I'm imagining myself being Tom Ripley -
I'd live in France -
Wear silk pyjamas -
I'd be like a young god in my Alfa Romeo -
Amoral, charming -
I'd say to myself it had been a curious murder -
I'd stay in a discrete hotel afterwards -
The porter would say good evening sir and hand me the key -
Sunday 28 March 2021
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset
I'm listening to Soft Cell -
Marc Almond singing -
Tainted Love -
I remember Annick -
The boys dancing round the jukebox -
The smoke in her hair -
Her skirt made of cobwebs -
Her bronze bracelet -
Christophe she'd laughed -
Those boys -
Do you see them-
Those boys! -
Friday 26 March 2021
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset
I'm reading Ripley Underwater -
I think of Patricia Highsmith -
I picture her a beautiful cruel siren -
Her bed made of innocents' bones -
Thursday 25 March 2021
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset
When I ring Richard, he's in the cemetery -
He's walking Jimmy between the yew trees -
As he walks, he shapes verses in his head -
He sees a different sky -
He stands at the frontier of an empty ancient world -
He sees the ruins of shrines -
The course of a dying river -
He hears laments in the wilderness -
He journeys across this world with a different name -
Wednesday 24 March 2021
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset
I'm watching Dogs Behaving Very Badly -
Graham with his natty brogues calms a cowering spaniel -
Praises a surly terrier -
Admonishes a truculent staffy -
No he says -
No -
Then when the Essex labrador stops lunging -
Good boy ! -
Tuesday 23 March 2021
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset
His words unsealed my eyes -
I heard the ocean through the gate of no return -
The voices at the shameful auction -
I was given a new tongue -
My bones were worn as a crown by a cruel prince -
I was one of the chattels with which he was blessed -
Everything he had came from this -
Monday 22 March 2021
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset
I looked for the violets as I walked towards the sea -
It was the first day of spring -
White blossoms in the hedgerows -
Sheep grazing in gentle fields -
Trees shaking off ancient dreams -
Sunday 21 March 2021
Studland
Dorset
I think of the inland sea -
The pashas, the beautiful valleys -
The bright islands -
Proud names -
Then the terror -
The Te Deums -
The calls to prayer -
Saturday 20 March 2021
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset
We ate lemon polenta looking out to sea -
Behind us was the empty town -
Seagulls flying above cobwebbed attics -
Invisible people in the winding streets -
Friday 19 March 2021
Swanage
Dorset
The cottage was within sound of the sea -
I remembered passing here one summer -
Dragonflies zig zagged above tousled flowers -
Salt rimed trees cast shade upon a ragged lawn -
A painter should live here I thought -
Close to heaven in this narrow Eden -
Friday 19 March 2021
Ringstead
Dorset
I saw the smoke ride up from the gorse and heather -
I smelled past seasons -
I thought of charcoal burners -
Pilgrims dreaming of Jersusalem -
Gypsies -
Tarot cards -
The Priestess -
The Fool -
Wednesday 17 March 2021
Binnegar
Dorset
I saw the moon above the house -
I stood in the dark garden -
If I fell into that sky, I would fall forever -
Tuesday 16 March 2021
The Old School House
East Stoke
D5
I saw the apple tree bathed in light -
The bright eye of a blackbird as it sang -
I saw the apples on the tree -
They hung unseen above my head -
Monday 15 March 2021
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset
I wish I has the words -
That I swam in a clear river -
The water washing away the ash that covers me -
I would walk on bright grass -
There would be pearls on my tongue -
Sunday 14 March 2021
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset
I'm watching The Terror -
The sun is swallowed by a black sky -
The ice is the whole world -
Saturday 13 March 2021
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset
I'm listening to A Whiter Shade of Pale -
It's a summoning -
A room not far from the sea -
Her tawny skin -
The song heard in dreamy air -
I would not let her be -
Thursday 11 March 2021
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset
Sudden rain -
Then hail, falling from a dark cloud -
White waves breaking upon the sand -
The beach huts like empty shells -
Driftwood like bone -
Waiting for light -
No watch around my wrist -
I wear a necklace made of ice -
Friday 12 March 2021
Studland
Dorset
The Channel 4 News weatherman says high winds are forecast -
Gales will sweep over our gentle hills -
I think of Dorothy in a stormy Kansas -
The black and white prairie -
Zeke calling out -
It's a twister, it's a twister! -
Wednesday 10 March 2021
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset
I'm reading The Case of Charles Dexter Ward -
Once more I see the hidden world -
I pale when I read an antiquarian's revelations -
On my shelves there are books which smoulder with ancient secrets -
The Zohar -
Raymond Lully's Ars Magna et Ultima -
The Clavis Alchimiae -
The mad Arab's book of terrible names -
Tuesday 9 March 2021
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset
As the last sunlight fell, I thought of the trains to the east -
My recurring dream of anguished platforms -
Suitcases which would not be opened -
Terrible names on maps -
Monday 8 March 2021
East Stoke
Dorset
My dad, wearing his brown tweed jacket -
A little wary -
My mum, wearing her gentleness -
Trusting kindly strangers -
Finding these fragments -
My eyes stinging with tears -
Sunday 7 March 2021
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset
I found a foxed treasure -
Not read yet -
Its pages like yellow wings -
Decorated with strange names -
Supervius Parry -
Marescia -
Kresandra -
The Mezentian Gate -
Saturday 6 March 2021
The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset
