Rooms And Homes

Out there, as seen through the reflection
The pearlescent shirt buttons
The frameless spectacles
The mop of permed auburn hair
The clothes hung on the back of the door
The moth

Also out there, further than
The reflection
The darkness
The emptiness
The void
The distance

I cannot welcome you in
Neither you
Nor your friend
It isn’t that sort of bedroom
It isn’t that kind of night
Even if once it might have been

Also I cannot welcome you in
Because now there are more of you
Because now you are many
It isn’t that sort of night
It isn’t that kind of party
Also the police have asked us to tone it down

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon

Me, You, And Moth

At the pitch black window
Black that is, except for the reflection
The depth of field
Which is a good study bedroom deep

Be witness to what you witness
Opened up at midnight
On that day of the Tennyson walk
When moths were bedazzled by the car's headlights

Now, tonight, one particular moth
Clings to the crawling vegetation
On the outside of the third-floor sash-window
He, or she, attracted by my desk lamp lit

The mobile telephone signal is good
Although to share my own engaged excitement
At this late late hour
May somehow be somewhat disrespectful

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon

Misinform The Misinformed

I can’t write this
Because I don’t truly know him
But
I do know little bits about him
So let’s get on with it

I can’t write this
Because now I won’t ever know him
Yet
I do know some things about him
But it isn’t enough now, is it

Anyway, more importantly
What does he really know about me
And
How did he get to know that about me
In any event let’s get on with it

Anyway, more importantly
What did he know about me
Then
How did he know all of that about me
But it still isn’t enough now, is it

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon

Pass Your Objects Around

Irritated by the wind noise he sought out an inexpensive solution, the muffler slipped over his iPhone, now he could record to his heart's content

To talk of a delicate ring, of plain gold, way more significant than its weight, just as silence is heavier than lead

The young girl, sat on a stone, in a dell, maybe at Disney, but who is the photographer

Who gave this bulbous ring, of gaudy plastic, though for sure someone will love it, but, for certain that is not I

Watch what you say Christopher, remember to link your words progressively

As another watch is dropped, on your watch; this time all digital, all black and white

Unlike the audacious blue slipper, that says much about creativity, indeed about the very process of creativity

Before yet another watch, this time with an old leather strap, this time bearing12 hour and 24 hour dials

Yet not so many markings as the medal, which arrives all the way from Santa Barbara

I had taken the sound muffler to cut out the wind noise; is there always wind noise, in Santa Barbara

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon

Yours Or Mine

No self-portrait
But one of the artist
Posing to his palette

Knowledge of self
Is hereby responsible
For muddying the distinction

Whilst modesty, in deference
To plain facts, allows for either
Of them to precede the other

One used the facsimile
The other
Followed the real

Afterwards
The coin turned over

One used the intuition
The other
Captured the zeal

Years later
You could even say today

One met the other
The facsimile, the feel
The intuition

In between
Halfway or so

One was bound, printed
The other
Left on the shelf



RS Thomas - Too brave to dream
Andre Derain (1880-1954) - Portrait of the artist 

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon