The long and the short of a part of my life Volume 1 Page 24

Beneath my bedroom window

Incognito, or leastways in the shadows

Before the call of cat & fox pervades

Incomprehensible

To be apart

On these fair fine evenings

Time to withdraw to my sleep

Set the soft words to one side

Call of time misses the verandah

Miranda whispers of Savannah

George holds her hand, say so

We may explore the Andes

We might countenance a cruise

The northern lights could attract us

But listen

George holds her hand, say so

Sculptures in the Arizona desert

Moon views from the planet Zorg

The Himalayas should draw us close

But listen

George holds her hand, say so

Call of time passes by the verandah

Miranda, beauty by any other name

George hold her hand

As I held yours

But listen, say so

Past Bodmin Parkway station

Hair stands on end

It is where I met you and your children

Sunshine in June

Two days before

Quick ticket

Fast car

Jet plane

High speed train

Tearaway taxi

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The long and the short of a part of my life Volume 1 Page 23

Moon

Kate is far away

Moon & sodium light

Such nonsense

Not to be together

In the best years of our life

Could we afford the liquor

Would we make the time

OK these nights don't turn up too often

But when they do

We ought to grab at them together

A soft touch

For the skies that drift to cloud

A desire

To take the steps unknown

Kate would like these prints

Plymouth, Devon

In the style

Of the Great Western railway poster

Bowling green bowlers smoke

Ogden's St Bruno Flake

Southern Transports motto states

‘Fresh air for all’

Plymouth Hoe

Plymouth Hoe

Plymouth Gin

Did they play with perspective

Are we also, so self, so self-important

That we miss out on the main chance

Sometimes it seems

Seriousness

Holds the upper hand

Soft words

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The long and the short of a part of my life Volume 1 Page 22

Thanks for the drift of smoke

A barbecue in the woods

Meat, red meat alive on the flames

So easily I turn to anger

Was it ever so with a woman

My girl says I don't criticise

But do I praise her enough

Boy could I take a cigarette

Tread out across the boardwalk decking

Take a steak with cold beer

And garnished tossed salad

So easy it is to drink

Was it ever so with vocation

Not hard to be self critical

But do I praise the self

With such self-sufficiency

Strips across the sky

Jet streams over the Atlantic

Smell of smoke fills the air

Efforts of a local woodland cutter

We could all make a case

Each of us is a strategist at heart

But tonight just guests in some hotel

Just lovers of natures night-time beauty

He moves away with his cheroot

So as not to offend; times changed

Thirty years ago, in Huddersfield

Or anywhere else in the western world

Cigarette ash trays and steel match strikers

Built into Draughtsmen's drawing boards

Engineers, the meekest of all the species

Most often chose not to decide

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The long and the short of a part of my life Volume 1 Page 21

Where the land meets the sky

(Almost echoes here of Larkin)

Weddings of bureaucracy are my fancy

A new tenth hole

Across the valley

Level with my window

Boy the knees sure ached

All those years ago

Up and down the fairways

In and out of the familiar rough

Graham went to Malaysia

Tim is where he was, more or less

Me, well you know, memories

Maybe it is why I write so much of mist

Why it is easier to write the words of love

Than to be the giver of love

Maybe it is why I write born of compulsion

Why the moments charge at me relentless

& all trains of thought are evidently lost

Bare skin, that always does it for me

That and the silver blue pink tinted sky

Over the hills, far beyond the distance

Hear the blues guitar on the juke box

The soft crack of canons on the pool table

Another blue blood cinema paradisio

Praise for the Tory leaders maiden speech

Yes how the country was betrayed

To have built up such debt, honestly

All the while, of this sickly verbose

Their brand new BMW cabriolets

Sit pristine in the golf club car park

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The long and the short of a part of my life Volume 1 Page 20

Yet the wisteria, in this garden also

The wisteria is anything but gone

There is a stillness today

Not a breath of breeze; the winds

Are they gone, are the winds gone

Are they gone for good

Pigeons coo; I am reminded

Of late Saturday afternoons

Out by the farmers hayloft

With Colin and Lawrence

The Tinker brothers

Waiting for their birds

To return home from France

Are their dream birds gone

Is all hope of the birds return gone

Is that sense of reference gone too

I count seven layers of detail

Between the window to

Where the land meets the sky

Cars, almost on the final line

Travel to and from the places 

That surely they must go

Sure you say, it is evidently so

It would suit me to sit here all day

Time for the book and pencil

Yet the day ahead is stencilled

Where the land meets the sky

I may gaze out of the meeting room window

Hear the rumble of aeroplanes destination bound

I might even lose my concentration

Settle this one time for unconditional ground

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