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on Ukraine
24th August, 1991Tearing a strip off the Iron CurtainThe Ukraine Soviet Socialist Republic broke awayNo one said it would be easyKyiv wasn’t built in a dayOut of the maelstromThe stirring of the potThe plot and counter-plotA nation finding its feetAfter decades of decayWith grey painted over the cracksUkraine turned toward the light pouring through the →
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on Thursday
OvercastSome light rain pushed through by the cool north-easterlyTraffic moderate with the schools still offShe sat on the bus stop bench under the shelterTidy raincoat, hat and shopping bagWaiting for the bus to the cityLeads for her two patient, slightly heavy, dogs in her handThen she just rolled off the bench to her rightClump! Onto →
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on August
Copper foils collect on the outfieldStubborn tufts of grass repay enthusiastic fielders with grazesThe cricketers’ whites are stained by streaks of blood, turf and dustOnce welcome cooling breezes of July have revertedTo deliver East Anglia’s usual desiccating chillPlayers debate whether to wear two shirts, or a sweaterAt home the shower temperature has been turned up →
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on Ukraine
that closeeye-to-eyehard not to smileas hand greets handimpossible to knowhow things will golet’s be frankthe two might find common groundto tradeor they might agreeto disagreewhile Kyiv at centre stagewaits in the wings~ CLP 15/08/2025 →
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Ghosts (ii)
Sometimes they come at nightNot always singly, but in pairsAt ease, with smilesTalking about mundane thingsWithout axes to grindHere’s the first, then his motherCircling like sharksAt ease, with their smiles~ CLP 04/08/2025 →
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on time
what is going on?eight days a week would be fabmore hours in a day helpfulwhy do we only get those sixty minutes, seconds?time moves too fast at timesthen again too slowor is it usletting the grains of sand slip through our fingers?later, soon, before too longin a minute, just a momentdon’t you get it?this is →
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on Ukraine
It was a week after the Bataclan battleYoung people from Paris in EvreuxEscaping the shock waves of griefTalking of the end of the worldRealising the conversation was about the end of humanityIdentifying that nature will persistKeeping faith that this Blue Planet will keep spinningUnderstanding that it is us who will passLeaving our stainIn fossilised citiesRailway →
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Sidcup Summer twilight
on the far boundaryplay continuesin baiting and teasingbetween fox cubsa little girl in party dressruns from the dripping coversinterrupts her mum who is talking to grand-dad on the club house patioWill the foxes eat me?suitably reassured they won’tshe runs back across the swardto join another small girlwho muddies her hands with handstandstries cartwheelsnot yet supple →
Journey of Words 