Den

Harvest time; first we piled the bales high

On the trailer, carted them from field to barn

Sons of farmers and village urchins we became architects

Future participants perhaps for Kevin’s Grand Designs

The main space was deep inside the piled bales

The entrances, and exits, had twists and turns

Part to keep people from knowing of our secret den

Part, as Jenny says ‘to secretly discover our sexual selves’

As the winter wore on, and the cattle needed feeding

Our den was dismantled; bale by bale, day by day

First the entrance, then the exit, then the small

Cavern, which had been immense, with boys laughter

AVAILABLE FROM KINDLE

Power Station

There was hardly any differentiation, between the mist of nature, and the mist created by the warm droplets of the cooling towers

We had left the wharf in Lincoln, good and early, to glide along the canal with the sunrise at our back

I had longed to belong to the water, and here I was on a long boat, a narrow boat, crawling through edge-lands countryside, moving freely, yet seemingly always in a straight line

You can still taste the coal; not so much as in the old days, not since the power stations cleaned up their environmental act, but, with a big gulp of breath you can taste the damp black, the sulphur is still there to be chewed upon

Any good mathematician would be able to tell you that the cooling tower walls are parabolas, or another fancy word that I haven’t used since geometry classes at PGS

Any poet would be able to tell you that they are metaphors, for beauty & isolation; and that love always dies, and one day they too will die

AVAILABLE FROM KINDLE

Flip Aside

I don’t know myself

Although I do know

That I easily get annoyed

And that often I smile

One night in drizzle

A long way from any home

I waited for a late night bus

In a happy state of mind

One day in sunlight

Sat out on the back step

I waited, not knowing for what

In my beleaguered muddle

I don’t know myself

Although I do know

That often I smile

And that I easily get annoyed 

AVAILABLE FROM KINDLE

Back A Life

Zodiac signs from distant times

Did you too once believe in love

On the late night bus

To the party in the field

Then along came the moment

When you felt you almost

Remembered those moments

AVAILABLE FROM KINDLE

Labelled

Is it such a bad thing
In such a long run
To pick out one bad thing
After another

So easy to lose touch
Mostly fragile
Much too shy to say
Let bygones be

The pen now a crutch
For the clutch of sparrow-hawks
That chalk the inner walk
In place of open talk

The one bad thing
That led to another
Doubts intrinsically rose
One hope is to rediscover

AVAILABLE FROM KINDLE