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Sunday, 14 January 2024

Saffron aprons

Sleep

Still in the corner of my eyes

My breath

Not yet settled into a steady routine


Recovery

From a day in the garden

A day in the sun

I always used to tell my mum


Not to do too much

But

It was her way

After the least period of inactivity


Or even the sharpest strongest illness

Always before the convalescence was over

Out into the garden

To toil from dawn till dusk


Steep

Still the hills to reach the view

My depth

Not yet settled, into a life renewed



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Saturday, 13 January 2024

Road works

This is my morning meditation

My slow slow body, and my slower mind

Awakening

With this pencil

To capture

The sprinkled water flowing


Onto the flagstones

Onto the concrete

Pavements

Unloaded

From my father's lorry

To the workmen


The navvies

By the roadside

With their bright brazier

Their enormous

Frying pans

Chock full of eggs and bacon


Here only to do 

What he had to do

To feed the kids

To stay above

The breadline

To retain a sense of worth


His morning meditation

To fill up

The forty-gallon diesel tank

With a coughing and a turning

Of the key; then to say

All and every day; it is, and was, always about me




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Friday, 12 January 2024

Out beyond the fence

A shaft of blue sky

Clear sun light

The sway of the chimney

The bay outwith of leaf


It is daft this mourning

With summer near

To laugh my all

In loudest cheer


My craft on dry land

In a sea of tears

You hold my hand

Offer to take on my fears


Shadows are about me

The bright moment

Seen earlier is moved on

The daylight now without relief


You see

I cannot even write these words

Without the slopes on the margins

The time-line is gone; yes, she was the thief



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Thursday, 11 January 2024

Open doors, misheard words

You almost entered the room

Your glance, truly you quite caught me

Earlier; and not for the first time

You asked: did I need some space


This word, then

This collection of words

A soliloquy, a pleasance

A submission to somewhere unknown


Walks alone, in only our own passages

Tunnels; churchyards and shipbuilder’s sheds

Here is where you have sent me

You simply handed over the key


I opened the door, this time without fear

The old hinges, the cold steel

I feel no more their reign

Faint their memory, now fairly fading


You

You almost enter the room

I turn

I know now, I turned away too soon




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Wednesday, 10 January 2024

Unjust; a walk in the park

I eke out a poem

For a future reading

A few moments pleasure


Misleading

A few years hence

Remembered treasure


Butterflies

Feathers in the garden

The first August of the summer


Friends

Who now have travelled

Upwards and onwards


Cleaning out

Clearing out

All of your ghostly cobwebs


Glorious Goodwood

With Frankie Dettori’s Ouija Board

A winner for almost all, and for you


The firmest of firm favourites

To win by just the upturn

Of an upturned nose


On the statue

Did you hear the soldier's

Unfortunate cheer


A few moments before

He'd shouted Delores

As the night’s ways mused on




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