Sandlines ( www.breakingnewground.org.uk ) operated a series of writers workshops in The Brecks, to promote the rich variety of landscape, fauna and flora that can be found in this special landscape. I took part in one, which was based in the BTO centre in Thetford, and led by Lois Williams and Melinda …
I recently wrote this poem for my youngest son, Rupert. He sent me this photograph after riding to the top of one of the hills on the Sussex Downs. A Tanka is an extension to the 5-7– 5 syllables of the Haiku, with two final lines of 7 syllables each …
Geraldine Green (click here to visit her blog) led another workshop for an enthusiastic small group of poets on Shotley Peninsula in Suffolk last week. A stimulating annual event that we all now look forward to. The ‘Write on The Peninsula’ workshop was organised by Suffolk Poetry Society Chairman, Ian …
This poem was written for the Waveney and Blyth Arts recent Poetry Competition, and was ‘Commended’. The subject set was to write about the area that the Rivers Waveney and Blyth flow through. I read it at a poetry evening in Diss Cornhall on October 9th. PLEASE CLICK ON …
A highlight of our visit to The Kalahari, an unexpected meeting in fading light, just after sun-set, seventy metres from our tent. PLEASE CLICK ON THE BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM Deception Valley in the Central Kalahari, where we searched for you for hours amongst the desiccated …
One of our shyest Summer visitors, the Grasshopper Warbler sings in a high range, somewhere between 5 to 8 kHz. Reeling in the reeds your high pitched Summer love song ageing ears can’t hear
It seems to me that memory and the structure of complex spiders’ webs in Gorse bushes have comparisons. This poem was recently selected for posting on the excellent poetry and prose webzine Ink, Sweat & Tears by editor Helen Ivory. Click here to visit this website. PLEASE CLICK ON THE …
Last year about sixty Siskins, escaping from the Scandinavian winter, stayed with us for over a week. They ate copious quantities of Sunflower seed and left us this Haiku: When dark winds roar South hulled hearts of the Sun’s flower warm flocking Siskins.
A lesson in early childhood about the fragility of life. PLEASE CLICK ON THE ARROW BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM We learnt about friendship talking as we walked to the infants’ school, like the others I had envied in their noisy groups. Steeping over bad luck …
A moment of re-adjustment. PLEASE PRESS THE ARROW BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM The bone ache mimes the North wind’s bite as Siskins mine the feeder teeth mutely lengthen in old gums in ears coarse hairs foregather hands are gloved with his parents’ skin age spots bloom the …
At an excellent recent poets’ workshop, brilliantly led led by the poet Robert Seatter, one of the exercises was to write in response to a given image. I was handed a copy of Edward Hopper’s 1959 painting ‘An Excursion into Philosophy’ and the poem below is the final outcome of …
He always breathed with a nasal drone
wet lips stroking a Woodbine
as he eviscerated game
a failed feint to distract his nose
from the glistening raunch of guts,
the thick stench if a stomach burst
and the half-digested last meal
oozed darkly onto newsprint.
A sestina for JeanThis poem in a very traditional format has gone through many re-writes, this version was completed just before a reading last night in The Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft.
An energy source to rival nuclear power.
A poem of failed searching in Naga-Uta format.
A dynamic hue that attracts attention to itself with strong symbolic overtones.
Watching somebody start out on the complexity of life’s journey is awe inspiring.
This poem comes straight from the heart, one the young members of our family is currently having to deal with cancer.
By what chance are we remembered by strangers, who speak our name beyond our life?
A first experience of death, suitably dressed
