You may not be aware, but you know

Peter gave me The Messiah's Handbook -

I thought of you -

How brave you were -

How beautiful -

There was only one question to ask -

March 2026

With every word

Walking by the river -

Under the plane trees -

Listening to you telling me about your life -

Loving you more with every word you said -

London 

March 2026

Wanting the march to never end

Being part of this vast joyous crowd -

Hearing songs and wild exultant drums - 

My feet urged to dance -

Reading the brave words on banners held up by faithful hands -

Filled with the desire to turn the world upside down -

No longer just one voice -

Or a mute tongue -

Being with you, my comrade, in this city of memory and dream -

Wanting the march to never end -

London

March 2026

,

Two memories

Seeing Marylyn in The Bear, I remembered Porchy -

Marylyn's quiet voice when speaking to some wild dad -

My years there -

Wearing a dark suit -

Two memories -

Coming to me as I listen to her - 

Cappuccinos being taken to our table - 

Waiting for the frangipane -

Mark Raven White swollen with banjo fury -

Wanting to sort out Pollit -.

The shining faces of Year Seven boys -

The gentle Mike Winkworth saying you can only do your best -

The Bear 

Wareham 

March 2026 

At the Baptist Church Playgroup

Jake sculpting an orange worm from play doh -

Volunteer nanas serving coffee -

Small hands burying monster trucks under sand -

Mobilo -

A plucky grandad -

Young mums wearing leggings -

Singing the wheels on the bus go round and round -

The Welsh Baptist minister re-telling the Parable of The Loaves and the fishes -

The boy who shared his sandwiches -

Salisbury 

March 2026

Jane's flowers

Jane's sent us flowers -

I remember the Birthday Weekend -

The tipsy dinner in The Bear -

Rob's story about the winter -

The terrifying cold -

Jane planning a trip to Rome -

The affogato -

Anne wearing her green dress -

I wrote in her card you are the commissar of kindness -

I thought of her first wild kiss -

We'd just met in a Brighton drenched in summer -

Jane's flowers summoned memory -

I remembered the garden -

Its perfumed air -

How beautiful we were naked -

The flower she wore in her hair -

March 2026 

This magic hour

Golden light on the church tower -

This magic hour -

The river running through gentle fields -

The catkins, haloed in heaven's light, hanging from the tree -

March 2026

East Stoke

Dorset

Saying my name

I'm thinking of Chekov -

How each story stayed with me -

Like the memories of kisses I'd once had -

Of beautiful moments never forgotten -

Of hearing you say my name -

March 2026

Each year a white shell

We walked listening to the sea -

There'd been a low spring tide -

There were hoofprints in the pale yellow sand -

Small clouds were scattered across the hazy blueness of the sky -

The dunes hid their secret kingdoms -

We saw a naked man, walking with a clothed woman -

A boy ran towards the sea -

It was as though the beach would take us to the edge of the world -

Both of us silent -

Leaving our years behind us -

Each year a white shell, left on the sand -

Studland 

March 2026 

Already thinking of us meeting

Reading Chekov's story The Beauties, I thought of you -

How I gaze at your hair, your eyes, your smile -

Sitting next to you in Java -

Longing to see your beautiful body again -

Holding your hand for a moment -

Feeling how warm your hand is, how it clasps mine -

You saying we must meet next week, catch up -

How all I can do is say yes, yes -

Already thinking of us meeting, of what we might say - 

Of being close to you -

Java, Swanage 

March 2026

Words were spoken in an unknown tongue

I heard a beautiful lament -

Haunting music -

Words were spoken in an unknown tongue -

My hair was scented with cologne -

Ŵareham

The Turkish Barbers 

March 2026 

Falling upwards

I'm listening to Rock the Casbah in Billy Winters -

I've ordered sardines -

It's low tide -

Gulls swagger on sandbanks -

A kitesurfer dances over the bay -

A salty wind blows in from the sea -

The sky above is cloudless -

I imagine falling upwards -

Lost in the blue - 

Billy Winters 

Portland 

March 2026 

The welcome of their doors

Spring sunlight on white blossoms -

 The blueness of the sky -

 The quiet of St John's Hill -

The gentle histories of its houses -

Their low ceilinged rooms -

The welcome of their doors -

Wareham 

March 2026 

Watching Vera

Vera frowns -

She's had no sleep - 

On CCTV the suspect looks like a malign ghost -

March 2026

The apples he ate in Alma Ata

I drink coffee with Peter amongst his books -

He talks about Russia -

The circus in Moscow -

Pushkin -

The Field of Mars -

The apples he ate in Alma Atta -

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