Blue potatoes, pink potatoes ...

There were two gaffers joshing each other in the changing room - 

One was a gasper, the other a whistler - 

I eavesdropped their conversation shamelessly - 

You don't see any cows round here now said the gasper - 

The whistler whistled - 

Velcro crackled - 

There used to be cows everywhere he said - 

The farmer would come round with his tractor - 

I'd spend eight hours digging the manure into the garden - 

The digging is good for you said the gasper - 

They say you never see a poor farmer - 

I've started planting potatoes said the whistler - 

I plant unusual potatoes - 

Blue ones, pink ones - 

I get a lot of pleasure planting them -

Do you ? asked the gasper - 

I do said the whistler - 

11.15

Wednesday 2 May 2018

Purbeck Sports Centre

Wareham 

After rain ...

There's blossom on the aple tree - 

The sky is clearing after rain - 

The bright lawn is splashed with shadow - 

Daisies open their petals to the sun - 

A bird sings hidden by pale greenery - 

This moment is another pearl of memory - 

16.11

Wednesday 1 May 2018

The lawn

The Old School House

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Simply to see ...

I'm waiting for parsnip and apple soup in The Crooked Book - 

There's spooky piano music playing - 

There's a small dolls house with a red roof behind me - 

The members of the knitting circle are putting away their needles - 

The Polish girl tells me they have sourdough - 

Three young Germans wearing puffa jackets are drinking Americanos - 

I glance at the last sentence in John Gray's Straw Dogs - 

Can we not think of the aim of life as bring simply to see ?

13.27

Monday 30 April 2018

The Crooked Book 

Boscombe 

Bournemouth 

Longing for a bright world ...

I walked across Falkland Square - 

The east wind stirred the feathers of oily pigeons - 

A homeless girl waited for small coins outside Carphone Warehouse - 

I met up with Anne in Sports Direct - 

Anodyne pop was playing - 

I breathed in air scented by rubber - 

Wiry boys stood behind the tills - 

Girls in blue shorts guarded reefs of trainers - 

It was mid afternoon - 

Dads shuffled past - 

This grey town, I thought, could be the setting of a short story by China Mieville - 

Some dystopia in the near future - 

Pale creatures longing for a bright world - 

15.00

Sunday 29 April 2018

Sports Direct

Poole 

Foxed Penguins ...

I've taken to buying vintage Penguins - 

I seek them out in secondhand bookshops - 

I prefer the Penguins foxed, with thin yellowed pages - 

They evoke the shades of their readers. 

Sometimes there's a name, a signature or date - 

There's a mark of a forgotten summer's reading -

There's a scent of a hidden country - 

I think of those shades when I turn the pages - 

They're given voices by the words we're reading - 

16.56

Saturday 28 April 2018

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Silken nets ...

I'm reading Rouge et Noir -

My eyes brim with passionate tears - 

The world is just as wicked - 

The same wretches cast their silken nets - 

17.53

Friday 27 April 2018

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Let me tell you about Gravesend ...

Paul cut my hair once more this morning - 

I'd felt guilty spurning his scissors for Ian's - 

But Paul held no grudges - 

There was still the framed photograph of Sean Connery to look at whilst waiting for the chair - 

I thumbed through a vintage copy of Carpworld - 

Paul greeted me with his rasping laugh - 

How are you young man ? he asked - 

The blades of Paul's scissors were razor sharp - 

Let me tell you all about Gravesend he said - 

I knew that I was forgiven - 

11.18

Thursday 16 April 2018

Paul's 

Wareham 

Dorset