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