Arteries “Never knew what hit them , the impact must have been tremendousto have left that much blood on the road,looked like it had exploded”. My father talking about the accident.One side of the car had caved right inand there was a bloodstain twenty yards longacross both sides of the road. “What was left of…
THAMES VALLEY TEXAS
The North Field: Thames Valley Texas
The North Field You lying exhausted in another room, me taping,trying to drag some of the past with me.Three stories up in West LondonI think of old friends, forgotten journeysand the cracked ceiling reminds me of iceand cars swish beyond the stained curtains. You say I never talk, never explain thingsclam-up, freeze-up, a tight-lipped Englishman.You…
England Swings: Thames Valley Texas
No not a reference to Sergeant Pepper that was 20 but out of curiosity here an unseen poem from 1991. Ah, but I was so much older then I’m younger than that now.. ENGLAND SWINGS Soho doorway, December ’66sleet melting on daisy-patternedplastic raincoat, seeping to salt linesup purple suede slip-onsHer front teeth bite her bottom lipas…
My First Telephone Call: Thames Valley Texas
The new grey phone in the hallThat never rangUntil one day nervouslyI had to answer It was my uncle from SpainHis father had died that morningWhilst he was on holiday My first conversation was cut short“Yes dead, your dad is dead”. Silence and then a sobThen his wife Sue saying “We’re coming home”. I could…
My Father’s Things: Thames Valley Texas
The series of illustrated poems titled ‘My Father’s Things’ are complete. They include ephemera related to the objects. The whole sequence are the first time I have attempted to deal in writing with the loss of my father aged 72 to pancreatic cancer in 2004. I was infuenced by my reading of Richard Ford and…
My Father’s Things: The Watch: Thames Valley Texas
My Father’s Watch A gold Limit Silhouette watch leather strap hardly wornA dress watch for a man who never dressed always workingMost times he didn’t carry a watch as it would be get damagedor snagged whilst working..too dangerous… A man who cheated death twice..first a burst duodenal ulcerI remember him being taken in the ambulanceIt…
My Father’s Things: The Optical Level: Thames Valley Texas
I am currently working on a project called ‘My Father’ s Things’ which is a series of drawings I did last year to stay sane amidst the chaos of my life then..don’t ask…the chaos has departed and is now far away. This is the first draft of the first poem that I plan to attach…
Fishing in Fog: Thames Valley Texas
FISHING IN FOG A winter Sunday, fog and frost Two figures climbing a stile Boots crunching crisp grass underfoot Head toward the Thames at Clifton My father not yet seventy, still working And I back home for a day’s fishing Struggling with tackle and reels in the cold Sit expecting nothing, no fish bite in…
Blurred Fences : Thames Valley Texas
A Christmas Poem in November? I wrote this poem in 1995 and had omitted the key line about poets for fear of offending my father. Now he has been gone 13 years so probably safe to reveal what the poem about. After my father died in 2004 my mother confided to me that he had…
Buying Time – In or Out it’s the same old story…
Buying Time I’ve been buying time since I was born It is what the working class were made for No trust funds, no foreign holidays No gap year, no kindly Aunt’s dowry My father taught me to buy time Any chance you get son take what you can Don’t be dishonest, keep your pride, do…