Ownership

I was so very deeply hurt

Laid on the bed

At a loss

I stared out of the bay window

Into the infinite leafless tree

In the neighbours garden

Of course I left

Flight or flight; no contest

I convinced myself of the end

 

I returned later

But only to collect

My permanent possessions 

Yet I could not countenance

Taking away the poster

It was, after all, given as a gift

Prestigious; a limited edition

An individually signed copy

Bang on the money, as ever

This poem is from the collection 

Hold It Right There

Hard in the early evening

Stiff as the light lifted before dusk

Virulent as youth

He might have shifted had she not been

Rain lashes the Tarmac

Crows swoop low across the carriageway

The Severn is browner

Than the ploughed brown fields of autumn

Wagner turns triumphant

Relapses into one of his mellower moods

Worn out roads welcome me back to Yorkshire

Sodium lights sold short on their sense of purpose

What would Mr Hughes make of this

In his Barbour coat & deerstalker hat

A trudge to the drudgery

Or a walk by Wilberforce’s statue

This poem is from the collection 

Smooth Over

Floss ball of summer

Strands of evergreen

Swathes of pickpocket daisies

I would write a letter

Something about the roundness of love

About how profound it feels somehow

To look back from now

Free of pain and anguish

Full of the loss of longing

The longing that settled

Into a mind filled

Those days by treasure

Paths and trails of smitten tales

Leveraged by the faint lines

Of our past times together

This poem is from the collection 

Adonis

Sparkle of adornment

Mischievous smile

Free afternoons

Mile, after mile, after mile

This poem is from the collection 

Seed Change

To start again a life rotation
Cycles of learning and doing
The point of it all
To find a truer vocation

How important the location
Easy to say
Overlooking the sea
Taking leave, on vacation

This poem is from the collection