A short summer
They were refugees from the Costa,
escaping searing daytime heat
and wakeful night sweats
for Northumberland’s short summer.
Beaches that hardly seem crowded
even when the tide is in.
Shrieks of sandcastle excitement
amid the northern wind.
Thirsty hydrangeas soaking up the rain,
flagging hostas reprieved. Weather
as it used to be, while the south swelters. ...
Friday 23rd August 2024 8:03 am
The Poisoned Garden
Rhubarb, laburnum,
rhododendron, juniper,
pulmonaria, digitalis,
nicotinia, periwinkle,
cannabis, aconitum,
salvia, laurel, hemlock,
rosemary, farage.
With acknowledgements to
The Poison Garden at Alnwick Gardens in Northumberland
Monday 5th August 2024 7:59 am
Moving like Jagger
‘Mick Jagger has a six-year-old. He’s 80.’
Conversation between two older women overheard on a train
Embarrassing, enduring logo. Those lips.
Jumping Jack Flash, no ordinary wrinklie,
sired another offspring in his seventies,
still manages to shake those hips.
Faux-rebel with a knowing grin.
Only a nineteen-sixties serum
explains so many honky-tonk women.
Rul...
Sunday 26th May 2024 10:03 am
Puffins at Coquet Island
Partygoers reluctant to depart.
Last stragglers of the colony line
the turf below the lighthouse.
The engine’s cut; August
wind chills faces. Some still
clump in, puttering outboard
motors frantically clattering
over us and terns on the rocks.
Wintering on the ocean,
returning with sand eel cargos.
The chicks spend years at sea.
What makes us think of them
...
Sunday 21st April 2024 7:50 am
The ferry waits
Like a fought-over bed, the ancient rock
tumbles, crumbles to the shore.
The ferry waits to leave the dock.
Spinning, wind-whipped, on the loch,
struggling against nature in the raw.
Like a fought-over bed, the ancient rock.
The waves heap up, a sudden shock.
Forget for once the thoughts that gnaw.
The ferry waits to leave the dock.
Did you count me lost as you eyed the clock?
Did ...
Thursday 4th April 2024 8:26 am
A foreign wood
The empire called for more men, and they came.
Shipped from sub-continent
to western front,
Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, East Africa,
largest volunteer army in the world.
They weren’t ready for the cold;
couldn’t understand new officers
when theirs were slain.
Some wounded, shipped to England,
died and were buried
in a corner of a foreign wood
with Muslim honours...
Sunday 10th March 2024 8:05 pm
The 'rules' of modern poetry
Tell it slant, don't tell it straight.
Don't tell it at all. Show me.
Lyrical is ok, up to a point.
Don't overload with details.
Whoa! Hold it right there.
This is veering towards
the anecdotal,
the confessional,
the conversational,
and, Heaven forbid,
the sentimental.
I find it easier to get obscure
poems published, than ones
where the mea...
Sunday 10th March 2024 4:15 pm
The computer said 'No'
for the many hard-working and innocent
Post Office operators wrongly accused and
defrauded by their employer. Some were jailed,
and four took their own lives
The best comedy lines are funny
because they resonate with truth.
Funny in a mirthless kind of way.
Some Post Office manager
got a huge bonus for installing
a computer system that didn’t work.
They coul...
Sunday 7th January 2024 7:45 pm
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