I still taste you 
in every sip of liquor
O, how quickly
our past begins to replay
projected on the evening lawn
as the oil lamp burns 
ghostly, beside me

You said so little
like some men will
That stillness was a balm
to my life’s tumult
Your stoic way
and silent eyes
a recurring character
in my diary’s scribbled lines

I don’t do much
but work and walk
and play the records
y...

Read and leave comments (4)

Johnny Exit scarpered

Through the once impregnable door:

Shut now. Well bolted.

Though people still knock.

That was fifty years ago;

He drove a Vauxhall in his vest

On days of melting tarmac,

When sizzled cash was king.

The sightings continue:

In supermarkets, like Elvis,

Or just last week, in town,

Knocked down by a motorbike.

The file festers, w...

Read and leave comments (3)

When this place first opened

It was a science fiction wonder

A gleaming, glassy palace

Over the tarmac rapids’ thunder

At night it was a spaceship

In a ribboned Milky Way

Of Ford Anglias and Zodiacs 

With its shimmering array

Of magazines and wine gums

Pies and chips and peas

For modern minded connoisseurs

To bask in motoring ease

Peeling off th...

Read and leave comments (3)

Your nostalgia is lying to you.

Life is hard now,

But it was hard then, too.

You were just younger, dumber, more care-free.

If you knew then what you know now,

Maybe then you'd see.

You'd see the heartache;

You'd see the pain;

You'd see the way they lie and shame;

You'd see that no matter what you do,

You're always going to be you.

Read and leave comments (0)

A moment in time did happen once.

                It was there and then it was no more!

Like a fickle wind that took a chance,

                To raise a head, but was gone before!

I would mull often in vacant times.

                If such a moment did occur awhile!

Or was it something without rhymes,

                As in the whimsies of a juvenile!

As ephemeral...

Read and leave comments (0)

Marketplace

This space is like a ghost town

Trestle tables row on row

Echoing with the hustle bustle

Vendors cries of long ago

I hold my mother’s hand

And listen to them shout

‘apples sixpence a pound

Come on get your money out!’

I went back there when I was home

All that was left were wooden frames

And rotting boards of each seller’s plot

The faint le...

Read and leave comments (5)

I didn’t always have these roots,

There were years that

My hands were kites

And anywhere I laid my head was my home.

And suitcases were not anomalous 

And freedom wasn’t a forced prayer in school.

I didn't always have these roots,

There were moments that

Spread across forever 

And made time stand still.

And what I could carry was always enough.

I didn't a...

Read and leave comments (2)

Said Willie to the Dazzler 

As they settled in the snug

We’ll take a pint of Bushmills malt

To fill yon claret jug

Then the silver jug was lifted 

And held to Dazzler’s lips

To celebrate the winning

Of the Open Championship

In the sunlight on tobaccoed walls

As gold on silver fills the west

In black and white and green and red

The mythic Georgie Best

Read and leave comments (3)

Said Willie to the Dazzler 

As they settled in the snug

We’ll take a pint of Bushmills malt

To fill yon claret jug

Then the silver jug was lifted 

And held to Dazzler’s lips

To celebrate the winning

Of the Open Championship

In the sunlight on tobaccoed walls

As gold on silver fills the west

In black and white and green and red

The mythic Georgie Best

Read and leave comments (0)

In the blackest of your moments, wait with no fear 

Why do I feel your words and presence, so close and so near? 

Are we doing this again, communicating through signs?

How is this even possible, when I am no longer yours, and you are no longer mine?

It’s been six months, when will this end? 

I can still feel you, this connection won’t seem to bend 

If we were not soulmates, then ...

Read and leave comments (0)

This very heart that is mine will forever remain undefinable to me

To express such a thing resembles water slipping through my fingers,

Forever you will remain a stranger to my true soul;

Were you to trace the entire relief of my heart with your finger, you still, would not know me anymore

I am a stranger to myself and to the world

You embody the essential passion of a man’s desire ...

Read and leave comments (0)

Six Nations wake from slumber

As winter turns to Spring

For tribal warfare on the pitch

It’s a Celts and Saxons thing

They’ll be singing hymns and arias

From the Tiber to the Tay

And the week feels that much longer

As we wait for Saturday

And the squads are called together

From places far and wide

There will be sunshine and foul weather

There will be shir...

Read and leave comments (4)

They’ve identified our golf club

for returning to the wild

It’s to become a verdant Eden 

For every adult, dog and child

A place of natural splendour

Where no groundsmen smoke or hunker

Sheltering from the elements in the deeper fairway bunkers

No more Pringle sweaters in pink and blue and grey

No more Captain’s Prize and no more Ladies’ Day

No more midweek medals o...

Read and leave comments (5)

Oh! How fast the times did really fly!

Those days of yore no more near by.

The distant days under a distant sun,

And distant thoughts only half begun.

Thinking over and over what I should,

In those distant moments of solitude.

And distant words - faint echoes now.

Some distant dreams had died somehow!

Those faded prints from a distant spell,

Just memo...

Read and leave comments (0)

I’ve always been told to

Color inside the lines.

Ever since I was little, it was always

Fit into the box.

                                                Don’t rock the boat.

                                                                                                Stay in your little corner and

Don’t come out.

They said, “keep your colo...

Read and leave comments (1)

I made dinner at 10:30 tonight.

Fried Kielbasa, macaroni and cheese, cinnamon applesauce, and 

buttermilk biscuits. It’s what I always eat when I’m missing home. 

I had everything finished and on the table, except for the biscuits.

I never remember to start them ahead of time.

So, I waited— watching them impatiently through the window in the oven door, 

and I could hear...

Read and leave comments (0)

One of a firepit, another a grotto

A low, dim mist leaks from between hills like the Milky Way erupted

From deep below

The earth was warm and its emerald undertone became glossy beneath the ice

And ochre paint of daffodils smears with browned frost

The home itself is but a disorganized cabin

With its heavy vines sewn throughout pine beams

And all the world is quiet but fo...

Read and leave comments (0)

Some of us appear to have forgot

that the train service has stopped

else why are we all stood here waiting like a bunch of goons?

Soon they’ll be pulling up the tracks

and when Mr Henry gets the sack

the grass will grow and the whole place will return unto the dunes.

Choo choo train where have you gone

now don’t you know we need you?

How in the world are you supposed to get...

Read and leave comments (0)

My dreams locked behind

A thousand doors,

My genuine voice,

Life without remorse.

Self-portrait that’s free

Of the wrinkled despair,

Rhetorical questions

Of how and where.

Whimsical, drunken

Scent of the hope,

A love letter

Burnt in the last envelope.

I stepped on this land

And time ceased to exist.

Since then I had wondered

Whose image it is.

Read and leave comments (0)

And I trip over old dreams 

again and again…

Five hundred times…

A thousand…

Endless shaky steps…

Where I loved you

like a million blue whales…

And I often long for the youth 

of those ageing thoughts…

Never ending pretty helium balloons 

reaching for the sun…

Knowing they will never arrive…

And what a beautiful, 

yet painful sight…

A sea of sorr...

Read and leave comments (4)

This music,

it makes me want to fall from the water

float in the sky,

stare at those lips

and kiss those green eyes,

drink from the clouds

and jump on the pond

to feel the stars

and gaze at the stones,

the rythms , the notes

melt my mind

ignite my visible voice

I'm not here nor there

maybe inside a void

floating on the blues

maybe its a d...

Read and leave comments (1)

A babe in a pram,

Wheeled down Lord street,

At the speed of a tram.

Mouth engrossed with jelly and swine,

Melting fine

Michelback’s prime.

My mum grew up on these pies,

I too.

As an infant into the 80’s,

pate mini pork treats,

from Grimes butchers.

I suppose it is what you grew up with,

Your tastes, your clutches.

Jelly, pastry, succulent meat,

which ...

Read and leave comments (0)

I was enjoying sitting in the garden, pondering the beauty and the timelessness of nature, compared to the fickleness and unreliability we see in our leaders and found myself writing a villanelle. First draft below – may yet be edited but I wanted to share it now.

Constancy

Reminders of a life, a dream now torn
Scabia, flags and tulips, forget me nots
Behind the privet hedge a rolling lawn

Read and leave comments (0)

Marketplace

This space is like a ghost town

Trestle tables row on row

Echoing with the hustle bustle

Vendors cries of long ago

I held my mother’s hand

And listened to them shout

‘apples sixpence a pound

Come on get your money out!’

Comics stored in cardboard boxes

Toys stacked high on stands

Gleaming in the Friday sun

Just out of reach of sticky h...

Read and leave comments (3)

I cant seem to wrap my head around, the reason that you left. 

Maybe I'm tired or just coming down but your voice is all that's left in this silence now, I cant really answer when or how.

Sticks and stones may break my bones; but your words destroyed me 

And they tell me not to dwell, just to let it on go but as the silence grows louder I'm losing grips of the rope. If only I could carry ...

Read and leave comments (0)

My Mother’s Kitchen

I’m in my mother’s kitchen

It’s a Monday afternoon

The oven’s heated up the air

The buns will be out soon

Everywhere there’s an aroma

Of cinnamon and spice

An apple pie sits on the table

I’m waiting for a slice

A black-leaded coal fire

Does it’s best to dominate

The heat and the smells

That the baking permeates

An old fridge hums...

Read and leave comments (5)

Corners caress the bricks

breading that familiar shape,

in which to pace fingertips,

reimagine and fall

the abode of cliché,

the same smitten desires,

plotted here in prints of feet

the way they moved,

the way they moved,

the way they moved,

nostalgic tracks swoon you low

to the floor, roused but not here.

Read and leave comments (0)

When sun comes against all odds

And the colours of life just pop

Or when the rain falls

It falls and falls

And you wet your lips

With piping hot tea

With warm biscuit

Savour the crumbs

Cosy and safe

In the arms of a jumper

The padding of the sofa,

Like a huge hug

Or when your face aches,

Your stomach vibrates

Because you are fighting to breathe

Through ...

Read and leave comments (1)

The complication of those earrings
the texture of the paint around your eyes
the sun's highlights in your hair

The redness of those parting lips
such belief in everything we said
the pristine shape of your nose

Lying on the roof
your head close to my heart
summer blushing the sky
weren't we beautiful
weren't we beautiful then

Nothing to fret about
just prolong the passing day
sw...

Read and leave comments (2)

rhyme this with everything I am

bit of everything I have

rhyme this to make it livable again

at another needed moment, from the corner of my head. 

squeeze this into another view

or lay it out, spread on by you

or anyway that translates bliss

to blissless stormful blanks

that look for it parched, helpless

without thanks

Read and leave comments (2)

heatwave

it were cracking’t pavements

the sky were chelsea blue

you were sucking cider

from an ice lolly

cos they said it made yer drunk

and we pretended it did

when yer scored a goal

on’t hay coloured pitch

yer mates were hot ‘n sweaty

and their celebrations

trickled down yer back

and salted yer lips

there were standpipes

at end’er sherwood...

Read and leave comments (2)

Closing eyes, mind brings spectacular sights.. 
Brightly blooming daisies and daffodils.. 
The flush of the roses ushering a royal light.. 
The sun-kissed sunflowers near the majestic foothills... 

Sweet scent of lavender renders beautiful nostalgia.. 
The bountiful blooms bringing joy and embalming the soul.. 
The efflorescence and magical spread of the acacia.. 
Painting the canvas of m...

Read and leave comments (0)

Christopher,
I don't know
what it amounts to, 
or
if there is to have
any sort of 
meaning to 
what we etched, 
scribbled 
or blabbered, 
in the utmost 
drunkenness 
of times.

I sure don't find any reason for that, now.

2

I was,
indeed,
reading our letters, 
today.

Another time, 
another history,

Wasn’t it, though?

3

Did we merge into 'another' reality, somehow...

Read and leave comments (0)

I've got green stained knees 
they remind me of you.
its the color of what once was your room
that you always said you hated,
yet you never bothered to paint it.
where we stayed up till 4 am
dreaming of our future flat.
visions of blue walls
and pictures of waterfalls
because you were in to that sort of thing.
Now I'm laying in the summer grass
as God’s tears come trickling down,
storm...

Read and leave comments (1)

Back in those days

you could smoke in the pubs,

we’d suck on those sticks to our finger tips

then casually, carelessly drop the stubs

and twist them into the floor with our feet,

openly, brazenly, never discreet.

The stench of burning carpet, the smell of spilt ale

would meet in a plume of noxious gas,

fetid, fusty and stale;

like a fart in a working man’s café.

A flo...

Read and leave comments (4)

Spiritual Hymns

Are the essence of a highschool choir
That sings often the sounds of Queen in the style of acapella
But also the rolling notes of Ezekiel Saw the Wheel
And the thumping heart of Elijah Rock.

How Can I Keep From Singing
When piano pushed
And the opening notes gently pulled in, to meet a booming brillance
My life goes on in endless song
And I recall the disconnect...

Read and leave comments (1)

The landlord called this morning

Said that she could tell I just woke up. To call her back later.

The cold was different to me, this late morning
Hazy, paired with rain
Drizzled, Murky, Heavy air that swept through the knit of my hoodie.

The branches lay next to the garage in a consecutively non-organized fashion, taken back by hand a few times

 To the old burning pile ...

Read and leave comments (3)

Here's a kind of slaggy one:

Bags:

Where are those carrier bags?

No, not those recycled poncy type.

The slaggy ones, a slip of plastic, 

with Key Markets or Tesco on the side,

Like me Mum had.

Throw away ones - which is exactly

what you did.  

Shamelessly, without a single qualm. 

plenty more where they came from.

Don't get me wrong, I salute those 

Read and leave comments (0)

A wistful vagueness presides over my aura

The night was clearer than ever

Now wasn’t the time,

Now I was headed to a service sublime

But do I regret these impressions viewed from my window?

Never

This ‘ere song from a vintage past

It crooned of simpler days,

It blasted my hopes into the freezing air

Carried me back to a time that wasn’t there

And I couldn’t help ...

Read and leave comments (0)

The end of the season

Brought to a close

Even when there’s a reason

Summer comes and goes

Do you know your summer’s a-fading,

Do you remember?

The hot sun, the warm cooled nights waning

Into September.

School was gone, and I — carefree all along

Oh! Now my old school worries are back

As that sun sets, I’m in sad song

Those shining days, soon to lack

The air beco...

Read and leave comments (1)

Present — past

Past — gone

Looking back and remembering the yesterdays

Is wrong.

*

Where is NOW?

Where is it?

Living in the THEN…

No, that’s not NOW, not it!

*

The ghost of yesterday

Is in mind

But looking back

Is the NOW you’ll never find.

Read and leave comments (0)

Returning Home

Will the birds sing in the garden

Will we go down to the sea

Will we build our castles of sand

Will there still be scones for tea

Will my father still be smoking

Will he jog me on his knee

Will summer days still last forever

Will there still be scones for tea

Will we dream of great adventures

Will westerns still be on TV

Will we sit ar...

Read and leave comments (3)

The Making Of A Worker.

The lorry tips its rubble

On the road outside our house,

the privet hedge engulfed

in a primordial cloud of dust,

it drives away in chugging glee

having spilled its heavy load

and we stand and watch it go

as the carbon mountain settles.

The sergeant-major father

barks his orders at the troops

and our little hands clasp tight

the...

Read and leave comments (0)

California by day,

Las Vegas by night,

with flat caps, deckchairs,

and other English sensibilities,

once dying, maybe still,

while trams rattle declaring

sealife promises,

to stargate pleasures,

to Cher and her 'life after love',

entwined with the pulse of a rollercoaster.

Sounds of Saturday football matches,

played hard on soft sand,

menace resting seagull...

Read and leave comments (0)

I miss the little things.

My schoolyard friends,

The summer's end,

My childish dreams.

And fear this too

Of tomorrow's day.

When I will say,

Today was full.

If Hope lies ahead

And happiness back,

It can only track

That now is dead.

The present is skiewed,

By what was then,

The future's when,

And how they're viewed.

,

...

Read and leave comments (0)

When I started freelance piano

London pubs were my salvation

I cut my teeth on lonely bars

in decrepit streets or bland estates.

Those hesitant efforts of mine rang out

to frame the lager and the stout

with familiar figures in leatherette chairs.

cardigans and flares with afro hairs.

Sleeves rolled up and braced for action

the working man and his satisfaction.

The sti...

Read and leave comments (1)

The railway carriage, a lurching labyrinth

of doors corridors people crabbed in passing

had stopped with its locomotive up front

fuming with rage

held back by down signal  on our cage

of viaduct leaning into a curve.

The day boiled, the rails hissed in waiting.

I looked at the street below active

and unaware of us.

Up close the racks and maps, smiling hills in paste...

Read and leave comments (2)

Look close, look far

too far?

(too far)

Cars come, cars go

tortured, metal boxes, smudged colours

on tattered tarmac.

Pneumatic drill sounds, distant

hammering, dry clatter

on summer paving.

A man, newspaper

folds and departs kiosk

shimmered in sun.

The calls from traders

I heard them, then

did not hear them

(refused to hear them).

Stepped inside a p...

Read and leave comments (0)

Once Upon A Time

Pop wagons
rattling and clinking
with their gaudy shades
of potions slopping.

Coal lorries
groaning up the hill
breathing their dragons breath
of carbon dust.

The aged magik
of a ramshackle
cobblers hut
and the clanging of the last.

The shout of
“Rag and Bone”
echoing down
a Monday morning.

Tobacconist 
selling chocolate cigars
to little mimics
of the...

Read and leave comments (3)

Drowse

When there are no mirrors
I am young again
Sitting in the warming glow
of distant years
The aches and pains
will all be gone tomorrow
The days are long
and never seem to grey.
Parents are in another room
just out of hearing
The T.V has three channels
all black and white
Three meals a day
are sitting on the table
The bonfire smoke
creates the evening dusk.

Another time I...

Read and leave comments (1)