Whether it’s for protectionfrom the bullion blazeof the sun or acidic city rain,the red umbrella draws the gazeof everyone on Grandma’s street. It’s with her whenever she goes out,furled or unfurled, swung or twirled,you can see her coming in the distance,dancing and tripping on the pavement. She is the personification of jolly,always ready for gossip […]
Category: Poems Inspired by Artists, Music and Other Writers
Still Life with a Plate of Onions
His hog hair brush elicited ochre orbs;their pale sprouts, long grown through,contrast with green pot of camphor oiland candlestick’s cobalt blue. Were onions the only vegetablethe ailing artist could affordonce he had paid for rough wine,pipe tobacco and humble board? Or was he keen to improve his healthafter battling with hallucinationsand mutilating an ear? Throughoutthe […]
Father’s Self-portrait with the Family
Mother put my hair in a plait,dressed me in my best blue skirtand red sailor blouse.Father set a timerand photographed the pose. I knew it would be boringand, deliberately turning,rummaged for stories in a chest,while mother froze, her blue dressblending into the mise en scene. She smiled faintly at the lensand then looked away,as did […]
Musings of a Poetic Cat – a poem on Visual Verse
I am delighted that Visual Verse chose to include my poem on page 18 of the latest issue, Volume 10 Chapter 8. The image by Erica Marsland Huynh appealed to me because it is of cats. As ever, all the pieces, prose and poetry, are fantastic. I recommend reading them all – or you can go directly […]
Rebuff
He leads her to a sea of oilseed rape, his hushed words warn her not to make a sound. Her trusting eyes are wide, her mouth agape, as butterflies of many hues astound. He begs her listen to the gushing stream, to watch for river birds and frisking otters; he shows her silver trout and […]
Strains of Billie
It’s a quarter past three on a Sunday morning. Darkness sits heavy as a blanket. It’s waiting for first light to seep through night and gently lift it. Strains of Billie Holiday curl into a hug of raspberry tea steam from my favourite mug. The cats have been fed and husband is tucked up in […]
The Quality of Finger-Painting
Finger-painting is the quality of not worrying about the mess on your clothes, hands and face, and sharing the happiness of the child with whom you’re finger-painting. Finger-painting is being a cave-dweller, doing what comes naturally, while unleashing your inner Picasso, Kandinsky or Miro, even throwing a little paint like Pollock. Finger-painting rediscovers the child […]
Mary Alice Muted
She is muted, not just in colour.He has painted her in hues of dolour.and taken away her voice.I wonder, had it been her choice to find herself so portrayedin shades of violet, green and greyto the modern art world’s eyes,to be so closely scrutinised, or did she trust the artist’s view.Lacking softer tones of blue,I […]
Deirdre’s Accordian – a poem on Visual Verse
I am delighted that Visual Verse chose to include my poem on page 30 of the latest issue, Volume 10 Chapter 7. The image is not a modern or surreal one, as they often are, but a classical painting by John Everett Millais. It really caught my imagination and that of the other contributors. All the pieces, […]
Curators of the Night
They are busy on the night shift,dusting off star drift,polishing up the moon in all its forms.(It’s always being tarnished by space storms.) The library’s astronomerscans the sky for astral bodies, gathersmoons, and stars that fall to Earth,and shelves them until their monthly rebirth. They lend them out too,to people like me and you,romantics who […]
writing in north norfolk 