Shot at Dawn
Very moved by visiting the National Memorial Arboretum; a fittingly organic, non jingoistic, non hierarchical tribute to such service and sacrifice. Particularly moved by ‘The Shot at Dawn’ section. Here’s a poem I wrote some time ago. Not even a shaver yet. I am to be your orderly, when you are beyond help. You did […]
A Berkshire Miracle
A Berkshire Miracle I remember visiting the Blue Pool at Stanford Dingley, the frost had risen From the ground plucked to the heavens By the bending Noon day sun I was in a group I didn’t go singularly There was Auntie Lovely And Jock, who must have been A postman I think, because he said […]
After the Divine Comedy
After the Divine Comedy One day the devil (Who nowadays is Only ever seen advertised On the wall paintings Of old churches) Came out into plain sight. Seeming to taunt the people, He would stand on one hoof then the other And putting his festering talons on either side of his great scaly red belly […]
Cold Snap … After the Snow
Cold Snap It was one of those winter days so cold the air filled your lungs like a lover your heart, leaving you chasing your breath. Jackdaws took the first dance In the sky above blue as a beach towel. Ghost roads gleamed under foot And ‘left behind’ leaves shrivelled in Frost clung to their […]
Unlapsed
I shall go back to church This Sunday to find The one who waits, Back to the impossible, The cave, within a cave, Within a cave. The sweet Zombie Trudge of the undead, For only by dying May we be born again. Through the register Of stone they will come Through the door like mouth […]
An Astronaut’s Return
On his first day back, He gingerly stepped, Over the picket fence, Smelt the apple pie, Placed on the window In the porch. He heard her singing, Some number from the shows. On his second day back, The gravitational pull weakened And though now he could only Look at her from a distance He remembered […]
At The Beach
Sandcastles that soon will Be palaces of the past, As the tide starts to turn And the last line is cast. Collecting razor shells and spent onion rings and what might be the throat of a mermaid, Who now no longer sings. Grains of glass that Once may have been her heart. A never on […]
Seeing is Believing
When you look at the sky And see absolutely nothing, God’s a bit like that. Gradually you make out Birds gliding high above, Seeing the world as it is Not, how we think it should be, God’s a bit like that You notice clouds, That may or may not bring rain, God’s a bit like […]
A Good Life
A Good Life I am now older Than the breeze Coming in from The Sea of Galilee My legs root me here To the ground beneath The reed roofed, porch. My grandchildren Hide in my beard like Little birds Then move through the Grove of fig and date I planted, once I was able to. […]
What Death Means to Cats
On Establishing What Death Means to Cats This is our cat, all collected up, Cushion plump, on the Silver Salver given to My grandfather on his marriage, To ‘the iron fist in a velvet glove.’ The cat reflected in the half polished Mappin and Webb tray Knows that she has transgressed And feels all the […]