For my sins I have been watching ‘The Crown’ and it reminded me of a poem I wrote back in the 1990s before the death of Diana….. As you can see I was always a staunch Royalist… The Empty Stair A fleur-de-lys fissured by sulphuric rain crumblesbut still hangs, paint-peeling, above an entrancethat is being…
Edwin Smith – Catching Light – Recordings
EDWIN SMITH POEMS Back in October 2014 (now six years ago) I was on the first term of a Creative Writing M.A. at NTU. I was also with uncanny timing commissioned (the first and so far the only time I been commissioned) by R.I.B.A. through Apple and Snakes to write in response to a lovely…
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…
Two new poems
A Tiny Spider A speckcrawling from under Acrimonyseen under the spotlight A metaphorfor the last ten yearscrawling down the hard shoulder A tiny spiderpicks its way through booksand is gone I stare at the rainThe stationary carsThe Middle of England Wonder how she’s doingWhat webs lay aheadWhat sticky yarns The Lost Decade Travelling on the…
The New World
Poetry and I have not been getting on…. In fact I have been ignoring poetry, shelving it, filing it and generally pushing it to the back of my mind for the past decade.To start with this was deliberate as the combination of employment in an art school (note word art there not a writing school)…
The Rattle Bag
This rather nice vintage French leather bag came my way yesterday and I am going to use it to carry my poetry around in and hence the name ‘the Rattle Bag’ which I copped from the Heaney and Hughes anthology title… As Heaney said :Ted suggested we call it by the name of a strange…
Memoirs – Ford and Morrison- Dealing with Death
I have just read these two linked memoirs. In discussing his memoir of his parents Ford specifically mentions the influence of his friend’s earlier book. Both are very strong works although maybe because of its particularly English subject and atmosphere the Morrison just shades it for me especially as my own parents both died…