Category: Poems

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/uk-news/2020/feb/20/over-half-of-uk-women-killed-by-men-die-hands-current-ex-partner

.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/20/men-killing-women-cuts-refuges-legal-aid

.

CLP 19/02/2020

Fiddling

Following on

From her predecessors

Ciara tore through the land

Downed trees

Drowned rivers

Humbled the best efforts of man

To restrain her fury

Uncontainably

She span on

Leaving them to continue their lives

Unsustainably

.

n.b. We recently held a General Election in the UK where the debate was all about trading and political arrangements with our neighbouring countries. Given the destruction one storm can foist on the nation in less than 48 hours it is clear that we have been barking up the wrong downed tree.

CLP 10/02/2020

On the Weekend (IX)

Wet Sunday Morning

Porridge, tea and toast, Sports Mail

Time for studying

.

n.b. I was very lucky as a child to be sent the Sports Mail each week by my grandfather (Grampy). At a young age and living a distance from Fratton Park this regular diet of football news, results and statistics sustained and fuelled my interest in Pompey.

Despite the thin content of the writing these days, I still enjoy spending time skipping through this publication, one of a few specialist, local football newspapers that remain in the country. No longer rushed out on a Saturday evening, but produced for Sunday morning distribution, it remains a rare treat at weekends.

Of course the back page with the match results, names of goal-scorers, ground attendances and league tables consumes most of my attention. I particularly like seeing how many goals were scored in the last minute (90th) of the games.

This week there were ten last minute goals, including two for Aveley that decided the FA Trophy match in their favour against Chelmsford, (attendance 811).

CLP 09/02/2020

On the Weekend (VII)

Random tin-can spins

Dances in crazy circuits

Wild Saturday night

.

n.b. A tin has been rattling from kerb to brick wall to lamp-post through much of the night. Storm Ciara arrived on schedule and is gusting through the terraced streets creating whorls and eddies of air that tear at fences and buffet trees and whisk this can in merry circuits; Saturday night fever indeed! I am not going out in pyjamas to break up the dance party.

CLP 09/02/2020

On the Weekend (VI)

Determined to stay

Exploring Portsea Island

Unearthing treasures

.

n.b. Portsmouth is Great Britain’s only island city, the second most densely populated urban environment after London. Perhaps it should be twinned with Manhattan?

A brand called Strong Island is developing here. Pompey folk are proud of their home city and are happy to wear the label, despite the island having significant social problems associated with its high density population.

This weekend of treading the streets, stopping here and there to ask questions and to take time wandering, has already led me to establish a sizeable list of places to visit and things to do.

It’s alright here.

CLP 08/02/2020