A nervy red zig zag ...

I saw the dragonfly - 

A nervy red zig zag in the air - 

Settling for a moment on salt rimed wood - 

Lacy wings still - 

Slender abdomen like a stiletto - 

Monday 31 August 2020

Arne 

Dorset 

Dangerous beasts ...

I saw the two motor bikes on my way to the Bell Tower Cafe -

They beguiled passersby with their savage beauty - 

Dangerous beasts left drowsing in the Cathedral Close - 

Sunday 30 August 2020

Salisbury Cathedral Close

Salisbury 

Gentle viols ...

I heard the Minster bells inside the bookshop -

New books caught my eye - 

Like beautiful fish glimpsed in a clear pool -

A David Mitchell -

A biography of VirginIa Woolf -

A book about re-wilding -

A wild subversive pulp -

Each one calling for a quiet hour -

A sunlit room for reading -

A leather armchair -

Gentle viols -

A fountain pen to write Ex Libris -

Then my name in sumptuous ink - 

Friday 28 August 2020

Gulliver's 

Wimborne 

Dorset

A fossil strewn shore

Walking on the clifftop path, we saw the fossil strewn shore - 

The waves broke upon hidden rocks -

I imagined a primeval sea - 

No voice of man amongst the giant horsetails - 

A huge yellow sun in the sky -

Thursday 27 August 2020

Kimmeridge

Dorset 

A jewel dropped from heaven ..

I felt the silence around the hare -

How he watched me - 

The rain had stopped - 

The field was his magic kingdom -

He ran as fast as fast as thought -

His eye a jewel dropped from heaven -

August 2020

Kingston 

Dorset 

I walk there still ..

I drank tea with Jay and Bridget in the Castle's knot garden -

The last time I had seen them was before the virus -

Listening to Chet Baker in the sunlit kitchen -

The city of dream and memory beyond their garden -

I walk there still with my younger self -

I wear my young skin again -

I see the same trees in the Bloomsbury squares - 

The same louche windows in Greek Street - 

I see the same pale gods in the Museum -

I walk by the same wide river -

I wear my long blue coat -

I dream my young dreams again -

Friday 21 August 2020

Lulworth Castle 

Dorset 

Young dancers ...

Deer were like young dancers -

They wore their beauty carelessly -

They ran across the wild fields -

The wind shook the pines - 

Clouds raced across the sky - 

Tuesday 25 August 2020

Binnegar

Dorset 

A vindaloo ...

Jay and I ate our takeaway curry -

As we ate our prawn pasanda and vegetable rezala I remembered The New Bengal -

I remembered the gentle waiters -

Their wry smiles -

How they beckoned us to a table -

The dim lamplight falling on flock wallpaper -

The Cobra in a tall glass -

How I reeled out to the gents -

Returning to order a meat vindaloo -

The waiter's quiet voice -

Non judgemental, hardly heard - 

A vindaloo -

Sunday 23 August 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Swimming amongst Swallows and Amazons ...

We swam amongst swallows and amazons -

We shed our clothes under the branches of an oak tree - 

Yachts were moored between the green islands -

The high tide covering the reed beds and sand bars -

The brimming water was warm and still - 

We swam under a blameless sky - 

Entering the pages of a story -

Saturday 22 August 2020

Arne

Dorset 

Louche byways ...

Anne and Jay remembered Brighton -

Jay as a willowy scholar - 

Anne as a convent girl - 

They shared the names of their green days -

Bellevue Gardens -

College Street -

The Continentale - 

The posters of the Swedish girls-

The louche byways of a part of Greeneland -

Saturday 23 August 2020

The 

Reading L' Assommoir ...

I'm reading L' Assommoir -

I remember those boozy smoky evenings  -

Tainted Love on the juke box -

Reeling from the blue car -

A wicked smile on your lips -

Blow backs, your mouth pressed against mine -

The smell of your hair -

It all comes back to me, turning these pages -

Your name - 

The bracelet round your wrist - 

Friday 21 August 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

The sighing garden ...

I walk barefoot in the sighing garden -

The wind shakes the apples from the tree -

Shadows race across the grass - 

Friday 21 August 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Jaspers ...

Tipsy jaspers circled the windfalls -

I watched their boozy lurching flight -

Tiny drunkards, their stings like a bravo's dagger -

Thursday 20 August 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Waiting for the carvers ...

The carvers have gone -

Their shaggy ponies no longer graze amongst salt rimed camper vans -

Ash marks where hares were shaped from golden wood -

The carvers left one wind shaken night for their winter haven -

There they gaze upon the hidden valley - 

Drink cider pressed from sacred apples under dazzling stars - 

Thursday 20 August 2020

Wareham

Dorser

Looking for a tiger ...

We walked in the warm garden - 

I thought I was walking in a Rousseau jungle -

I was dizzy with colour - 

Hearing the music of hidden birds -

Looking for a tiger amongst the Ferring Gold -

Sunday 16 August 2020

Ferring 

Pebbles ...

We walked past the beach huts -

Brawny dads walked dour boxers - 

The grey sea broke upon the shingle -

Clouds filled the sky above the bungalows -

I imagined being an incomer -

Drinking tea before the opened door of a beach hut named Pebbles - 

Spending Sundays in my kingdom - 

Sunday 16 August 2020

Ferring 

Wearing my blazer to the Legion -

Spending Sunday here in my kingdom - 

 

Captain of Boats ...

Ken poured out the peaty malt 

I remembered evenings in the marble house 

The moonlight on the olive trees 

Listening to stories of Africa 

Ken young again 

Stepping ashore 

Captain of Boats

Slim and strong as a young tree 

Sunday 16 August 2020

Ferring

Wild swimming ...

 

We were carried downstream past bright fields - 

The river flowing fast over its shining bed -

Minnows darted in the shallows - 

Summer trees cast their shade - 

The strange sun filled the sky - 

Tuesday 11 August 2020

Holmebridge 

Dorset 

After the rain ...

 

I walked in the garden after the rain -

Apples were pearled with raindrops - 

There was beauty in this afternoon - 

I knew where I might find it - 

Already I knew it had found me - 

Thursday 13 August 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Falling man ...

Reading Delillo's Falling Man, I remembered being in The Windows On The World -

A few months before the first plane -

How we were held high in the sky -

Already sipping cappuccinos with ghosts - 

Later, crossing the plaza, looking up to see the waiting sky - 

Wednesday 12 August 2020

The Old School  House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Watching swallows ...

We watched the swallows -

Their wings brushed pale stone -

Circling the tower -

Each year bringing back their dance - 

Monday 11 August 2020

Lulworth Castle 

Dorset 

Pieces of my young dreams ...

 

I turned the yellowed pages as if I were thirteen again -

Chippy's boy, gazing at the stars - 

I remembered how I'd dreamed of strange planets -

Space colonies -

Spooky robots -

Marsport -

A creature called a zarl -

It was all here -

Pieces of my young dreams on every page -

Monday 10 August 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Gallows Pole ...

 

I'm reading The Gallows Pole -

Each page is like a stone in a lichened sheepfold - 

A cunning hand shaped these pages -

Evoking an ancient landscape - 

Moorland and deep valleys -

Names of rivers and crags carved into the long years -

I've walked across those high places -

Been chilled by northern rain -

I've seen the last sunlight redden lonely fields -

Heard curlews call in the white sky -

I've been warmed by a golden hearth -

Seen stories rise from its smouldering fire -

Sunday 9 August 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Heat wave ...

 

I should be sipping lassi - 

White sand still dusting my skin - 

Ripe fruits above my head - 

Birds unknown to me singing as evening comes - 

Dizzy with a new world - 

Saturday 8 August 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Sanctuary ...

 

I'm reading Faulkner's Sanctuary -

I feel the sultry gothic bitterness of the South -

Like wearing a linen suit crumpled with heat and tears - 

Friday 7 August 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

No words came ...

 

I wore my mask outside Sainsburys -

Visitors' kagoules listened in the soft rain -

Skodas shone -

No words came -

Only strangeness -

Thursday 6 August 2020

Wareham 

Dorset 

Watching Pawel Pawlikowski's Ida ...

Each image is an icy pearl - 

The convent under a sky the colour of bone -

The wounded towns - 

The empty land -

The sad beauty of the women - 

The forest's secrets - 

The farmer  kneeling in the opened grave - 

What happened, happened -

Wednesday 5 August 2020

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

In the knot garden ...

We rested for a while in the castle's knot garden -

The first leaves were falling - 

White dog roses were like pale promises -

I felt the wind touching my face -

Memories were blown across the parkland -

Tuesday 4 August 2020

Lulworth Castle 

Dorset 

Swimming in Worbarrow Bay ...

I was held like a small bird - 

Swimming in the rollicking dazzling sea -

Swept back and forth - 

Cast upon shining pebbles - 

Wild clouds in the sky - 

Wind blowing through the bones of houses -

Monday 3 August 2020

Worbarrow Bay

Worbarrow Bay ...

There were no shallows in this white bay -

I swim in its deep blueness - 

This bay is my new world - 

My heart is a small boat, dancing on the sea -

Sunday 2 August 2020

Worbarrow Bay

Dorset 

The Italians ...

I heard the Italians laughing -

A gang of bravos has rented the Nave -

They wear their trackies with swaggering sprezzatura -

They lift bottles to their lips between whoops of laughter -

Their girls sunbathe amongst the box tombs -

The Dorset sun shines in a Roman sky -

Saturday 1 August 2020

The Old School House

East Stoke 

Dorset

The Walled Garden ...

I ate blueberry and almond cake in The Walled Garden -

Noble trees cast their shadows on the lawn -

Water falls from a fountain into a lichened basin -

Laurel hedges hide cool bowers -

We could see the attic windows of the Dower House -

The gracious facade -

I imagined the maids bringing tea from out of the house -

Their black dresses and tender necks -

Later, the bright moon would fill the sky -

Hares would dance on the dreaming grass -

Narrow beds would fill with flowers -

Friday 31 July 2020

The Walled Garden

Moreton

Dorset