It seems as if I have walked foreverthrough this life, on this pathfrom birth to death. Sometimes I have walked togetherwith friends and family,sometimes alone. Often the path meandered,for a while it took me off course,past woodland, pasture and meadow,past sheep, cow and horse. Now often on my walkaboutI sit down to ponder beneath a […]
Category: Poems
A Room of One’s Own
surplus to requirementsjust over two point fourno room in the cramped flatand nowhere else to godreams to engenderI had to keep them safe, so… I found a box and put a room inside sofa surfing’s difficultbeing a burden’s worseit’s easy to lose friendseven easier to lose trustlife on the street’s dangerouspavements are cold and hardin […]
No Words
There is no such thing as completesilence. Just no spoken words.There is the muffled pad of socked feetacross the kitchen floor; the clock’s ticktock; the soft and loud song of birds;wind in trees and the creak of a branch;the hum of bees and distant traffic;white noise in the middle of the night;the low rumble of […]
Forget Me Not
Gazing at flowery constellationsclustered around the silver birchby the back gate, friends and relationscome to mind in a surge of blue.I don’t need to searchmyself, my heart or mind for embersof memories. I remember you,and wonder who will think of me,perhaps standing beneath a tree,ankle-deep in azure forget-me-notsblinking here on Earth, while Itwinkle above them […]
Medusa at the Supermarket
A hiss of hairuncoilsas I avert my stare,lowering turquoiseeyelids, mascaracoated lashes brushingmy pale powdered skin.I’m in the fruit section;with one hand I caressa pomegranate,with the other I pushback the stray curl.A couple and their little girlknock me with a trolley, unawareof me standing there,the darkest sunglasses pushedback on my head. I peerat their shopping, turn […]
Albatross
It’s a ghost in the night that keeps me awakewith whispering, muttering, sighing,and nudges in my poetic ribs.It pokes me with imageryand ties me up in allegoryuntil I reach for notebook and pen. It’s a ghost in the early morning, a wispof verse draped across my aching neck,a metaphoric albatrosschecking rhymes, ensuringenjambment and caesura makesense, […]
Putting Pen to Paper
It’s happened again!I don’t know if it’s the penor the paper, but there are blotsand a swarm of purple spotsof ink where there should bewords. Or maybe it’s me. Changing the cartridge to bluedidn’t help, so it’s not the huethat’s causing the kerfuffle. I got up and filled the kettleto make myself a cup of […]
Bathing in Green
Drab khaki workaday realities disappear,become green bubbles in a flood of birdsong, and the garden is bathed in a green mere,viridescent ripples echoing all summer long. Green creeps from grass to leaf to tree, alongeach branch, farther than any wings can reach, over the top of the green-swathed beechand curly willow, from which a sole foliole, […]
A Call to Wise Women
Misunderstood throughout historyyou were tortured, drowned, burntand now, amid the intensityof climate change, plague and war,you have seen humankind at its worst. Forget the shamans,Mentors and Chirons,all male, muscle-bound,bristling with testosterone. We need you wise women,you Earth mothers who listento sky, air and soil beneath your feet,the quickening of the seasons’ beat.You understand the textures […]
Hunting Bedfellows
In the shadows of predawn, I’m wokenby companions of past and present,hunting my dreams until they’re broken.My ghostly bedfellows curiously hunt,purring, kneading, butting, knowingI will fill their dishes in the morning.They hunt me through the nightbut, once fed, they lick their lips,clean their paws and slipout to disappear into a brightnew day, off to haunt […]
writing in north norfolk 