Last looseners

Last looseners in The Samson Inn -

Tyneside Blonde -

Northumbrian Gold -

Alyson laughing -

Julia wearing a pale blue dress -

Remembering smoking on the dance floor -

Our younger selves sitting with us -

Martin with his German girlfriend -

Myself with flowers in my hair -

The Samson Inn

.Gilisland 

July 2026 

Harebells

I saw harebells -

Delicate pale marvels -

They were somehow rooted between the stones -

Stirred by a cool wind -

Beautiful and fragile -

Like precious memories -

Hadrian's Wall 

July 2026

Time falling on me

Standing by the Wall -

Touching these dark lichened stones -

Walking across a beautiful lonely land -

Time falling on me from the sky -

Hadrian's Wall

July 2026 

As though I were waiting to drink with the consul

Sitting at my window in the Beaumont Hotel -

Hearing the traffic hiss on the wet street - 

Rain fell suddenly on the town -

I was drinking spiced coffee when the first drops fell -

Listening to mariachi -

As though I wore a linen suit, waiting to drink with the consul -

Little Mexico 

Hexham

July 2026 

In Olive

I read The Yorkshire Post in Olive -

There is gentle piano music -

Widows murmur over their focaccia -

A slender siren of a barista deftly crafts a cortado -

Olive

Scarborough 

July 2026 

The Italian Gardens

The air was still in the Italian Gardens -

A cool wind blew in from the sea -

Trees shaded the quiet paths -

Above was a sky of heaven's blue -

I looked for my ghosts near the stilled fountain -

They came to me, one by one -

The Italian Gardens 

Scarborough 

July 2026 

Whitby Abbey

The dark stone was lapped by windswept grass -

Soaring arches held up a roof of sky and cloud -

Swifts flew through the high windows -

I glimpsed the timeless blue of the sea - 

.

Whitby Abbey

July 2026