Gilded Splinters

Warm behind my eyes
Warm in my heart
Water droplets
On the inside of the window
Condensation
Drawn out of my study bedroom
Taken also from my bodies heat
Turned into the image of
Joy Division’s album cover
Unknown Pleasures
Outside
The frustrated Russian Vines
Or Clematis
Or Virginia Creepers
Cling to this third-floor glass
In some misjudged, misaligned hope
That in this the driest of summers
They may reach the staff of life
Which my room and I have gifted
Though actually they have sealed it off completely

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon

Altogether Unsuited

Be mindful
Probe step by step
Build a structure
Keep back the incendiary devices

Talk quietly about risk
Use that fucking-word poetics
For what purpose
Why to stand aside

In that place I didn’t intend to be
Where immaturity, indifference
And need
All catch me out

Do not be afraid to step outside
Go to that quieter place
Find another way
To receive advice

Write about your mother
Or a lover
Or anyone else you totally know
Or at least might have truly known

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon

Fleet Of Foot

The sun has slow returned
Also the still, with stillness
At the apex of the tree

Such light, so still
That it highlights one tree
Ahead of the bank of forestation

Is the new dress
Still then favoured
Will it do for the wedding

Are the shoes though
Still to be chosen
Comfortable for the all day

The horizon takes all in
The one still cloud
Is slow to drift

In the jungles isn’t there a word
For that place
Where sky and forest meet

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon

Fit For Purpose

I did walk to the Post Office
Where I bumped into a Magnum Special
That is an ice cream, Clint
Just in case you wondered

On the way
I saw the weaver’s cottages
All high windows
Facing towards the sun’s light

Chapels of light
Humanities of light
Mechanisations of light
Fabrics of light

The chocolate coating
Is also a layered process
Not that you know how, Christopher
Unless of course you choose to go there

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon

Counties, Country Sets

This is a Yorkshire wind
Not a Lincolnshire breeze
These are dry stone walls
Not places to seize

The obelisk and the windmills
Some are straight
Some do turn

The five-bar gate you could expect
But not the parking ticket
On the barbed wire fence

Ahead of me
Behind of me
Yes, sideways of me too

Beneath of me
Above of me
Yes, this me; with my lateral thinking here anew

I was of a similar place
Not though on the flatlands lease
I had laid by those dry stone walls
As if for someone to please

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon