The giant awoke on the hill ...

The door knocker caught my eye -

I caught a glimpse of wicked horns - 

Above the door was a Green Man - 

The house was silent - 

I pictured witch bottles in the thick walls - 

There were shadows in the low ceilinged rooms - 

Across the narrow street was a lichened tower -

Gargoyles crouched above a locked garden - 

The giant awoke on the hill - 

Ancient names were written in the sky -

17 January 2022

Cerne Abbas 

There would still be bright grass ...

I would remember this place - 

There would be a time when my world would be a room with yellow walls - 

This wonderful light would still fall -

There would still be flowers in this small church above the sea - 

There would still be bright grass - 

Wind sculpted trees would still shade poignant stone - 

12 January 2022

Ringstead 

Dorset 

Listening to the air ...

I remembered those dear to me who were now invisible - 

I tied my token to a thorny stem - 

In summer, roses would scent the air above the spring - 

Drowsy bees would settle on warm petals - 

The clear water flowed from an unseen heart - 

There were shells amongst the stones - 

I dipped my fingertips into the water - 

I saw tender buds on leafless trees -

Gentle bones lay nearby - 

Lichened beds were smoothed by time - 

I held out my hand when I walked across the bright grass - 

I listened closely to the air - 

17 January 2022

Cerne Abbas 

Dreaming in The Razor King ...

I thought of a haircut in The Razor King -

The chairs were silver thrones -

I could close my eyes -

Dream of Avalon -

11 January 2022

Glastonbury 

TV Flicker

I'm listening to Pale Blue Eyes -

TV Flicker - 

Beautiful strangeness fills the midnight room - 

15 January 2022

The Old School House

East Stoke 

Dorset 

My angels followed me ...

I walked through the narrow passage to The Green Garden - 

The door to Number 3 was left open -

There were Tarot and Angel Readings upstairs - 

Soft rain fell on the spellbound town - 

I'd seen a foxed Wheatley in Labyrinth Books - 

I'd heard secrets in The Lazy Gecko -

I'd dreamed of apple trees - 

I remembered mist and silence - 

My angels followed me up the stairs - 

11 January 2022

Glastonbury 

The beggars waited for the moon ...

Dion Fortune whispered in my ear - 

There were grimoires to ensnare me - 

The Zohar beckoned - 

Across the street, beggars shared wine - 

They stroked their tangled beards - 

I read the first page of The Mystic Qabalah -

I lost track of time - 

The afternoon darkened - 

The beggars waited for the moon - 

11 January 2022

Labyrinth Books

Glastonbury 

At The Blue Note Cafe ...

A man with a beard like a white scarf played his guitar outside The Blue Note Cafe -

Dwarf lords walked by - 

Women with wild manes of hair sipped mysterious cordials -

I thought of asking for a lembu chai -

On the wall there was a painting of The Blues Brothers - 

I read a page of The Oracle -

Soon there would be a dark moon ritual -

11 January 2022

The Blue Note Cafe

Glastonbury 

Their prayers were bright birds ...

I followed the path through the spellbound town -

I climbed the hill to find mist and silence -

I stood within the Tower -

I felt the presence of those who had climbed the hill with me - 

I could not see them, but I knew they stood with me -

Their prayers were bright birds filling the pale world with light - 

11 January 2022

Glastonbury Tor

Glastonbury 

I saw an oak tree dancing ...

There was a pale sky -

The fields were wet with rain -

I saw an oak tree dancing - 

9 January 2022

Lulworth

Dorset 

The memory of what we saw ...

Crossing the heath, we saw the deer -

They turned their heads towards us -

They lived in their world of fearful beauty -

Any moment they would fly from us -

They would leave no trace of their passing - 

We would be left with the memory of what we saw - 

9 January 2022

Lulworth 

Dorset

The wrong Barnaby ...

Midsomer Murders is coming to an end - 

Barnaby is very stern - 

The toff has been arrested -

Anne says it's the wrong Barnaby -

8 January 2022

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

I looked up to see the boy's name ...

I looked up to see the boy's name - 

He would have come here from the Manor House - 

I thought of Ypres - 

I smelled a bitter perfume -

A night all roads would lead to France - 

I'd see the boy return -

Moonlight would fall on Portland stone -

The river would flow between leafless trees -

7 January 2022

St Nicholas Church

Moreton

Dorset 

A cruel wand ...

I heard the news - 

My heart lurched -

My I phone was a cruel wand - 

7 January 2022

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Reading Moorcock ...

I'm reading an incendiary Moorcock -

Each yellowed page is a Molotov -

I remember the years of New Worlds Science Fiction -

I discovered parallel worlds and barren moons -

Bright wings carried me above Venusian jungles -

Princesses were chained to fearsome altars -

There were telepaths in the lounge - 

I stood with Starglyn, lamenting mankind -

5 January 2022

The Old School House

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Old gods still linger here ...

This was the first sacred place on my pilgrimage - 

These tall pines touched an ancient sky -

I walk between the trees along a silent avenue - 

I can glimpse the shoulder of the hill -

The stones show themselves -

A lost people saw winter sunrises here -

Spirits live in the delicate altars of holly and flowers -

A sharp edged flint had been placed upon a mossy stone -

Token hang from tree branches -

Old gods still linger here - 

4 January 2021

Rempstone Stone Circle

Dorset 

This year I will walk a pilgrim's path ...

This year I will walk a pilgrim's path -

I will seek out high places -

I will listen to the wind -

I will tie a token to a lichened tree - 

I will stand in a circle of stones - 

I will climb a hill to a wind shaken chapel -

I will seek out the sacred places, one by one - 

Their names will come to me - 

One by one, like pearls upon my tongue -

3 January 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke

Dorset

Driving towards Stryy ..

The train was on time - 

It took away a world - 

I listened to The Karminsky Experience on the motorway - 

Rain fell from the pale sky - 

I had no maps - 

But I knew I was driving towards Stryy - 

2 January 2022

M27

The ships will soon be leaving ...

The ships will soon be leaving - 

I will be left on the shore of stones - 

There will be fewer songs - 

I will be left holding a boy made of air - 

1 January 2022

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

I would welcome the lightning striking the tower ...

This was the last day of the year -

I counted my heartbeats - 

I remembered the cards cast for me - 

I would cross the bridge although I was afraid - 

I would reach out with my prayers in sacred places -

The sea would sing beneath the chapel on the hill - 

The water of the spring would flow over ancient stones - 

I would welcome the lightning striking the tower - 

31 December 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Icy cool Wallace ...

Fearlessly, Wallace approached the gaping jaws -

He raised his green binoculars - 

The kindly museum held its breath - 

Megalodon Wallace murmured - 

Icy cool he peered into that terrible throat - 

Megalodon -

Dorset Museum

Dorchester 

Dorset 

At Aruba ...

It was as though we were in a Lynchian dream -

A unicorn had just come out of a mirror - 

Wallace had befriended a small shark - 

The bar was the length of a Cunarder - 

A chica fixed a cocktail -

On New Year's Eve there would be fire eaters and aerial artistes -

We ate tacos and watched the surfers - 

I remembered the iguana - 

It had regarded me with its ancient eye - 

Time had stopped before its gaze - 

29 December 2021

Aruba

Bournemouth 

The kindly museum ...

We were playing dino bingo - 

Iguanadon called Paul - 

Allosaurus -

Oviraptor -

Megalosaurus! -

The kindly museum had charmed us - 

It had breathed us in -

28 December 2021

The Dorset Museum 

Dorchester 

Dorset 

Watching Daleks ...

I needed a horse's neck -

Daleks were invading Earth -

Peter Cushing wore a natty vampire hunter's jacket - 

Robomen stalked a desolate London - 

Plucky cockneys were being exterminated -

More brandy I thought - 

26 December 2021

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset 

Treasure under every stone ...

We walked over the dazzling whiteness of the pebbles - 

Dads licked ice cream from fragile cones - 

A girl with long brown legs carried a paddle board - 

Her boy swam gasping in the cove - 

The sky was a flawless end of year blue -

There was treasure under every stone - 

I picked up a seaweed necklace - 

I had the words of a new story in my head - 

A new song on my tongue - 

28 December 2021

Lulworth Cove

Dorset 

Christmas afternoon ...

This afternoon I was an orca -

Wallace was a blue whale - 

Pirate ships followed us with torn sails - 

Albatrosses haunted an unmapped ocean - 

Later, we were speed kings - 

Lords of the figure of eight track -

25 December 2021

The Old School House

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Singing pirate songs ...

Wallace and I wore eye patches -

Wallace carried a long barrelled pistol - 

We counted our gold -

We'd escaped the crocodile - 

Left Blackbeard marooned -

Sailed homewards singing pirate songs 

24 December 2021

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Feathers of bone ...

Lamplight glimmered on the paving stones - 

The river mirrored the twilight sky - 

Poplar trees were feathers of bone -

23 December 2021

The Town Quay 

Wareham 

Dorset