Standing

Only now do I see

That it was my turn

Oh how I took it

To play the blood

Is thicker than water card

Did you realise

From that day forwards

How it would always be for you

No longer numero uno, but now

A bit part in a larger family situation

Was that then the final straw

To our many many partings

Was the next unexpected leaving

Too much for you to look forwards to

Did you see all of my potential failings

Without a purpose

Would I have no anchor

Without clear objectives

Would I drift without aim

Could you in that case no longer hold onto me

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Big Day

I do remember the arguments

My teenage son

Wanting to wear inappropriate shoes

To my daughter’s wedding

Something about

The immovable object

And the unstoppable force

Comes to mind

I think you thought me ridiculous

Childlike even

I think you thought me useless

Entirely lacking in negotiation skills

I don’t know that you know

How much you hurt me

How important it was for me

For the big day to go smoothly

Did I ever tell you

How I was watched throughout that day

In an attempt to keep me sober

With no mind to my anger or my disappointment

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Resounding

I have a view

Through net curtain windows

A blue sky with thin white clouds

Beneath which sits

A whole forest of trees

Not in view

But directly below

My third floor

Is a single track railway line

Going to, and coming from

Back in time I also wrote of what I could

Not have seen, from my hotel bedroom window

Firstly the promenade, in Lyme Regis

Then that encroaching black black sky

Which eventually stole away my horizon

The coming from, and the going to

They all happened too too often

Even now you might see

That I am simultaneously struck

By the echoes, of arrivals and departures

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Top Of That Hill

Giuseppe Penone’s

Alberto Folgorato

(Lightning struck tree)

Could be the very metaphor

Amplified by the dark clouds of Yorkshire

Highlighted by the sky's silver linings

The split trunk

Says much about divergence

The gold-leaf offshoot

Itself splits in two

Their fine points

Reaching ever upward

Yet it is the dark bark

A combination of browns, silver-greys

With slivers of gold

Which looks strongest, which reaches highest

What we leave behind

May grow ever brighter

But in no way, no way whatsoever

Did it stunt our growth

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Oh Henry

I did not expect to find such peace

Or for your presence to be so strong

Sometimes, I now know

That you just have to wait

Of course sunshine

And blue skies always helps

How long was the creation of this work

How long will take its deconstruction

Such a perfect setting

What better use for a Chapel

Of course sunshine

With blue skies, always helps

I take a second photograph

To remind me of the absence

I notice not only are mother and child missing

But also the Mother and Child is missing too

Of course sunshine

With blue skies, always helps

I could not rightly expect silence

In the busy, mid-summer coffee shop

Anyway why would I want that, for surely

Joyful laughter are what I wish to be reminded of

Of course sunshine

With blue skies, always helps

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