Postcard for a vampire ...

Goths haunted the lanes near the narrow harbour -

Pale willowy girls and their boys waited for the falling tide - 

We had traced the seared stones marking the narrow beds - 

Counted the steps down to the mazy lanes - 

We had seen the moonlit abbey before we slept - 

Stayed in the same house where the magician had dreamed - 

Here, he had shaped his story - 

The wolf had leapt onto the stone pier - 

His spell had kept me awake in my young bed - 

I had felt Lucy's mouth against my skin - 

I had hear her voice hiss my name - 

I had shivered with a secret joy - 

October 2022

Whitby

Reading Ashenden ...

I'm reading Ashenden - 

It's like a cruel cocktail - 

It lingers on the tongue - 

I think of the portrait by Graham Sutherland - 

The hauteur - 

Those hooded eyes - 

29 October 2022

The Old School House

East Stoke 

Dorset 

The white villas ...

The white villas overlook the sea - 

The wide beach is almost empty - 

The wind from the sea shakes attic windows -

Brings voices from lost ships - 

Songs from the lips of mermaids - 

Feathers from golden birds - 

Pale dreamers are wreathed with flowers - 

Cold bedrooms warmed by tropic suns - 

October 2022

Bridlington 

The last apple ...

I walk barefoot amongst the windfalls - 

So many fallen - 

The wind shook the slender branches - 

Shook the sadness, too, from out my heart - 

I held you for a moment - 

I look up to see the apple on the tree - 

29 October 2022

The garden

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset

A piece of my heart ...

The air is different - 

Grown old - 

A piece of my heart has been taken away - 

27 October 2022

East Stoke

Dorset

More tweed ...

I put on more tweed in Clobber -

I thrust my hands into deep pockets - 

The thick weave smelled of cigarettes and Autumn - 

There were ghosts here -

Bright pilots who had touched heaven before they fell -

Lounge lizards in white sleazy rig - 

Mariners who had known icy seas -

Scarlet coated Yeomanry - 

They touched my arm -

I breathed their air - 

5 October 2022

Clobber 

Boscombe 

Bournemouth 

Walking in the woods ...

Walking in the wood, I listen to ancient voices - 

I follow the signs hidden along the path - 

The fallen leaves - 

The forked ways - 

Deeper and deeper - 

I see the women who live inside the trees - 

The ivy spilling from a green man's mouth - 

The green children waking from their sleep - 

11 October 2022

Falling Foss

North Yorkshire Moors 

Grand Hotel ...

A bronze savage held up a candelabra -

His lean body decorated the vast opulent foyer - 

The golden staircase rose up to white balconies high above us - 

All was silent - 

We wandered through the dreaming hotel - 

We breathed in its warm strange air - 

We were beguiled by old photographs, pale with age - 

An aviatrix climbing into a fragile cockpit - 

A steward mixing pre-dinner cocktails - 

A woman smiling - 

The hotel faced the sea - 

Whilst in the Coffee Lounge, I felt beneath me the movement of the waves - 

11 October 2022

The Grand Hotel

Scarborough 

Their England ...

This is their England - 

To wear a pinched face - 

A shop doorway - 

Huge savings - 

An unshaven chin - 

Reduced Rent - 

More shiny heads - 

Growth, growth, growth 

10 October 2022

Eastborough 

Scarborough 

Bar football ...

Wallace and George play bar football - 

They spin the rods like jumpy gunfighters -

Eyes narrowed as a against a Texas sun -

9 October 2022

Olympia Amusements 

Scarborough 

Amazons ...

The Amazons took turns to bowl -

Their brown bodies were shapely and powerful -

Their boys were willing captives - 

9 October 2022

Olympia Amusements

Scarborough 

Summer guests ...

The summer guests have left -

Their salty dreams linger in bedrooms facing the sea - 

Mirrors still reflect brown bodies -

There is sand from the beach on the narrow stairs - 

A blue shirt is left torn upon a bed - 

Shadows wait in the cafe on the shore - 

25 October 2022

Sandsend 

Sophie waiting ...

Sophie waits for the train - 

She wears her London coat - 

She holds the world in her unflinching gaze - 

23 October 2022

Driffield 

Watching St Maud ...

It will stay with me - 

This beautiful terrifying dream - 

The voice of a dark god filling the world -

The haunted girl, floating, bent like a bow -

The dying woman, with her wasting body - 

The boy gasping -

The grotesque faces - 

The terrible lighted spilled across the sea - 

The devils in the opulent bed - 

Those terrible blades - 

The screaming - 

Falling to my knees on the dawn beach - 

The girl's angel wings - 

For a moment spreading wide above the acetone flames - 

22 October 2022 

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Early doors ...

Paul stood near the pool table - 

The torn wallpaper depicted toucans - 

Swags of fabric hung from the high ceiling - 

Nearby, alw glowed in heavy glasses - 

Optics were arranged in a potent row - 

Northern couples shared unspoken words - 

21 October 2022

The Valley Bar

Scarborough 

Valley Road ...

The wind blew down Valley Road - 

The fallen leaves were almost ankle deep - 

The gardens of twilight villas were mysterious worlds - 

21 October 2022

Valley Road

Scarborough 

Private view ...

I placed my glass of red on the mantelpiece between two elephant tusks - 

I ran my fingers over the anguished ivory - 

The prominente in the gallery spoke softly - 

They looked at the photographs of Colonel Harrison - 

Tigers, elephants -.

Beautiful jungle creatures - 

Piteous in sudden death - 

The colonel's diary - 

Trite sentences justifying slaughter - 

20 October 2022

Woodend 

Scarborough 

Old fires ...

We listened to haunting radio in Rhapsody - 

The owner had a cropped Mohican - 

He wore a collarless Nepalese shirt - 

A blonde girl sipped expresso - 

The narrow winding street was empty - 

The Old Town basked in the northern sunlight - 

We'd walked past exquisite shops - 

I imagined winter falling on these narrow roofs - 

Smoke rising from old fires -

The sea not far away - 

19 October 2022

Rhapsody

Old Town

Bridlington 

Frozen seas ...

Ships were conjured into bottles - 

Clippers, galleons, schooners - 

The Waverley - 

Mariners cocooned in glass - 

Delicate hulls on frozen seas - 

12 October 2022

Eastborough

Scarborough 

Boy Christopher ...

The Boy Christopher waited for the tide - 

The harbour smelled of kelp and diesel - 

The bare masts of wintering yachts shone in the pale sunlight - 

Thin clouds half covered the northern sky - 

Dour mariners loitered in The Bolts - 

Sad captains remembered mermaids -

12 October 2022

The harbour 

Scarborough 

Bringing light to my dark page ...

Wallace writes in his diary - 

Beautiful artless letters - 

Wal - 

His name - 

Bringing light to my dark page - 

12 October 2022

Scarborough 

Autumn waterfall ...

I can hear the waterfall - 

The October wind in the sighing wood - 

The chill stream runs over old stones - 

Anne scatters Autumn leaves - 

10 October 2022

Falling Foss

North Yorkshire Moors 

Shining skin ...

Barefoot upon the grass, I pick up windfalls - 

Each perfect apple will unmute my tongue - 

The door to the garden will open - 

I will enter, and see myself - 

A slender boy beneath the tree -

The years will flow like water - 

I will step inside that shining skin -

4 October 2022

The garden

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Listening to the Brazilians ...

We ate pao doce whilst listening to the Brazilians - 

Our coffee was dark and dizzying - 

We should have been wearing linen suits - 

Louche flaneurs - 

Any moment I'd hear my name - 

Cristavao - 

Then again - 

Cristavao - 

Outre cafe Cristavao -

5 October 2022

Boscombe

Bournemouth 

The merchant's house ...

Northern light flooded the merchant's house - 

We looked through the window at the gracious room -

The blue shutters had been opened - 

High backed chairs were placed around a dining table - 

A glowing Persian carpet covered burnished floorboards - 

Wood panelling shone - 

At the rear of the house was a knot garden - 

Sea captains had walked there - 

Stories had been shared of wild seas - 

Golden guineas counted - 

Stange shores remembered - 

17 October 2022

Old Town

Bridlington