Wearing dangerous tweed ...

I'm wearing dangerous tweed -

I found the coat amongst gangsters' crombies in Clobber -

There were flying jackets last worn by the pilots of Flying Fortresses -

Uniforms worn by Artic Convoy captains -

Lounge lizards' finery -

But the tweed called my name -

It settled upon my shoulders like a warm memory -

Wearing it, I felt like a louche poet -

I searched inside the deep pockets for scraps of verse -

I turned up the collar against the rain -

I looked at the paintings in the sumptuous house -

I saw the sky reach down and touch the sea -



Friday 31 January 2020


Clobber, Boscombe
Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth 

Listening to Johnny Cash ...

I listened to Johnny Cash singing Wayfaring Stranger -

I heard his voice over the lonely places -

I glimpsed the wide river -

I felt the chill of the wind blowing all before it -

I saw the nearness of the edge of the world -

Johnny sang for me -

I heard his voice -

Words came to me across the fields -

I saw a smile I loved -



Thursday 30 January 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 

Sad Brio ...

We ordered lemon polenta cake in The Boston Tea Party -

We'd just said goodbye to Sophie and Wallace -


The train had been on time -

The doors had closed on my darlings -


Back home, I knew that sad Brio waited -

Toy cars would remind me of their voices -



Wednesday 29 January 2020


Boston Tea Party
Salisbury 

As if every day would be like this ...

Gulls flew above the boating lake -

I looked for the hunchback in the park, remembering the poem -

A solitary mister -

The bare trees cast their shadows upon the chill grass -

I thought of my dad -

How he'd loved the wounded poet -

How he'd fill his glass at midday -

The happy king of his world -

As if every day would be like this -



Tuesday 28 January 2020

Poole Park
Poole

Reading The Cutting Room ...

I'm reading The Cutting Room -

It's spooky Glasgow noir -

I'm drinking with murderers -

I empty secrets from the houses of the dead -



January 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset

Peaty malt to hand ...

The iconic dish had been piped in -

Peter read the Address to the Haggis -

He spoke as if he were inside a smoke filled bothy - 

Wrapped in plaid, peaty malt to hand - 

Saturday 25 January 2020

Swanage 

At the Black Dog ...

The crazy Jenga tower swayed from side to side -

I heard Wallace whooping -

A gentle juke box singing -


Logs smouldered inside the stove -

We waited for the tower to fall -

A shower of glorious tipsy pieces -



Saturday 25 January 2020


The Black Dog
East Stoke

His Brio world ...

I'm watching Wallace drive trains across the Brio world - 

He carefully straightens the track -

This is his world -

Trains called Gordon -

Friendly yellow diggers -

Tractors with wide tyres -

A tiger coming to tea -



Friday 24 January 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke

Love Cake ...

Mocha -

Chai latte -

Cakes a siren might hunger for -

Gossip -

My heart lurching -

Sly gins in the afternoon -



January 2020

Love Cake
Swanage

Odysseus ...

This hero -

This bearded trickster, lover of a sorceress -

Bringer of death to the noble city -


You stroke your beard -

Speak honeyed words -

You listen, fastened by ropes, to sirens' songs -


Your wife unpicks the tapestry -

Your ship sails across wine dark seas -

Your story is heard even now, under a paler sun -



Friday 17 January 2920

Troy
British Museum

Achilles dying ...

There, before me - 

The beautiful naked killer - 

Achilles dying - 

Friday 17 January 2020

Troy Exhibition

British Museum 

The woeful king ...

The woeful king crawled towards Babylon -

His beard touched the frozen earth -


His talons were as pale as glass -

Ghastly light fell on his matted hair -


His eyes found mine -

I felt their horror and their shame -


Thursday 16 January 2020

William Blake Exhibition
Tate Britain

The light of heaven ...

I saw the pages of the visionary books -

Long moments passed -

Each page was shaped by a prophet's hand - 

They still shone with the light of heaven - 

Thursday 16 January 2020

William Blake

Tate Britain

This man sees angels ...

This man sees angels -

They walk with him through the city -

They come to his house -


He's seen the first garden -

The apple in Eve's mouth -

The shining tree -


Thursday 16 January 2020


William Blake Exhibition
Tate Britain 

Khaki ghosts ...

I'm reading The Ravi Lancers -

While reading, I remember the bright ancient sky of India -

The noble elephants, the temples, the delicate brown wrists of girls -


I remember, too, that other world -

The lost valleys I explored with Penelope -

The sad churches with their names -


Then the border of the world smelling of blood and clay -

The platforms crowded with khaki ghosts -



Wednesday 15 January 2020

The  Old School House
East Stoke
Wareham 

The long train waiting ...

The dark water reflected the pines -

I could have been in some bloodland -

The wind blowing through the sorrowful forest -

The long train waiting under a winter sky -


Tuesday 14 January 2020


Wareham Forest 

A radio whispered ...

I heard no banter over scissors today -

The chairs were empty -

A radio whispered in a corner -


Monday 13 January 2020


Barnets
Wareham

Walking to the edge of the world ...

This day, I knew where I had to walk -

This sand bar was one of my sacred places -

Like the chapel on the hill, the birch grove near the river, it would take me to the edge of the world -


Sunday 12 January 2020


Shipstal Point
Arne
Do

Dirty chai ...

We ate banana bread in Boscanova -

We'd walked past vaping parlours and yoga lounges -

Small shops sold weird bric a brac -

I remembered home visits to dire bedsits -

Babushkas rode mobility scooters -

Now we sat amongst the gossiping youth -

Sunlight streamed in from the exciting street -

I thought of ordering a dirty chai -


Friday 10 January 2020


Boscanova
Boscombe
Bournemouth 

Wearing dangerous tweed ...

Wearing this long coat, I could have revved my motor in a speakeasy -

Plunging my hands into the pockets, I expected to find tickets for the night rain to Chicago -

I was no longer a mild mannered Corbynista -

I was wearing dangerous tweed -

I was a bootlegger on the run from the Feds -


Friday 10 January 2020


Clobber
Boscombe
Bournemouth  

Hopperesque chippery -

Edward Hopper should have painted this chippery -

That emptiness -

Those chairs -


Thursday 9 January 2020

Wareham
Dorset

Three Everymans ...

By chance I saw three Everymans on my shelves -

Lavengro -

Castle Rackrent -

Sir John Mandeville's Travels -


I remembered buying them -

The bright boozy afternoon with Jay and Russell -

Smoking Balkan Sobranie cigarettes in the Cathedral Close -

The winding stair of the secondhand bookshop -

Russell laughing -

Shooting his vagabond's cuffs -

You've got the Bodleian Library in your pockets -


Wednesday 8 January 2020

The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset

Fields sown with stories ...

Each raindrop a pearl -

Blown across the valley -


Berny O'Shea would have greeted us from the hillside -

The nearest parish in America -


This is a soft rain he would have said -

Walking towards us over fields sown with stories -


Tuesday 7 January 2019


East Stoke
Dorset 

I'll call myself Nick Charles ...

I've had it with that question - 

What news from the Change ?

The latest horror of the orange ape -

The smirking chancer hiding in a fridge -

I'm reading The Thin Man -

I'm gulping a scotch and soda -

Hoodlum measures -

I'm wisecracking with a crazy blonde -

We're hiding out in a speakeasy -

It's 1932 -

I'll fall asleep with my head on the table -

I'll call myself Nick Charles -


Monday 6 January 2020


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 

The chalk dust on her fingers ...

We heard birdsong in the gathering dark -

Flooded fields lay beyond the hedgerows -

Bare trees whispered above our heads -


Beyond the river I could see the lights of the railway crossing -

I saw the church tower amongst the pine trees -

The floodwaters still reflected the last light of the January sky -


I thought of our windows which overlooked the churchyard -

The last teacher knew our narrow stairs -

She'd played the harmonium in our garden -


We were known to the sleepers outside our windows -

If I saw her, I'd know her by her green coat -

Then by the chalk dust on her fingers -


Sunday 5 January 2020


East Stoke
Dorset 

Seeing Cassiel ...

I'm reading Gide's The Immoralist -

It cost me a few small coins in The Crooked Book -

The Polish girl had put on an early record by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds -

Taking the coins, her fingers had brushed against mine -

I half expected to see Cassiel standing by the window -

Listening to my thoughts, smiling his wintry smile -


Saturday 4 January 2019


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset

Friday afternoon in The Boston Tea Party ...

New Year sunlight fell upon the murmuring diners -

Slender waitresses danced up the winding stairs -

A courtly buffer unfolded his Borisgraph -

I sprinkled Tabasco upon my smoked salmon and avocado -

Tess told us about the Ska band at The Winchester Gate -

Earlier, we'd walked down Penny Farthing Street -

Young men were having their beards trimmed in Sultan's Cut -

I buttered my sourdough bread -

I wondered whether to buy a gaudy shirt -

I had counted all my years -

Each one was an apple, fallen from a golden tree -


Friday 3 January 2020


The Boston Party
Salisbury 

Oil spilled on winter fields ...

Neill and I were tempted by heroic breakfasts -

We were in The Rainbow Cafe -

The walls were hung with garage memorabilia -

An Esso icon -

A steering wheel -

Silverbacks parked their prized machines on the forecourt -

Mechanics toiled in the workshop next to the cafe -

The gossip was of roundabouts and midnight curves -

Oil spilled on winter fields -


Tuesday 2 January 2020

The Rainbow Cafe
near Winfrith
Dorset 

Liesl blowing me a kiss ...

I'm watching The Sound of Music -

The Captain defying the sleazy gauleiter -

Maria being brave -


I remember the screen in The Ritz -

My mum and dad with me in the dark -

Hearing Eldelweiss for the first time -


Later, in my narrow bed, I dreamed of mountains -

Riding my Raleigh through a sunlit pass -

Liesl blowing me a kiss -


Wednesday 1 January 2019

The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset