A few days ago

It was seven when we set off to sea
But even before we were lost
We had changed our destination

We had spoke of going to this place
To listen to the silence
To make love with nature

In nature with the noise of nothingness
To be there, with peace
With the richness of life's love all around us

The festival is a few weeks away
Yet already the campers have begun to arrive
Their half-barrel barbecues happily burn

Fed with the twigs of beech and hazel
Undisturbed we climb the stile
With its water tap and electric light

We wander off, out among the grasses
You lead on
We pull our clothes away, gently and together

I take a photograph of my shadow
Of your stature, of the swaying grasses
In the space that is somehow between us

We wonder at the wondrous land & skyscapes
Lay lightly down; with our love beside us
Stillness brings the unspoken meditation

For which we thank, for which we bless
We rise, just as the moon rose above us
We each take each others picture

We each take the moons picture
Hold hands and slowly stroll
Find our way back, slowly onwards

On from this place
A place we might call heaven
The moon is full

A few days ago
After our walk through Tennyson county
We had talked of returning to the church
In the still of night

The old map-book shows
That Tetford and Somersby have survived
Both are feintly found
On the torn out plotted paper

And by our slow drive
With the surest of directions
We arrive, park up under the light
Of the half lit telephone box

Across the road is Tennyson’s birthplace
Next door to the castellated manor house
Which itself is scenically misplaced
And fades into a decaying diversion

The churchyard gate is open
Old yews stand eerily still
We stand, chilled together
At the half-opened unbolted door

I feel afraid, I feel your fear
We enter as if into a presence
The door is left open
We hug; our fear is transferred

Passed through
One to the other
Onwards into that place
That no one ever knows

After a while we sit in the pews
I cannot settle
Anyway this is your place
The silent beauty suits you

It belongs to you
I stand aside
Reflect back
Smile upon your stillness

We walk at zero pace
Ambling
Without haste or urgency
Back to the parked car

The moon is full
The sky clear, well almost
Just a shade of sodium
Just a wisp of cloud

We drive off
Moths dance
In the headlights glare
We are heading home

Tonight we entered
Into the land of magic
Tonight we emerged
From the loss of love


 Rainbows on my Spectacles is available at http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/rainbows-on-my-spectacles/id486905289?mt=11

Nowhere that we need to be

Moths
Caught
In the full beam
Of the halogen headlights

They dance
Dance to the music
Dance to the spirit
Or dance

To the silence of the summer

Listen out
For the ever present
Resonant frequencies
The still born silence of death

Forever
Somewhere or hereabouts
In deep sleep’s
Midnight air

Dance to that time of time ago
When madness was protected
By the curse of childlessness
On future generations

Walk nine miles or for nigh on ninety years
To be nowhere now that we need to be
There to set free, to see the grief
Believe the spectacle of families torn apart

Silently in silence we wonder
Would we be here if
Without of our own furrowed brows
Without those doubts and burdens

If we
As they had not to say
That this is the past
The last and final curtain

The hoedown
The showdown
The windblown ground
Around the gravestones

Of the slowdown motel
She then, betrothed and ached
Once, which was one time too many
She caught on

Yet for whose sake
Did she fall short of the full term dream
Who set up those bewitched, barbaric deadlines
Headlines now; but back then it seems
An everyday occurrence


The pamphlet Rainbows on my Spectacles is available at http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/rainbows-on-my-spectacles/id486905289?mt=11

About eight

Stalled
Seven tall
Into the set of sun

Stopped
Then dropped
This war my course has run

No one knows
These words I shout
No one understands

Always doubt
My words about
And no one gives a damn

So let me set it straight
Nothing clever, wait
Pray let me hesitate

Simply a celebration
Rows of poppies
In a wild garden

About eight in the evening
A setting sun
In the first few days of summer

A photograph
You smile, we laugh
The light catches all our crinkles

We’ve sprinkled magic dust
On our generations rust
Just in time to mingle, single & free




The pamphlet Rainbows on my Spectacles is available at http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/rainbows-on-my-spectacles/id486905289?mt=11

There goes her shadow

Would that I would want you
Blood being thicker, sicklier than water
Stood there under the moon
Should so soon my lady heirloom
There have seen the bloom

She stands in the empty church
In the cold and open doorway
She sings her songs in silence
Of all who’ve passed her way

Passed her
On into the darkness
Passed on, to her
Imprints on the headstones

Passed into streams of trickled water
To doubt and fear of childless daughters
Their virgin folds stay untold; they kept
Apart more than just two families

Motherhood never to be discovered
Never to be smothered
With the love
That only a child can give

Epilepsy now nowhere near the madness
Sad that then so misunderstood, much the same
When came the manic depression
Suppressed, repossession brought the only clue

Now stand
Here in the, feel
There blows the breeze
Now stand
Here in the, listen
There goes her shadow
Now stand
Here in the...

O would that you would want me
To be misunderstood, your
Bloodlines being sicklier
And ever thicker than water


The pamphlet Rainbows on my Spectacles is available at http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/rainbows-on-my-spectacles/id486905289?mt=11

Make the man

Striped deckchairs
Chiffon dress
Heads in books
A softer breeze

Beds with plumped up pillows
Rose gardens
Weeping willows
Cups of tea

Quintessential:
Fits as if a three-piece suit
Or ducks plaster cast threefold
In flight across the fire place wall

So what would you take with you
Other than paper, a pen and the sanity
To fetch back from your mind
That which you have already known

That which you know makes
The difference
Between the here and there
Between the then and now

So what
Would you take with you
To make the man:

Checked frocks
Embroidered smocks
Garlands round the maypole

Hand pulled ales
Hills and vales
Strangers resounding

At the clarion call
By the tall trees now in slumber
Somewhere East of Clumber

Deferential
Sticks unpicked
Past glories
Lost & stumbled

The shoddy
Without the shimmer
With thread and pin
Therein to sing

That sometime
The fabric’s time
Not with medals
But with honour
The fabrics time arrives


The pamphlet Rainbows on my Spectacles is available at http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/rainbows-on-my-spectacles/id486905289?mt=11