Watching Blade

Long leather coat sheathing his whiplash body - 

Wearing his shades -

Laconic, ultra cool -

Gazing at the smoking ashes of his foes -

November 2024

Amongst the books with their waiting pages - 

Their poignant histories -

An Air India boarding pass left as a bookmark - 

A scrawled name on a speckled page - 

This long case clock - 

Hand still, clasping time - 

A bird snared in a leafless tree - 

Blandford 

November 2024

 

Waking to a sky I'd forgotten -

Astonished by its blueness -

The bright air above the shining fields - 

A new world after the rain - 

East Stoke

November 2024 

I'm watching The Mirror and the Light -

I wear a calm face -

Fur cloaked lords stalk tapestried ante-chambers - 

Candles gutter as they pass -

I bow before a burning gaze - 

I hold my cap in my hands -

November 2024

 Watching the snow fall - 

Whiteness from the sky - 

Putting a log on the fragrant fire - 

Remembering the bright sun -

Being with you in the wildwood -

Flowers in your hair -

November 2024

 Roger will set out the cards - 

He has tattoos - 

He saw a wild sea in a scrying glass - 

A deep bay - 

He gave me a book about the moon - 

Her many faces - 

Hisvoice is gentle - 

Go on a pilgrimage he says - 

Beehive Cafe

Portland 

November 2024

 I've just read Moorcock's Book of Martyrs -

I was fifteen again when I turned the yellowed pages - 

Lord of a beautiful doomed city - 

Cast up on the shores of time -

East Stoke

November 2024

A bright path on the water

Pale moon in the sky - 

Wine in my glass - 

A bright path on the water - 

Lycian coast

September 2024

Like a fragment of a dream - 

That haunted space - 

Those empty chairs -

The Spa

Scarborough

Septembe 2024

Looking out the high window - 

The late autumn trees - 

The pale November sky - 

My heart in its fragile nest - 

The memory of summer in the garden - 

Woodend

Scarborough

November 2024

The young lovers there for the day - 

The girl with her blonde beehive - 

The boy with his blue eyes - 

Woodend

Scarborough

September 2024

Wallace loves the beautiful game -

The touch of the ball -

The young gods with their bodies made of air - 

Scarborough

November 2024

I ate Indian street food in Spark -

Around us, the youth wore their wild hair -

With each fiery spoonful, I remembered Marco's house -

The sunlight on dark wood - 

The Frenchwoman reading in the sultry garden - 

York 

November 2024

Ghosts came with him - 

The ancestors - 

We would weep if we saw inside that house - 

Dorchester

November 2024

A darkening reef of bedrooms -

Old dreams -

Nearby, the still sea - 

South Cliff

Scarborough

September 2024

Playing Bananagram with Wallace -

The tricksy tiles -

His smile - 

My heart filled with love - 

Scarborough

November 2024

The hour will come - 

Tony singing Suspicious Minds - 

Las Vegas come to northern skies - 

Scarborough

September 2024

Our eyes were drawn to the sky -

We were beguild by the wild magic of fireworks -

By the furious beauty of the air - 

Scarborough

November 2024

Mallard -

Like a dangerous animal sleeping - 

Awakening any moment - 

Railway Museum 

York

November 2024

He wore his tweed like a magician's robe - 

Led us by green words into the wildwood - 

Reawakened wonder in our hearts -

Dorset COP

Bournemouth University

September 2024

They stay invisible -

Never given their names - 

They have no need of my tears - 

They have so many of their own - 

Weymouth

September 2024

They peck at pastels de Natas -

Wearing their beards and plaid shirts -

They open their moleskines - 

Sip flat whites -

Woodend

Scarborough

September 2024

We sang watched by  angels -

Sorrowful grandmothers - 

Brothers, sisters - 

We walked with prophets - 

There were tongues of fire in Whitehall - 

London

October 2024

He peered at me over half moon glasses - 

Looked up from his obscure page - 

Black Pug Books was open only by chance - 

I heard the Minster clock tell the hour -

Wimborne

November 2024

I remembered sad churches

I remembered sad churches - 

Forgotten valleys - 

Pale flowers - 

Names of boys - 

This was where they were taken -

Where their eyes were blinded - 

Where the beautiful were disfigured - 

Where their hearts were torn - 

Mayflower Theatre

Southampton 

November 2024

Summer ghosts

The glistening shore reflected the sky - 

I saw our summer ghosts - 

Each footprint we'd left upon the sands - 

South Beach

Studland

September 2024

I watched the Albanians -

They remembered betrayals whilst they jet washed BMWs - 

The diner was empty -

I picked up a curdled magazine - 

September 2024

There were still apples on the tree - 

Windfalls on the bright grass - 

A memory of wood smoke - 

A blackbird's song

East Stoke

September 2024

Eating figs

We ate figs at Tlos - 

Sweetness on our tongues -

Olive trees had shaded us -

We'd walked amongst the ruins of a noble city - 

Seen birds dart from shattered column to column - 

Touched the stone beds of Lycian kings -

Tlos 

September 2024