My loyal friend ...

Whilst Anne took my dad to hospital, I danced with my mum in the lounge of memory - 

I crooned with Nat King Cole a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square -

We then watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks -

The flat screen TV was my loyal friend - 

15.00

Sunday 31 December 2017

Havant

Bomberg at The Pallant Gallery ...

The artist said he'd never seen sunlight before - 

You must remember, I was a poor boy from the East End - 

I gazed at his drawings and paintings in the beautiful gallery - 

He'd gone to the Yiddish Theatre, watched the jiu jutsi fighters in Moe's Gym -

Beneath the trenches, he'd seen men carving tunnels through the merciless earth - 

He'd been regarded as a disturbing influence at The Slade - 

The faces of the Jewish women he painted were those of goddesses, archaic and ravishing - 

Each self portrait I saw depicted a portion of his soul - 

The last showed him in a robe like a gorgeous shroud - 

12.00

Saturday 30 December 2017

Pallant House Gallery

Chichester  

Morning at Malmsbury Lawn ...

The two of us took my mum and dad to Malmsbury Lawn - 

Anne helped my mum through the automatic doors - 

I'd offered my arm to my dad - 

Don't rub it in he said - 

Doreen sat next to my mum in the circle of chairs -

 

Service users in wheelchairs arrived by minibus - 

There was a bookcase of thrillers - 

I glanced for a second at a Daily Mail - 

Michelle offered my dad a mince pie - 

Oh, I don't think so he said - 

09.39

Friday 29 December 2017

Malmsbury Lawn Day Centre

Havant  

Welcome to the real world ...

We had a late breakfast special in Poppins - 

I wore my Peaky Blinders cap - 

The Kerala boys greeted each pensioner with a tender smile - 

The church clock struck noon -

My mum and dad were at the Day Centre - 

Havant was bathed in icy light - 

 

My brother, the consultant, was passionate - 

That's the NHS now he said - 

Welcome to the real world - 

12.00

Thursday 28 December 2017

Havant 

Now we're back in the small house ...

This morning we were in Bowlalley Lane - 

Now we're back in the small house, where time is strange - 

*

Jane rang us on Christmas Day - 

Your dad has pneumonia - 

He's in QA - 

*

Here, lights are left on here all night - 

My mum puts teabags under her pillow - 

*

The nurses and the doctors lost patience with my dad -  

He plucked at the drip in his arm - 

I'm not ninety he said - 

Don't talk to me as if I'm a child - 

Don't put bars round my bed - 

I'm not a baby - 

22.07

Wednesday 27 December 2017

Havant 

The sky reached down to the northern shore ...

Sad warehouses were now spare edgy galleries - 

I read enigmatic graffiti - 

The Spurn Lightship was moored in the marina - 

Jazz bars offered absinthe and cool vibes - 

Delicate birds folded out of paper hung from a white ceiling - 

We walked towards The Minerva - 

Strange machines raised metal paws to heaven - 

Ancient currents still shaped the estuary -

The sky reached down to the northern shore - 

14.30

Tuesday 25 December 2017

Hull 

The Old Town ...

We walked through the early morning streets of the old town - 

The buildings we passed were solemn with memory - 

Invisible clerks still filled ledgers with fastidious copperplate - 

Gas jets hissed - 

Tall warehouses faced the river - 

Frock coated shades waited for Baltic cargoes - 

A murmuration of starlings filled the sky - 

13.00

Sunday 24 December 2017

Old Town

Hull

Bowlalley Lane ...

We're high above the ancient lane - 

An opulent mirror hangs from the wall - 

I've just lolled in bathtub fit for Pompey the Great - 

Scalding hot water gushed from the quivering taps - 

I saw mysterious windows from the rooftop terrace -  

A staircase led me upwards towards the Christmas sky - 

19.11

Friday 23 December 2017

Bowlalley Lane

Hull  

The Peugeot will be our Argo ...

I've packed my blue rucksack - 

Tomorrow, we'll drive north - 

We'll drink motorway Americanos -  

We'll cross a wide river by an iconic bridge - 

The Peugeot will be our Argo - 

The wide fields will be our wine dark sea - 

19.42

Friday 22 December 2017

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset 

Holly on the mantlepiece ...

Late this afternoon I placed holly on the mantlepiece - 

I'll light the fire whilst we drink a dizzying hot toddy - 

I'll remember past Christmas Eves - 

Now my dad asks everyday what day it is - 

Christmas cards with tender messages will remain unread - 

My mum will doze upon the settee - 

Pages from The Portsmouth Evening News will lie scattered on the floor - 

There'll be a festive Midsomer Murders on ITV 3 - 

19.09

Thursday 21 December 2017

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset

That's bourgeois democracy ...

Once more the hireling shot his pristine cuffs - 

The PowerPoint cast its numbing spell - 

The clinicians are with us the Chief Exec said - 

The councillors voted as the Chair directed - 

That's bourgeois democracy Lee said - 

13.30

Wednesday 20 December 2017

County Hall

Dortchester 

I would walk like an innocent into a terrible history ...

A man wearing ink stained tweed turned the pages of a fragile volume - 

A low hanging chandelier illuminated reefs of obscure proceedings - 

I climbed a wrought iron spiral staircase to look down upon the murmuring antiquarians - 

I felt as though I were a character in a short story by M R James - 

I would spend darkening afternoons here - 

I would sit at the desk by the stilled grandfather clock - 

I might hear a hissing whisper high amongst the bookstacks - 

I would walk like an innocent into a terrible history - 

12.30

Tuesday 19 December 2017

Dorset County Museum Library 

Dortchester 

The chair ...

That chair is his life Jane said - 

We'd met Jane for a morning latte - 

Den had taken my parents to Malmsbury Lawn - 

The lounge of memory was empty - 

My dad's armchair faced the silenced TV - 

Tesco shoppers' cars reflected the Havant sunlight - 

He'll sleep all day in that chair Jane said -

Then wake up and watch Doc Martin I said - 

09.45

Monday 18 December 2017

M&S Cafe

Havant  

M & S Respite ...

For respite, we spent an hour or so in the Havant Retail Park M&S - 

We'd left my dad in his armchair - 

He'd forgotten he'd gone to hospital -

I'll ring old Melville tomorrow he said - 

My mum had fallen asleep again -

Is it Sunday? My dad asked - 

I get so forgetful - 

15.17

Sunday 17 2017

M&S

Havant Retail Park

Snaring words ...

I'm snaring words - 

They dart past me like wild eyed hares - 

They bring light to the darkening fields - 

Each one is a leaf on an ancient tree - 

14.45

Saturday 16 December 2017

Studland

Dorset

Innocence like a golden crown ...

Winter sunlight fell upon the Minster - 

I remembered past summers when all the songs I heard were new - 

I wrapped my green scarf more tightly around my neck - 

Old houses were silent, bathed in memory - 

I looked up at the leafless trees - 

The sky was a pale icy blue - 

Soon children would sing inside the Minster -

Their voices would rise to the stars above their heads - 

All my Christmas mornings came back to me - 

There were the presents under my parents' Christmas Tree - 

I switched on the torch once more which had a beam a mile long - 

I went away to sea again with Slippery Sam - 

I wore my innocence as if it were a golden crown - 

11.33

Friday 15 December 2017

Wimborne Minster

Dorset 

A day unremembered is a soul unborn ...

I'm listening to the spooky beautiful voice of a counter tenor - 

He's singing She moved through the fair - 

Laurie Lee says a day unremembered is like a soul unborn - 

So - I'll remember this moment, when I hear this voice again - 

I'll see the clouds in the December sky - 

I'll feel the warmth of the ashes in the fireplace - 

My heart, once more, will be rapt in its nest of bone - 

There I am, listening - 

Last night she came to me, my dead love came in - 

So softly she came that her feet made no din - 

15.46

Thursday 14 December 2017

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset

The Christmas Lunch ...

My mum was an ARP warden Jean said - 

She climbed onto a roof to put out incendiary bombs - 

I released a squeaking sausage of a balloon to fly over our heads - 

It was our Christmas Lunch - 

We linked arms to pull crackers and wore paper crowns - 

I'd made the usual joke in an e-mail earlier that Semi Colons was not a literary group - 

Reg said that he'd been in the the Home Guard - 

He'd protected a town hall in Kingston upon Thames - 

They were armed with axe handles and six rifles - 

I learned that Jocelyn, Queen of The Rex, had been married to a racing car driver - 

There's a lot that's left unexplained about T E Lawrence Paul said mysteriously - 

I drank an afternoon bumper of Merlot - 

We all of us were linked, we Christmas diners - 

We all had been marked by shining instruments - 

We all had counted the number of our days - 

13.00

Wednesday 13 December 2017

Purbeck Golf Club

Studland 

Dorset

PowerPoint followed PowerPoint ...

PowerPoint followed PowerPoint - 

It's all a trade off said the hireling in a dark suit - 

His cuff links shone - 

I thought of the old woman, someone's precious granny, lying for two hours in the cold street - 

There's the question of the bigger footprint he said - 

Gazing at the Councillors he smiled his thin apparatchik's smile - 

Then there's the capital funding - we mustn't lose that -

12.15

Tuesday 12 December 2017

Dorset County Hall

Dortchester 

Secondhand books and gaudy nights ...

I picked up Hudson's Far Away and Long Ago - 

I remembered the second hand bookshop with its winding stair - 

I went there, one tipsy summer afternoon - 

Upstairs, I'd walked across creaking floorboards - 

I could see the Cathedral through the narrow window - 

Careless sunlight fell upon the bookshelves - 

The love of words flowed over me, as strong as my love of gaudy nights - 

15.47

Monday 11 December 2017

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset 

 

Visa to Greeneland ...

I'm reading The Confidential Agent - 

There's a visa to Greeneland sewn into the lining of my coat - 

There's no honour there, or justice - 

Bombs will soon be falling upon its cinemas and cheap hotels - 

Gunmen will walk through its choking fogs - 

Shameless men will ride in taxis - 

Innocents will die -

No action will be taken without careful forethought - 

The passport in my hand will be false - 

The photograph will be of my face before it changed - 

16.53

Sunday 10 December 2017

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset 

Banjaxed ....

Anne's been banjaxed by a bug - 

All day we've kept to the snug, the radiators on full -

I've just lit the fire - 

We're watching ITV 3 like two washed up dowagers - 

Miss Marple brings comfort - 

A murderous nun is bought to justice - 

18.30

Saturday 9 December 2017

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset 

Revisiting the walled garden ...

Penelope and I revisited the walled garden - 

Pale sunlight fell on leafless trees -

Small birds followed us - 

We heard them singing in dark arbours - 

Winding paths led to a stilled fountain - 

We stood by a sundial under the December sky - 

A bearded god's face was etched in the metal of the dial - 

A chill wind blew - 

A white rose was still in bloom - 

Attic windows overlooked empty fields - 

Nearby, an elusive soul was held down by marble - 

11.47

Friday 8 December 2017

The Walled Garden

Moreton

Dorset