A day unremembered is a soul unborn ...

I'm listening to the spooky beautiful voice of a counter tenor - 

He's singing She moved through the fair - 

Laurie Lee says a day unremembered is like a soul unborn - 

So - I'll remember this moment, when I hear this voice again - 

I'll see the clouds in the December sky - 

I'll feel the warmth of the ashes in the fireplace - 

My heart, once more, will be rapt in its nest of bone - 

There I am, listening - 

Last night she came to me, my dead love came in - 

So softly she came that her feet made no din - 

15.46

Thursday 14 December 2017

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset

The Christmas Lunch ...

My mum was an ARP warden Jean said - 

She climbed onto a roof to put out incendiary bombs - 

I released a squeaking sausage of a balloon to fly over our heads - 

It was our Christmas Lunch - 

We linked arms to pull crackers and wore paper crowns - 

I'd made the usual joke in an e-mail earlier that Semi Colons was not a literary group - 

Reg said that he'd been in the the Home Guard - 

He'd protected a town hall in Kingston upon Thames - 

They were armed with axe handles and six rifles - 

I learned that Jocelyn, Queen of The Rex, had been married to a racing car driver - 

There's a lot that's left unexplained about T E Lawrence Paul said mysteriously - 

I drank an afternoon bumper of Merlot - 

We all of us were linked, we Christmas diners - 

We all had been marked by shining instruments - 

We all had counted the number of our days - 

13.00

Wednesday 13 December 2017

Purbeck Golf Club

Studland 

Dorset

PowerPoint followed PowerPoint ...

PowerPoint followed PowerPoint - 

It's all a trade off said the hireling in a dark suit - 

His cuff links shone - 

I thought of the old woman, someone's precious granny, lying for two hours in the cold street - 

There's the question of the bigger footprint he said - 

Gazing at the Councillors he smiled his thin apparatchik's smile - 

Then there's the capital funding - we mustn't lose that -

12.15

Tuesday 12 December 2017

Dorset County Hall

Dortchester 

Secondhand books and gaudy nights ...

I picked up Hudson's Far Away and Long Ago - 

I remembered the second hand bookshop with its winding stair - 

I went there, one tipsy summer afternoon - 

Upstairs, I'd walked across creaking floorboards - 

I could see the Cathedral through the narrow window - 

Careless sunlight fell upon the bookshelves - 

The love of words flowed over me, as strong as my love of gaudy nights - 

15.47

Monday 11 December 2017

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset 

 

Visa to Greeneland ...

I'm reading The Confidential Agent - 

There's a visa to Greeneland sewn into the lining of my coat - 

There's no honour there, or justice - 

Bombs will soon be falling upon its cinemas and cheap hotels - 

Gunmen will walk through its choking fogs - 

Shameless men will ride in taxis - 

Innocents will die -

No action will be taken without careful forethought - 

The passport in my hand will be false - 

The photograph will be of my face before it changed - 

16.53

Sunday 10 December 2017

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset 

Banjaxed ....

Anne's been banjaxed by a bug - 

All day we've kept to the snug, the radiators on full -

I've just lit the fire - 

We're watching ITV 3 like two washed up dowagers - 

Miss Marple brings comfort - 

A murderous nun is bought to justice - 

18.30

Saturday 9 December 2017

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset 

Revisiting the walled garden ...

Penelope and I revisited the walled garden - 

Pale sunlight fell on leafless trees -

Small birds followed us - 

We heard them singing in dark arbours - 

Winding paths led to a stilled fountain - 

We stood by a sundial under the December sky - 

A bearded god's face was etched in the metal of the dial - 

A chill wind blew - 

A white rose was still in bloom - 

Attic windows overlooked empty fields - 

Nearby, an elusive soul was held down by marble - 

11.47

Friday 8 December 2017

The Walled Garden

Moreton

Dorset