Becoming smoke

Suddenly standing at the edge of the world - 

The four pine trees - 

The still sea - 

The memory of summer - 

 

Hearing those words - 

Becoming smoke -

South Beach

Studland 

December 2023

Remembering sand in my hair

I'm watching David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia - 

I remember seeing the film with my dad - 

The mad beauty of Aurens -

The burning sky - 

Stumbling, later, down from the balcony - 

Out into the small streets, sand in my hair - 

December 2023

Steeped in moonlight

Soon it will be dark -

Night falling on the bare tree -

The house is silent - 

Each room listening - 

I'm reading Norwegian Wood -

I'm steeped in moonlight - 

December 2023

DIzzy with love

There was the toy train - 

The long necked dinosaur - 

The garden beyond the window -

I still saw his smile - 

How blue his eyes were - 

Making me dizzy with love - 

The Old School House

East Stoke

December 2023

Boxing Day in Swanage

Jane wore her long coat - 

Charlie held Jake's hand - 

I heard the laughter of Boxing Day swimmers - 

The Town Crier's bell -  

My heart beating - 

The gentle voice of the quiet sea - 

December 2023

Swanage 

The Police Chief's Gaze

She shaped bronze with her magic -

Water dripped from her wild curls - 

Here there was terror and beauty - 

The anguish of the fugitive -

The pitiless gaze of the police chief - 

The nakedness of his prey - 

Elizabeth Frink Exhibition

Dorset Museum

December 2023

His generous glass

We drink Amontillado in the kitchen -

There's delicate guitar - 

Pistachios -

Jane remembers Christmas Eve in Karabortlen - 

The scent of the pine trees -

Stories of Africa - 

Mr Singh - 

Ken, laughing, holding his generous glass -

East Stoke

December 2023

 

Vigil

There had been birdsong in your garden - 

Your mother's smile -

You came from where there was a different sky -

Your friends remember you - 

They stand here, in this cruel place -

We carry the shame -

Portland 

December 2023

Driven by joy

Jake reaches out to the radio -

He leans forward, smiling, towards the windscreen - 

The car is driven by joy - 

Salisbury 

December 2023

Sand in the streets

I'm reading The Sheltering Sky -

Some words there take me back to the city of rose red walls - 

The desert between the city and the ocean - 

How I felt watching swallows in the twilight sky -

Walking through the tangled greenery of the garden - 

The brown bodies in the pool - 

The square with the card players -

The boy in the second hotel - 

Toujours l'ennui - 

The words in the book - 

Sand in the streets, a few palms, hot sun, sadness always -

December 2023

Years falling from the sky

I wore my long red scarf -

The wind stirred the poplar trees -

Winter had taken their leaves - 

I heard their slow heartbeats - 

Fish dreamed in the river - 

Words flew through the air - 

I felt the years falling from the sky - 

A small hand in mine -

The shape of a smile -

The buttons of a coat I'd never fastened - 

Wareham

December 2023

They kill poets

I shall fly a kite - 

I shall look up to see your name -

Look for you amongst the angels -

Your words were beautiful - 

You knew what would fall from the sky -  

I shall breath you in and shout your name - 

December 2023

Anne above the sea

Anne sat where her mother had sat -

The same pose as in the photograph - 

Looking up at the sky, her eyes closed - 

The two of them together above the sea - 

St Mawes Castle 

September 2023

Walking in stillness

The birch trees shone after the rain - 

I lost myself in the tender beauty of the trees - 

Walking in stillness - 

Green world washed clean -

Arne

Dorset

November 2023

Reefs of memory

November light fell on the library's oriel window - 

A rainbow spanned Cornhill - 

Stairs led upwards to reefs of memory -

November 2023

Dorchester 

The saint who knew my name

Watching the rockets, I remembered the fiesta for the saint - 

How she was carried down to the sea -

The bells ringing in the churches -

There were stars in her hair - 

Young men had carried her in her throne - 

Thigh deep in the dark sea - 

Widows had given her their wedding rings - 

She smiled her strange painted smile - 

Her people welcomed the wide eyed boy - 

A wafer had dissolved upon my tongue - 

Rockets had hissed and stung me with their tails - 

Men blew trumpets - 

I stood on the shore -

Felt the warmth of the water against my skin - 

Gazed at the saint who knew my name - 

Church of St Mary the Virgin

East Stoke

November 2023

Remembering reading The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again

The river had spilled over the water meadows - 

The lane to Highwood was a thin ribbon wavering across a pale lake - 

Flood water swirled against the lichened trunks of alder trees - 

I remembered reading The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again - 

I gazed at the brimming ditches -

Light going -

Time soon to walk into the water -

To vanish like Pearl -

Segment by segment -

As if descending an invisible flight of stairs - 

East Stoke

Dorset 

November 2024

His words made us sing

Invisible aunts, faces from lost photographs -

His vanished family - 

Taken from him in the cruel city - 

He spoke to us in a street which had no knowledge of blood -

His words made us sing - 

2023

Losing time

I'm watching The X Files -

Mulder laments the loss of his sister - 

Scully's beautiful face is troubled - 

They've lost time - 

I think of my dad - 

I watched The X Files with him in the bright lounge - 

I've lost time too -

November 2024

Breakfast on the pier

Creaking in rubber boots sequinned with fish scales - 

Ready for a full English and scalding tea - 

They climb the stairs to the cafe above the harbour - 

I hear their banter with the knowing waitress -

Smell the smoke of the cigarettes they clasp in salty fingers - 

The Lookout on the Pier

Scarborough 

September 2023

Beguiled in the library

I was beguiled by letters to Sylvanus Urban - 

The courtly sentences, the engravings of pious divines - 

The mannered voices I heard as I turned those fragile pages - 

The Library

Dorset Museum 

Dorchester 

October 2023 

A delicate glass

I sipped coffee from a delicate glass -

Savoured its subtle pleasures - 

Listened to a gentle radio -

Watched a barista stroke his beard - 

We'd walked down Killigrew Street - 

Past louche doorways, a shop selling ragged finery - 

I thought of Richard in Vientiane -

Gazed at the image of The Virgin of Guadalupe - 

Expressini Artisan Cafe

Falmouth 

September 2023

Young voices like birdsong

He placed his hand on his heart -

Murder cars still hunting those he loved - 

He remembered the city surrounded by mountains - 

His former life - 

There were ancient names - 

Young voices like birdsong - 

Weymouth 

October 2023

The Solarium

Well heeled pensioners sipped tea in the solarium -

I heard their gentle voices - 

They smoothed the pages of The Daily Telegraph - 

Breathed in air scented by tropic greenery -

I imagined some Ballardian happening -

Iguanas on the velvet lawn - 

A liana draped steam launch coming up the river - 

A captain haunted by a dream - 

Trellisick 

September 2023

The stone warmed by love

I breath air here filled with memory - 

This gentle light - 

The saint called by my name -

My dear lost ones there in the silence -

The old trees touching heaven -

The stone warmed by love - 

Whitcombe Church

Dorset 

September 2023

It's not where you're from, it's what you bring

In the dark, my eyes filled with tears -

I felt the sadness of forgotten towns - 

I saw pinched streets - 

I heard the voices of those who had been betrayed - 

I saw a tree rise up from the colourless earth - 

Bright with green, its branches blazing hope - 

October 2023

Walking down from the Castle

Small houses dreamed in northern sunlight -

The narrow lanes led downwards towards the harbour - 

I could smell the sea - 

From the castle, I could look over a tangle of salty rooftops -

Glimpse attic windows - 

See clouds in the October sky - 

There were stories here - 

Names, histories -

Hearts to hold in my hand - 

Old Town

Scarborough 

October 2023

Christophe, tais toi

Cypress trees cast their shade where Jane walks -  

She sleeps under bright stars - 

Not far from Beziers -

A ghost with hennaed hair calls me by my name - 

Christophe -

I see her bracelet, feel her breath - 

Beziers, the name waking her - 

Where her parents had their house - 

This ghost who had taken me into her world - 

I was one of her boys - 

She blew her smoke into my mouth -

Told me stories - 

Pale lovers -

The sting of desire -

My midnight Scheherazade, telling me again Christophe, tais toi - 

October 2023

Hunting foxed Arrows

I hunted foxed Arrows in The Vaults - 

The Eunuch of Stamboul -

Uncharted Seas - 

I passed by dimly lit alcoves -

Cobwebbed marvels -

Hunched figures - 

I wore my tweed - 

I turned thin yellowed pages - 

Gazed at lurid covers - 

The Daimler's engine purred I read - 

Kadzim's eyes were tiny beads -

A louche hero smoked a cigarette -

The Vaults

Scarborough 

October 2023

Boy racers

The boy racers revved their nervy motors - 

Flying past us -

Each one an Icarus - 

His lean lycra'd body perfumed with diesel - 

Kings for an hour - 

Never growing old - 

Gallows Hill

Near Clouds Hill

Dorset

October 2023