A paradise of hats ...

Two men wearing yellow waistcoats left the hatters - 

One was barefoot - 

There were dazzling fedoras -

Sombre bowlers - 

Snappy trilbies - 

A paradise of hats - 

Neil glanced upwards -

Famous in two hemispheres he read -

7 November 2022

Bridport 

Watching the dazzling air ...

The rockets hissed past the pines - 

I remembered another bonfire - 

The yellow flower of the flames - 

White feathers of breath from my mouth - 

The cold eye of the moon - 

My eyes open to the hidden world - 

Finding the key amongst the grass - 

Placing it on my tongue - 

My heart racing - 

Watching the dazzling air - 

5 November 2022

The churchyard 

East Stoke

Dorset  

Three alder trees ...

The dark water reflects the alder trees -

I know these three trees - 

I've seen their bones glistening in the rain - 

Old magic lingers here - 

The white moon is caught in whispering nets -

Three shadows dance in ancient light -

5 November 2022

East Stoke

Dorset

Wearing tweed and the memory of summer ...

Soft rain falls -

The wind has shaken the tree - 

I wear tweed and the memory of summer -

5 November 2020

East Stoke

Dorset

The young stag ...

I thought of Actaeon -

His crown of antlers - 

His new body, his nakedness - 

The moment of transformation - 

No words now from his lolling tongue - 

The memory of that beautiful white body still terrible - 

Standing, heart pounding, terrified, under the ancient trees - 

Waiting for the huntress - 

Arne 

Dorset 

November 2022

Postcard for a vampire ...

Goths haunted the lanes near the narrow harbour -

Pale willowy girls and their boys waited for the falling tide - 

We had traced the seared stones marking the narrow beds - 

Counted the steps down to the mazy lanes - 

We had seen the moonlit abbey before we slept - 

Stayed in the same house where the magician had dreamed - 

Here, he had shaped his story - 

The wolf had leapt onto the stone pier - 

His spell had kept me awake in my young bed - 

I had felt Lucy's mouth against my skin - 

I had hear her voice hiss my name - 

I had shivered with a secret joy - 

October 2022

Whitby

Reading Ashenden ...

I'm reading Ashenden - 

It's like a cruel cocktail - 

It lingers on the tongue - 

I think of the portrait by Graham Sutherland - 

The hauteur - 

Those hooded eyes - 

29 October 2022

The Old School House

East Stoke 

Dorset