Watching Colombo

Colombo chews his green cigar -

Narrows his crinkly eyes -

He's questioning the murderous sheikh -

You may have something there he says -

I have to ask some questions -

March 2026

Each branch a promise

Rob plants the cherry tree -

He digs with a shining spade -

Each branch a promise -

A sweetness waiting for my tongue -

East Stoke 

March 2026 

Top boy

Rob still has the swagger of a top boy -

That bounce in his walk -

The brilliant mischief of his eye -

East Stoke 

March 2026 

Morse

Morse is listening to opera -

It's midnight in Oxford - 

There's been a murder -

It's raining -

Morse hides his heart -

Drinks another whisky -

Turns up the aria - 

Closes his eyes -

Murmurs bravissima -

Bravissima -

March 2026

After The Secret Agent

After The Secret Agent I dreamed of sicarios -

A sweltering city -

A police chief with blood on his carnival shirt -

Wareham 

March 2026 

The clarinet's spell

Rob wears a blue shirt patterned with white leaves -

I'm drinking Moretti -

The quartet is playing Duke Ellington's Caravan -

I'm beguiled -

Under a vast desert sky -

Lost in the clarinet's spell - 

Thinking of you -

Swanage

March 2026 

Annie was becoming smoke

Annie was becoming smoke -

More and more of her blown over the edge of the world - 

Just her voice left -

Then the brightness of her eyes -

Swanage 

March 2026

The shape of her slender bones

The women read their poems -

Afterwards, Fiona opened her arms for me to hug her -

I felt the sly promise of her body -

The shape of her slender bones -

The Mowlem, Swanage 

March 2026

Reading Little Grey Men

I'm reading Little Grey Men by BB -

When I read it, I remember Elson Branch Library -

Walking there from the house in Palmyra Road -

Late afternoon, after school -

Wearing my duffle coat, fastened at the neck, like a hero's cloak -

I remember the librarian's desk -

The dim light cast by the lamps hanging from the ceiling -

The shadowy corners brimming with words -

Seeing the letters BB on the green spine of a book -

When I read the book now, I'm thirteen again -

I see my small hand turning the first few pages -

My thin freckled wrist -

I feel my heart beating quickly in my chest -

I see myself asleep, dreaming, in my innocent bed -

March 2026

Coffee with Mel.in Java

Coffee with Mel in Java -

Talk of the International Socialists -

Budapest, the Arrow Cross, the Hotel Gellert -

The Shoes on the Danube Bank -

 Mel saying how grief is hard -

Calling for another coffee -

Knowing the names of the girls -

Telling a story about Peter Cook at the football -

Then one of the docker who'd taken care of a revolver -

Whilst Mel talked, I breathed the air of Dagenham -

I smelled hot metal -

I marvelled at the lightness of his bones -

Java, Swanage 

March 2026

Playing pirates in Churchill Gardens

Playing pirates with Jake in Churchill Gardens -

Spring blossoms on winter's tree -

A girl running past us, light as air -

Salisbury 

March 2026

The navy blue Guernsey

I'm wearing the navy blue Guernsey -

Ken wore it before me -

He walked the Ilhara Gorge wearing it -

Braved mastiffs -

Wore it whilst pouring a midnight Laphroaig into a crystal glass -

I remember him when I wear it -

His smile, his courtesy -

His large gentle hands -

March 2026

Remembering Borges' words

Sunlight falling on bright reefs of books - 

Remembering Borges' words -

Paradise as a kind of library -

Swanage Library 

March 2026

Before Wuthering Heights

A Merlot in the bar -

The art deco clock -

Billie Holliday singing - 

The Rex, Wareham 

February 2026

Full English in the Red Lion Hotel

A Full English under gnarled creaking beams -

Prints of three bottle squires -

A glimpse of a cobbled courtyard -

A painting of a mutton chopped alderman on the stairs -

Red Lion Hotel, Salisbury 

March 2026

Le Cirque du Soleil

Beautiful girls whirling through the air - 

A wild violin -

A yellow butterfly -

Albert Hall

February 2026

Two portions of chicken and chips

At the counter in Chick-O-Land -

Rain falling on Salisbury -

Glimmering streets -

Remembering the summer of Jakey's smile -

Salisbury 

February 2026

After watching Nouvelle Vague

I'll wear sunglasses, even at night -

Drive a louche Buick -

Walk on my hands - 

Play pinball with a cigarette hanging from my mouth -

There'll be cool jazz - 

I'll say art is never finished, only abandoned -

Coupe, coupe!

The Rex, Wareham 

February 2026

Remembering the banlieues

Nigel still breathes the air of the banlieues -

Remembers the brutal balconies -

The smell of petrol -

The wailing of police cars -

Swanage 

February 2026

I found God

His scarf wrapped round his neck -

Lean body trembling -

Peaky Blinders cap -

I found God he says - 

Swanage

February 2026

Those unblinking eyes

The Eastern European brings me a flat white -

He looks like a zek -

That shaven head -

Those unblinking eyes -

Swanage 

February 2026

The soft wings of prayers

On the high hill above the sea -

The wind shaken Chapel -

Two doors in the dark stone - 

The soft wings of prayers -

Sheep grazing on the bright wet grass -

A tree with white blossoms in a garden -

Abbotsbury 

February 2026

Reading For Whom the Bell Tolls

The trail through the pines -

The snow falling almost in June -

 Anselmo saying I am against the killing of all men -

The flails and sickles in the town square -

Roberto holding Maria's hand -

How he says thy hand is enough -

The fascist planes in the sky -

Three score years and ten becoming two days -

Putting the book down -

My heart filled with sorrow, then with love -

February 2026

A Half English

A Half English in Beavers -

No sign of the land girl with her corduroy trousers -

Gentle pensioners -

Soft rain falling on Institute Road -

Swanage 

February 2026

Homeless man

Your wild beard -

Your mad hair -

The bottle of vodka at your lips -

The customers in Greggs hearing you cry out -

Your voice -

Like a wound -

I can still hear it -

Anguished and terrible -

Salisbury 

February 2026

Nigel's back

Nigel's back -

Laura caught a glimpse of his dreadlocks -

I've missed his stories -

Dwarf Lords in Hackney -

The Battle of the Beanfield -

Ian Drury -

Flying Saucers -

Taking a donkey through Customs -

Drinking Breton cider - 

Dazzling me with names -

Memories of gypsies -

The secrets of Autumn fields -

Swanage 

February 2026

Going live

Going live -

Studio air zinging with radio magic -

My voice a silken net -

February 2926

A golden key

Twelve years old -

Finding a golden key -

Holding your future life in your young hands -

February 2026

Both of us grandfathers

Hearing Jay's voice -

As though his hair was still a splendid mane -

As though he were wearing stripy trousers -

Red Converses -

All those years still to be lived - 

Those long summers -

Throwing darts -

Harveys in the sunlit bar -

The house on Albion Hill -

Russell lighting up a Marlboro -

The foxed Master and Margarita -

The waves breaking on the stones -

Morrison singing She lives on Love Street -

The last notes of The Firebird -

All this, in those first words, ringing Jay -

Both of us grandfathers -

*

Watching Werner Herzog's Nosferatu

The gypsies with their dark Aztec faces - 

Their silences -

The lanterns of the coach glimmering in the darkness -

The wine in a crystal glass -

Bruno Ganz writing to his darling -

That terrible goblin face, floating above the bed -

February 2026

Watching Blaze

I think I'll watch Blaze -

I need to see flying saucers -

Hear of terrifying conspiracies -

Abductions -

Hybrids -

Lost time -

Be above top secret -

 See presidents die -

February 2026

Late afternoon in Salisbury

Jake singing quietly - 

Immersed in Mobilo -

Looking up with his gentle smile -

Salisbury 

February 2026

Blue notes

Litening to blue notes, you held my hand  -

I love seeing you I said -

You held my hand more tightly -

I thought I want to tell you everything -

There were more blue notes - 

More moments of you - 

Your smile -

The warmth of your hand -

Swanage 

February 2026

Longing for sleep

Longing for sleep - 

Those deep pools - 

Those still shores.-

February 2026

Being made of air

Beguiled by tattered shreds of a poster -

Tongues of paper hanging from a wall -

By the words a day of trance -

I imagined myself dancing -

Being made of air -

Bournemouth 

February 2026

Each silent moment

A yacht on the still sea -

The reflection of the mast on the water -

The heaped flints on the sand -

Each silent moment a pearl of memory -

South Beach

Studland 

February 2026

Joyous birds

Wearing my Charborough tweed -

A lobster sashshaying to the beat of the XR drums -

Singing our way through the rainy streets -

Past Pret a Manger and Wetherspoons -

Holding up kindly flags -

Laughing with the comrades -

Passionate words like joyous birds -

Bournemouth 

February 2026

Reading The Line of Beauty

I'm reading The Line of Beauty -

I remember the house in Highgate -

The beautiful manners of my hosts -

The boy with the Eton tie -

February 2026

Thinking of Josh

I remember you drinking with the comrades -

The fire in your voice -

How you longed for a different world -

Even then, perhaps, the devils were in your blood -

Taking you to this white bed -

Your young son lying next to you -

I've tasted this air -

It comes from beyond the edge of the world -

My eyes fill with tears -

February 2026

The smoke in your hennaed hair

Driving the rakish Dacia through the New Forest - 

Remembering a wild summer -

The smoke in your hennaed hair -

New Forest 

February 2026

Watching Hamnet

Watching the frightened boy walking towards the dark gateway - 

Trying his best to be brave -

Thinking of Jake, or Wallace -

My eyes filling with tears -

The Rex

Wareham 

January 2026 

Outside Java

We had coffee outside Java -

My heart raced when I saw you walk towards us -

I had to hide how glad I was to see you -

I thought of you resting your head on my shoulder -

Your tears -

How you had come into my life -

Java

Swanage 

February 2026

A rainbow above the dunes

The waves breaking upon the chill sand -

Riders passing on slow horses -

Girls with their boys outside the beach sauna -

Their hearts leaping in their beautiful bodies -

A rainbow above the dunes -

Middle Beach 

Studland 

February 2026

Promoted to glory

You'd say God bless when you gave me a War Cry -

Sitting outside Natwest on a folding chair -

You never had any doubt -

There were no shadows in your house -

Every room was filled with light -

Every window open to the sky -

Wareham

January 2026

Remembering smoking Gitanes

I remember smoking Gitanes -.

Being nineteen and wearing a leather jacket -

Russell Square in the July sunlight -

The fountains, the shade beneath the plane trees -

The sexy smoke in my mouth -

My long hair -

Being unaware of my beauty -

Having no wounds in my heart -

January 2026

No moonlight, only rain

The Dacia's headlamps glimmering in the rainy dark -

The twisty lanes running with water -

Glimpsing swollen rivers -

The vague hills, the heavy sky -

Driving through the flooded villages -

Winterborne Kingston, Tarrant Hinton, Milburn Saint Andrew -

Names for people in a story - 

No moonlight, only rain -

January 2026

After the rain

After the rain, the water meadows reflected the sky -

The river had spilled over ancient hedgerows -

Clouds floated over the winter's grass -

Dark alders cast their tangled shadows on the water -

The moon shone on a sunken land -

East Stoke

Dorset 

January 2026

The moment of her leaving

Julia told me how she'd watched her mother leave this world - 

How she'd read to her - 

Sat with her during the long night -

Seen the moment of her leaving - 

Awful and wonderful - 

January 2026

Each day is summer

The white car moving slowly away -

Jake waving -

Smiling through his tears Anne says -

The rain starting to fall -

My heart tied to his heart -

My eyes filled with his tears -

Smiling, his brightness makes me light as air -

Each day is summer -

January 2026

All the turnings of my heart

I remember the moment she was born - 

Sophie, the first of my two daughters -

Uncannily wise from her earliest years -

Her calm gaze knowing all the turnings of my heart -

January 2026

Jake plays Brio amongst my books

Jake plays Brio amongst my books - 

I'm reading The Kingdom of The Wicked -

Simon Peter has just said rise up girl -

Caligula has been pierced by thirty daggers -

Jake puts down the Hotwheels Jaguar -

He asks me to read him The Tiger Who Came to Tea -

January 2026

The first car

Dizzy with new chrome -

Remembering my first car -

Smoking Gitanes in the Sunbeam Rapier -

The glimmering dash -

The blue fins -

The snarling gears - 

Driving through the New Forest -

The radio on -

Midnight roads -

The headlights on full beam -

Annick taking me to a hotel amongst the trees -

The bikers, the music, the jukebox of souls -

January 2026

Raw Glasgow

Raw Glasgow on your tongue - 

Your ragged beard -

Your eyes as cold and grey as the Clyde -

Focus Centre 

Swanage

January 2026

Waiting in Chapel Lane

Rain falling on Chapel Lane -

Marie with her canny smile -

A gull flying over salty rooftops -

Nigel's eyes like bright blue beads -

Chapel Lane

Swanage 

January 2026

Savage scarecrows

They sit outside the library -

These savage scarecrows -

They terrify me -

Their voices -

Their desolation -

Salisbury Library

January 2026

Test driving the Dacia

A beautiful temple of glass and dreams -

Test driving the Dacia -

Imagining sunlit roads, Chet Baker's swooning trumpet on the radio -

Penton

Poole 

January 2026

This is where I live

Voices in the salty air -

Banners dripping with dark humour -

Marching to the port -

Past police cars, ghost pubs still echoing with sailors' laughter -

Small houses straggling up the hillside -

Songs at the gates -

Paul showing his mighty heart -

Gentle truth teller -

His few words still with me -

This is where I live -

Isle of Portland 

Dorset

January 2026

Like a ray of light

Marylyn smiled when you spoke -

Remembering you in your classroom; like a kindly god -

Your charm like a ray of light, sweeping across our faces -

The Bear

Wareham 

January 2026

At the Boston Tea Party

Knotted beams held up uneven ceilings -

Jake marvelled at a picture of the Gruffalo -

Baristas crafted exquisite cappuccinos -

Rain fell on the ancient roof -

Boston Tea Party 

Salisbury 

January 2026

Each shelf filled with wonders

The quiet rooms were filled with books -

A youth with silver bangles and torn jeans sashshayed past the Memoires de Casanova -

I was beguiled by orange Penguins -

There were mazy corridors of Percy Westermans -

Tiger Standish getting his man -

Biggles with his manly gaze -

A grandfather clock with stilled hands -.

Each shelf filled with wonders -

Puddletown Bookshop 

January 2026

You think of what you should have said

Mel said you think you'll go on forever -

We were in Java -

Outside it was raining -

The sea and the sky touched the edge of the world -

Here we were warm, brought coffee by a slender girl -

I saw her thin dark wrists, how she wore her young beauty, like a dress made of cobwebs -

You think of what you should have said Mel said -

But then it's too late -

Java, Swanage 

January 2026

When you smile

Thinking of you walking here -

Next to this pale sea -

How you bring colour into the world when you smile -

Swanage

January 2026

Fevered with love

I took these photographs of you when I was fevered with love -

You lay naked on your summer's bed -

Your lovely body healing all my wounds - 

January 2026

Each day now

All I saw was bathed in light - 

Made wonderful and strange - 

The calm water touched the empty shore -

There was one leaf on a bare tree -

The pale blue sky was cloudless -

Stillness fell from heaven -

I saw all my years in the clear icy air -

My name written in scattered shells -

Each day now the edge of the world came nearer - 

The stillness deeper, the light more radiant - 

Shipstal Point

Arne

January 2026