Donna Nook

If you still wonder why I
Say thank you
Then think on yesterday
Think on Donna Nook

The orchids
The meadows
The wobbly iron ladder
And the skeleton of a seal

Where otherwise
Would I have been
A computer screen
A television
A glass of lager
A cigarette
A sandwich
A stony single bed
And the no hope
Of another new deal


If then still you wonder
Think on nature’s riches
There instead
Two people holding hands and laughing
Three people
Each with a camera
With a photographic bent
And a moth
Straight out of its cocoon

Stories of
The beach edge watchtower
Cups of tea and scorecards
While practice bombs are dropped

From the Collection I Suppose You could Call It Country, available on Kindle

On the way of what to do

In these days of wondering
Days of wondering what to do
In these times of wondering
On the way to think of you
On the way to think
To think of what to do

So today the way
To blue skies and mountains
The way to spirits, souls
And stairways unleaden
Today the way to play
The way that children do
Without the wander
Or the wonder
Of the wandering wondering
Wandering & wondering
What to do

What to do
With the next few moments
The minutes and the hours
The days of country flowers
The seven steps to seek
That make up most my week

Seek out the moths
Sergei and stroganoff
The years of generations
Penetrations and separations
Of life lines into lifetimes

Take the pen
The paper and the pencil
Write down thoughts
Appropriate gestations
That may be met upon the spot
Past incarcerations
Or maybe not



From the Collection I Suppose You could Call It Country, available on Kindle

Paddle and Splash

I am in my brother’s garden
Alone
I am early
It is a mid June afternoon

My brother lives
I suppose you could call it country
But not an estate or a seat

Not in the grandest sense
Not a Chatsworth
Or a Balmoral
Or the old East Indies

Anyhow
Here I am
Here and waiting
And thinking

Could I ask you please?
Just for a moment
To choose
Your own favourite location

And
Then
For this moment
Listen to the wave’s splash

If your place is by the sea
Where you wander
Or paddle and splash

Back here
I sit on the wooden bench
A close fit two-seater
Listen - I can hear the birdsong

I can hear the flap of wing
Can you
I can hear the buzzing fly

This is a time
Unplanned
Here I am
Alone

With nothing needing to be done
Nothing at all
At this time of now
Is expected of me

Can you imagine such a time
When all that is to be done
Is that which comes
From within your own imagination

Imagine
Time for thoughtful recreation
Spontaneous blameless contemplation
Or action

I guess the grass was cut a few days ago
Anyway the shed is locked
No access to the mower

Unless of course I act against the law
Break
And enter

But why would I
When instead I can sit here
In the sun and the shadow

Sit here
And write for you
While I listen out
For my brother



From the Collection I Suppose You could Call It Country, available on Kindle

Luminous Intensity

The sun strikes from high above
Thirty years or more ago
At university or in love
We spoke of Lumens
His law and the afterglow
Of Luminous intensity

Immense then the
Density of the obnoxious teenager
Leaning against the bar in fair refrain
A peacock on the prowl
A scowl for all authority

Some things never change
And some things stay the same

Rising in the east
And setting in the west
Concave or convex
The arc between

Between the rise and set
Is blessed

Intense then the
Propensity of youth
Spent; fenced too far
In dares unfair domain
A hippopotamus with a growl
Cheek by jowl to remain

Some things never change
And some things stay the same



From the Collection I Suppose You could Call It Country, available on Kindle

Rossetti

The pen says Rossetti
The picture
In my mind is of a face
With an engaging smile

A closed door
An open space
Above the floor
Aside in place

A cry for more
Of love to taste
An open door
On Rossetti’s face


From the Collection I Guess You could Call It Country, available on Kindle