Driving without lights

We would listen to Evensong in the Cathedral -

The boys' voices were like sweet tongued birds flying to heaven -

Later, we would walk across the Close - 

The two of us, with our dreams, our Balkan Sobranie cigarettes -

Our love of The Doors -

Jim Morrison singing this is the end -

Talking about Shelley - 

Watching the moon caught in the trees - 

Thinking these days were forever - 

Jumping into the car filled with smoke - 

Driving without lights -

October 2025

Haunted by his stare

I thought of Klaus Kinski as I drank the bitter coffee - 

Seeing him in Aguirre, Wrath of God -

Being haunted by his stare -.

Those beautiful terrifying eyes - 

October 2025

The white trees

I came to the white trees -

I knew I should have come before - 

I was close here to my lost darlings - 

I held their hands and loved them -

Purbeck Way

October 2025

Byzantium

Walking in the Autumn stillness, I remembered Byzantium -

That was the name I gave the guest house -

I'd climbed its narrow twisting stairs -

From my room I could see the sea turn red as twilight came - 

Above me was the roof of the dream filled house -

In my diary I wrote Julia says you find love where it finds you, whatever shape it has -

We'd walked across seared fields and seen churches with round towers - 

There were black cliffs, the shards of a chapel - 

The tide covering the sands - 

Later, a wrought iron lamp post glimmering in the dark -

Hunstanton 

June 2025

Windfalls

I searched for windfalls -

I held each one, for a moment, in my hand -

Feeling its coolness, its skin against my skin -

Delving in the grass -

October sunlight on apples still high on the tree -

Like the years left me - 

Precious before they fall -

I remembered orchards -

Walking under fragrant branches -

A river under a ripening moon -

Your hands bringing joy -

Your savage kisses -

You saying you are my willow wand -

Being your helpless slender boy -

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

October 2025

My dark wood

I walked through my dark wood in autumn -

I followed curving paths through oak and pine -

Breathed air fragrant with soft rain and memory -

I saw how my days had led me here -

Walking through a mist that still lingered -

Looking down at a gentle sea - 

Durlston 

October 2025

Never letting go

When I was leaving, you came up to me -

You suddenly held me, your heart on mine -

Your arms around me -

I felt the warmth and shape of you -

I wanted to stay pressed close to you -

Not letting go -

Here in your house, with your husband upstairs -

Not in your kitchen for this long wonderful moment -

I remembered how you once kissed me on the cheek -

Said love you -

We were together here too - 

In your house with the paintings on the walls -

The golden saxophone -

The view from the window of the bay -

The high hill and the sky -

I didn't, as now, think of anything but you -

All else was gone -

Or when I gave you a lift to the quiet town -

You were wearing jeans, cut off at the thigh -

I kept looking at your brown legs -

Your hair, your summer skin -

There was nothing  but those moments driving -

You live in my secret life -

I wonder if I live in your secret life -

If, like me, you think of never letting go -

October 2025