Wednesday 31 December 2008

Jasfoup's "Happy New Year"

Fiona Robyn's "The Letters"


Fiona Robyn is having a free draw for a preview copy of her book "The Letters"

I haven't read it yet, but I hope to. Pop over there and see if you can win one!

Cemetery Mist


Morning mist
settles over the cemetery
crows cackle from poplar trees

New Year's Eve - Mist





Tuesday 30 December 2008

Hair


Long hair
long enough to cover breast
should I find myself
teleported
from the shower
to ancient Rome
(where I would be put to death
for my obvious Celtic ancestry
and my pigeon Latin).

I had a mohawk once, spiked
with shaved sides.
Now the only bit shaved
is an inch square
above the spine
because she likes to feel
her influence, untangled.

Zen and the art of Rubbish Arrangement

In the post
a box of review copies
thirty more books

and a typo.







Publisher sending them out?
apparently not
Does the NYT take
author submissions?

Bathtub in the woods.
Why?




Almost Zen -
half a bifold door
and a burned stump


Trickster
finds a Lady stump

Monday 29 December 2008

Yesterday’s Hero


Yesterday’s Hero

No hero this
pavement man
who sat on slashed red vinyl
for thirty years
polishing shoes
outside the station.

No hero this
bewhiskered face
and easy smile
of yellow gravestone teeth
and fresh breath mints.

No hero this
old leather skin
and knobbled hands,
a shoe-shine brush
held tight
by arthritis.

No hero this
but still a whistle
of morning jazz
and newspaper salute
and scent of
cherry blossom.



Cemetery and Dog Field

Sun shine,
though cold,
picks out branches
bare
beneath a sky
of winter-blue.
Long shadows
on grass
deep green
with cold and damp
but yellow
in sunlit cheer


Old sign
paint peeling
once held
a list of do's and don'ts
long gone now
and turned to rust














Home-made swings
in cemetery trees
like nooses
in the city of the dead

Sunday 28 December 2008

Poellage for Nadia


Journal Post (Nadia)

Emerald wings
bring new dimensions
to dogless household.
Eyes shining, three kids
bring flashes of yellow
in open-barred cages.
Black coffee,
blue skies
and the sound
of delight.



Fountain, Matlock Bath

Saturday 27 December 2008

And the Demons Cried

And the Demons Cried

Grotesque illustrations
responsible for a bizarre future
where mutating people
trade stories
of crumbling tenements
filled with bio-mechanical creatures.
If I am responsible
for such telling artworks
I believe in angels
with nanobot technology
and chainsaw amputations.



Matlock Bath Steps


River behind me;
still I find the steps
more alluring

Friday 26 December 2008

Deep Fried Lunchtime

Deep Fried Lunchtime

Sunshine in droves --
pinstripes and boaters
ready for a raft race
armed with Styrofoam teas
and lunchtime chippies.

Starved for morning
the race becomes battle
‘twixt rafters and watchers
fought with flourbombs
and water cannons
and the relative spark
of good humour
until the last boat
traverses the weir
with droplets of need.

Matlock Bath Raft Race

Boxing Day morn
Trickster comfortable
at DK's feet




Matlock Bath races
rafts of cold people
dodge flour bombs











Rafts drift away
into the sunset
and the weir


We follow the race
then a treat of chips
eaten in the fresh air.

Thursday 25 December 2008

Ovaltine and Coal (acrostic)


Ovaltine and Coal

Children gathered, impatient for
heaven – forgiveness for mother’s
reality-show to finish
in case the presents vanish with
sugared promises of “next-year
there’ll be more than
make a houseful and
anyway, where’s the festive
spirit?”
Decoded cornfields bring
angels and demons,
yelling about letters to a dyslexic Santa.

The Oak in Winter

Quiet spot free of cars,
dogs squeeze through railings
bored of the wait

Wednesday 24 December 2008

Jasfoup's Seasonal Greetings

Rememberies


Rememberies

In the cupboard under the stairs
lie eighteen cherished memories
each wrapped in brown paper and string
and saved for the day I need to
release the wonder of summers past.
Except for one, where I peeped
and sunlit meadows on a winter’s day,
aching for the loss of a love
and I wrapped the box
in sixteen layers
of Christmas gaud.

Boythorpe Woods - Christmas Eve


Hanging tree silent
Factory closed dog romping
kicking up leaves

Tuesday 23 December 2008

The Thinness of Ideals


The Thinness of Ideals

Accidental impulses
draw us together
like the glimpse of a smile
in December rain
locks stinging vowels
into rivers of cadence.
I watch your tongue
flick between teeth;
tasting the air,
aching
for pheromones
and I wonder
at the sweetness
of a corrupt helix
threaded with steel
and a heart
blossoming with pain.

Paper Jasfoup

In lieu of a photograph, I bring you Jasfoup the demon, from my novel An Ungodly Child



Adapted from the excellent Paper People by Annabelle Curtis

Click image for full size, save image and print onto A4 card or thick paper

Monday 22 December 2008

Virginal Stipulate

Virginal Stipulate


In the halcyon days

of my fragile youth

I came upon an acerbic dreamer

who spoke in nightmares

of knuckle-white restraints.

He was

an open-armed zealot

looking for transcendence

in Jackpot prayers

and double-bonus highways;

an exile from the promised land

and purveyor of damaged souls.

I traded mine for a broken wing

and a parched copy

of Mary’s lost Gospel.





Boythorpe Cemetery


Sunny morning
Girls in white trainers
avoid muddy field

Sunday 21 December 2008

Winter's Day


Frost laden brushes
paint magical pictures
on winter glass



for One Single Impression prompt 43: A Winter's Day

Hunloke Avenue Dogfield


Misting rain
damp, mud-filled field
three joyous dogs.

Saturday 20 December 2008

Low Pavement, Chesterfield

Waiting for Luisa
to collect me - tired legs,
heavy picture frames.

Friday 19 December 2008

Books Giveaway

My Favourite Books - Massive Giveaway!

Mark and Liz over at My Favourite Books have gone competely barmy - for the rest of the year they'll be giving away at least a book a day! They have a fabulous review blog and I for one read it daily. Have a look and spread the word - and while you're there check out their other posts on the blog, they have some great content up there !

Bramshill Lane Sheds

Marry, Snog or Chuck?

Sarah, over on the Novel Racers wrote the following:

I am sure most of you will have heard of the game "Marry, snog, chuck off a cliff" where you chose a celeb you would marry, one you would snog and one you would cheerfully chuck off a cliff or other high point. As we are all writers I thought I would do a different take on it for today's coffee morning.

So my questions for you today are these:
  1. Which book do you wish you had written?
  2. Which book do you really regret reading?
  3. Which author do you admire, either for the wonderful work they have written or the fact they seem to be doing well out of writing total tripe?
  4. What book would you like to find in your stocking/under the tree this year?

I though my answers would be of interest to several readers as well as the other racers so here are mine:

1.Kate Atkinson's Human Croquet. This was so close to what I wanted to write for 'Halcyon Days' that I ended up changing the whole plot of mine so that it was nothing like hers.

2.Annie Sanders' Busy Woman Seeks Wife I honestly thought this was going to be a lesbian romance. Readable, certainly, but nothing out of the ordinary.

3. Neil Gaiman. My favourite writer, I think, though I haven't read all of his books yet. I hope my books have the otherworldly sparkle that his urban fantasies do.

4. Stephanie Weeks' Triplex Coniunctio. My blog-partner and one of my favourite writers. Getting this is unlikely as it's out of print.

There we go My marry, snog and chuck choices for this year.