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 […]
Category: Poems
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. […]
Spring Spillage
The day had gone from rainback to bright and dry again,and so we ventured out. So many hues among the greenof fresh new buds and leafy sheen,it made me want to shout out loud, when suddenly the firstbutterfly seemed to burstout of a leafy cloud, not primrose or even daffodil,but the colour of an accidental […]
The Memory of What You Were
‘The memory of what you wereis beginning to fade,’the man on the radio said,his voice fadingand crescendoingwith a turn of the dialor a wave of the hand. ‘Time moves around quick,that’s what I find,’said the man on the radio.But at mid-day it is so slow.I imagine him sitting downto ponder on things from the pastthat […]
writing in north norfolk 