Thursday 30 June 2016

A radio's crooning ...



I'm sitting in Paul's

A radio's crooning - 

There's a framed photograph of Sean Connery hanging on the wall - 

He's wearing a suit with very narrow lapels - 

The Salavationist is standing outside the Post Office - 

Visitors in dripping cagoules walk through the gentle town - 

I can hear Paul murmuring something to an oldster in the barber's chair -

The Black Bear is open for a full English - 

In a few moments, Paul will cut my hair - 

I'll see my face in the mirror - 

Time will pass - 


10.58
Thursday 30 June 2016

Paul's Gents Hairdressers
Wareham 
Dorset 

Wednesday 29 June 2016

Long memory will fall upon us from the sky ...



This afternoon, Penelope and I looked at maps of the Northumbrian coast - 

In a few weeks time, we hope to walk on Inner Farne - 

We will hear the voices of sea birds above hallowed stones - 

The cold waves will break upon the rocky shore - 

Long memory will fall upon us from the sky - 

Our companions will feel the wind upon their faces - 

Seals will watch us with forgiving eyes - 


16.00
Wednesday 29 June 2016

The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset


Tuesday 28 June 2016

I'm reading Gurdjieff ...



I'm reading Gurdjieff now rather than John Rentoul's tweets - 

I've had enough of apes being given Ming vases * - 

Annick first told me about Gurdijieff - 

She showed me her copy of Ouspensky's Tertium Organum -

She blew dizzying smoke into my mouth - 

Later we went to The Wykeham Arms - 

I saw UFOs flying over St Catherine's Hill - 

The cathedral cast its ancient shadow - 

Man lives his life in sleep I read - 
 

* When Boris Johnson became editor of The Spectator, his friend and biographer, Andrew Gimson, said it was like entrusting a Ming vase into the hands of an ape


20.42
Tuesday 28 June 2016

The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset







Monday 27 June 2016

Forgetting Referendum Blues ...




Swimming, I thought, would make me forget my Referendum Blues

I'd put on my wetsuit, and swim in the blameless sea -

I found the wetsuit inside a neglected wardrobe, curled up in a nest of tweed - 

I bought it ten years ago in St Agnes - 

We drove to Studland in the red wounded beast - 

Qashqais filled the National Trust car park  - 

We walked past dads in shorts towards Knoll Beach - 

Fearless children braved the icy zinging waves - 

Dogs chased tennis balls - mums towelled daughters dry - 

We made our camp amongst the dunes - 

Tweets counted for nothing whilst I was swimming - 

Afterwards, I lay upon the sand 

Peeling off my suit, I felt the wind upon my skin - 

My mind was emptied of thoughts - there were no words upon my tongue - 


13.30
Monday 27 June 2016

Studland 
Dorset


















Sunday 26 June 2016

We've got Britain back ...



I walked through the empty precinct -

I'd just taken my mum and dad to church - 

There were only two diners in McDonalds

Later I would drive through the colourless  estates - 

I would buy The Mail on Sunday in a convenience store - 

Rain would fall on the narrow gardens - 

Strange dogs would roam the banjos - 

This was not a place for chinos - 

There were no young men with Assyrian beards - 

A man on a mobility scooter would tell me we've got Britain back -  


10.00
Sunday 26 June 2016

Havant 


Saturday 25 June 2016

What words would they find? ...



I knew what would happen before I glimpsed it on my I phone screen - 

The sad hollowed out towns had spoken -

In the shabby parades, in Poundlands, outside boarded up shops, the dispossessed had found their voice - 

What would they say, I wondered, when nothing changed?

The cruel wind would blow through their forgotten streets - 

What, then, would they cry out?

What words would they find?


18.00
Friday 24 June 2016

East Stoke 
Dorset 


Thursday 23 June 2016

They imagined themselves wise ...



I marked my cross with the ballot pencil -

It was early morning - 

I'd walked past the sheep grazing in the water meadows - 

In polling booths all over the divided land, innocents imagined themselves wise - 

09.30
Thursday 23 June 2016

East Stoke
Dorset 

Wednesday 22 June 2016

It's no longer England ...



There's nothing more we can do
Cherry said - 

It was the day before the Referendum - 

Cherry had sensed my desperation - 

I'll be there at the count she said - you know what it's like round here

I thought of the woman in Anne's yoga class - 

We're losing our Britishness she'd said - 

I remembered the man outside Budgens -

He held his e cigarette like a stiletto - 

It's no longer England he'd said - 


11.00
Thursday 22 June 2016

East Stoke 
Dorset 


Tuesday 21 June 2016

No cruel voices could enter our silence -





The first Lord Portland could ride from here to Bath without leaving his land

The man with a beard like Joseph Conrad and half moon glasses smiled a shy courtly smile - 

Penelope and I were walking the Stour Valley way from Blandford to Bryanston - 

Climbing up the winding path, we'd heard birdsong in the hanger - 

We'd glimpsed a wide river and walked into a field of white poppies - 

Dreams had haunted each pale flower - 

I first came here fifteen years ago the man said - 

I'd lived in Suffolk - the winds would blow in across the sea -

The third Lord Portman died soon after the second - the fourth sold the estate -  

I admired the gentle garden, the book filled rooms in the gracious house - 

House Martins flew above the mossy rooftops - 

A sheep grazed amongst indolent bees - 

We smelled the perfume of the earth, the scent of ancient roses - 

The air was sultry, heavy with the past - 

No cruel voices could enter our silence - 


12.30
Tuesday 21 June 2016

Bryanston 









Monday 20 June 2016

A couple would soon dance the tango amongst the poets ...



Walking by the river towards Ridge, we walked in the footsteps of Percy F Westerman - 

He'd moored his houseboat here, within sight of Lady St Mary - 

His rollicking tales for boys had once sold in their tens of thousands -  

I remembered Bernie telling me that he'd read A Lad of Grit

We were in kitchen where a couple would soon tango amongst the poets - 

Bernie was laughing dangerously - 

He'd spend the cold months in Tenerife or Morocco - 

I think it was the night Richard was later trapped under a fallen bike in the hall - 


16.21
Monday 20 June 2016

On the banks of the Frome
Wareham
Purbeck
Dorset 


Sunday 19 June 2016

The organist lets slip a secret ...



After the service, I held my mum's hand, helping her up the steps -

The choir had finished singing - 

The shops were opening in the High Street -

A youth unlocked the shutters of Poundland -

Then the organist started playing Beethoven's Ode to Joy

The noble music filled the Norman Church - 

Canon Tom shook my hand

Naughty he grinned - we shouldn't be telling you what we think


11.00
Sunday 19 June 2016

St Faith's
Havant 


Saturday 18 June 2016

The audience groaned at the mention of their names ...




Outside Specsavers, a man begged for small coins - 

He held a tin whistle to his lips - 

I heard a few notes of the piteous music -

Saturday shoppers drank Americanos in Costas

Three withered oldsters handed out Brexit leaflets - 

I was on my way to a public meeting - 

Shaun told us of the plans to close the A&E and Maternity Departments at the hospital - 

I remembered the calm professionals who had saved my life - 

The Conservative MPs had declined the invitation to attend the meeting - 

The audience groaned at the mention of their names - Drax, Syms, Ellwood, Tomlinson - 


11.00
Saturday 18 June 2016

Spire Hall
Dorset 


 

Friday 17 June 2016

The liars wear golden crowns ...



I'm reading Celine's Journey to the End of the Night

These times need a savage voice - 

*

Hollowed out words are on every tongue - 

Beautiful suits hide putrid bone - 

*

The music starts up, the age old deceitful tunes -  

The bright souls are extinguished - 

The liars wear golden crowns - 


20.19
Friday June 17 2016

The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 


 













Thursday 16 June 2016

Creech Barrow ...



We followed the narrow path upwards through waist high bracken - 

A dragonfly followed us - 

We breathed in the dizzying scent of tangled fronds - 

Dark clouds moved across the sky - 

We saw a kestrel from the summit of the hill - 

It hovered above the green world, beyond the need for names or song - 

Under the turf were hallowed bones - 

Rivers flowed into the pale harbour -

Cattle grazed on the windswept fields -

Soon we would hear thunder - 

Rain would fall upon the ancient land - 


11.20
Friday 16 June 2016

Creech Barrow
Dorset 



  

Wednesday 15 June 2016

Letterboxes ...



I saw many letter boxes this morning - 

Some gave a glimpse of a pristine carpet, others of a mean hallway - 

Each house let slip a few of its secrets - 

I might hear someone cough or shut a bedroom door - 

A radio might be playing a love song - 

The bottom step of the stairs might be covered with broken toys - 

Each front door guarded a small yet precious world - 


13.00
Wednesday 15 June 2016

Delivering leaflets 
Wool 
Dorset



Tuesday 14 June 2016

Their faces were like like unsettling masks ...



When I mowed the lawn, I forgot the braying headlines - 

Earlier, I'd thought I was living in The Thirties

I was sitting next to Auden in a dark bar - 

I, too, was living in a low dishonest decade

I scooped up grass cuttings in my hands - 

I walked bare foot over the fragrant lawn - 

I forgot the hateful headline in The Sun

I could not recall the features of the big beasts urging Brexit - 

Their faces were like unsettling masks, half formed, melting, floating in the air before me - 

16.00
Tuesday 14 June 2016

East Stoke
Dorset 



Monday 13 June 2016

A secret plan ...



I started delivering Labour In For Britain leaflets this morning - 

I pushed leaflets through the letterboxes of bungalows - 

Cold Callers were unwelcome here - 

Pensioners mowed lawns - 

Empty lounges were like stage sets - 

Shining cars filled up narrow driveways - 

Dogs barked in small gardens - 

I glanced at The Daily Mail in the local Spar - 

There was a secret plan to open our borders to 1.5 million Turks - 


13.30
Monday 13 June 2016

Wool 
Dorset

Sunday 12 June 2016

The framed photographs on the mantlepiece -



Are you married?
 my mum asked me -

Yes I said, showing her a photograph of Anne on the I phone - 

Do you have a home? she then asked - 

Yes I said, showing her another photograph - 

There's the house - there's the apple tree - look, there are the apples on the branches - you've been to our home - 

She pointed to the framed photographs on the mantelpiece -  

Who are they? she asked - 

That's Sophie - that's Tessa - that's Lucille - that's me and Nick with you when we young -

Thank you she said - 

I often look at them and wonder who they are - 


17.39
Sunday 12 June 2016

Staunton Road
Havant

Saturday 11 June 2016

In the hidden kingdom ...



The twilight garden was a hidden kingdom - 

Blackbirds sang in pollarded trees - 

Tall shrubs screened the gentle lawn  - 

A dragonfly circled the emerald pool - 

A chimenia was full of fragrant ash - 

Terracotta pots brimmed with flowers - 

Seabirds flew overhead - 

In the greenhouse there was a fine crop of Ferring Gold


16.00
Saturday 11 June 2016

Ferring
West Sussex

Friday 10 June 2016

At the referendum stall ....



Johnson's a buffoon

The white haired bruiser laughed, joshing the Lib Dem lady - 

I don't care - let's have President Trump over here!

He pointed to the Remain leaflets - 

What will you do with all that when you lose?

Post them to you said the Lib Dem lady - 

A young mum approached the stall with her Brexit mother - 

She said if we leave what will stop them mum?

It's accountability - they'll do what they like - you know we've been to the food bank - they're Tories mum

A thin matron offered to buy me a coffee - 

Where's Drax? a man asked - why wasn't he at the hustings?

He's behind his wall I said - 


14.45
Friday 10 June 2016

Swanage
Dorset 



Thursday 9 June 2016

Casimir and Lidia ...



I walked through the silent garden - 

The doors of the gracious house were open - 

A mist obscured shapely trees - 

I glimpsed beautiful naked figures, men and women, cast in bronze - 

The artist told me she had cast her first figures when she was seventeen - 

She showed me two splendid heads - 

That's Casimir she said - there's Lidia - 

I gazed at the two heads - 

At any moment, I thought, they might part their brazen lips - 


11.30
Thursday 9 June 2016

Steppes Hill House
Langton Matravers
Dorset




Wednesday 8 June 2016

Book are like birds ...



I'm reading The Quest for Baron Corvo in the sunlit garden - 

I bought the book on the Southbank - 

I handed some small coins to a rogue wearing a trilby - 

I wonder who has also turned these yellowed pages - 

Books are like birds I think, flying from hand to hand -


16.30
Wednesday 8 June 2016

East Stoke
Dorset 


Tuesday 7 June 2016

The Turkish converses ...



I put on my Turkish Converses this morning, lacing them up under a pale sky - 

I remembered buying them in Gokova market - 

I held gaudy currency in my hand - 

The lean patron smiled - 

You are this size he'd said - I will take your old shoes

He watched me try on the pristine footwear - 

Yermi bes he said - 

He folded the notes away in his wallet -  

In the Cafe Pastane, I'd admired the long white laces - 

I flexed my bare feet against the soles - 

Now, I thought, I could walk to China - 


18.18
Tuesday 7 June 2016

East Stoke
Dorset

Monday 6 June 2016

A hero would now walk with us in our small world ...



I took the red wounded beast to the hand car wash this morning - 

The bold Serbs were undismayed by the state of the upholstery - 

While I sat in the diner, reading Carp News, they jet washed the tyres - 

A wiry boy scrubbed the seats with potent cleansers - 

The radio under the poster of Sarajevo played a 1980s anthem - 

A wheezing man left his Skoda with the Serbs - 

He read the pull out from The Sun about Muhammad Ali - 

I remembered watching the Sonny Liston fight on the glowing Ferguson - 

I was twelve years old - 

Next morning in the playground we were kings - 

A hero would now walk with us in our small world - 


13.00
Monday 6 June 2015

Car Valet Diner
Holton Heath
Dorset 







Sunday 5 June 2016

Dorset Arts Week ...





Golden tapestries hang from the walls of Saxon churches - 

Travel worn sketch books are opened in dimly lit parlours - fragrant dust spills from their glowing pages - 
 
There are sinuous bronzes in quiet gardens - 

Louche artists open their disordered studios - 

Red spots mark paintings sold to incomers -

At the Boilerhouse Gallery, a man will play delicate guitar - 

All this week I'll find beauty and strangeness in the hidden villages - 


14.30
Saturday 4 June 2016 

Corfe Castle
Dorset  


Saturday 4 June 2016

A bundle of Gollancz ...




You've taken a photograph of my father's books 
- those were his books - 

I turned to see a tall woman, smiling, straight backed, wearing beautifully distressed clothes - 

She stood by the quirky memorabilia which had caught my eye - 

He was a conscientious objector she said  - he knew Kingsley Martin

When I was at school, the Headmaster asked me to remove my CND badge

I said no - and that if he made me, there'd be an article about it in next week's New Statesman

I was one of the Woodcraft Folk

I spent a lot of my childhood naked

On the hill behind my father's farm there was a CND sign carved into the field

The Ordnance Survey never showed it on their maps


14.30
Saturday 4 June 2016

The Arty Bazaar
Corfe Castle 
Dorset 





Friday 3 June 2016

Elaine smiled her siren's smile ...



Catherine was playing reels for the Southsea Poets in the Aurora Cafe

I was sipping Merlot - 

Richard had three poems sleeping in his pocket - 

Catherine's beautiful legs were hidden by her gauzy trousers -  

A man wore a lascivious trilby - 

Audi Maserati ran his hands through his amazing hair - 

He then read out a poem about a piano and Jean Luc Godard - 

I saw my reflection in the mirror - 

My blue shirt was open at the neck - 

Elaine smiled her siren's smile - 


21.00
Thursday 2 June 2016

Aurora Cafe
Southsea