MMXX
after Philip Larkin
Never again such crowds
shouldering such exultation,
no more the sea lion choir
hauled up on the stands.
The stadia and arenas
silent like grief,
the sun quenched in remembrance
of a million flowering hands.
And shutters on the High Street
tight against the abyss,
the weekend staff furloughed,
the checkout bleepers schtum.
The h...
Thursday 21st October 2021 10:53 am
The second peak
October 2020
Once we’d bagged the first we should’ve quit
but we are so elated
to make it safely down by noon
we press on like a perfect pair of twits,
sights set on a much-alike, elevated
cairn across the valley, reckoning soon
we’ll add another summit to our list.
We scale a gate which warns us to KEEP OUT!
and brave a barbed wire fence
before the grad...
Wednesday 20th October 2021 12:22 pm
England, low tide
All the fuckin’ country
is tense about some dead duck football game
tonight at 8 pm (or so I’m told).
The sea it slinked away but turned again
and stealthily manoeuvres to reclaim
the mudflats populated by the clumsy
clumps of seals. They loiter, lolled
like slack balloons, like lard
collapsing down to chip fat on the hob.
But we, we sit up straight: our sofa, st...
Tuesday 10th August 2021 10:14 am
The Island of The Vaccinated
Such jubilation every time a vessel
debarks a new contingent at the port.
So much relief when loved ones, wrested apart
for long, lone months are free again to nestle
cheek to cheek, to hug and kiss, to jostle,
guiltlessly mingling among the singing throng,
siblings swinging siblings, making rings
to dance till dawn with no one a virus’ vassal.
Ravenous variants infes...
Monday 7th June 2021 10:14 pm
Hoopoe
I
Sixty tonne of metal bellowing down the sky
assails the quietude
of reeds and muddy pools
where spoonbills sift through sludge and seagulls drift nearby.
The mouth of the Ria Formosa’s a birders’ paradise:
miles of salt pans hosting
birds of low-lying coastline,
in thousands upon thousands. It’s Eden beyond price
in every way but one: the fence of Faro A...
Wednesday 19th May 2021 2:15 pm
Kudu kudu
Kudu kudu
how magical to view you
your pinstripe torso and your curtain fringe mane.
Kudu kudu,
posing like a statue
licking at the dawn dew
lifting your head and sniffing for rain.
Kudu kudu
horns in a corkscrew
your muzzle with a tattoo,
a sharp white horseshoe,
you master the plains.
The bush birds of Africa
are setting up a clamour.
The Bokmakierie’s...
Friday 23rd April 2021 11:11 pm
My name is Silence
I used to range unchallenged on this hill
keeping mankind under my surveillance.
I watched as you discovered
the wonder of the wheel
and ways to traffic goods along the rivers.
You harnessed blameless power from water mills
but we became estranged.
My name is Silence.
Once I was your day-to-day companion:
the backing to your birdsong at the daybreak
and as t...
Friday 5th March 2021 9:56 pm
Recent Comments
Stephen Gospage on A Different Kind of View
21 minutes ago
David RL Moore on Scrap yard philosophy, too late
1 hour ago
John Coopey on A Different Kind of View
1 hour ago
Telboy on A Different Kind of View
1 hour ago
John Coopey on TRANSUBSTANTIATION
1 hour ago
rob1967able on song of pure desperation.
11 hours ago
William Alderson on And now for something completely different ... Write Out Loud poets turn out nonet after nonet to mark World Poetry Day!
11 hours ago
Auracle on Defined
12 hours ago
Steve White on TRANSUBSTANTIATION
16 hours ago
Auracle on Believe it or not
17 hours ago