The warmth of their glowing leaves ...

Soft rain fell on Japanese Maple -

We walked through the silent park - 

In the house, there was a room bedecked with Spanish Leather - 

Wide stairs led upstairs to shadows -

A gallery hung with dark oils - 

Twilight came -

The silence deepened - 

I carried with me the gentle light of the trees -

The warmth of their glowing leaves - 

November 2022

Kingston Lacy

Il tempo e ignoranza ...

I'm reading Treacle Walker -

The story will stay with me, embedded in my heart -

The whitened step -

Seeing, yet not seeing -

The two gifts chosen from the shimmerings -

The music played on bone beneath the hill -

The glamourie in the eye -

The hawthorn tree -

The bird in the sky -

The whirligig in the river -

The beauty -

The strangeness - 

Il tempo e ignoranza -

November 2022

The Old School House

East Stoke 

Dorset

Remembering Gaza ...

I ate Cajun Chicken in Rob's Filling Station -

The air smelled of fiery spices and diesel - 

Tas Qureshi remembered Gaza -

The lights flickering in the operating theatre - 

The beautiful poisoned sea - 

November 2022 

Rob's Filling Station

Poole

Dreams would spill from the sleeping Cathedral ...

Worn stone hid pious bone -

November light filled the Cloisters - 

I thought of M R James -

Night would come - 

Dreams would spill from the sleeping Cathedral -

November 2022

Salisbury Cathedral 

Choristers sharpened their spears ...

Choristers had sharpened spears in his classroom - 

Here was his heart of darkness -

The head on a stick -

The horror in a boy's skin - 

November 2022

Salisbury 

Living ...

I'm sitting in the bar of The Rex -

In a moment, I'll see Bill.Nighy in Living -

Severe pinstripe will hide a wounded soul -

Days like pale leaves will fall from a white sky - 

14 November 2022

The Rex

Wareham 

The Emperor's Tomb ...

I found The Emperor's Tomb near a reef of Wisdens -

A wrought iron spiral staircase led me upwards to a room choked with thrillers -

In one corner, there was a literary deckchair -

An Enid Blyton still cast its creepy spell -

We lost all track of time amongst the foxed Penguins, the sinister Arrows -

I found a shelf of Wheatleys -

The Ka of Gifford Hillary -

Unholy Crusade -

Forbidden Territory -

The love of lurid prose momently consumed me -

Downstairs, I paid for The Emperor's Tomb in small coins -

Next to the till there was a strange brass lumpen creature -

I read the tag which was tied to its neck -

Please do not feed the homunculus it read -

7 November 2022

Wild And Homeless Books

Bridport