PLEASE CLICK ON THE ARROW ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM I never went to university — dropped out took an apprenticeship at the sugar factory — had all the tricks played on me, sent to the stores for a long weight, had my raincoat rivetted to a girder, …
This poem came out of a poetry workshop today. The writing objective was to do something for somebody and my wife’s request, last night, for a ‘good sized gin and tonic‘ came to mind. Please click on the arrow button above to hear this poem Let …
Nearly sixty years ago I loved the black humour that the skilled maintenance fitters used on their apprentices. Never forgotten! Please click on the arrow button above to hear this poem After months of continual and heavy use the pulp drier needed major repair. …
During the first long lockdown a sense of lack of control continued to increase, but some people made an effort and the decisive decisions. CLICK ON THE ARROW BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM Random information arrives electronically short bursts of images and speech aimless contact with the …
All that organising, layout, input and corrections come to fruition. I am delighted with my new book.
I have been working for several weeks on my second book of poetry, ‘Reflection’, which went to the printer last week. I collect it on November 8th. Below is the cover, from a photograph that I took on Dunwich beach on the evening of the longest day.
Have you ever visited Covehithe in Suffolk? A village gradually being taken by The North Sea. They wait in quietus for their final voyage on a sea they knew as well as land, which seeks again to soak their limbs. Anchored firmly by a shattered church raised for transfer to …
An appropriate question for this time of disruption. When did you last see Truth? It has slipped its leash and scrambled off unnoticed in the frenzied melee of baying myths. When did you last hear Truth? Its studied quietness is difficult to catch amidst the raging howl of …
This is a sad twist on an old tale — a carol for our present circumstances. Why won’t Wise Men deliver their gifts? They have displayed the glittering promise from the backs of their awkward mounts, circling endlessly in the featureless waste. Shepherds cannot point the way, they search …
About sixty figs are slowly ripening on my Brown Turkey fig tree. The second is mine wasps had found the first fat fig ripeness is the prize!
Snow is threatened for us again this afternoon, so here is another Tanka to welcome it: Each flake steals colour silent theft’s benign softness a camouflaged coup that covers all in fragile crystal immobility.
I wrote and sent this poem to our good friend Dru, on the occasion of an important birthday for her. Consider the time it takes the sea to polish stones to bright perfection life has done the same for you but in only eight decades A …
If you have not yet reached the need for the morning ritual described in this poem, know that you have it to look forward to. Is it the aging husband with enlarged prostate? The asbestos handler with pleural plaque? The retired runner with calcified cartilage and the mysterious cyst, …
This Haiku came very quickly to me this morning, as I watched the bamboo outside my bedroom window. Invasion outside – the breeze trembles bamboo leaves like swarming locusts.
By way of a change, here is a short piece of prose: In a writers’ group this morning we were challenged to write a short story in 150 words. The story below contains exactly that number. The light was starting to fade, and breaking soft waves seemed even quieter. …
How many things that seemed eternal early in life, have completely vanished? Sometime in the nineteen-fifties it perched on the hundred-foot workshop, where Waitrose’s entrance is now. It would pace the working lives of hundreds. First as boys, learning to master metal …
During a few days in Liverpool we visited Crosby Beach, to see the Antony Gormley sculptures arranged as ‘Another Place’. Two friends had been examining the work, and turned to walk off the beach. I took the photograph below, and the poem was written after I examined the image, using an …
This poem recently was selected by Helen Ivory for appearance in the poetry webzine ‘Ink, Sweat and Tears‘, it also appeared the the Suffolk Poetry Society’s magazine ‘Twelve Rivers’. PLEASE CLICK ON THE ARROW BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM You can never prepare for this task. It …
PLEASE CLICK ON THE ARROW BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR THIS POEM He glides the Hog to the sidewalk, blips the throttle then kills the big twin cam but not cleanly, the rig shakes twice with pre-ignition. Shit! – He hates when that happens, it spoils an entrance. …
I was asked today to write about a hat! Please click on the arrow button above to hear this poem The good thing is that it travels well. It has little style only patterned stitch work marks its drab coarse surface. Khaki cover for a nascent bald patch, a …
