• Sign here. Press hard. Bottom Copy’s Yours

    Too late he realisedHis chance to readTerms and conditionsHad passed Holding the contractWhile still holding the smileMirroring the other’son leaving It rarely failsThis Salesman’s SpellWhen they’ve said Yes thriceThey’ll sign The handshake of the salesmanLeaves a warm impressionBut unlike the signatureSoon fades ~ n.b. NaPoWriMo 2022 Day Nineteen prompt: start with a command. Here it

  • Inexplicable

    New moon over the lakePerseids showering the peaksSheerbeautyofCreationYou had to be thereSo very sillyLike children repeatingPooWeeWillyBumYou had to be thereIn the Arrivals hallAfter unexplained delayWaitingWaitingWaitingWaitingYou had to be thereAt the stationUnstoppableI thought it strangeWe hadhadaplanYou had to be thereLockdown over EuropeMy body burned for youSunshinespringflowersbirdsongYou had to be there~ n.b. NaPoWriMo 2022 Day Eighteen prompt:

  • Desert Dust

    Shifted from south of the Sahel Disarmed by Sahara’s unruly winds Riding out the arid rolling waves Heading north on the Scirocco Slipping through the wires at Ceuta Negotiating the Med, island by island Crossing France, fence by fence Sleeping by day in shallow ditches Embarking from Blériot Plage to Blighty Where your humble lives

  • on time

    on life’s winding courserough, bunkers, other hazardsso no need for golf ~ n.b. NaPoWriMo 2022 Day Fifteen prompt, a poem about something that holds no interest for the writer. CLP 16/04/2022

  • The Quay

    Here we are in the tidy, polished space that is the captain’s day cabin And here he is the Captain all stiff-white shirt black tie, braid epaulets And this, his First Officer taller, slimmer expressionless And here’s Danny, the union man from Northern Ireland, heavy set tidied up for this occasion See the eight crew

  • Why getting up and stepping out is better than drawing the blinds and giving up

    last owlfirst blackbirdruffled wrencrow drifts from stricken oakgull sets down by upturned binstarlings strung out overheadpuffed up pigeon pursuing hensparrows clusterblue tit picking cherry blossomwoodpecker working through the parkmallard mutters while wandering pastrobin sings to robin across the pathoh! happiness of goldfinches ~ n.b. NaPoWriMo 2022 Day Thirteen: living with hope in your heart. CLP

  • on love

    evening under lightsimmaculate pitch gleams greenpassing conversation ~ n.b. Stuff yer super league. CLP 12/04/2022

  • About One in Two Hundred Thousands

    Late evening, I walk past the guildhallpride of place epitomised in stoneVictoria’s solid figure set glum-facedstares unseeing across the city squareDid imperial majesty not make you happy, ma’am?Ahead a space, where a big block stoodreduced to its foundations with civic carefloor-by-floor removed kitchens, bathrooms, loungesdown-to-earth homes now groundedThis rebuilt city shifts againfrom its 1940s shattered

  • on Ukraine xxiii

    reading a poemare you a star dancer ordreaming of dancing? ~ n.b. Thank you for reading my poem, ‘Star Dancer and Her School of Dance – Francis Picabia 1913‘ . We don’t know each other, but I wish you well. CLP 11/04/2022

  • Love Song (Duet)

    I just called to say I love youDon’t talk to me about loveI want to know what love isLove is the drugDance me to the end of loveWhat’s love got to do with it?Will you love me tomorrow?I’d do anything for love (but I won’t do that)All you need is loveI’m not in loveDon’t go