Listening to Waterloo Sunset ...

I'm listening to Waterloo Sunset - 

I'm in a city made of memory and dream -

I'm with my dad in the National Gallery - 

We stand looking at La Grande Jatte -

He tells me he's reading Tender is the Night -

I'm smoking Gitanes in Gordon Square - 

I'm wearing a leather jacket - 

The streets are magical and lonely - 

I'm dancing to Jean Genie - 

I'm scribbling notes in a marble library - 

In Highgate the pavements are covered with Autumn leaves - 

A lift takes me down to a midnight platform - 

Trains are filled with invisible people - 

I see my face in the dark window - 

I'm crossing the river - 

I never knew the river was so wide - 

16.00

Saturday 18 August 2018

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset 

Washing away our names ...

Swim towards the sun Anne said - 

Close your eyes - 

I closed my eyes and followed her - 

We felt the warm sunlight on our eyelids - 

I imagined the calm sea rising to cover the world - 

We were voiceless, lost in the moment - 

The gentle waves washed away our names - 

17.30

Friday 17 August 2018

South Beach

Studland 

Dorset 

Nothing is lost ...

A sad train will take me north - 

I'll exchange chalk hills for pale fields - 

Slow rivers will flow under a measureless sky - 

A wind will blow through empty streets - 

Yet I'll remember a joyous September - 

Your age and wisdom - 

Your shrewd kindly gaze - 

How we talked about the Jeremy Kyle Show - 

How you wore bright colours - 

I'll see you again - 

I'll hear your voice - 

I'll share your smile - 

Nothing is lost if you hold it close - 

16.10

Thursday 16 August 2018 

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Flowers Barrow ...

We ate tart apples on Flowers Barrow - 

Below us was the sea - 

Ripe blackberries had stained my fingers - 

I'd traced the flight of a kestrel - 

A deep ditch still ringed the hill fort - 

Under wind blown turf I heard the voice of ancient memory - 

12.00

Wednesday 15 August 2018

Flowers Barrow

Dorset 

The door ..

There it was, amidst portraits of jowly sea captains, the door carved and decorated by Derek Jarman - 

I remembered the Super 8 films, the sailors singing Stormy Weather - 

I'd read Smiling in Slow Motion that languorous summer - 

We'd driven, monstrously hungover, to Dungeness - 

There were small fishing boats offshore - 

Driftwood was like seared bone - 

The beach was a strange radiant world - 

The garden was haunted by Paradise - 

We read Donne's words - 

We heard the pale waves breaking upon the shingle - 

That evening I ate a Greek salad - 

There was a white moon in a sky filled with stars - 

13.30

Sunday 12 August 2018

Poole Museum 

 

The fragrance of unknown fruits ...

I'm sitting in the Minster - 

Above me there are stars in a blue sky - 

A warm wind blows against our faces - 

There's a fragrance of unknown fruits - 

Our hearts are filled with longing - 

Nkosi sikeli' iAfrika the four singers sing - 

Nkosi sikeli' iAfrika -

13.00

Monday 13 August 2018

The Minster

Wimborne

Drawn from life ...

I gazed at one of the women the artist loved - 

His louche eye had caught her beauty - 

She had the face of a wounded angel -

Vulnerable, exquisite, sorrowful - 

13.17

Sunday 12 August 2018

Augustus John: Drawn from Life

Exhibition 

Poole Museum