Back from the sea ...

I still hear myself, these December afternoons - 

Singing with my classmates - 

Our high pitched voices in the end of term assembly - 

In the bleak midwinter - 

The empty playground, the streets beyond the school gates - 

The white sky - 

Water like a stone - 

I'm running home, my raincoat buttoned round my neck, hanging over my shoulders, like a cape - 

Sliding over frozen pavements - 

Snow is falling on Bramber Road - 

There, in the warm house -

My dad is back from the sea - 

15.24

Thursday 6 December 2018

The Old School House

East Stoke 

Dorset 

The kindly radio ...

I'm sneezing - 

Longing for honey and lemon - 

Turning up the heating - 

Coughing as though I were in a clinic in Switzerland - 

I remember, while sneezing, my mum making me a chair bed - 

The house in Palmyra Road - 

The kindly radio - 

Mrs Nicholson bringing round Homes and Gardens - 

Their voices in the kitchen - 

The Radio Times promising The Man from U.N.C.L.E - 

My mum, later, stroking my hair - 

I'd wanted to be kept off school forever - 

Safe under the careful blankets - 

Blessed by gentle words - 

Reading The Erstwhile ...

I'm reading The Erstwhile - 

If I walk in the garden outside the room, I'll find a tree once guarded by angels - 

The garden will be at the green burning heart of the world - 

A continent wrapped in strangeness - 

The fruit will hang from the branches - 

Old as the sky, new as the first breath - 

20.48

Tuesdsay 4 November 2018

The Old School House 

East Stoke

Dorset 

 

I don't give spoilers ...

I'm in The Rex - 

The gentle town's Cinema Paradiso - 

Neil talks to me about Peterloo - 

Leigh hands me a Merlot - 

There's a select band here tonight she says - 

She smiles her guarded smile - 

A question mark from the critics - 

She smiles again - 

But I don't give spoilers - 

19.00

Monday 3 December 2018

The Rex

Wareham 

Dorset 

Skodas made of glass ...

Lately, I'd measured out my life in Sainsburys - 

Counting the Skodas driven by oldsters into the car park - 

Each one driven as though it was made of glass - 

09.30

Monday 3 December 2018

Sainsburys car park

Wareham 

Dorset 

Chief Inspector Japp's raincoat ...

I'm taking comfort in looking at Chief Inspector Japp's raincoat - 

His gloomy jowls - 

His hat - 

I'm a Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard he says - 

Don't be daft - 

You won't use that - 

I've got men all over the island - 

Sunday Evening will always be Poirot for me - 

ITV 3 - 

Viking Cruises - 

My dad in his chair - 

The lounge of memory - 

20.41

Sunday 2 December 2018

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset  

The small white boats -

A sea fret hid the edge of the world - 

One day I'd see the small white boats setting sail - 

Each boat named after its single voyager - 

The grey waves broke upon the sand - 

They reminded me my name was already taken - 

Written upon a narrow prow - 

11.58

Saturday 1 December 2018

Swanage