Dancing in the wedding marquee

Dancing in the marquee -

The band playing It Must Be Love -

The wedding guests singing the words -

It must be love, love, love -

Imagining dancing with you -

If only for a moment -

Your arms around my neck - 

The two of us dancing to the song - 

Both of us singing -

It must be love, love, love - 

Tolpuddle 

July 2026 

Last looseners

Last looseners in The Samson Inn -

Tyneside Blonde -

Northumbrian Gold -

Alyson laughing -

Julia wearing a pale blue dress -

Remembering smoking on the dance floor -

Our younger selves sitting with us -

Martin with his German girlfriend -

Myself with flowers in my hair -

The Samson Inn

.Gilisland 

July 2026 

Harebells

I saw harebells -

Delicate pale marvels -

They were somehow rooted between the stones -

Stirred by a cool wind -

Beautiful and fragile -

Like precious memories -

Hadrian's Wall 

July 2026

Time falling on me

Standing by the Wall -

Touching these dark lichened stones -

Walking across a beautiful lonely land -

Time falling on me from the sky -

Hadrian's Wall

July 2026 

As though I were waiting to drink with the consul

Sitting at my window in the Beaumont Hotel -

Hearing the traffic hiss on the wet street - 

Rain fell suddenly on the town -

I was drinking spiced coffee when the first drops fell -

Listening to mariachi -

As though I wore a linen suit, waiting to drink with the consul -

Little Mexico 

Hexham

July 2026 

In Olive

I read The Yorkshire Post in Olive -

There is gentle piano music -

Widows murmur over their focaccia -

A slender siren of a barista deftly crafts a cortado -

Olive

Scarborough 

July 2026 

The Italian Gardens

The air was still in the Italian Gardens -

A cool wind blew in from the sea -

Trees shaded the quiet paths -

Above was a sky of heaven's blue -

I looked for my ghosts near the stilled fountain -

They came to me, one by one -

The Italian Gardens 

Scarborough 

July 2026 

Whitby Abbey

The dark stone was lapped by windswept grass -

Soaring arches held up a roof of sky and cloud -

Swifts flew through the high windows -

I glimpsed the timeless blue of the sea - 

.

Whitby Abbey

July 2026

Robin Hoods Bay

Once more losing myself in this salty mazy tangle -

Walking up Tommy Baxter Street -

Two herring gulls brawling on a rooftop -

Robin Hoods Bay 

July 2026

Perhaps remembering me

I follow Wallace down the fairway -

I see the man he will be, wearing now a boy's skin -

Tall, kind, with a gentle heart -

Perhaps remembering me if he walks here -

Under these trees, not far from the sea -

Filey

July 2026 1m

Scarborough Monopoly

We play a wild game of Scarborough Monopoly -

Wallace cannily planting hotels -

Otis tumbling the dice like a Mississippi gambler - 

Scarborough 

July 2026 

The white cafe

I wore a blue shirt patterned with flowers in the white cafe -

There were sculpted trees in the dazzling square -

We sipped exquisite cappuccinos -

Concept 30

Malaga 

June 2026 

Forgetting everything

You kissed me on the cheek -

Then hugged me, gently stroking my back -

I said I love seeing you -

You said I love seeing you too - 

You looked at me - 

We were both silent -

I wanted to be in your arms again -

My heart melted with tenderness -

I thought of how brave you were -

How my heart races seeing your lovely body -

How I forget everything when I'm alone with you -

Husbands, wives, everything -

July 2026 

Sultry bedrooms

High above us whilst we drank Vermouth -

Those wrought iron balconies -

Apartments touching the hazy sky -

The opened windows of sultry bedrooms -

Malaga 

June 2026 

Thinking of J G Ballard

Along the beach were white villas -

When I saw them, I would think of J G Ballard -

Those seared lawns -

Those emptied swimming pools - 

de Torre Benagalbon 

June 2026