Capitalist Realism ...

I'm looking at a photograph of Mark Fisher -

I think about Capitalist Realism -

Of watching Children of Men -

Food banks - 

Men fighting in Spoons 

Mobility scooters - 

Border Police - 

A slogan above a talking head - 

Britain soldiers on - 

Wednesday 29 July 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke

Dorset 

Reading Sharp Teeth ...

I'm reading Sharp Teeth -

Bloodsongs from the cruel city -

I will run through a moonlit canyon - 

I will change my skin for brindled fur - 

Thursday 30 July 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

On being Pooter ...

I'm reading Diary of a Nobody -

Chortling when young Pitt calls out hornpipe ! -

Or when Pooter buys a pair of stags' heads made of plaster -

They look just the thing for our little hall, and give it style -

Yet, I'm filled with a gentle melancholy - 

Pages from his diary torn out to light a Holloway fire -

The villa with the railway at the back -

The morning bus - 

I think of my own life - 

Those small days - 

The well loved ornaments - 

The ship's crest - 

The Old School House rather than The Laurels

Tuesday 28 July 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dirset 

Polar Wood ...

The wind blew against the prow of the wood - 

A green boat on the chalk ridge - 

High above the white horses - 

Nearby the place where the Liberator came down - 

Flying into the hill - 

Bluebells grow in the wood - 

White reefs of wild garlic flowers amongst the blue -

This year, brightness fell upon the hill - 

I could not walk within the wood - 

Breath air scented by blueness -

Wear my shirt of flowers - 

Monday July 27 2020

Polar Wood 

Swyre Head 

Dorset 

Small apples ...

A windfall on lichened stone -

I pick up others blown from the  tree - 

Small apples, not yet grown - 

But perfect, shaped by summer - 

Like holding a promise my your hand - 

Sunday 26 July 2920

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Small treasure ....

A worn coin - 

A cherry stone - 

Memories of a fragrant summer -

A brown body in a linen dress - 

Cigarette smoke - 

The radio playing in a blue car - 

Saturday 25 July 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

D6

Chapman's Pool ...

We watched the mist come from the sea -

We felt the air grow chill -

Sea smoke hid Chapman's Pool - 

A pale silence fell upon our narrow stair -

Friday 24 July 2020

Chapman's Pool

Dorset 

Kodachromes ...

I found the Kodachromes behind a reef of foxed Panthers -

There's my dad, forty years younger than I am now -

Sweeney sideburns, a Cecil Gee jacket - 

Louche lapels - 

There's my mum - 

Her hair cut short - 

A summer sky above her head -

My brother -

His dark hair, his hidden soul -

Myself, with my yearning bones - 

The edges of our small town - 

The washed out colours of the Kodachromes stung my heart - 

Those forty years - 

Here in this room - 

Flying around me like songless birds - 

Thursday 23 July 2020.

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset

Wearing sunlight and clear water ...

Warm shadows lengthened on the sand -

We swam away from the drowsy shore -

I wore my second skin - 

I wore sunlight and clear water - 

Here, no owl could call my name - 

Wednesday 22 July 2020

South Beach 

Studland 

Dorset 

Woven round with flowers ...

The carvers have come back - 

Their horses graze amongst scarred camper vans -

Their young gods drink cider pressed from dizzying apples - 

They carve hares by moonlight - 

They shape the golden wood -

They dream of stags hunted across pale meadows -

The fierce goddess with her bow -

They run with the stags in the wild hunt -

They wear their antlers woven round with flowers - 

Tuesday 21 July 2020

Wareham 

Dorset 

Jaguar amongst foxgloves

Still zinging from the choppy dazzling sea -

I felt my heart slow from its gallop -

This was a place to sun myself -

Here, amongst the bracken and shuttered beach huts - 

A place to read of Manoa and the Golden Man -

To see a jaguar amongst the foxgloves - 

To feel my skin turn a copper brown - 

My hair jet black and shining -

A reed flute in my hand - 

A khoka leaf upon my tongue -

Monday 20 July 2020

Middle Beach

Studland 

Dorset 

North Lodges ..

No carriage now went past North Lodges -

No brougham or landau carried guests across the park -

Ivy filled the room where once a lodge keeper had worn his corduroy -

Knuckled his brown forehead before the gentry -

Swifts flew above the cold roof - 

Soft rain fell on gentle stone - 

Sunday 19 July 2020

North Lodges 

Lulworth Castle park

Dorset 

Reading foxed Penguins ...

I glimpsed the blue sea through the summer bracken - 

The bright colours of paddle boards - 

The bold girls sailing their rakish Hobie Cats - 

Soon we would take off our dry land clothes - 

Swim amongst the joyous waves - 

Wash away all melancholy - 

We'd dry ourselves with salty towels - 

Read foxed Penguins in the saucy dunes -

Saturday 18 July 2020

Knoll Beach 

Studland 

Dorset 

A new grief for each season ...

I heard the sheep as I walked by the field of ripening barley -

Lambs were parted from their mothers - 

There were crows above the water meadow -

Black shapes in the air - 

A new grief for each season -

Wednesday 15 July 2020

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Rain against the glass ...

I'm reading E M Forster's Maurice ...

There's a photograph of Forster on the cover -

A delicate, sad looking, face - 

Neat hair -

A small moustache - 

Almost Pooterish -

Yet I think of him, stroking the Egyptian boy's hair -

Later, in India, at a feast for Krishna -

I think, too, of Geoff -

Anne and I climbing the narrow stair - 

The dancer - 

The dark city beyond the window -

The moments almost forgotten - 

The rain against the glass -

Thursday 16 July 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

This waiting field ...

We walked past a field of maize -

It was as though I walked in a story -

Dark pages of beauty and unease -

This waiting field -

The sky reaching down -

Shapes in the clouds -

Wednesday 15 July 2020

East Lulworth 

Dorset 

I know Paul ...

Nanette cut my hair in the garden - 

Her scissors whispered above my head - 

There was birdsong - 

I asked if she knew Paul -

I felt a little guilty - 

Oh yes she said -

I know Paul -

Tuesday 14 July 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

On being Lucy Westenra ...

Like Lucy Westenra, I can hear a mouse stirring in our attic -

I'm wearing my ear machines -

That's what Wallace calls them - 

I'm beguiled by noises I'd stopped hearing - 

A moth's wings beating - 

A raindrop falling on a leaf - 

The sound of moonlight - 

A dragonfly landing on water - 

Monday 13 July 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset

Playing with Wallace ...

The front bedroom of Sunny Bank was our Forbidden Planet - 

There were dinosaurs in the wardrobe - 

Yellow diggers in our dreams - 

Wednesday 8 July 2020

Sunny Bank

Scarborough 

Pripyat funfair ...

The artist had visited the Zone -

She'd felt the silence amongst the birch trees - 

Heard the abandoned music of the funfair - 

The radiance still lingered in the air - 

Each moment was beautiful and terrible - 

Sunday 5 July 2020

Three Works 

Scarborough 

Walking away from the Grand Hotel ...

• 
  

I walked away from the Grand Hotel - 

There were darkening skies above the white hotels - 

Soon the lamps would be lit - 

Each faded villa would have yellow windows  - 

I would walk above the still sea as though I were in a painting by Caspar David Friedrich - 

I would be dressed in silence - 

Walking in step with angels - 

Monday 6 July 2020

Scarborough 

Ship of Fools ...

Ship of Fools -

I lifted up the bottle -

Cool and heavy with the dizzying ale -

A Swiftian glass to ease my lacerated heart -

Wednesday 8 July 2020

Scarborough 

North Bay ...

I wore a second skin of salt and foam - 

White waves fell upon my head - 

I wanted never to take off my second skin - 

Never to put on dry land clothes - 

A selkie would hold me in her arms - 

I'd sing in the voice she gave me -

Wednesday 8 July 2020

North Bay 

Scarborough 

The kite ...

The kite was a token of our joy - 

A bright shape in the helter skelter air -

There, with Wallace - 

This ribbed sand the end of my pilgrimage - 

This place where my heart was whole - 

Thursday 8 July 2020

North Bay

Scarborough 

The wild swimmer with red hair ...

The wild swimmer towelled dry her red hair - 

Her bare feet were still dusted with sand - 

She laughed her rich salty laugh - 

Gazed at the northern sea - 

Above her were the reefs of white hotels - 

A sky filled with opulent clouds - 

Monday 6 July 2020

South Bay 

Scarborough 

Falling Foss ...

Bright sunlight fell upon the trees of the deep valley - 

I saw the dazzle of water as it fell - 

Nearby, a stone house of many winters - 

I imagined living there, hearing the waterfall after rain - 

Opening the windows - 

This place my hermitage - 

The world washed clean - 

Sunday 5 July 2020

Falling Foss

Yorkshire 

The Italian Gardens ...

I walked once more in the Italian Gardens -

I saw Hermes bathed in northern sunlight - 

Water irises - 

A lichened fountain - 

Beyond the trees, the white yachts on the still sea -

Saturday 4 July 2020

The Italian Gardens 

Scarborough 

The pity of mobile phones ...

Tomorrow, we will leave the quiet valley - 

We will drive across a wounded England -

In each town, the sad leavings of those who have been taken - 

The pity of car keys - 

The pity of mobile phones - 

Friday 3 July 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

D8

Wild swimming ...

We walked past a water meadow fragrant with Lady's Bedstraw - 

Minnows danced in the river - 

Small slips of life - 

I would come back here - 

No longer sad or tongue-tied - 

Wild swimming under shining trees - 

Thursday 3 July 2020

Salisbury 

The Committee ...

PowerPoints, shiny words - 

Sly blarney -

Talking heads bobbing in the ether -

Unseen, the empty TV Lounge -

The framed photographs of grandchildren -

The empty armchair -

Wednesday 1 July 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

London Pride ...

Seeing the bottle, I was back in the lounge of memory - 

Just back from Waitrose with my mum - 

I'll get him one she'd say - 

It's his treat - 

She'd reach out for the London Pride -

We'd walk back home through Wilkos - 

Those Saturday mornings - 

Caffe Nero - 

All Saints Church -

The boyos smoking outside The Prince of Wales -

My dad in his armchair -

Those moments - 

They're with me still - 

There, as I open this bottle - 

There, as I drink this glass -

Wednesday 30 June 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset