Division
Because I can no longer kiss you
no longer feel your skin
beneath my fingers
or hear you in the night
Because I can no longer call you
no longer sound your name
beneath my breath
or hear you whisper soft
Because I could not stop time passing
could not return time's sand
beneath its glass
or heal the wounds of time
Because I could not hold you here
could yet y...
Friday 28th December 2018 2:18 pm
And so this is eX Ministerial Accord Season
Can it possibly be true
How the twelve months flew
Really twenty-four have passed
In terror of being outcast
Since that dire vote to leave
The parties it seems must all deceive
Mindless of the real cost
All thoughts of governance long lost
So the lady May survive
Gainst all that ministers contrive
Regardless of the pundits' sense
Ever blind to the expense
Ever d...
Thursday 20th December 2018 12:05 pm
The Ghost of Christmas Passed
Twas the night before Christmas
When starless darkness held the night
With howling wind and sleet;
All through the house was ne'er a light
Dark, and a door that creaked
And despite the fire, twas cold as snow
Only the low fire flicker
Could lend the room a ghostly glow
And light the undecked tree.
I crept towards the bottom stair
Mouse-still and watching
A creak, a...
Friday 14th December 2018 2:17 pm
The Siren
In silence
She stole his soul
In love
He gave his heart
What took him from his course
What gentle zephyr force
What brought him to the isle
What beauty did beguile
In silence
She sought his mind
In sorrow
He felt her tears
What held him to his aim
What subtle noble flame
What kept him on his deck
What held his lust in check
In silence
She tempted ...
Thursday 13th December 2018 3:57 pm
The Love Token
The withy cross now gold!
An interlace of old,
That endless pleter braid
Beautifully arrayed:
An ornate gem to show
That love will always grow
His token glows through time
An endless poignant chime.
Wednesday 12th December 2018 3:41 pm
Conversation in a Harbour Cafe
It was all in her eyes
When he said
I
He saw the tear
When he breathed
L
O
V
E
He knew her mind
When he stopped
Outside the mist rolled in
As ropes slipped off bollards
When he left
He heard her say
M
Y
When the door slammed
He hoped she said
L
O
V
E
When he heard
It was all in his mind
Outside the engine sta...
Sunday 9th December 2018 12:35 pm
The Scribe and his Lover
I weep for his skills:
the perfect crafting
of the calligraphy
She sighed, "Forge me the seal of our love"
She sighed, "Render yourself to me"
She sighed, "I am your vellum"
I weep for her artistry
He saw the curves, the loops, the cursive strokes:
flow smoothly from his nib
harmoniously
...
Friday 7th December 2018 3:07 pm
Colourblind
It was black and white
for a while
Until the first line
was drawn
Then the pale grey people
the people who could only draw
a black cross
in a white box
began to sense
other possibilities
shading the palette
The colours of debate
splashed clumsily
over everything:
the harsh red of anger
the yellow of injustice
screaming crimson
a har...
Monday 3rd December 2018 10:39 am
My Lady of the Beeches
To wake lit by that lunar light
Toiling from the depth of dreams
Misty minded from the night
So the distant land below the window seems
Illusory
To see beyond the shaded hedge
Hear again the whisper soft
As bedewed we walked, that ghostly pledge
Those lovely echoes of a distant past yet waft
Silently
To sense again her presence there
Knowing how we walked at ease
...Friday 23rd November 2018 2:55 pm
From Two Windows
At dusk
a pink moon
low over the sheds
in a cold clear sky -
ice blue, yet light
hiding stars
a leaf fall
the pond water stills
but does not freeze
Much later
that same moon
lights my bedroom
in the cold night air -
velvet black, the sky
glints stars
an owl flash
my blood chills
but does not freeze
Thursday 22nd November 2018 10:49 am
My Old Beech
This tree
is old
It knows its time but has grown in the ancient hedge
escaping the billhook and the thresher blade
standing 'gainst the farmer's pledge
that every stem should be neatly laid
This tree
is wise
It is as large as it needs to be and no more
its spread has grown to contain all of its leaves
and each year it grows to store
just as many leav...
Tuesday 20th November 2018 3:52 pm
The Promise
It has been so many years
since that moment of truth
when finally you were truly alone
It has been so many years
since you flew with the flames
as the organ played
something
and I looked out at the distant horizon
seeing you there drifting away
into finality
It has been so many years
since I made you a promise
I could not keep
You said
Do no...
Monday 19th November 2018 11:46 am
Return
Night.
I am transported by
a narrow orange moon
and a million stars
the still cool air
the silence of the yard
I am welcomed by
a single ghostly owl swoop
over the sheep fields
the creak of my gate
the scratch of my key on the lock
then
the silent click...
Sunday 18th November 2018 12:23 pm
The Almost Child
I remember exactly the spot
the place I sat
when she told me
I remember the cooling coffee
forgotten
when I was told
I remember the uncertainty
in her voice
when she told me
but
I remember how I smiled
the joy I felt
when I first knew
my almost son
Monday 12th November 2018 12:16 pm
Three Poems in Tana
1: An Old Transformation
Her body
cold
as sea ice
lay before me
broken
by life’s swell.
I remembered
the pull of her currents and tides,
her surging waves and deeps
And I knew
I could no longer navigate
the course
we had set
so long before
As she lay before me
still, pale, cold
I wept:
for ever
becalmed
2: Lovers
Naked
...Saturday 10th November 2018 5:33 pm
An Autumn Song for the Traveller
Before I go
Let me drink this rich wine
Let me sing my delight
This gold red dawn has promise:
vibrant with the cold sun
vanishing valley mists
leave damp spider web to shimmer
mistdrops on the long reeds
and ungathered lawn leaves
damply shining
against the muted green of wet grass.
This amber morning has perfection:
wonderfully wooded leaf tints
golden...
Monday 22nd October 2018 3:01 pm
Contrapuntal
I only try to write of joy
But you only read my sorrow
She came to me by chance
I suppose that's always so
We sang the bodies' lively dance
She rescued me from woe
She came to me in passion
I only knew my lonely life
We dreamt our bodies' ration
She rescued me from strife
The tear you see escape my eye
Remembers only pleasure
The gasp of breath yo...
Friday 19th October 2018 3:19 pm
The Sailors' Homecoming
There is a time
channel mists behind, we sit at anchor for the tide
then in the early hours the Thames pilots board
and - slowly for the mist still lingers close to land -
we move up river reaches, take tugs and find our lock
to gently nudge our way between the barges
until we are tied up again in Albert's dock,
derricks swung and hatches open -
and I am free
Again,...
Thursday 18th October 2018 4:31 pm
Colour 309 U
As we sat
over coffee
she said
she liked
the blue
of the wall
I could see a shade of green
in the blue
The next table
agreed blue
but
understood
me
too.
We called it
Mermaid Blue
I wondered if that lady
at the next ta...
Tuesday 16th October 2018 11:28 pm
e-Love
Those words we share
and those we don't
The ones you use
what do they mean?
So much is lost between the lines.
That inflexion or joy I might have heard
is mute
Those words we share
and those we don't
The anger I feel in you
what do your eyes show?
I can never know as I read the lines.
The thoug...
Sunday 14th October 2018 4:14 pm
Storm Watcher
He watched the leaves float
in the pond
windmoving on the surface
drop-pitted by rain,
leaves, orange-brown against the black depths
He watched the leaves stick
to the patio
wetgluing to the slate
slickened by the storm,
leaves, orange-brown against the black stone
He watched the leaves move
on the trees
wildwaving off the branches
leafstripped by t...
Friday 12th October 2018 2:25 pm
A Day in 100 Thoughts
10th October 2018
The radio speaks, it's daylight, I'm wakened
A momentary pause: consciousness beckoned
Sunlight on the trees says late Autumn Summer
More news on Brexit and the policy's dumber
The bins must be put out for the lorry
I had better get up, it's late and I'm sorry
There's news of a flood and a broke coffee chain
I'll email a poem to friends up the lane
...Thursday 11th October 2018 1:53 pm
Late Wisdom
You're aching for peace
I'm hurting too
Let the arguing cease
There's polling to do
You look for meaning
I offer a word
No sense for your gleaning
I'm not sure they heard
You called referendum
I thought it was flawed
A meaningless thrum
On democracy's chord
You were not aware and
I never knew
That voting out fanned
A nationalist view
...
Tuesday 9th October 2018 5:00 pm
Ashes in a Wilderness
To you, readers, I say
I am no writer -
these words
placed themselves
on my page
to tell a story
To you, writers, I cry
I am no chronicler -
these tales
spun their web
through my mind
to make a memory
To you, poets, I sing
I am no rhymer -
these lines
etched their pattern
on my paper
to form a psalm
To you, who come, I whisper
...Tuesday 9th October 2018 2:32 pm
Travel Sickness
I sat all day in the corner
awaiting a call on the 'phone
but when it came through
the voice that I knew
was nowhere at all in the room
The nurse that called me much later
knew where I was travelling to
but she never heard
the call of the bird
that flew in my traveller's dream
The doctor gave me some drugs
to keep the malaria down
but the pills that I ...
Monday 8th October 2018 4:04 pm
Autumn Thoughts
Black steel
curling wrought iron
balustrade
Beneath me
coffee steam
and noise
rise
and a poet
sits talking
animatedly
his foot jiggling
as he gesticulates
outside
autumn sun
shines on wet roofs
and casts
tree shadows
on house walls
outside
the sea is rising
while
London sinks
Sunday 7th October 2018 9:41 am
Late September Morn
I, dreamlost,
wake
to golden leaves of beech
sunlit
from my bed
as airdew clouds over the hedge
rise and vanish
as the eastern horizon above the valley
is lost, sunk
beneath dawndrifts of mist
not yet warmed to fade
beneath the clear blue sky;
the uncut grass of the dew-wet lawn,
droplet bent:
cool promise as
I, barefooted,
explore
the cusp of the...
Friday 28th September 2018 7:56 pm
#BeMoreSnail #Brighton
She said
You could do a poem about the snails
And meant the painted trails
Around the town
My mind ran down
Fail
Hale
Male
Well met!
They let
Artists paint
And pattern
Snail blanks
And someone ranks
Their shell design
Good, bad, just fine!
Monday 24th September 2018 2:08 pm
The wave behind the wave
From beyond the far horizon arc
travelling travelling calmly on
to swell gently across a sea
until the deep corals
are left far behind
and the seabed
rises sloping up
to meet land
forcing us
to turn
to curl
to break
to surge
to rattle stone
to shape sand
our strength waining
retreating quietly beneath
the wave behind our wave
a curling s...
Monday 24th September 2018 9:15 am
Lunar
Last night the moon
orange sickle bright
seemed too large, low
hung over hedges
briefly eclipsed
by passing trees
dimmed by
closer light yet
always the lit
rondure
discovered
its umbral orb
to me -
I was driving
in the moondark
night
Thursday 13th September 2018 5:26 pm
Sky
5th September 2018
Today
on the drive home
the transcendent wonder
of the clear ice blue rimmed with golden pink
and the blackness of trees
horizon silhouettes
and bats
Thursday 6th September 2018 9:28 am
Epiphany in the Early Morning
Low early autumn sun
a lone long strand of spider silk
stretched across the window glass
above a tiny downy feather like a snowflake
shivering in the breeze
Wednesday 5th September 2018 9:53 am
Early Autumn Lake
Below the incurious sheep on the hill
that stare at me as they endlessly chew
The sun is warm and I perch on a stone to watch quietly
As it is reflected off the surface of the lake:
the part not covered with pond weed
where flies dip and buzz
dragonflies and damselflies dart
and hover:
...
Tuesday 4th September 2018 2:46 pm
The Invitation
a sonnet
That thou may'st happly spend your day
Fair maid amongst the northern hills
With books and study that will oft defray
Your time and thought in winter's chills;
That there is pleasure 'mongst your shelves
Oh lady in your cottage home
Tis proven by each and everyone who delves
In dusty library vaults to hunt a tome;
That thy bookish studies are good I swear
...Monday 3rd September 2018 9:33 am
Towards Beachy Head
In the distance
the green tops to the chalkwhite cliffs
slope down to the sea
behind countless breakwaters
wading out through low waves
their wooden posts testament
to the shifting stones of time
Below the grey sky
the bluegrey water rattles the beaches
sloping down to the sea
between stark black breakwaters
mute guardians of the coast
each wooden barrier m...
Wednesday 29th August 2018 10:25 am
On the Beach
Between the wooden breakwaters
I sit on the flinty stones
to watch the grey sea
waves rattling the beach
That foaming water
that was once the horizon
where I sailed
Monday 27th August 2018 5:56 pm
Eastbourne
stone, stone, shell, flint
the rattle of a beach
of beach steps
on stones
the endless stone rattle
walking
beaches
groyne divided
beaches
And the waves
of a leaden sea
Monday 27th August 2018 5:53 pm
The Interface
Books make visible the writer's soul
Which bleeds its angst by pen:
Spread thin across life's whited bowl
A thin red stain of madeleine
Books may offer us an author's eye
That ensnares the reader within its brail
Or should writers light the reader's sky
And tear apart the shadowy veil?
Books will hold the writer's thought
And bridge the gap twixt pen and read...
Friday 27th July 2018 2:49 pm
Cathedrals of Words [1]
It starts with that
the feel of paper
between the fingers
the paper worn by touch
the ink a little faded
but the weight of
the incorruptible text
resting on the eye
retaining its worth
for ever
Even before that
there was the heft of it
in the hand
the boards scuffed
the jacket torn
but the perfection of
that binding
resting on the palm
is ...
Tuesday 24th July 2018 10:37 am
C#1
It is a meeting place, this coffee house of ours
The atmosphere is friendly and relaxed,
And it is popular with everyone.
Its tables and the chairs are a mixture of styles and ages:
Metal or wood or comfy arm chairs, and benches
They must have come from an auction!
There is a full bookcase half way up the stairs
There are newspapers in a rack
Some customers read while they ...
Sunday 22nd July 2018 6:23 pm
A Dark Night
Kneeling at the window as if in prayer
He looks out at the night
The surrounding trees are black shadows
Barely seen against the indigo of the sky
No stars shine tonight
But an unrisen moon lightens the air a little
With an almost imagined spectral light
Somewhere over the distant lake an owl calls
And calls again
A late moth blunders against the open window
Otherwise...
Wednesday 18th July 2018 12:40 pm
Rain
16th July 2018
In places the grass is brown and dry
The garden is a desert of cracked peat
Plants dead and trees about to die
Only my sunflower loves the heat
But this is Wales, yet
nearly all of my bees
have never known these
raindrops
until
today
Monday 16th July 2018 3:22 pm
ENDINGS
A series of 11 short poems
End of a Galaxy
A blink
In the silent depth of night
As the last leaf of the beech tree
As the silent tear of my love
End of Harmony
I see her dancing on the sands
I see her as she sees me
and in that moment
sand, sea, sun, surf
vanish in the vortex
until
...Saturday 14th July 2018 7:59 pm
Succubus
waking
in their bed
beneath the slates
waking
as in a dream
slowly aware
waking
completely
waking
in the window airs
waking
in the hush
of the night
palely lit by her lucent light
the night
calls to him
and he walks out
the night
absorbs him
summer dew wet on his feet
her cool breath on his naked flesh
the quiet mysterious night
s...
Saturday 7th July 2018 6:28 pm
Who breaks a Butterfly upon a Wheel?
In that first perfect summer, that summer of love
when rifles bloomed and we turned on
and so nearly dropped out
in that year we met
and in the sun
we loved
despite clouds
that threatened us
and sought to break our love
a sad weight of parental love turned on
our first perfect summer, our first summer of love
In that first perfect summer, that summer of love
whe...
Saturday 30th June 2018 3:39 pm
Time
It is so many years
since I felt some part of me wane:
all those thousands of days
since we spoke of nothing -
could find no words;
and even many more
since there were whispers
as we lay naked in the night
or in the cottage garden
beneath the harvest sun
It is so many years
that I have known that dark void:
deep within my very soul
and in all those long ...
Thursday 28th June 2018 3:04 pm
The Bench
I sit outside the door
on a slate bench
my back against the cottage wall
in the evening sun
listening to a blackbird sing
the most astonishing sweet notes
In front of me
there is elderflower
honeysuckle
buttercups spangle the uncut grass
and the old larch looms in its corner
beyond the ancient stones of Hafod
which mark my plot
The sun has not long returned
...Sunday 24th June 2018 9:22 am
39
Thirty-nine bodies
lay on the ground
in the summer sun
As I watched
workers carried two more away
Around me
life continued as usual
a hum of activity
oblivious
Thirty-nine bodies
on that square of concrete
that summer afternoon
As ...
Thursday 21st June 2018 3:38 pm
When...
When I have gone
what waits this room
with its vacuum
where I sat?
Does
my chair sits sightless
musing at my absence
midst space bereft
my music play on?
After I have left
ask my empty bed
all sheeted void
about my dreams
Does
my mattress dent
minding my long night wraiths
maintain my ...
Wednesday 20th June 2018 4:39 pm
Wind Dance
Sycamore leaves dance
In only the lightest breeze
They never turn askance
Like leaves on other trees
Sycamore leaves flair
Within their perfect ballet
In just the lightest air
Blowing up the valley
Monday 18th June 2018 12:04 pm
Llyfnant 2
version without the Welsh folklore
Under the yellow-green of sunlit beech
between banks of bluebells' hazy blue
where supple crosiers of new fern reach
over verdant moss still damp with dew
a grassy lane runs beside the river
In the mystic quiet of a leafy dome
of grey bark ash, beech and mighty oak
a far cuckoo calls all walkers home
but we pass u...
Wednesday 6th June 2018 3:14 pm
Llyfnant
Under the yellow-green of sunlit beech
between banks of bluebells' hazy blue
where supple crosiers of new fern reach
over verdant moss still damp with dew
a grassy lane runs beside the river
In the mystic quiet of a leafy dome
of grey bark ash, beech and mighty oak
a far cuckoo calls the dryads home
but we pass unseen by woodland folk
'til tylwyth teg w...
Monday 4th June 2018 9:31 am
The Summer of Love
Wandering through the sunlit trees
on grassy bluebell banks, brackened
by the unfurling of softly sensual shoots;
strolling in the tide turn rippling sea
as toes sift soft sea sand, silted
and lost to the advancing wave weft;
striding across bare barren felltop
on sheep shorn Spring sprung sod, surrounded
by haze horizoned hills and hills and hills;
standing by the quie...
Friday 25th May 2018 4:36 pm
My Sunset Haiku as a Sunset Englyn
My Sunset Haiku [1] as a Sunset Englyn [2]
A green flash from the setting sun - and night
Now sea and sky are one
Dusk from the gold orb is spun
Thus this mystic day is done
______
1.
Where sea and sky meet
a green flash from the set sun
Lighting distant shores
2.
The Welsh englyn unodl union is a straight one-rhymed englyn consi...
Tuesday 22nd May 2018 10:20 am
The Forest Glade
I saw her stand
exposed and timid
nervous, shivering
in the leafy sun
a dappled beauty
suddenly shy
I saw him stand
proud and sure
brash, potent
in the cool shade
a young pretender
suddenly hesitant
I heard them come
angry and loud
fast, rushing
through the heat
the older lads
suddenly here
I saw his doubt
alone and fearful
...Friday 18th May 2018 2:51 pm
Process
what spills onto the page
falls from my mind:
it tells of what is there
it tastes of my thoughts
so they are spread here with care
as verse
the page becomes
my mind bared
...
Friday 11th May 2018 3:47 pm
The Artist [1]
In so few splashed acrylic lines
see Cornish fishing boats
take shape against the quay
the red hull and the yellow
See Cornish fishing boats
mirrored in the harbour sea
the red hull and the yellow
with the deep sky sunk below
Mirrored in the harbour sea
the jumble of masts and cranes
with the deep sky sunk below
and the distant sea above
The jumbl...
Friday 11th May 2018 12:10 pm
Lovers
There were those moments
pressed
against a Cornish rock
in beach blackness
with the shush of the rippling waves
nearby in the night
lying
in a Sussex garden
with the hot sun
dappling our backs
parked
on a Ditchling hill
with town lights
spread below
...Thursday 10th May 2018 4:30 pm
All the Years [revision]
In my mind
buried deep
a golden grain
of Welsh
beach
In my mind
our impressions
in the hot sand
where we
lay
It is there
buried deep
that single second
that moment
in which our
minds
...
Friday 4th May 2018 4:19 pm
All the Years
In my mind
buried deep
a golden grain
of Welsh
beach
In my mind
shallow dips
in the hot sand
where we
lay
It is there
buried deep
that single second
that moment
in which our
minds
...
Friday 4th May 2018 11:46 am
The Young Lovers
Their voices harshly clash
and will not lie calmly
or rest in our ears
in peace
They rise loud over all else
and do not fall to our key
but strike out at us
in dissonance
Our song is raised joyously
and the harmonies sing
of the love we know
in concert
We have our air so their words
smash and fall to the ground
they do not stay in sight
o...
Thursday 26th April 2018 4:16 pm
The Navigator
Once I plotted my course
on nautical charts -
I used the sun and stars
to fix
my position in the world
Once my ship sailed the seas
by my compass course -
I drew lines on a map
to guide
me through far off seas to port
Once I was the pilot
steering from the bridge -
But she altered my course
loving
m...
Thursday 26th April 2018 12:24 pm
Vespers
As I pass beyond my summer wall
Once more the land embraces my spirit
And its silence becomes my prayer
While I and heaven hear
The wind whispered psalm
As dusk caresses the tree tops
That surround my field fane -
I walk slowly through its grassy nave
Lost in my old memories
And pause at the far gate:
The sun sinks low behind me
And my long shadow stretches out in ...
Wednesday 18th April 2018 9:52 am
Soft Spirit of the Night
As I leave my home behind
To walk the far farm fields
The spirit of the land enfolds me
Its silence becomes my mantle
While I alone hear
Those wafted word
As the wind caresses the treetops
Whispering englynion
To lure me on
Through woodland and moor
Beyond fences, ever deeper into a land
Clothed in swirls of radiant mist
Rising from plashy pools and tarns
Amo...
Tuesday 17th April 2018 2:32 pm
The Garden
I step out
Into that mystic choir
That holds my heart
Where time, standing still,
Moves with the seasons
Quietly changing my world
With its elemental tune
While my song is barely heard:
A contrapuntal whisper
Struggling for harmony
For my land is my chancel
Hymns hum soft on its breezes
And prayer rises in its stillness
In this quiet place of remembrance
...Saturday 14th April 2018 11:43 pm
Grassland
I have ploughed one field
And seen the soil turn
To lie against its fellow
Under the greedy gull shout
Behind my blade.
Worm gorged, at dusk
They seek a distant tide line
And the furrowed field clamour
Slips silently into the night
I have broken the plough lines
Left to crumble in the sun
Where worms once toiled
My disk and dragging chain
Harrowed the la...
Friday 13th April 2018 4:12 pm
On Hearing a Loved One's Fate ... E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle [1]
He spoke
And then it seemed
The mist and perhaps my mind swirled round
A sickening looping helix
From that still small sphere of heat.
In the chill of a dusk we descended
Beneath a frosted sickle moon
Descended into the Stygian blackness
Of land above a still lake
From which no lunar gleam escaped
The frigid darkness was intense, solid
Consuming all my senses -
...
Wednesday 4th April 2018 12:01 am
At the Grave
As the rains came we followed
As the rains fell we listened
And walked towards the minister,
Passing by the dark grave wherein she lies,
To drop another daffodil, a final kiss from life,
On the pale box below.
And on, to cluster round beneath the trees
Circling the family, rooted by some strange harmony
Of communion: a drifting mass lost in loss.
On the hillside, as the ...
Monday 2nd April 2018 3:04 pm
Esgyrn Eira
The thick ice on the pond is dimpled on its face:
The same snow that coated the field
Had landed on the frozen pool to yield
To ice its fragile beauty and feather grace
As dents
Body gone, only the skeleton of the snow is left:
The same snow that covered all around
Has lost its substance to the earthy mound
But dull white bones still haunt Spring's heft
As wraiths
...Friday 23rd March 2018 10:32 am
The Old Beech Trees
As an evening bat dips and feeds
Lost light dims down the summer night
To deep dusk blue as the bright sun cedes
To soft moon above beech tree height
In the gentle night's warm azure sky
The beech trees' majesty holds sway
Their silhouettes hide the lone owl cry
Black shapes caressed by owlish grey
These trees have lived so many ages
Their trunks have known the...
Wednesday 14th March 2018 2:43 pm
Adrift
They see me
Without a word
Through the sea white mist
Slow silent slip away
They see me
An empty vessel
Adrift from my moorings
Fading to the horizon
To move, like night, from sea to sea
They see me
Haze distanced
Lost to all and love
Hull down, alone
Eternally to drift
To tide or current whim
Sometime becalmed
Drifting
Sometime storm blasted
D...
Saturday 10th March 2018 4:35 pm
Role Reversal
¿Le gusta este jardín, que es suyo? ¡Evite que sus hijos lo destruyan!
Malcolm Lowry 1
It had been a good party...
But
As more arrived, we decided we had to go -
Too quickly; or perhaps too slow
For some, who said it would be best
For most if not the rest
Uncaring of the past
Or the gloom we cast
Bickering with old friends
About the future trends
Argui...
Saturday 3rd March 2018 5:33 pm
The Land of a Giant
Between the dark Ystwyth and the angry sea
We walked the cold stone beach
From the swirling river mouth
To the striated rocks beneath the southern cliff
Their upended strata pointing the way across Tan y Bwlch
Beyond the town beneath its northern cliffs
A Celtic god watches and menaces
Black Lugus on Pen ddinas Maelor:
We brave his fierce storms which shade our day
...
Thursday 1st March 2018 3:29 pm
Pastoral
For Gwen, Anne and Eryl
In that happy heady grass-green Spring of my years
A time of lambent lamb slow lamb full days around a whited cottage
Lent us space and ease beneath the sun long sky
Golden glorious hours together in a single thought
With close chicken scrape and distant herd
When the swallows dipped to the fly buzz
When the kite climbed to a gliding speck
...
Thursday 22nd February 2018 12:30 pm
Mostly Welsh
I grew up in Wales
Around the Swansea docks
I walked beneath huge cargo ships
Held up with props and blocks
I was made in Wales
Around the southern ports
I watched the big ships dock
My family guessed my thoughts
I was mined in Wales
Near valleys black with slag
And closing pits and picket lines
With many a mine lodge flag
I was forged in Wales
...Tuesday 20th February 2018 1:49 pm
One people
I will not fight, I will not stand
For border, nor for any land
I need not know, am not concerned
Your place of birth or language learned
Too many wars are fought, too many die
Over province, pride, triumphal lie
I will not guard, I will not bar
The stranger landed from afar
They need a home, and wish to settle
Want to work, to show their metal
We can only profit...
Saturday 17th February 2018 3:06 pm
Danger! No Swimming
A poem for Manchester Art Gallery
Lily of the water, Nymph thou art
Perfect buds rising from cold dark depths
Flower faeries with alabaster skin emerging
Waxen ivory clothing a golden heart
Show love! Watch over this foolish boy
Who would risk all amongst your beauty,
Careless haste for pleasure clouding wisdom
Your ancient roots may yet ensnare his joy
Th...
Friday 16th February 2018 2:31 pm
ἀλκυών
O, where roams your delicate soul
Does it yet travel the seas
gliding afar with the Arctic tern
or is its delight in quieter waters
in dappled river pools or streams
Is it content to rest in the cool damp shade of the willow
watching minnows play
diving among the nymphs
and sacred lotus
...
Tuesday 13th February 2018 11:23 pm
A dream itself is but a shadow
In the grey cloudlight of a pre-dawn moon
something stayed my dream
a stray insistent noise heard through sleep
the uncertain call of the hunting owl:
I am knelt naked at the window -
beneath, the frosted grass glimmers in the pale creamglow
hazy through the early swirls of mist
but not a shade or waft disturbs the spectral scene
although my flesh seems chilled by some slig...
Sunday 11th February 2018 11:23 am
Aberystwyth Scenes, 1970
It was always The Cabin
before her lectures
coffee
and Flic demolishing
The Times crossword,
sharing the clues but
writing the answers
as she read, smoked,
pushed her blond hair
...
Thursday 8th February 2018 4:15 pm
Letters
Those love letters from the seventies
I could not bear to read again
and could not bear to throw
Those airmail forms
those tortured lonely twelve page laments
that I read and read so many times
in my cabin off Cape Town,
in Melbourne and Sydney:
So many words
So much love
But in the end
They were just ash
And I scattered them
Ashes to her ashe...
Thursday 8th February 2018 10:21 am
The Man on the Mountain
In the inky winter darkness
A rough track from the lane
Leads upward onto the mountain:
A small glimmer hints at life
and we wonder where we are being led.
Out of the blackness, a dark shape shows in the slight mist
The lights in a window flicker dimly yellow
and the smell of peat smoke drifts down in the still ai...
Saturday 3rd February 2018 1:46 pm
Gower
The sand was always hot
beside the white dunes and the coarse grass
The sea was always blue
between the black rocks and the horizon haze
The beach was always ours
between the seagull shout and the distant crowd
We were always alone
between the far world and our near union
We swa...
Monday 29th January 2018 11:59 am
Rooms
from an idea by Conrad Aiken
The Lounge
Netted windows with fawn roller blinds
lowered a little by their macramé tassels for his forty winks
Shush! Be quiet, he's having his nap, don't make a din -
or completely, when at night
he shovelled the last coal from the bin
concealed in its wooden cabinet
and lowered the heavy lid on the fire to keep it in
The Playroom
...Saturday 27th January 2018 11:21 am
The Poet's Problem
Impulse is the best linguist
So Mr Thoreau thought
And often what is written here
Is spoiled by what is later brought
Yet
All I write and sometimes rhyme
Falls on the page untaught
So needs some tender love and care
Before you see it as you ought
So
The lines you read from any page
Should by your ear be caught
As best words ordered to flow well
With...
Wednesday 24th January 2018 2:04 pm
Hen dŷ
This old farm cottage of mine
keeps all my years safe
for it knows my secret ways
and remembers
There are shadows in the shadows
but in some rooms
my sons have hidden smiles
to lead me in
There is more solitude indoors
but here and there
she has retained a past caress
to warm me
The old mirror we found at market
still retains her ghost
which...
Tuesday 16th January 2018 4:05 pm
Trout
The lake is still in the evening sun
A little breeze make the longer grass sway on the bank
and a ripple disturb the surface:
A mayfly lands
A swallow drinks and is gone before I see
With a rattle, a duck takes off from behind the island
Then it is still again
Beneath the reflections are fish
Sometimes - but not yet tonight -
A circle of ripples flows out from a rise
...
Monday 15th January 2018 3:40 pm
Prometheus Redux
Semper animus libera
PROMETHEUS:
O Thou that watches over all
And marks the good in man
Unnamed Godhead of all the thronging spirits
Who guard thy mortal worlds -
When skies darken and the plunging waves roil through
When the mountains themselves spit ruddy fire
And melt into valleys or crash steaming into the ocean deeps -
To keep thy people safe in those mortal li...
Friday 12th January 2018 1:55 pm
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