The Hairy Bikers are in Scarborough ...

The Hairy Bikers are in Scarborough - 

They feast on langoustines - 

They show their beards to the sea - 

30 September 2021 

It would always be this moment ...

I saw two swans on the quiet river - 

There were haws like bright beads in the

hedgerows - 

Watchful cows grazed in the fields - 

It was late afternoon - 

It would always be this moment - 

Rooks circling the church tower - 

The bright sunlight falling on the water - 

29 September 2021

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Crome Yellow ...

I'm reading Crome Yellow - 

Each fey sentence is perfectly shaped -

Like sipping a cocktail made by the White Witch - 

28 September 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke

Dorset 

A fair wind in my pirate sails ...

I lay down my cutlass - 

Put aside my pirate's hat -

I sailed away - 

Yet in my pocket was a secret map - 

I'd sail here once more - 

A fair wind in my pirate sails - 

26 September 2021

Scarborough 

The light that fell upon the flowers ...

I shall remember this room - 

The high window - 

The table with the flowers from the northern garden - 

The light that fell upon the flowers - 

25 September 2021

Scarborough 

I saw a sign that promised paradise ...

We followed the winding path to the castle on the hill - 

From the green heights I saw the reef of white hotels - 

Surfers were glistening young gods - 

A gateway framed the sky - 

I saw a wall bathed in light - 

A churchyard waited for the sleepers to awake -

I saw a sign that promised paradise - 

24 September 2021

Scarborough 

I read a poem from Terry Street ...

I read a poem from Terry Street - 

Above the rooftops I could see the lighthouse and the waiting sea - 

Anne had bought a ship's bell - 

There was a ouija board and two mirrors from a hall of mirrors - 

A laughing sailor watched us - 

Lesley made dark coffee -

She swam almost every day in South Bay - 

She painted her paintings in a room with a driftwood fire - 

23 September 2021

Scarborough 

Ships with dark sails on Grosvenor Road ...

I'm watching Hook with Wallace -

We've put down our cutlasses -

The Captain sneers above his lace - 

Ships with dark sails appear in Grosvenor Road - 

22 September 2021

Scarborough 

My skin could be a living canvas ...

I walked through the streets of the Old Town - 

I saw white flowers at a window - 

Seagulls flew above the rooftops - 

High ceilinged rooms faced the harbour - 

I imagined living here - 

Wearing a salt- rimed guernsey - 

Once more I thought of tattoos -

My skin could be a living canvas -

21 September 2021

Scarborough 

I sat above the sea where they'd sat, these mums and dads ...

I sat above the sea where they'd sat, these  mums and dads - 

They'd walked through the Italian Gardens to the Putting Green - 

The white hotels held their shadows - 

In the sunlight they were together again -

I saw them live their golden days -

20 September 2021

Scarborough 

Dragons will guide this ship ...

Pirates live here beneath these Victorian eaves - 

Cabin boys peer out, bright eyed, between the sunflowers - 

The Master Gunner has a jet black beard -

Captain Hook drinks pirate wine -

Dragons will guide this ship to unknown seas - 

19 September 2021

Scarborough 

The poignant blueness of the sky ...

Autumn comes to the garden - 

In the morning I see a pale sun - 

Mists hide the fields - 

This afternoon, I see windfalls on the grass - 

The poignant blueness of the sky above the pines - 

18 September 2021

The Old School House

East Stoke 

Dorset

A poorly made Icarus ...

I'm watching 102 Minutes -

I'd walked through these shining canyons - 

I'd could have been photographed at a window - 

A shape made of smoke and anguish - 

A poorly made Icarus, falling from the sky - 

16 September 2021

The Other Side ...

I'm reading The Other Side -

It's mad and strange - 

Like in Kafka, there are no answers to any questions -

But in the Dream Kingdom, monkeys shave flaneurs -

A tiger stalks prey in the Archives - 

Everything is a dream - 

Everything ends in a terror and wonder - 

14 September 2021

Watching The Last Bus ...

I sat in a double seat with Anne - 

The darkness hid our tears - 

I held a toy rabbit in my hands - 

I saw the golden light of Avalon - 

12 September 2021

The Rex

Wareham 

He breathed in my wish ...

I felt the air of his gentle ghost -

He breathed in my wish - 

I saw his tree - 

12 September 2021

Rollington Barn

Purbeck 

Dorset 

Fixing myself another Horse's Neck ...

I'm reading Nick Lezard's column in The New Statesman - 

I should be drinking a Horse's Neck -

Smoking a Polish cigarette -

For a while I'm the confidant of this louche gifted scribbler -

I'm fixing myself another Horse's Neck - 

10 September 2021

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset

Toujours l'ennui ...

My cappuccino came in a glass - 

I remembered sipping milky coffee out of a glass - 

I'd been idling in the gardens of the Palais Salam - 

There'd been swallows in the twilight sky - 

Beyond the gardens were the mazy alleys - 

I remembered the words of the languid boy -

Toujours l'ennui -

Anne had worn a yellow dress - 

The caleche had waited for us at the gates - 

8 September 2021

Poole

Like water falling drop by drop ...

I'm reading The House of the Dead -

The garden of the small house touches the edge of the world - 

Wounded birds fall from the air - 

Days give way to evening - 

Like water falling drop by drop - 

9 September 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

At Riptide ...

I ate my bagel glancing at the vinyl icons - 

I wore a blue shirt - 

There was music - 

Some murmuring drum and bass -

The narrow street led to the sea - 

9 September 2021

Riptide

Old Poole High Street

A fresh haircut always makes you feel good ...

Every hundred yards, there's another barbers - 

I glimpse their chairs -

I'm beguiled by the photographs of young dudes with sharp cuts -

I see scissors dart like shining birds -

9 September 2021

Old High Street

Poole 

Islands only he can see ...

Wallace wears a blazer - 

He wears a tie and new shoes - 

This cabin boy, now on a different ship - 

He'll teach me how to count - 

I'll sail under whatever flag he says must be raised - 

He'll take me to the islands only he can see - 

7 September 2021

The Crooked Book was closed ...

The Crooked Book was closed - 

Distressed chairs were half hidden by spooky succulents - 

I walked to Boscanova -

I lingered for a few moments outside a vaping lounge - 

A mural depicted a hawk gazing down at the louche street - 

In Boscanova, someone put on Heartbreak Hotel - 

I drank my coffee - 

The sky was a Sci Fi flawless blue -

6 September 2021

Boscanova

Boscombe 

Bournemouth 

Bull dogs were walked along the esplanade -

The art deco house faced the sea - 

We'd left behind the Lynchian vistas of pristine bungalows - 

Tanned widows stretched out on sunloungers - 

Bulldogs were walked along the esplanade -

4 September 2021

Ferring

Sussex 

She wore a bright coat ...

She wore a bright coat in the tree shadowed house - 

There was dark fruit in the garden - 

In the bedroom, she showed herself as Artemis - 

She held the storyteller's heart in her pale hands - 

1 September 2021

Dorset Museum

Dorchester 

The end of their sea road ...

This was the end of their sea road - 

A sky emptied of song and pity - 

Young bodies left for crows - 

1 September 2021

Dorset Museum 

Dorchester 

I saw the burning meteor fall from the Dorset sky ...

I saw his portrait above his books - 

I'd been entangled once in his serpentine prose - 

I remembered the strangeness of the pages - 

Now he turned his gaze to the book he held -

His heavy wounded brow - 

His fierce eyes - 

This wizard who'd walked hills I knew - 

I felt his presence in this pristine space - 

I heard the words spoken by his brazen head - 

Time was - 

Time is - 

And time will -

The words broken off as before - 

I saw the burning meteor fall from the Dorset sky - 

1 September 2021

Dorset Museum 

Dorset