Plenty of pebbles
Sunset glints and hints at one
That soon warms in palm
.
CLP 07/05/2020
Category: Poems
Present Tense
This brittle air in sun so low
Glints off flints flash hard
To retain the joy of childhood
As manners evolve in new-formed slow queues
Found on familiar streets
Beside the sign, Stay Home, don’t be SHelfish
Outside the closed café that specialised in crab sandwiches,
That H added by hand, by night
Lightens this dull conspiracy of compliance
In which all have dressed down
Even priests can go uncollared in isolation
Because we can
Grass verges spout unruly inflorescences and ticking time-bombs of dandelion clocks about to blow
I let the news headlines go
Fuck ‘em! They add nothing to our here and now
Where St George and the Dragon adorn the brick cornice of the shuttered pub
I hear the sea and bees
I fear my own stupidity more than that of others
I long to be able to walk out on the pier
To its very end
.
n.b. http://www.napowrimo.net Day 25 prompt: Almanac prompt.
Christopher Perry
27th April 2020
On Cliché
antagonise
sensibilities. unhinge
complacency. hang subtlety
.
n.b. www.napowrimo.net Day 10 challenge: use 6 words in a 1-2-3 words per line format to say something poetic, or pathétique. As writers we face the constant challenge of avoiding the ‘lazy dog” of cliché. Bonne chance, mes braves!
Christopher Perry
10th April 2020
Drift
I stood on the beach watching
It moved east, parallel to the shore
Bobbling on the sparkle of cat’s paws
Behind the forming swell of gentle breakers
A tern interrupted her flight to peer closer
Hanging just above in squealing hover
.
What it was I could not tell either
But curious, I walked to the foamy edge
My linen trousers rolled up to my knees
Advanced bare-foot, shin deep into the chill
It floated out beyond my reach
Elusive flotsam, mystery from the deep
.
n.b. Cat’s paws are a form of waves. They are capillary waves of a small scale that are pulled up from the surface of the sea by the wind and pulled back toward the surface by the meniscus, (surface tension of the water).
CLP 19/02/2020
We Don’t Know
What possesses people
What goes on inside a marriage
What she was thinking
How he believed he would get away with it
How it might have turned out differently
Had we only known
.
.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/20/men-killing-women-cuts-refuges-legal-aid
.
CLP 19/02/2020
Origami
The white sheet fluttered down at the very edge of my vision
I saw it fold neatly in the cross wind and drop into the long, frosted grass of the field bank
In that moment, caught in my passing headlight
To all intents and purposes
It had the appearance of a barn owl
Falling on its prey
.
CLP 12/02/2020
