We'd walk through the dark streets still dancing ...

Alabama Vest were finishing their set - 

Francis told me he'd spent two days in Kochi - 

Richard poured out some Curious Porter - 

I wondered whether I'd regret the Amaretto - 

Later, there'd be Rioja and dancing in the early hours - 

I'd ask Martin to play The Letter by The Box Tops - 

Each room of the gracious house welcomed strangers -

We'd walk through the dark streets still dancing - 

A blossoming tree would catch the crescent moon - 

02.30

Sunday 2 March 2017

Southsea 

What a day this has been ...

I'm in The Auckland Arms, listening to Alabama Vest - 

The walls of the bar are beautifully distressed - 

Janet is singing songs from the 1930's - 

Richard is composing verses - 

There's a man wearing a purple shirt - 

Gareth appeared for a few moments, then vanished, leaving behind him the threads of a silken web - 

Outside, the crescent moon is like a forgotten jewel - 

The streets are dark and the villas are all magic theatres - 

Janet sings what a day this has been - 

There's talk of a party - 

21.56

Saturday 1 April 2017

Southsea

Walking towards Cerne Abbas ...

Walking towards Cerne Abbas, we saw a kestrel - 

Nothing in the valley escaped its gaze - 

It walked the air like a stylish gangster - 

The wind shook the awakening trees - 

Below us were newly ploughed fields, a bible open to savage verses from Jeremiah, ragged robyn by the side of a forgotten lane - 

12.30

Friday 31 March 2017

Little Minterne Hill

Dorset

Poets singing in New York ...

How's your sports car? I asked the man who looked like Bill Murray in Lost In Translation - 

His wife went to Anne's yoga class - 

We often came across each other in the gym - 

I'd murmur morning and he'd smile his melancholy smile - 

Just like Bill Murray, I'd think, in the scene where he tells Charlotte I'll be in the bar the rest of the week - 

Fine he said - driving with the top down now - 

We've got two safe cars I said - a Peugeot and a Golf - 

I remembered a ride in a Morgan, Russell then suggesting we each buy half of an Aston Martin -

You have to drive with the top down Will had said - 

In my dreams I'd driven a landship from

Dublin to Castletown - 

A noble horse had won me a fortune in the Irish Derby - 

I lived in a house above the ocean - 

Through the opened windows I heard poets singing in New York - 

11.00

Thursday 30 March 2017

Purbeck Sports Centre 

Wareham

Dorset 

Invisible castaways ...

The skipper of The Monarch should be sipping rum I thought, not a cappuccino -

The Town Quay should be the haunt of lean mariners - 

There should be casks of Marsala being unloaded from rakish sloops - 

We should be hearing songs from tropic harbours - 

Len and I looked into the engine room of the steam launch - 

There, before us, was its oily heart - 

I can smell oil coal and smoke Len said - 

Soon the tide would turn - 

Steam would drive the shining pistons - 

Invisible castaways would voyage downriver - 

11.40

Tuesday 28 March 2017

The Town Quay

Wareham 

Dorset

Running faster than the hare ...

I walked barefoot across the lawn - 

I felt the cool touch of the garden upon my skin - 

Daisies were small stars in a green heaven - 

Celandines were a fearless yellow - 

I'd worn socks and shoes for too many days - 

Now I'd wear a wild shirt - 

I'd trace the outline of the moon - 

I'd chase the sun and run faster than the hare -

15.00

Tuesday 28 March 2017

The Old School House

East Stoke 

Dorset 

The bull neck ...

The Head of PE stepped onto the running machine next to mine - 

I'd been running for ten minutes or so, daydreaming, at ease with the world - 

A rasping yelp roused me from my vision of a languorous garden - 

I was no longer eating figs, lolling by an azure pool - 

I was no longer hearing exquisite verse, read to me by a girl with tawny skin - 

All I heard was a bully gasping for breath - 

Then he spoke - my physiotherapist says my quads are locked solid -

Ah I said - I see - 

10.30

Monday 27 March 2017

Purbeck Sports Centre

Wareham