Seashore

Steps down to the beach
To take photographs
Of chalk-white pebbles
And a sea which merges into a sky
At that point formerly known as the horizon

A wall on which to sit
To have photographs taken
Portraits of each other
Exposed in turn with the cliff
And the rampant vegetation as a backdrop

Then striding-out along the sands
Towards the town a mile or so away
Past the seventy year old man with his wife
Digging in the sand for fishing bait
He is due in Filey tomorrow if the weather holds
As it sort of holds today that is
Until we reach the Road Train terminus

I have taken photographs of the surf of the beach
Of the waves of the sea and of the fisherman soon to be
I compare and contrast this afternoon
Of the place of the environment of the emotion
I settle on gratefulness especially for the laughter

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Tears

One girl
For no apparent reason
Is crying inconsolably

Her teacher tries to calm her
But with little success
So then she turns

To another child
Who she says is always good humoured
And asks could she cheer up the sad girl

Who does in fact steady herself
But fails to allow a smile
Which ought to be the natural reaction

To her friends expression of fun
And joy and willingness to care
For the deeply distraught youngster

How deep is her hurt
Where does the pain arrive from
How many years before she is released

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Zoo

Filled with school-children
All wearing fluorescent yellow
Hazard-warning waistcoats

Here for feeding time
One group from which school I wonder
Are paired off in couples and walk around holding hands

Also grandparents and parents
And pre-school children
In brightly coloured perambulators

Stopping
To look at the dramatically coloured exotic birds
Whose gaiety they are soon set to mimic

Now it is the time to gather up the bairns
For this year's group photograph
Before the twenty-eight juniors

Of the class of 2016 exit for the day
While the grey clouds approach
To cover over their once clear blue sky

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Box

The boxed edge does not look quite so precise as it might have done under a more disciplined head gardener

The pathways are not so tidy or well kept as they would have been when first laid down the paint is flaking on the pillars and the ceiling of my sitting area and the bricks are engraved with lovers initials

Kate used the term 'municipal planting' for the flower beds I think she was concise and exactly to the point they are way too formal

And so on to the Clock Tower Café for a prawn and lettuce sandwich on oatmeal bread then a coconut slice with a black Americano coffee while Kate waits in the queue to make her selection

Our friends that is all three generations are taking the Road Train into town and back again before we meet up for tonight's concert in The Spa

Where the Last Shadow Puppets are filled with energy and boundless obvious joy as they give and receive the love and the adulation of their Bridlington Brid audience

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More Light

The sunlight streamed through the Georgian window casting a rectangular patch of nine lights onto the dining room wall the centre part of which had the crystallised light form of the flower vase which sat on the window-sill

I sat to the side of the window for my morning meditation I listened to a recording of Tibetan Bells and Ocean Waves as I meditated in the warm light knowing that a few hundred yards away stood the cliffs against which the real sea swelled

I know this because yesterday evening we walked out to the cricket field at Sewerby I edged from the boundary line towards the drop though not too close for I am not too fond of heights and know that vertigo or fainting or light-headedness can occur at any moment

Walking around the field we saw a down-at-heel middle-aged man asleep on a seat outside the cricket pavilion we saw him again later in the evening outside our holiday cottage ambling towards the street-light of the road beyond

I did not interrupt his stupor should I have done should I have enquired as to how he had arrived at this situation would it in any way have helped him to shed any more light onto his particular life story

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