Changes

The plan was

To drive down today

I had booked

To stay seven nights

Well that will have to wait

Maybe in the New Year

I will make another attempt

Although by then, well, who knows

Instead a virtual visit

A stay at home retreat

With a short spell

Of hospitalisation

I could look up my video

Of autumn leaves

Falling slowly from the trees

To land softly on the ground

I could trawl through my photographs

To find the still water

With reflections

Of a life that I have lived

Doing, And Done

That’s it then

We have been to Pisa, Florence and Siena

We have seen those rolling hills

Of Tuscany, with a nod of beauty to Vienna

Not quite as vibrantly verdant

As the advertiser’s imaginary pages

Not so sure that the slant

Lines up, to the hard on the feet stages

But for sure there is something

In the Italian’s passion for religion’s bones

In Pisa, in Florence, in Siena

Everywhere we touched the Catholic’s stones

We are Rome’s new benefactors

Paying our entrance dues

We’ve replaced the communion communication

With our lifelong sprawling queues

We’ve travelled on the railways

Past graffiti and mundane council flats

We’ve rolled our designer suitcases

Over centuries-old stone flags

We’ve been to restaurants and cafés

Eaten gelato, and drunk Peroni too

We’ve tested the art of the Uffizi

Gormley, on the ramparts; he we already knew

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Isolation

I remember being there

I remember not being there

I transport myself

One way then the other

From the present to the past

With a simple, but effective

Forgetfulness about the future

Ice creams will be

The abiding memory

That, and the scent

Of the flower in the meadow

Whose beauty

I know now to have left behind

Lost in that wondrous moment

I am there again now

As I sip my Americano

As I nibble at my currant teacake

I am sat beside those old buildings

Old structures here as there

But here given a new purpose

Which could also happen there

Reclamation and regeneration

To find a place of calm

To develop a sanctuary

Where a retreat life

Could be followed

With some integrity

With some gusto

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Aero

Boarding time in Pisa

Almost

But even speedy-boarders have to wait

For the delayed aircraft

A drone

Spotted in Manchester

Is blamed for the ten minute

Change to schedule

Already we are in reverse mode

Backing away

Then turning, taxi-ing

To the take-off strip

When landing on water

Take a lifejacket

Pull it over your head

There is a light and a whistle

The pilot and crew hope you have

A great flight

With heavy emphasis on the great

As we take off into the mid-day sky

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Tired Comfort

Is it not possible
To order coffee
And also save the seat

Instead to watch the people
Infused with Italian style
At the end of this retreat

A retreat into art
A retreat into religion
A retreat into a great many gelatos

It is not possible
To leave one’s bags
In the departure hall

Instead to go on walkabout
To cast one’s eyes
While listening for the boarding call

Then to catch the prize
Of a backwards falling table
Never known to admit to defeat

The disdain of it all
Nowhere to set down one’s feet
Between here and Pisa’s final gate

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