Here is a shared experience from the night of the full ‘Strawberry Moon’ on June 20th. A warm evening after a wet morning promised the sight of Nightjars hunting, and the moon was a bonus, The mist quilt slips across the sodden heath thickening at waist height in the …
The Blythburgh Estuary, such a wonderfully calm landscape, or is it? PLEASE CLICK ON THE ARROW BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM The Blyth snakes down to the brine soothing our senses as it idly curls grazing past tall murmuring reeds, stirred to voice by a gentle …
This poem started in a session of poets writing together, with Michael Laskey and Dean Parkin. Dean produced a ‘Spot the Ball’ page from an old newspaper, and we all enjoyed marking our X. We all missed! PLEASE CLICK ON THE ARROW BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM …
A chance meeting gave me another dimension to our politicians’ crusade against welfare expenditure. PLEASE CLICK ON THE ARROW BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM. I find it difficult to socialise when undressed. Body image, lack of calcium when very young, the dislike of goat’s milk curving …
Poems were requested on the subject of ‘Renewal’ to be read at the recent Suffolk Poetry Society’s AGM. I wrote this poem for the event, but there were so many people wanting to read their work that I decided not to join the queue, and now show it here instead. …
Today I have had a new experience, which is always welcome at my age. I sat as a life model for a group of artists. The last time I had my image sketched was by a ten minute street artist in Beijing in 1996 (see image below). I am …
A walk in such a range of sunlight yesterday afternoon, when I was able to take some good photographs of Snipe feeding at the waters edge of Minsmere Mere. Here is a Haiku with two photographs to share the moment. Probe stiletto, probe, With soft tip like …
There is a steady number of people discovering in the later stage of their life that contact with asbestos at an earlier date can be long lasting. PLEASE CLICK ON THE ARROW BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM A starved cur huddles in his lungs, motionless, but …
Christmas 1948…. I have been thinking about writing this poem for years, one of the sharpest memories from my childhood. Finally, I sat down this week, and it leapt onto the page. PLEASE CLICK ON THE ARROW BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM Bright red tiles, arched around …
One of the most elusive birds in Botswana was perhaps the most colourful. For a moment one perched a considerable distance from me, and using a new camera, which was far more skilled than me, I managed to take the amazing photograph below. PLEASE CLICK ON THE ARROW BUTTON ABOVE …
Jean and I were in Falmouth, Cornwall for a few days. We were shown to a table for four in a restaurant and asked if we would mind sharing it, if required. We replied ‘No, we did not mind’. Part way through the first course a stranger, subsequently identifying himself …
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 …
Have you ever been on a wonderful travel experience, where one or more of those taking part think that you are very fortunate to have them in the group? PLEASE CLICK ON THE ARROW BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM How reassuring it must be believing your experience and …
All poets sift their childhood for subject matter, and some experiences surface more readily than others. PLEASE CLICK ON THE ARROW BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM It was winter, several weeks from his fifth birthday when his father left him at grandmother’s farm. No memory …
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 …
Do you remember that time of freshness, when some words – heard for the first time – had a resonance of mystique? This poem attracted a comment from Anne Boileau, who is currently Chair of The Suffolk Poetry Society and an excellent poet. Lapis Lazuli features in one of her …
Four generations of my family were by chance involved with an enterprise launched in the 1880’s by another family, The Goughs. Perhaps I own the only artefact from that history. CLICK ON THE ARROW ON THE BAR ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM The marker for a …
I recently missed, by error, an excellent lecture about the painter Edvard Munch’s work, with particular reference to his best known painting ‘The Scream’. Two days later I found a remarkable hagstone (i.e. a stone pierced by one or more holes). PLEASE PUSH THE ARROW BUTTON TO HEAR THIS POEM …
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.
Without apparent stimulus the brain suddenly decodes something from childhood. PLEASE CLICK ON THE BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM The fence still stood when I was a boy. My fingers knew it was significant a strange structure in its second life
