The return of the carvers ...

The carvers are back for summer - 

Soon they'll be sitting before their midnight fires - 

They'll carve hares with their shining chainsaws - 

They'll drink cider from golden cups - 

Ancient journeys have led them to the gentle town - 

Now they'll remember their winter dreams -

15.00

Wednesday June 6 2018

Middle Beach

Studland 

Dorset 

Buying the third volume of Left Hand, Right Hand! ...

I unwound my keffiyeh - 

I was wearing my antiquarian tweed - 

I'd turned the pages of a foxed Freya Stark - 

Invisible Naval Officers had brushed past me - 

I gazed at a county map showing lost villages - 

Old words stirred in reefs of memoirs - 

The silverback took my note - 

Osbert Sitwell he growled - 

There's not much profit there - 

11.59

Tuesday 5 June 2018

Salisbury 

His magic kingdom ...

I read Sherston's Progress on South Beach - 

This morning there were no weekend yachts moored offshore - 

There were no barrel chested dads snarfing bacon rolls - 

No jet skis buzzed Old Harry - 

No golden maned girls lolled upon the sand - 

The silky sea was empty - 

Clouds moved slowly across the sky - 

A boy searched for shells in the shallows - 

This shore was his magic kingdom - 

11.30

Monday 4 June 

South Beach

Studland

Dorset 

 

A different name ...

I followed Anne into the water - 

We swam in the warm shallows - 

These moments in the sea were all I knew - 

I answered to a different name - 

12.00

Sunday 3 June 2018

South Beach 

Studland 

Saturday at the beach ...

After meeting George in Java, I went to South Beach - 

We'd lingered over cappuccinos with the comrades - 

I imagined having a breakfast there, reading a quirky review - 

Visitors shopped for seaside geegaws - 

Amazons rowed gigs across the bay - 

At South Beach, I swam in the English sea - 

I sat like a milord in my deckchair - 

I held close the memory of sunlight on a ferny path - 

I felt my heart race inside its nest of bone - 

14.00

Saturday 2 June 2018

South Beach

Studland 

Dorset  

Hammer House of Horror passport ...

I'm reading Kim Newman's Anno Dracula - 

I'm wallowing in glorious pulp - 

There's no deep sadness here, no beautiful mysterious words - 

It's enough to ride in a hansom cab with Joseph Merrick - 

I've got the passport to a Hammer House of Horror world - 

15.34

Saturday 2 June 2018

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset

The statue ...

Penelope and I walked through the walled garden - 

Dark greenery hid narrow paths - 

We came across the statue of a girl - 

Her face seemed veiled, her eyes cast down to the chill grass - 

We stood before her, beguiled, yet almost afraid - 

14.00

Wednesday 30 May 2018

Moreton 

Dorset