


Bowness onWindermere

The Yorkshire Post ...

It was time to read The Yorkshire Post -

I'd eaten my full Yorkshire -

I'd drunk my scalding tea -

I sat in the lounge -

I remembered The Dark Horse after sunset -

I started to turn the northern pages -


09.00
Wednesday 10 July 2019

The Red Lion
Burnsall 

Richard WhatsApps me ...

Richard WhatsApps me from The Sirloin of Beef -

I can see his glass on the table -

I can hear the near midnight jukebox -


Sunday 21 July 2019

Nethergill Farm ...

Our path took us here, following ancient names -

We were led to a gentle roof -

There were wild flowers placed in old bottles -

Windows opened to the wild -

A bowl heaped with feathers -

An artist's sketchbook -

The trace of her bare feet upon the stone -


12.24
Friday 12 July 2019


Nethergill Farm

New apples ...

I put down my heavy glass and climbed the narrow stair -

Last winter's wood smoke scented my clothes -

There was a window seat in my attic room -

Long lived walls kept out the night -

Above me was a mossy roof, then stars -

When I woke, I'd sit in the window seat -

I'd let the sunlight in -

I'd hold the years left me like new apples in my hands -


Thursday 11 July 2019


Hubberholme

The moon over Ash Henning ...

There was almost a full moon in the twilight sky -

Four crows flew high above the valley -

Sheep still grazed in the darkening fields.

We'd walked across the ancient bones of this empty land -

Now we felt its forgiving silence -

The precious weight of our small souls -


Monday 15 July 2019

Ash Henning Farm 

Life's for the living ...

In the Autumn, I'm back in Nepal - 

To Annapurna next March - 

Patagonia later that year - 

Then Ushuaia - 

The mountaineer smiled -

Life's for the living he said -


16.30.
Tuesday 16 July 2019

End of the Dales Way
Bowness on Windermere - 

Sailing to Wray Castle ...

We sailed across the lake -

The fells were obscured by cloud -

A soft rain fell upon the water -

Alyson and Martin remembered bright holidays -

A woman swimming from the green shore to the island -

Children making dens in the garden of the welcoming house -

Each year still new -

Rich with laughter -

No shadows on the grass -


Wednesday 17 July 2019

Low Wray
Lake Windemere 

A square of green ...

I saw a square of green through my bedroom window ...

Sheep, haloed by early morning sunlight -

The July Northern sky -

The promise of a day's walking -

The pools of clear water in the diver's stony bed -

The high hills and  the flight of curlews -


Monday 15 July 2019

Ash Henning Farm
Howgill 

The lean farmer ...

The lean farmer left this dog in Martin's care -

I'll not be long he said -

If she bothers you, I'll let her go -

He sat inside The Sportsman, with his worn coat and wind burned jowls -

Dark ale filled his glass -

The river ran past us in its stony bed -


13.30
Sunday 14 July 2019

The Sportsman
Cowgill

Dent twilight ...

Golden light fell upon the hillside -

Attic windows became jewels -

I thought of Samuel Palmer -

Angels might stand on the branches of these shining trees -


21.30
Saturday 13 July 2019

Dent
Cumbria 

Leaving the valley lands ...

We left the valley lands, walking towards the sky -

The quiet river became a narrow stream -

Drystone walls traced names upon the moors -

Curlews flew above wind sculpted hawthorn -

Adrian told me about the Wild Wood -

The ancient world still touching this one -


Friday 12 July 2019

Oughtershaw
North Yorkshire 

Hubberholme ...

Monstrous pike watched us share stories of Upper Wharfdale -

A Jack Russell dreamed his fearless dreams -

J B Priestley had savoured ale under this ancient roof -

The river was bordered with shining stones -

A half moon shone in the northern sky -


Thursday 11 July 2019


Hubberholme
Upper Wharfdale 

Posh Yorkshire ...

We ate our curries in Rozis Tandoori -

There were shops selling beautiful costly jackets in the village -

Bijou eateries -

A wine shop with exquisite bottles -

This was what Tom meant by posh Yorkshire, I thought -


Wednesday 10 July 2019

Grassington
North Yorkshire 

The church clock sang the hour ...

The evening went by on tides of Merlot and Dark Horse -

Adrian and I shared our love of Mervyn Peake -

We spoke of the Bright Carvers and the Tower of Flints -

Outside, the river flowed under the five arches of the bridge -

The church clock sang the hour -

Night fell upon the land -


22.00
Tuesday 9 July 2019


Burnsall
Wharfdale 

The long train ...

The long train carries us through the edgelands -

Neill will read Horace Walpole's Memoirs -

Penny tells me that there are bees in the church tower -

The North will greet us with its stony arms and ancient tongue -


LNER train to Leeds

12.35
Monday 8 July 2019

Somewhere there, my grandfather lay ...

Richard showed me the powder monkey's grave -

We'd left Albert Road to enter a silent arcadia -

Yew trees shaded mazy paths -

Angels were wreathed with ivy -

A baronet lay inside an opulent mausoleum -

And somewhere my grandfather, William Bradey, lay -

A gentle blacksmith, a memory, part of me -


Wednesday 3 July 2019

Southsea 

The smoke in her hennaed hair ...

I read a few icy pages of Therese Racquin - 

The beach cafe would soon be closing - 

I put down my book - 

I heard a song from a car radio - 

I could see the gaudy reef of the pier, the worn hotels facing the sea - 

I remembered meeting Annick on this beach - 

She was with her latest boy - 

I sat with them on the warm stones - 

I saw the bronze bracelet round her wrist - 

I smelled the smoke in her hennaed hair - 

Tuesday 2 July 2019

Southsea  

The rose garden ...

Each bench remembered a husband or a wife -

I'd been here before, to this rose garden by the sea -

How quickly the little plaques were tarnished -

The swan boats gathered up in the middle of the lake -

The evening becoming night -

The waves breaking upon a stony shore -


Tuesday 2 July 2019

Southsea 

It would be smooth ...

I'd go here,  I thought -

This would be my barbers -

I'd drive here, with new notes in my pocket -

There'd be no copies of Carpworld here -

There'd be jazz, or smoky piano music -

It would be silky -

It would be smooth -


Tuesday 2 July 2019


Albert Road
Southsea 

Years whispering ...

We walked, the two of us, through midnight streets -

We'd heard jukebox laments, felt the years whispering, falling from the sky -

Now we walked past silent houses, followed by those we could no longer see -


Tuesday July 2 2019

Southsea 

I'd hear their voices ...

I looked for my parents' final bed -

I longed to hear their voices, even here -


I wanted to lie upon their bed -

I'd press my ear to the silent earth -


I'd put on the green coat they each wore, just for a moment -

I'd hear their voices in the final garden -


Tuesday 2 July 2019


Warblington 

Going on pilgrimage ...

Boozy greenery shaded the garden -

Inside the bar, there were framed photographs of 1970s TV stars -


Richard said that he and Kate might go on pilgrimage -

Their path together would start here, in these Southsea streets -


Across the sea they'd follow ancient ways -

The moon would be full in a sky filled with stars -


They'd make new stories -

They'd sing new songs -


18.43
Tuesday 2 July 2019

The Phoenix
Southsea

Time for a haircut ...

Waiting for the chair, I looked at the photographs in Carpworld - 

The small boys, cradling monstrous fish -

Gaffers casting their lines with knowing smiles -

It was my turn next -

Meanwhile, I listened to the banter -

Something about tattoos -

I read the sign above the chair -

What happen at the barbers, stays at the barbers - 

I put down Carpworld - 

Your turn now the barber said -



11.30
Monday 1 July 2019

Barnets
Warehan
Dorset