Monday 31 August 2009

Sunday 30 August 2009

Town Planning


Laverstone poem HERE

Front Garden


Aimee's old bike
knows nothing of the future -
lavender blooms

Saturday 29 August 2009

Lavender



she flatters
with ballerinas on sticks
like an adept puppeteer
with an open stage
and a hundred marionettes
each one lifting her skirts
to tempt honeybees
to her nectar

Her left side is stunted
where the frost took her in May
with her skirts around her ankles
and she tries to ignore
the droop of her dress
"look here," she says, "look here!
I have the memory of your mother's wardrobe,
your grandmother's linen,
your childhood dreams"

review in senryĆ¼



Idyllic childhood
with hinted-at distresses
Asperger's pointers

DJKirkby's blog

From Zaftig to Aspie blog

Waiting for the car


wheelchair steed -
a leg in bandages
going nowhere

Thursday 27 August 2009

review in senryĆ¼

this necromancer
bargains with Old Nick again --
with diverse humours


Waiting for Surgery


operation day -
'this way up' announced
in black marker

Wednesday 26 August 2009

Tuesday 25 August 2009

Neglected Grave


overgrown,
the grave becomes a playground
for butterflies

Monday 24 August 2009

Misconstrued


I called today
but you were
otherwise engaged –
the red Cavalier in the drive
the bedroom curtains closed
the washing line empty
so I let myself in
(through the back door
into the kitchen)
and I heard
your moaning and thrashing
and your "please... please..."
so I made a cup of tea
and ate the biscuits from your cupboard
and left the cup in the sink

and it was only later
that I found out what
'home invasion' meant.


Image: "Looking into Darkness" Watercolour £20

Whitby Abbey


setting sun
abbey glows
with memories

Sunday 23 August 2009

Intruder


she creeps into the garden
with a 'don't mind me'
and a flick of orange tail
among the lavender bushes –
makes herself at home
among the red-plumed helmets
of crocosmia,
out of sight of the windows
and the dog barks
and the clatter of the neighbour's dustbins.

our cat can see her
from the bedroom window
just the tip of his tail
flicking

Evening Sky, Mablethorpe


Sun sinking
candyfloss clouds

Saturday 22 August 2009

Leamington lunch


Bread
dipped in flavoured oils.
leamington lunch

Where the Lamplight Wasn't


they took the light away
these vandals
thugs
hoodlums –
they took away the solar lights
I placed in the front garden
that looked so pretty
in the dark

for an hour I plotted
what I'd do
if I caught them –
these thieves,
these wastrels
these ne'er-do-wells –
I'd hunt them with a sword
with a baseball bat
with a pair of secateurs
to chop off their little fingers

and after a while
I shrugged
and laughed
and let it be
these kids
these drunkards
these Chesterfield Laddoes
would never know art
or poetry
or appreciate
the touch of rain of skin

and I remain
the richer

Friday 21 August 2009

Thursday 20 August 2009

thistledown




on the canicular breeze
a thistle seed blows
in Brownian motion
brushing the ground
then flying high above the rooftops

"fairy horses" we called them
when I was a child –
catch them to make a wish

and for a moment I am tempted
to leave my keyboard and books and brushes
and go racing
barefoot into the meadow

Bookshop


temptation
put aside -
the shop is closed

Wednesday 19 August 2009

Teasel

The teasel is taller
than the tree that sheltered it.
In the warmth of the sun
the shallow pools of rainwater
it carries at its leaf nodes
have all dried up.

Purple spirals of flowers have faded
to leave nests of tiny black seeds
like wasps in springtime

but

it resists pulling,
shallow roots clinging on
until it succumbs
to the sharp
snick snack
of secateurs

and is dragged
shouting from hollow stems
and spitting black pips
to the compost heap.

There, old comb-thistle!
the bees and I love your flowers
and your shadowshine
but you shall not despoil my flower beds
so readily.

St. Mary's Church


Old graves
enjoy
dying sun

Tuesday 18 August 2009

make me a deal


black crows in the cemetery
call greetings as I pass,
wings wide in fright or warning
to stay away from this grave or that
and I smile and shrug
and wonder if they know
I pray for the devil to come
and make me a deal in the dead of night,
my name scrawled with a quill
from an angel's wing

Funfair, Mablethorpe


Children's ride
looks safe enough -
alas: too tall.

Monday 17 August 2009

Lower Courtyard, Haddon Hall


Lower Courtyard -
a sea of paving
and King John's Wall

Sunday 16 August 2009

The Case of the Dissed Diva, Scene 1


Ooh! Jasfoup's in this.

Have a listen, leave a (nice) comment?

The Case of the Dissed Diva, Scene 1

Elizabeth Coup


Visitors long gone
Elizabeth and James
wait for redemption

White Paper


A very scary story today, one that will give me recurring nightmares. All writers will recognise it.

White Paper

and the anthology has been reviewed HERE

Saturday 15 August 2009

Ron and Pat's Handfasting


Hand Fast, sweet Love

they arrive in twos and threes
bringing food for the table
and a sense of wonderment
for a wedding in a garden

a circle of witches
an altar and an open fire
(constrained, for the sake of the neighbours, in a pit)
and the scent of lavender and mint

Corners called and vows exchanged
over rope and broom
as the mid-day sun is occluded by clouds
and we wonder
about the chance of rain

Weir, Leamington Spa


Hiss of water
and sleeping geese -
penny whistle tunes

Friday 14 August 2009

It's Twenty Years Since I Dallied with Angus

my Aunty Morgan visits
on her way from her to there
salacious elocution
and a Paddington-type stare

she eats a home-made pastry
with her fingers held just so
I offer rancid butter
but her lips are pursed with 'no'

a single spoon of sugar
serves to sweeten her Darjeeling
but I only wish I had the chance
to sweeten her ill-feeling

she's almost ninety now, she says,
and not long for this earth
if I had Charon's number
I'd be booking her a berth

"Remember Angus Tavish?"
she said. "He wants a bride.
He would have married you and left
a fortune when he died."

at five o'clock she's homeward
and I stoop to kiss her ring
she never will forgive me
for that single Highland fling


Night Benches


Welcome gardens
a respite
from fun fair frolics

Thursday 13 August 2009

Haddon Hall, North-West tower

Leqaving sunshine
for the cool reaches
of the tower

Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes

Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes: Zany Zombie Poetry for the Undead Head (Paperback)

A.P. Fuchs (Editor)

My poem "Certain Standards" is in this, as is the work of several friends of mine on a couple of forums (The Write Idea, Cafe Doom). Mostly amusing poetry about the undead.

Here's the official blurb:

The dead rise. The world dies. Mankind falls and enters Death’s halls. Over 90 poems of carnage, hopelessness and despair mixed with oodles of the living dead await you. Featuring poems by W. Bill Czolgosz, Paul A. Freeman, Keith Gouveia, J.H. Hobson, Rich Ristow, Lester
Smith, Steve Vernon, Zed Zefram, Zombie Zak and many others, Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes will not only melt your brain . . . it’ll tear out your jugular!


Available from Amazon HERE
and the e-book edition is available on Amazon Kindle and at Drivethruhorror.com.

Wednesday 12 August 2009

Sutton-on-Sea Beach Huts


No sunshine
indicates
no time like the present

Tuesday 11 August 2009

The Blue Handbag

On the beach
I ignore the noise
and read

Monday 10 August 2009

Lost Children


lost boys
only in Summer.
Peter cries