My poem won’t do what I want it to. I chew my pen, my nails, my lip and resort to the key- board. No change. Words seem to have lives of their own. They’re off to have adventures, without me, they don’t care about poetry. Yet, they’ve guided me here, to a wordingfount, where poems […]
Category: Poems
Strange Object
What is this object, this slab of pulverised fibre that was once a living plant? No life remains here, only cyber inhabitants of a starved planet. Yet here it is: this wad of paper tattooed with ancient symbols, a human record of the signals transmitted far into hyper- space for thousands of years, trapped in […]
The Landing at the Top of the Stairs
My five year old self sits on the toilet, door open so I can see the top flight of stairs inhabited by shadows from a skylight. There’s a closed door at the end of the twilight; escaping from the keyless lock is sunlight full of dust motes that float. I am torn between a monster […]
View from an Open Window
No curtains in this humble room,no fabric flapping on the breeze;a smudge of smoke in the distant gloomand a street devoid of birds and trees. The clouds are tinged with morning pink,a forecast of downpours yet to come;a thought to make my poor heart sinkand resolve to spend the day at home. This view of […]
The Emptiness of War
A city empty of children in a cold, dystopian shell (Janice Turner, The Times, 15th April 2023) At the end of the war, after years of hiding,Bombs had destroyed their homes. Children and mothers returned to a subsidingDystopian shell, to cities of bare bones. Enemy soldiers came, destroyed and, conscienceless,Fleeing the scenes of devastation, they […]
Thoughts on a Quince
ancient symbol of Aphroditewho took a fruity biteto perfume her kiss pregnant with creativityready to give birth to poetry a foam of spring flowers unfoldswhile autumn’s orbs are goldpear-shaped and aromatic pregnant with creativityready to give birth to poetry through branches sunlight glintsoff a quickening quincecreating a floodlight of fruit pregnant with creativityready to give […]
Time Not Passing
It is not a wild clock vowing vernal explosionor a dog day gilding the fields with harvest. It does not melt in summer heat’s contusiononly to wallow in its ancientness. It’s not flamboyant mushrooms on a rotten tree,a decomposing meadow of rain-soaked hay, autumn’s brittle leaves scurrying on a breeze,or a grieving sky at the […]
Message in a Bottle
his poem a bottle blue glass glittering in the sand washed up on sea swell salt and power ebb and crash on a distant beach buried in sediment until a girl’s bare foot stumbled upon a jewel hidden well among stones and shells its tattered label washed by the tide the message inside cryptic and […]
Classic Joke Poems
Poetry Reading A haiku, a sonnet and a balladwalk into a bar. The barman says to the ballad,“If this is some kind of reading,chap, book the pub next door.” Dyslexic Poet Haiku (please excuse the political incorrectness) dyslexic poetwrote a depressing sonnetit was a mope dyslexic poethas trouble with syllables‘Hi auk!’ Doctor, Doctor I went […]
Why Spillage?
Why did you ponder on that daythat started with a shower of rain?You could have started with a rayof sunshine and then waylaidus with a downpour.Just saying. Why did you have to go on aboutthe many hues of green and shoutthe praise of buds that sproutand burst with leaves, withoutconsidering the soil?I’d like to know. […]
writing in north norfolk 