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Thursday, 24 October 2024

these are the quiet words

these are the quiet words

of a soul lost within itself

or a soul lost within another soul


and at that very moment

one blackbird stops splashing

and two blackbirds depart


a gentle breeze stills the leaves

motor cars noise slowly flattens

the bay bush sits still and calm


i am startled by the fall of water

overnight rain in the canopy

shocked I listen for a church bell


calling the worshipers to worship

or is it the sinners to sin

disenfranchised to disenfranchise


i am not for letting go, rather

i dwell with the soul lost

looking out on the natural world



it is time for a long poem

it is time for a long poem

as the girl at the waters edge

dries her cotton frock

in the breeze


she walks with her friend

quite a hulk of a man

more so when he turns to jog


a fly settles on the inside

of my unnecessary sunglasses

as the boys return from surfing


next stop is the queue

for coffee and muffins

also to watch the small bird


picking up the crumbs

which is what we all do

day by day by day


this is the thoroughfare

for the fashion statement

also the sugar rush for the kids


to be nonchalant seems to be

the look of the moment

should I practice disinterest


no surely not not as the blue sky

appears on the horizon

and also inland


older son is on a prolonged break

to take in coffee and a cigarette

i have a white chocolate lemon muffin


which after all is how sugar coated

lives ought to be lived is it not

when there is a sharp line of horizon


the tide is going out

high tide being at nine am

this maybe accounts for the breeze


i have to move from the chair

onto the rocks as oldest son

needs to get out of his wetsuit


at that very moment

sunlight bursts through to cast a glow

onto family life same as it ever was


picture taking time

oneself, with surfboard

on his knees as he is writes


a replica

of the two-thousand and four version

with surf board and mars bar



Wednesday, 23 October 2024

you took me by the hand

you took me by the hand

said that i could dance

this would be my chance

to change forever


i found myself at bejowan barns

also on the beach at watergate bay

fifty years after the event

of rip tides and sunstroke


here i am on the sands

without my iphone camera

watching the surf school

parents and children


a cool breeze blows

sixteen degrees and no more

with combative dark clouds

above and behind me




Tuesday, 22 October 2024

vulnerability

vulnerability

i you and you I

riven apart

both as destroyers


yet also

a true source

of life at the top

of the glorious iceberg


itself melting

at a pace

which only it knows how

one which we never discovered




Monday, 21 October 2024

time is only time

time is only time

isn’t it

but what about thought

are time and thought


separable or inseparable

and those lines

which transgress or cross over

in whose house do they belong