Ant swarm
The actions triggered by a leaf cutter ant swarm in the Panamanian rain forest.
At a funeral of the previous generation
Sometimes the locus of your role and significance in an event changes unexpectedly, perhaps even caused by something mundane, and the insight can be a shock.
The life now leaving platform four
This poem relates both to the event of a chance meeting, and the loss of emotions in a marriage. In an icy railway carriage a woman rehearses with a stranger how she will tell her husband she is leaving him, when he collects her from the train.
Langkawi brief encounter
Another snake poem, I will categorise it under ‘events’, but I think it had an emotional impact on both of us.
It’s all in the heft
Back to events again, with a eulogy to empiricism.
Snapshot for a Sonnet
A poem triggered by old photographs, that brought a realisation of good fortune.
Walking the Floors
An elegy for the discard of the empiric skills learnt over several generations of traditional floor maltsters.
One Line Poem.
The tormentor unexpectedly tormented by lost youth.
Fashioned by local conditions.
All three laughed, my perception slipped,as insight glimpsed another’s world.
Reference F.O. Code EB2
I still have my second world war ration book.
Clean bowled
The following poem spun out of an all male, black tie dinner and stumped me.
Coming to terms.
How will death arrive? The closing event in our brief existence can be cruel for some.
The wood merchants son
We all mine from the seams of our childhood, mine followed the grain.
Repartee under stress in Venezuela
Venezuela, March 2007, a sudden change in the weather in Llanos
Family Stories
This poem addresses how the repetition of anecdotes can become a replacement for real contact.
Dead Images
The catalysts for this poem were a philosophy lecture, followed shortly afterwards by the rediscovery of an old photograph.