Fleet Of Foot

The sun has slow returned
Also the still, with stillness
At the apex of the tree

Such light, so still
That it highlights one tree
Ahead of the bank of forestation

Is the new dress
Still then favoured
Will it do for the wedding

Are the shoes though
Still to be chosen
Comfortable for the all day

The horizon takes all in
The one still cloud
Is slow to drift

In the jungles isn’t there a word
For that place
Where sky and forest meet

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon

Fit For Purpose

I did walk to the Post Office
Where I bumped into a Magnum Special
That is an ice cream, Clint
Just in case you wondered

On the way
I saw the weaver’s cottages
All high windows
Facing towards the sun’s light

Chapels of light
Humanities of light
Mechanisations of light
Fabrics of light

The chocolate coating
Is also a layered process
Not that you know how, Christopher
Unless of course you choose to go there

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon

Counties, Country Sets

This is a Yorkshire wind
Not a Lincolnshire breeze
These are dry stone walls
Not places to seize

The obelisk and the windmills
Some are straight
Some do turn

The five-bar gate you could expect
But not the parking ticket
On the barbed wire fence

Ahead of me
Behind of me
Yes, sideways of me too

Beneath of me
Above of me
Yes, this me; with my lateral thinking here anew

I was of a similar place
Not though on the flatlands lease
I had laid by those dry stone walls
As if for someone to please

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon

Step, Sit, Sideways Does It

On my way to the Post Office
But first I must stop off
(Although I have hardly started)
To sit on this magnificent seat

With a view, straight down
Between the house and the old barn
Across the steep side valley
To the woodland bank and horizon

All that hang across the buildings
Are power cables
Telephone lines
Wires for the crawling clematis

Inside the house
Lunch is nearing completion
I was in the first group of poets
We finished early, our tutor was hungry

Blue skies have returned
Yet it is almost September
Soon the classes will be over
Until the following, until the coming years

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon

Aloof Alone

I hear the laughter
I watch the cobwebs
Wave mysteriously about
In this nighttime’s breeze

I know there are people
Happy in conversation
I watch the one mad moth
Captivated by the light

My life wasn’t always so small
But no, I was never
What you might call gregarious
But I did have some human contact

Pray do not rob me of that again
As also says
The mad moth
To the minuscule flea

There are other stories
I hold one such tale
One such tome of confiscation
Held here, in my hands

It escaped from a poem
To be turned
Into
I know not what

Happenstance in Heptonstall

Poems Started at Lumb Bank

Arvon 2018

Available from Amazon