The same gift ...

I saw a half moon above the quiet valley -

A pale gift in the beautiful sky -

Tomorrow, above glass towers, I'll see the same sky -

The same moon, the same gift -

To speak truth to power -

To be unafraid -


Sunday 6 October 2019

East Stoke
Dorset 

Folding chairs ...

We're in the Village Hall -

I'm soothed by murmuring voices -

Gentle gossip overheard -

Carefully cut slivers of coffee cake -

Folding chairs -


I think about my parents -

My mum's feathery white hair -

Kissing her hands those last days -

And how I saw my dad in a dream -

Knowing he was dead -

Yet hearing his voice -

Following him in the rainy dark -


Saturday 5 October 2019

Wareham
Dorset

Focaccia ...

I sipped my coffee, looking out at the gentle town -

The thin road sweeper with his wide brimmed hat -

The trout laid glistening upon a bed of ice -

The river at the end of the street -

The artisan bakery with its exquisite focaccia -

All this reassured me -

This was where I'd sip my coffee -

Snare the words which were like birds in a tree -


Friday October 4 2019


The Italian Bakery
Wareham
Dorset 

The word for this time ...

I'm reading Zola -

The Debacle -

The yellowed pages, unread for years -

They were waiting for this time -

They were like fuses, slowly burning -


And that word -

Debacle -

So apt -

So made for this time -


I murmur it whilst reading -

It's like ash upon my tongue -

Debacle - 


Friday October 4 2019


The Old School House
East Stoke
Dorset 

Almovadar ...

Soon I'll be watching Almovadar's Dolor y Gloria -

I'll drink a plummy Merlot -

I'll forget, for a while, those appalling talking heads -

The lights in the auditorium will dim -

I'll lose myself in film -

The auteur will shape memory with tender hands -

Later, I'll walk down the quiet street -

I'll see my own life as if it were a movie -

Each early scene the sweeter for the showing -


Wednesday 2 October 2019

The Rex
Wareham
Dorset 

The same moon ...

I glimpsed the church through a frieze of umbels -

Our house was hidden by a screen of trees -

I bought of the teachers who had once lived there -

Playing the harmonium under the apple tree -

The children from the cold cottages dancing ancient measures -


The last teacher lies in her green bed behind the trees -

I think of her, climbing our narrow stairs -

Once her stairs -

Our fire place, too, once hers -

I pictured her, heaping up the smoking coals -

Perhaps reading the book of a prophet by the light of three candles -

The same moon caught by the branches of the tree -


Tuesday 1 October 2019

East Stoke 

Moonfleet ..

Murphy was undaunted by the tiger skin -

Logs still smouldered in the fireplace -

I gazed for a moment at the head of the polar bear -

We sat on sofas under the high pale ceiling -

There was a painting of four naked women in a garden -

Underfoot was a carpet from a rajah's palace -

I remembered walking to this house in summer -

Following the path along the shore of the Fleet -

The pines casting their long lived shadows -

Swallows flying above the yellow fields -


Monday September 30 2019

Moonfleet Manor Hotel
Dorset