Our small ark ...

It's as though we're in Silent Running -

These fragrant leaves -


These tender stems -

Brave greenery in our small ark -




Thursday 30 April 2020


The conservatory
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset

Killing Eve ...

Killing Eve is like sipping a spooky cocktail -

Like holding an icy glass to your lips -

Or listening to dangerous music -

Wild boys holding honed guitars -.

The smile of the beautiful assassin -

Eve's tawny body -

Conspiracy, betrayal, love -




Wednesday 29 April 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset

Terrible moonlight...

I'm reading In Cold Blood -

I'm lighting a cigarette for Perry Smith -


I hear the confession in the car -

I walk with Perry up thr stairs -


A prairie wind stirs the Chinese Elms -

Kansas is bathed in terrible moonlight -




Tuesday 28 April 2020



The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 

My world bounded by innocent streets ...

There, in a nest of diaries, I found my diary for 1968 -

I was was sixteen again, reading the nervy pages -

A skinny boy, dreaming of girls -

Skiving PE -

Reading A Portrait of The Artist in the summer classroom -

Marvelling at the words -

Watching A Man For All Seasons at The Ritz -

My world bounded by innocent streets -





Monday 27 May 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dirs

A suitcase with five goose eggs...

The suitcase looked well travelled -

I pictured Cunarders, Rio de Janeiro -


Perhaps a gun runner had held this suitcase close -

His linen suit crumpled, salt stained -


A dire telegram clenched in his fist -

Forged notes where now we saw goose eggs -




Sunday 26 April 2020


Highwood
Dorset

A field in England ...

I'm watching A Field in England -

My heart's racing -

O'Neill's looking into a scrying mirror -

I hear screaming I never want to hear again -

I smell the sweat of terrified men -

I wear soiled lace -

I'm bare-headed -

I can see beneath the skin of the world -

A dark sun fills the sky -





Saturday 25 April 2020



The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 

Wearing a coat made of yellow feathers...

This is a time for finger posts -

To follow mazy paths through willow and hazel -


To gaze at red campion -

To walk past a silent house -


A time to ride a fearless horse -

To wear a coat made of yellow feathers -





Friday 24 April 2020


near the lake
West Lulworth
Dorset 

Lost names on my lips ..

Blossoms fall from the tree -

Pale fragments of warm days -


Shadows cast by a necklace of leaves -

A butterfly settling upon a white blossom -


The gentle wind, a soft breath -

Lost names on my lips -





Thursday 23 April 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 

Closing the book ...

Closing the book, I thought I was still in Rodion's garret -

Feverish, staring at the dirty ceiling -


Or in the teeming street -

Weeping children dancing -


My head already shaved -

The man who saw ghosts leaving for America -


A horror in the sunlit drawing room -

Lazarus coming forth -




Wednesday 22 April 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 

Beautiful prey of the water wolf ...

The fish leapt -

A desperate jewel -


In mid air, shining -

Beautiful prey of the water wolf -





Tuesday 21 April 2020


The lake
West Lulworth
Dorset 

Remembering Xanadu ...

Suddenly, I thought of Top of The Tops -

Anne was singing Xanadu -

She cracked an invisible whip like Dave Dee on a 1960's telly -

My mum loved them -

That creepy jaunty crew -

Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Tich -

After Tomorrow's World -

The telly quivering with each crack of the whip -

That black barren land -

That bears the name of Xanadu -





Monday 20 April 2020


Binnegar Heath
Dorset

A Southsea poet's peaty nightcap ...

I ready myself for a bumper of Hobgoblin -

I picture myself in the wind shaken snug -

Sea shanties before a driftwood fire -


My next bumper one of Moonlight -

My peaty nightcap shared with a Southsea poet -

His verses like glowing coals -




Sunday 19 April 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 

Blessed with the bright light which fell upon him ...

We saw the folly reflected in the lake -

Lichened stone painted on water -

Here we might sit, watching swallows -

A book of verse, as though old Omar beckoned us to sit -

My dear dead keeping me company -

The book of verse from my dad's pocket -

Marked with the salt of the oceans he crossed -

Blessed with the bright light which fell upon him -




Saturday 18 April 2020


The lake
Lulworth
Dorset 

A green crown for golden days ...

We watched the lambs in their joyous world -

There was blossom on the alder trees -


New leaves to weave around your head -

A green crown for golden  days -





Friday 17 April 2020


East Stoke
Dorset

The memory of a smile ...

Bluebells scent the wood at the end of the narrow lane -

Deer cross the field -


I wear no watch -

I tell myself stories -


The chapel on the hill -

The memory of a smile -





Thursday 16 April 2020


East Stoke
Dorset 

Drawn to Rider Haggard ...

I think I'll read Rider Haggard -

Anne's reading King Solomon's Mines -

There are wild black warriors -

Stalwart Englishmen who never tell lies -

Jungles -

A hideous witch doctor -

A beautiful girl who dies for love -

Splendid figures of men -

Rifles -

A king in exile -

Diamonds to fill my pockets -

An estate with a ha ha as my reward -





Wednesday 15 April 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset

The invisible ones ...

The wind blows over the long field -

Lifts crows over hawthorn -


Scatters blossoms -

Carries the invisible ones -


Sings their names -

Shapes their faces in the clouds -





Tuesday 14 April 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 

The waiting air ...

I see the garden through the window -

The apple tree, the bright grass -

I see the shape I left in the waiting air -





Monday 13 April 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 

Mute birds...

This is our new world -

The slow flight of bees -


Reading The Aerodrome under drowsy blossoms -

Anne reading King Solomon's Mines -


Hearing the sighs of empty trains -

Walking barefoot under the blueness of the sky -


Our fears, tongue-tied crows -

Mute birds flying around our heads -




Sunday 12 April 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 

Swallows amongst the orange trees ...

There are more blossoms on the tree -

More birdsong in the garden -

Each hour a golden gift -


I'm eating olives, remembering laughter in the gracious house -

Figs fallen upon the marble pavement -

Swallows amongst the orange trees -





Saturday 11 April 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset

Lost in the brightness...

I remember Pam -

Her gentleness, her wise smile -

The way she spoke to the wounded boys -


Ben told us today that she had died -

Swept away -

Lost in the brightness falling from the air -





Friday 10 April 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset

The afternoon had become a story ...

I saw a slow worm on the path -

Moving from sunlight to shadow  -


I saw its exquisite glistening head -

Its curve of strange flesh -


I ran to tell Anne -

The afternoon had become a story -


What might we find in the awakening wood -

What words, what secrets might fall from that flickering tongue -




Thursday 9 April 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset

His world filled mine ....

Wallace wore his trawlerman's jersey -

His diggers were drawn up around him -

Here he played his intricate games -

A guileless sun warmed his garden -

Wallace sat back, smiling -

His world filled mine -




Wednesday 8 April 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 

There were pearls caught in my hair ...

Seven crows flew over the field -

I saw their black wings -


There was dew still on the grass -

New born wheat -


The world was green -

There were pearls caught in my hair -




Tuesday 7 April 2020


East Stoke
Dorset

Reading a foxed Arrow ....

I'm reading a foxed Arrow -

Bram Stoker's The Lady of the Shroud -

It was a birthday present -

I was a spooky boy, thirteen years old -

Pale and shy in my narrow bed -

Gazing at the lurid cover -

The woman in her grave clothes at the foot of the cliffs -

The wild ancient sea -

Bram Stoker author of Dracula -

The moon in the sky above Palmyra Road -





Monday 6 April 2020

The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset

Sharing apples with the moon...

There are early blossoms on the tree -

New leaves -

A small bird singing -

A lawn to walk barefoot -

Apples to share with the moon -





Sunday 5 April 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 

This dangerous summer ...

We will swim here, this dangerous summer -

Make our way past the birch trees and blackthorn - 

Stretch out on the warm grass - 

Watch the clouds shape faces in the water - 

Saturday 3 April 2020

East Stoke

Dorset 

Our consolation ...

We saw the pale blueness of new bluebells -

Heard birdsong in the narrow lane -


These were our wild places -

The water meadows, the quiet woods -


Our gentle world -

Our consolation -





Friday 3 April 2020


East Stoke
Dorset 

Jay picking sloes ...

Jay remembers picking sloes -

His dad, home from the sea -

The two of them, picking the November fruit from the blackthorn -

The sloes staining their wary fingers -






Wednesday 1 April 2920




The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset




A

Apples where I now see the moon .,,

I can see a twilight sky -

The awakening tree -


The new leaves promise summer -

Apples where I now see the moon -






Tuesday 31 March  2020


The garden
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset