Das Paradies ...

.

I've just watched the last episode of Dark -

The Paradise - 

Das Paradies - 

I've seen the last rain falling on the forest -

Heard the last strange song -

Felt the last pale kiss - 

Saturday 30 January 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Pulp ..

Reading spooky pulp, I'm like Edmund eating Turkish Delight - 

Each page is another beguiling mouthful -

A guilty pleasure of lurid covers - 

Winged apemen - 

Captive princesses - 

Tentacled horrors - 

Friday 29 January 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Trees and sky in water ...

I walked down Church Lane when I was made of smoke - 

I saw lambs in the quiet fields - 

Gulls flying back to the sea -

Trees and sky in water -

Thursday 28 January 2021

East Stoke

Dorset 

Their words at his midnight ...

I'm reading Edmund Blunden's poems -

Dark anguish marks each line of verse -

Rabbit glimpses the pale beauty of the moon -

The horror of blackened torsos - 

He hears the watchers in the night -

Their words at his midnight -

Who goes there -

Wednesday 27 January 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

One of a hundred thousand ...

Richard told me how Jenny had died -

The hospital had swallowed her - 

She'd taken her phone -

Making her last WhatsApp call - 

Gasping for breath on her terrible bed - 

One of a hundred thousand - 

Tuesday 26 January 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Peacocks in Bowling Green Wood ...

I've walked this green path through all the seasons -

From leafless winter to drowsy summer -

I've felt the cold wind through the hawthorn -

I've seen the warm sky filled with swallows -

Dark days become days of light - 

Seen fish leap for mayflies - 

Peacocks in Bowling Green Wood -

Monday 25 January 2021

Highwood 

Dorset 

Taking refuge in Midsomer Worthy ..

I take refuge in Midsomer Worthy -

Here I breath innocent air - 

There may be another murder Barnaby says - 

Sunday 24 January 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Turning the pages in my small kingdom ...

I'm about to read Undertones of War -

I found my dad's bookmark between page 90 and 91 -

I picture him, carefully folding the scrap of paper -

Placing it between the pages -

Putting down The Portsmouth Evening News -

A corner torn off the Sports Page -

Pompey player struck down -

Mid-fielder delighted with Blues move -

Already when I look in the mirror I see his face -

I sit in my chair as be did, turning the pages in my small kingdom -

Saturday 23 January 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset

Last summer's world ...

The window shows the bright garden -

Last summer's world - 

The apple tree - 

The shining lawn -

Friday 22 January 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

First snowdrops ...

I saw the first snowdrops in the churchyard -

The rain had stopped - 

I no longer felt the ache in my heart- 

I took off my green coat - 

I put on one made of yellow feathers - 

Thursday 21 January 2021

St Mary the Virgin

East Stoke 

Dorset 

High vis jacket ...

I've taken to wearing a high vis jacket -

Wherever I walk, I'm invisible - 

I could be a serial killer or a jobsworth - 

A shadow in a cul de sac -

The driver of a white van - 

Unseen - 

Everywhere - 

Wednesday 20 January 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Breathless, clasping pearls ...

The strange beautiful mystery of these pages will stay with me - 

Like leaving a secret world -

Returning, naked, to this one - 

Breathless, clasping pearls - 

Tuesday 19 January 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

New songs found in summer fields ...

On Creechbarrow Hill I felt the nearness of ancient years - 

Seasons passing over the hidden valley -

Names remembered in long winters - 

New songs found in summer fields - 

Monday 18 January 2021

Creechbarrow Hill

Dorset 

Casting yarrow sticks ..

I remember reading The Magus -

A long summer of parties -

Geoff casting the yarrow sticks -

Meeting the two French girls -

Now I've no idea where the Pan paperback is - 

I remember its cover - 

The man disguised as Anubis -

The girl standing beside him -

How I Iiked the name, Nicholas Urfe -

Then I remember the yarrow sticks -

Another ambiguous hexagram -

Sunday 17 January 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Haunted by a story ...

I thought of Oke of Okehurst when I saw the trees -

The cruel beauty of the story still haunted me -

The young wife in the yellow drawing room -

The murdered poet -

The lock of his auburn hair - 

Saturday January 2021

Moreton

Dorset

Waiting for the stars ..

A swan flew over the quiet river -

Leafless poplars touched the twilight sky - 

We were silent, sharing the silence falling on the world -

Friday 15 January 2021

Wareham

Dorset 

An icy necklace ..

The sun was setting -

Long shadows were cast by oak and alder -

I thought of the hour my father died - 

The suddenness of his leaving - 

The way his bright room was taken from him -

His chair, his table -

The sadness of it like wearing an icy necklace -

Thursday 14 January 2021

Highwood 

Dorset 

The tyres whispered .. .

I rode the Apollo as though I were a red Indian chief or a proud gaucho -

I felt the twilight air against my face -

The tyres whispered over the road's dark skin -

Wednesday 13 January 2021

Highwood

Dorset 

The anguish of the brother ...

Walking between the tall.scorched pines, I remembered reading The Weirdstone of Brisingamen -

The air was still, the mazy path a narrow thread of sand - 

I remembered the Wizard -

The old magic beneath the world - 

The balefires and the Wild Hunt -

The anguish of the brother who lost his sister to the sky - 

Tuesday 11 January 2021

Gore Heath 

Dorset 

Branded on the tongue ...

Le Carre said Englishmen are branded on the tongue - 

I recall exquisite shirt cuffs -

A high wall encircling a park -

A cruel history hidden by a silky smile -

Tongues not branded, yet held down by brutal iron -

Monday 11 January 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Waiting our eyes to open ..

It was as though we walked under a pale moon -

Changing morning for twilight -

The mist covering the land - 

Pine trees and heathland silent and glimmering - 

The blueness of the sky waiting for our eyes to open - 

Sunday 10 January 2021 

Moreton

Dorset 

The river running to a spellbound sea ...

I might have this lamppost in the Lantern Waste - 

Casting light since the creation of the world - 

The darkening air filled with magic - 

The river running to a spellbound sea - 

January 2021

The Town Quay 

Wareham 

Dorset 

Gazing at the Pyramids ...

Mario Lanza sang at Uncle George's funeral -

I remembered the Southsea villa, full of wonders -

The pianola - 

Holding up a stereoscope - 

Gazing at the Pyramids -

Lady Penelope on the colour telly - 

The Portsmouth Players -

Bombers amongst the night clouds -

The ack ack battery blazing away at the sky - 

Barley wines inside The Legion -

The white wicker coffin - 

Mario singing - 

Drink ! Drink ! Drink !

January 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Bitter darts ...

A mist hid the box tombs in the churchyard -

All day the raw air dripped moisture -

On the frantic screen I saw wild people storm the Capitol -

Lies were bitter darts from the orange ape's mouth -

Thursday 7 January 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Hidden villages ....

We walked from Briantspuddle to Throop - 

I cherished the names of these hidden villages -

Their silence - 

Their lichened churches -

The sadness of their small war memorials - 

Wednesday 6 January 2021

Turnerspuddle

Dorset

Whisky puts the fists on a man ...

I put down my whisky toddy -

My dad would have raised his eyebrows at the brand -

Crag and Glen aged three years matured in oak casks -

He liked Powers or Jamesons -

I remember what Berny O'Shea had said -

Standing before the peat fire - 

Whisky put the fists on a man he'd said - 

Wednesday 6 January 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Terrible birds ...

We stood at the bend of the river -

Dire numbers were like terrible birds - 

A raw sky touched the edge of the world - 

Monday 4 January 2021

Ridge 

Dorset 

Dreaming of white jets ...

These dark afternoons, we dream once more of white jets  -

Escaping this chill valley -

We remember the bright sun above a church in a drowsy square -

The stone houses with their shuttered windows -

Kenny's place above the town -

The lizards sashaying across the terrace -

Olives and wine - 

The stars in the warm sky -

Coffee and the fragile pages of The International Herald Tribune -

We dream of escape, of waking sunburnt -

Future mornings filled with light -

Sunday 3 January 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Dark ...

I'm watching Dark on Netflix -

I love its strangeness -

The secrets unfolding like dangerous flowers -

Saturday 2 January 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Windows to a pale world ...

I'm sipping mulled wine amongst my books -

This morning we walked to Bowling Green Wood - 

The frozen puddles were like cracked panes of glass -

Windows to a pale world -

Friday 1 January 2020

Moreton

Dorset 

Joyous bottles ...

Charlie took me to The Haunch of Venison -

He'd told me about its dimly lit snugs, its low ceilinged parlours -

There were cellars under the mazy streets -

Barrels of dark potent ale - 

A winding stair - 

The day grew chill - 

Mist hid the Cathedral spire - 

I dreamed of a new summer - 

Breathing new air - 

We'd come here then -

Drink from joyous bottles - 

Friday 31 December 2020

Salisbury 

Wiltshire 

Each tree shone ...

End of year sunlight fell on the leafless trees - 

Each tree shone - 

It was as though I walked past a sacred grove - 

Silence and light were held by the slender branches - 

Thursday 30 December 2020

Kimmeridge 

Dorset 

The madness of it ...

I'm reading Alamein to Zem Zem -

It's straight from a young poet's heart -

Terrifying and beautiful and true -

Picadilly Jim -

Guy -

The surreal scary language of the Crusaders -

King 2 Ack -

King 2, someone is throwing stones -

Nuts 3 calling, we 'av, er, a misfortune, can we have Monkey Orange ? -

The madness of it - 

The paste of blood and sand - 

The end coming not there, but on the third day in Normandy -

Tuesday 29 December 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Destiny is all ...

The pine trees were still blackened from the fire - 

Murphy ran through withered bracken - 

Puddles of yesterday's rain were frozen -

We walked to the hill fort, climbing the path to its chill summit -

Below us were the dark trees - 

Martin remembered Uhtred - 

Destiny is all he said - 

Monday 28 December 2020

Woolbarrow Fort 

Wareham Forest 

Dorset 

A different sort of brightness ...

The Christmas walkers scaled foam splashed groynes - 

Two surfers rode generous waves - 

Dogs raced across the sand -

Grandads built sandcastles for chirupping grandsons -

Winter sunlight fell on padlocked beach huts - 

I dreamed of summer and Dorset Apple Cake -

Coffee in Java again - 

A different brightness falling from the air -

Sunday 27 December 2020

Swanage 

Dorset