Reason

Would I have been as fervent a believer

In my grandmother’s day

As I am a non-believer

In my own day

What occurred, in those two generations

To make belief in religion such a non-sequitur

Do I now question this widespread lack of faith

To confirm my faith in myself; I am I, and no superstitions

Science, mathematics and the humanities help my understanding

I can work it out, or I can find others

Who have worked it out before me

And who are happy for me to take their words of wisdom on board

Available at Amazon

Being Here

I have the strong morning shadows

And the bright morning sunlight

I have no need to strike out for anywhere

Even the sight of the salmon fishing

North of the border does not entice me

I would not look good in waders now would I

Instead my mind dances amongst the greens

And the yellows and the pink champagnes

Of the blossom trees enjoying the stillness

The garden is a reflection of the calamitous

Yet calm times which we find ourselves in

But it is the form and presence of the leaded lights

Which remind me that prayers may need to be said

Available at Amazon

Letter

I could not write but to tell you, in this correspondence

About the blossom which now surrounds our neighbourhood

I know that the April showers and disturbing winds cannot be far away

Which will leave the soft pink and white petals saddened and scattered

Down the pot-holed driveway, and also across the newly-mown lawn

Everything is impermanence I am reminded, as I feel the sleep and the pain

Enter and depart from my body; side by side, part by part

The secrets are not in there, they are not even everywhere

However deep you trawl the deeper waters they are steady

It is the only tale which remains to tell, or to hear told

Available at Amazon

Ready Steady Go

Sunlight falls in great abundance on the blossom tree

This is an Easter Sunday unlike any other, ever

Yet this peace, this calm, this beauty

It is the very thing which so so many in the past have prayed for

But now it appears that there is also a growing desire

To return to what we used to think of as ‘normal society’

There seems to be a substantial groundswell of longing

To be able to be in touch, to be able to be close beside one's fellow man

With our brothers, our sisters, our friends, our lovers and our colleagues

We are getting ready, for what will undoubtably be one heck of a party

We will party on the parklands, we will party on the beaches

We will party in the gardens, the streets, and the cities of our great nation

Available at Amazon

Place Setting

Sat, at the kitchen table

A breakfast of bacon and eggs

Complimented with HP brown sauce

On the side a plate of sourdough bread

Spread with Irish salted butter

I look out of the French windows

And in that moment I am transported

To our holiday cottage in the Orkneys

Looking out over the well-tended garden

(As covered by Gardening magazine)

Then onto the Bay of Houton

Before peering across Scapa Flow

Where the ferries

Chug from morning till night

On route to and from the oil island of Flotta

Available at Amazon