poem a day
#NaPoWriMo WTF
I had never heard of this acronym until my mate and fellow poet Neil Fulwood revealed it to me and a poem (pretty damn good one) too. Basically the UK Poetry Society being about ten years behind evrybody else has copped a write a poem every day in April meme from the rest of the…
SELFIE @ 65
Self-regarding Self-effacing Selfie at 65 Teeth – some lost Eyes – scarred Piles- fixed Hernia – fixed Ears – Tinnitus Brain- forgets names Hands – scarred wrinkled Feet – chilblained Hair – grey thinner Optimism – constrained Politics – centrist was left Artwork – little Writing – occasional Music- listen not make Income – pensions…
NORFOLK IN SPRING
The taste of salt on the tongue Kids gone to uni now empty nester Husband in marketing doing well Always wanted to write Met a small press woman Now I got a pamphlet Next year a prize Discovering a new poet every day over coffee in Waterstones Elizabeth Bishop is amazing I really struggled with…
#nationalpovertyday
Thunder Circling: Thames Valley Texas
THUNDER CIRCLING He needed to talk to someone.It happened to be us.His rolled tobacco slipped from his fingersas he went over events fifty years before.The harbour, Singapore, thunder circlingand lightning flashing across the sea.A merchant navy man,sitting on deck with his mates,watching a free show.‘lf they’s could only ‘arness that energy’. The same bar two…
Hawker Siddley Argosy: My Back Pages
HAWKER SIDDLEY ARGOSY Improbable squares, steel-framed frogshopping from aerodrome to aerodromethrough an emulsion sky, wool clouds.You could hear them from miles awaybefore they’d flash over the barnand into my wide open six-year old eyes. Other times they dissolved throughthe outhouse plastic corrugated roofinto distorted birds that rattledlike boxes as they headed southtravelling so low and…
Arteries: Thames Valley Texas
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…
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…
My Back Pages: The Cloud Factory – A Selection
A selected volume – The Cloud Factory Poems 1996- 2011 can be read here.