A burning pen ...

I'm in The Old Granary -

Warmed by a wood burning stove -

The deer hound in the ironmongers is hunkered down -

Gentle hip hop's playing -

I'm reading Germinal -

That Zola !

Those miners, in that flat dire land -

Those pits -

Each page sends you reeling -

I read then in a newspaper about food banks -

Pinched lives -

Immiseration -

We need a Zola -

A calling out of lies -

A j'accuse ! 

A burning pen -


Friday 15 November 2019


The Old Granary
Wareham
Dorset