Place Persists

The first donation lands today, a spark of joy

And for everyone, everywhere, the gifts

Which bring connection, purpose, and love

Prospect Cottage is saved, thankfully

We all played a part, including David Hockney

In gifting a memory to the many memories

Once again we will venture to the shingle

Take our little group the length of the country

To share a creative day out

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Place Exists

Without time, to hold you back

Stride out creatively

Among and towards the seasons

Use this place as never before

Walk around the garden

Do some work there, if so you wish

Day by day make a new place

For you are in isolation

And didn’t someone once say

It is for the best

To make the best

Of the best of all possible worlds

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Space Exists

I have a table as big as four tables

I have two velux sunlight roof windows

My stereo plays the iPhone playlist

It is a playroom

Where I don’t play half often enough

Yet I do believe

In this spring and summer

Of Coronavirus Lockdown

It could become my fragrant shelter

Especially if I am able to buy

A few big bunches of lilacs

Or several small vases of freesias

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Basis

Is it the tiredness which seeks me out
When I sit in the sunshine

The concentration which I need for reading lapses
As my head wobbles

I don’t write of solitude, not nearly so much
As I read of solitude

I am the driver, at the railway level crossing
Who waits in abeyance

And I quite care for that sunlit location
Halfway to nowhere

Yet in snatches I am fully cognisant of my place
In this floating fading world

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Unbelievable Facts

I was sat on a bar-stool, in Long Beach, California

It was October 17th, 1989

I ordered a beer, and asked the bartender

What’s this on the television

Oh he said, that’s an earthquake

We have them around these parts

I suppose not so so often in England

He served me the beer 

And moved on to his next customer

My colleague came to the bar

Look Ray, I said

The highway is bending and quivering

Ray ordered a beer

And asked did I want to eat

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