At the start of the day

He stands as I have stood
Smoking a cigarette, discreetly
While he waits for his business colleagues

His gaze is over the golf course
More distant; his thoughts sweetly
Take him back to the Paris of his youth

She was a dancer; artistic and full of beauty
With a passion and desire that he so wished to fulfill

My own interior fulfillment had me by the Seine
Strolled me down the Champs Élysées
Toured me through the pyramid of the Louvre

I sipped coffee at a café in the Place de la Republic
Picked at a deep china bowl of Moules marinières
Posed, as though affluent, in Pierre's Bastille restaurant

Alone on the hotel balcony
I blew smoke into a starlit sky
I smiled at the memory of the Mona Lisa

His hair is black, with flecks of silver grey
She wore reds and golds, emeralds and pearls
His suit is black, his shoes also
She skipped and ran, she kissed and chased

We remember it well, he lost his virginity
She tore it away, with the vengeance of age
We are uncertain of the immediate future
Her certainty was, with the immediacy of youth



a poem from the collection Into the Present Decade - Love with Droplets of Joy available by clicking on the link

Exhumed

The joys of rage are dampened
No crimson words on this page supplanted

Instances of calm; light skies, rambling downs
Inner praise for the loaded step I found hard to take
What to make of the response; is it a euphoria
Founded on no more than paper rocks
The fragrance of flowered freesia stocks


a poem from the collection Into the Present Decade - Love with Droplets of Joy available by clicking on the link

Disturbance

First light, one way ticket
Aeroplane in flight across the sky
From the nearby sea
To the far away Pacific

First text to say I am OK
Good as the day, I am well; really, terrific
I revel in the tail end of a dream
Added to my morning of nothing specific





a poem from the collection Into the Present Decade - Love with Droplets of Joy available by clicking on the link

Towards and Away from Dungeness

Into this starless sky I cast my dreams
Onto the painless prairies where streams
Of consciousness solicit the ways and means
Life is what it seems, but also otherwise

Overwhelmed by the violets and the creams
Victorian elegance that once teemed
All along our southern shores; a time serene
Life does not demean, but also otherwise











a poem from the collection Into the Present Decade - Love with Droplets of Joy available by clicking on the link

I give you this pool of Turquoise Blue (With thanks to John Berger)

It was the colour you wore that summer of ’88
All I could think of was let's date, let's date, let's date
Of course we tore ourselves to shreds
Mostly with words unsaid
Hardly ever (come the end) did we share in bed

A soft woolen jumper in the carpet remnant shop
Camisole knickers beneath a patterned satin top
Hands held together down the supermarket aisle
Tumble down the dunes of the straight Five Mile
At home abroad to queue for what's due

Turquoise and light, in the bays to choose
La Corbiere Lighthouse white and true
Listen intent to the States of Jersey radio news
Big chiefs and little Indians with all to lose
In your open top car we cast away our shoes

Danced the night under spotlight and moon
Walked the sea shores in cotton & pantaloon
The flight call, as ever, came too soon
Into the sky above our turquoise pool
Zealous to have been such a jealous fool


a poem from the collection Into the Present Decade - Love with Droplets of Joy available by clicking on the link