New leaves ...

There are new leaves on the apple tree -

Tender greenery on lichened branches -


A promise of summer -

Birdsong in the bright garden -

Mayflies above the quiet river -


11.55
Sunday 31 March 2019

The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 

My whole summer in a song ...

Once more I listened to the song I'd heard one smouldering summer -

Oh what a night -

Late December, back in 63 -

In Billy Winters the songs always mapped my life -

I remembered the jukebox in a smoky bar -

The smell of petrol in the street -

A glass on the table -

A girl with tawny skin -

Her thick black hair -

I'd put the record on -

My heart leaping -

My whole summer in a song -


11.30
Friday 29 March 2019

Billy Winters Diner
Weymouth
Dorset

Going to see Dorothea ...

Soon I'll walk in a house of dream -

Dorothea will take my hand -

She'll place dangerous flowers in my hair -

I'll hear their voices singing -

She'll take me far away -

I'll climb a midnight stair -


22.24
Friday 28 March 2019

The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset z

How little they weigh ...

Waiting here with these gentle people -

A girl with her cherished I phone -

Two larking boys -

A pensioner wearing crocs -

A man with a prophet's beard -

Twilight in South Street -

The light fading -

These gentle people -

How quiet their voices -

How little they weigh -

The weight of small birds -

The weight of fallen leaves -




19.30
Thursday 28 February 2018

Wareham
Dorset

She has become air ...

I still feel that cold wind -

I still wake up -


That moment -

Less than two hours into the new day -


I still walk down that crooked corridor -

I open the pale door -


I sit in silence like deep snow -

It settles upon her face -


She who loved me as easily as she breathed -

She has become air -


01.20
Wednesday 27 February 2019

The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset

March beauty ...

Warm sunlight fell on drowsy rooftops -

I heard birdsong in late afternoon gardens -

The trees on St John's Hill were now in blossom -

Shadows of March beauty were cast upon limewashed walls -


16.32
Tuesday 26 March 2019

St John's Hill
Wareham
Dorset

The first mowing of the year ...

I guided the growling mower across the wild lawn -

The first mowing of the year -

In my head I heard Selif Keita singing -

I remembered the small lawn outside the lounge of memory -

Andrew Motion's poem -

Would I be so remembered ?

Mowing -

Pale clouds in the sky -

Apples ripening on the tree -

A figure delighting in the fragrance of cut grass and petrol -

Smaller and more stooped each time pictured -

A shadow on bright grass -


11.00
Monday 25 March 2019

The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 

Fisherton Market ...

I was beguiled again by retro clothes -

1960's slacks - 

Narrow shoes - 

Caps shaped by humble bone - 

I turned the pages of absurd annuals - 

Remembered a quiz show on a TV screen filled with snow - 

There was a sinuous fox in a glass case - 

Tobacco tins still filled with memory - 

Poignant  Dinky toys - 

An early Beatles LP playing  

I remembered Tessa's words - 

Go to Fisherton Market dad - 

You'll love it - 

It's like a cave filled with treasures -

11.26

Sunday 24 March 2019

Fisherton Market 

Salisbury 

Wiltshire 

Reading The English Patient ...

I shall read Herodotus -

I shall write my words on the pages of his Histories -

Paste maps of my dream cities upon those pages -

Fallen leaves -

Yellow feathers -

Verses of songs I heard at midnight -


21.12
Saturday 23 March 2019

The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 

Driving without lights ...

I'll think I'll go and see Wild Strawberries -

It will make me think about my own film -

Living in black and white, looking back -

What would I call it ?

Driving Without Lights -

Running in black and white frozen speed by the pale sea -

Listening to The Doors in the blue car -

My pockets full of yellow feathers -

Dancing in a shebeen -

Seeing the hurt I'd caused through the eyes of those I'd hurt -

Being guilty of guilt -

My body becoming made of smoke -

Finding redemption in the nowness of a smile -

Gazing at the bright world with eyes not one hour old -

At last, at peace, eating wild strawberries -


17.12
Friday 22 March 2019

The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset

The warmth of a long summer ...

Leafless hazel bordered the holloway -

A bright river flowed past a garden -

The air was still -

We were brushed by gorse flowers -

Old trees held last year's nests -


We made our way to the silent village -

The willow awakening -

A wren flying across our path -

The sky filled with cloud -


We then saw the Magnolia tree -

The ancient hedgerow -

We heard a languid guitar -

A gentle voice -

We felt the warmth of a longed for summer -


11.30
Tuesday 19 March 2019

Turnerspuddle
Dorset

Oh Jerusalem ...

Above us were the outstretched wings of angels -

Apostles with bright faces -

This gilded roof their small heaven -


Yew trees lined the path across the churchyard -

I remembered the words I'd just read -

Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets sent to you - 


10.15
Tuesday 19 March 2019

St John the Baptist Church
Bere Regis
Dorset

Lynchian vistas ...

The park homes were high above the bay -

A snaky road had led me here -


Earlier, I'd seen a villa crowded with summer ghosts -

Now I saw pristine chalets -


A splendid silverback wore his dressing gown like a coronation robe -

There were bright lawns and picket fences -

A secret behind each window -


11.30
Monday 18 March 2019

Hoburne Park
Swanage
Dorset

Buying violets for my buttonhole ...

I'm reading Pale Criminal -

It's a time for lies once more -

I'll wear a pork pie hat -

Carry a Parabellum -

I'll drive an unmarked car -

Buy violets for my buttonhole -


18.46
Sunday 17 March 2019

The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset  

At Seastrand ...

We sat on a red sofa looking at the wild sea -

We'd been walking on the empty Sunday beach -

I sipped my silky cappuccino from a tin cup -

Wallace saw amazing creatures in the sky -

11.00
Sunday 10 March 2019

Seastrand
Scarborough

The Scarborough goddess ...

There she was -

Beautiful, powerful, shapely in her steel -

A goddess under the northern  sky -

Poised forever between air and sea -


14.26
Monday 11 March 2019

Scarborough
Yorkshire 

At the Rotunda ...

Fossil hunters in their tweed and beards had once gathered here -

They'd traced the shapes of primeval continents -

 Pangaea -

Gondwana -

They'd measured the wicked wingspans of pteranodons -

Placed their pince nez in fussy pockets -

Celebrated their achievements in decorous marble prose -

11.29
Sunday 10 March 2019

The Rotunda Museum
Scarborough

Better try Bri ..

I read the words -

Seen something you'd like to buy - 

Better try Bri -


I pictured Bri -

Adept at his creepy art -

Stitching skin -

Inserting a glittering eye -


Perhaps his lair was hidden under this salt rimed rooftop -

I'd hear his footsteps on narrow stairs -

I'd see the instruments in his hands -


15.13
Monday 11 March 2019

Scarborough

The head of the poet ...

I asked to see the bronze head of the poet -

There it was -

Beautiful -

Wounded -


I thought of his words -

True poets must be truthful -


I thought of promise cut short -

Windswept sands -

A pale sea -


There it was -

The bronze head -

Cradled in northern light -


11.24
Tuesday 12 March 2019

Art Gallery
Scarborough
Yorkshire

A room for each day of the year ...

I climbed the still opulent staircase to wander the high ceilinged corridors -

I felt the nearness of the invisible guests -

Perfumed women from the demimonde -

A gloved hand upon a marble boy -

Bearded squires with dazzling cuffs -

An immaculate orchestra playing on the terrace -

Exquisite ices -

A never ending summer -

A room for each day of the year -


13.44
Monday 11 February 2019

The Grand Hotel
Scarborough
Yorkshire

Olympia Leisure ...

We sheltered from the rain inside Olympia Leisure - 

Bright machines swallowed greasy coins -

Screens pulsed in time to electro pop -

A robot in a booth promised a drawing worthy of Leonardo -


10.42
Sunday 10 February 2019

South Bay
Scarborough
Yorkshire

Hendersonville ...

I heard bluegrass in Woodend last night -

There were three sad guitars -


I saw the moon above the river -

My daddy's picture in a frame -


I heard a lament for Johnny Cash -

I got on a train for Hendersonville -


I felt the windblown dust against my face -

The phone slept in my hand -


Saturday 10 February 2019


Woodend
Scarborough
Yorkshire 

His last piece of England ...

The poet had known these sands -

He'd sat in his turret room, above Queens Parade -

He'd worn his khaki in the town -

Here was his last piece of England -

Villas above the sea -

Footsteps on a winding stair -

Lamps lit on the platform -

The train on time -

Words going out in the dark -


14.35
Friday 8 March 2019

North Bay
Scarborough 

Zoltar ...

Zoltar told fortunes above the beach -

He could gaze out from the arcade at the pale grey sea -


I'd walked down a narrow stair to see what the future held -

My future for a small coin -

The path of the stars mapped in a whirr of clockwork -


15.25
Thursdsy 7 May 2019

Scarborough
Yorkshire

Return to Ravenscar ...

I read The Yorkshire Post once more in Ravenscar -

The log fire was smouldering in the grate -

There were daffodils in a glass -

I looked out over the wide bay -

White waves swept towards the shore -

The sky was full of rain -

There were the cliff tops we'd walked along -

The high path we'd followed, shadowed by seabirds -

Far away, the deep valleys -

The hare running across the moor -


10.43
Wednesday 6 March 2019

Raven Hall Hotel
Ravenscar
Yorkshire