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Monday, 22 February 2021

Place Setting

Sat, at the kitchen table
A breakfast of bacon and eggs
Complimented with HP brown sauce
On the side a plate of sourdough bread
Spread with Irish salted butter

I look out of the French windows
And in that moment I am transported
To our holiday cottage in the Orkneys
Looking out over the well-tended garden
(As covered by Gardening magazine)

Then onto the Bay of Houton
Before peering across Scapa Flow
Where the ferries
Chug from morning till night
On route to and from the oil island of Flotta

Sunday, 21 February 2021

Place Persists

The first donation lands today, a spark of joy
And for everyone, everywhere, the gifts
Which bring connection, purpose, and love

Prospect Cottage is saved, thankfully
We all played a part, including David Hockney
In gifting a memory to the many memories

Once again we will venture to the shingle
Take our little group the length of the country
To share a creative day out

Saturday, 20 February 2021

Place Exists

Without time, to hold you back
Stride out creatively
Among and towards the seasons
Use this place as never before

Walk around the garden
Do some work there, if so you wish
Day by day make a new place
For you are in isolation

And didn’t someone once say
It is for the best
To make the best
Of the best of all possible worlds


Friday, 19 February 2021

Space Exists

I have a table as big as four tables
I have two velux sunlight roof windows
My stereo plays the iPhone playlist
It is a playroom
Where I don’t play half often enough
Yet I do believe
In this spring and summer
Of Coronavirus Lockdown
It could become my fragrant shelter
Especially if I am able to buy
A few big bunches of lilacs
Or several small vases of freesias

Thursday, 18 February 2021

Basis

Is it the tiredness which seeks me out
When I sit in the sunshine

The concentration which I need for reading lapses
As my head wobbles

I don’t write of solitude, not nearly so much
As I read of solitude

I am the driver, at the railway level crossing
Who waits in abeyance

And I quite care for that sunlit location
Halfway to nowhere

Yet in snatches I am fully cognisant of my place
In this floating fading world