THE ANCESTORS

Now, they are dust
blown to the four winds
that toss the boughs of trees
and ripple spiders' webs
in hidden corners.

Their language is obsolete
to we, the deaf,
who can no longer hear
beyond our tablet speakers
nor see beyond our phone screens
to where they dwell in ether.

Yet, they are ever watchful
as they wait to reawaken in us the old ways
through our names' syllables
and in our dreams,
where conscious trivia has no place
and awareness no constraints.
Today, it is only here they can reach us,
through abstract image and metaphor...
and make us whole once more.

APHASIA

Describing spring flowers is easy:
the fragile beauty of the bluebell,
blue as the morning sky,
as it dances to the slightest breeze.

And there are many ways to describe a red rose
with it's heady, intoxicating scent
that lifts our spirits
and makes us think of true love...

But there are no words for the vivid rawness
of the bloodied feathers and mangled flesh
of a once magnificent pheasant
suddenly ground into the cold motorway tarmac.

And how can one describe the piteous sight of his grieving mate
frantically running around in circles and crying out,
while deep inside her a developing eggshell
tenderly enfolds their now fatherless chick?

CAMPING IN SUMMER WINE* COUNTRY

 Up here there are no protective walls,
just open air. It is cold, freezing in fact
and the ground is rocky. Sunrise
has a peculiar effect on the waking senses:
shadows moving across rippling canvas
become Compo, Clegg, Foggy and the rest, creeping
into the tail end of restless dreams.
A sudden gust of wind makes them jump,
as rainwater from last night's storm
cascades noisily down the sides of our tent.
With full consciousness the Summer Wine illusion recedes,
untouchable as tomorrow, leaving
two campers shivering in inefficient sleeping bags.

Soon bacon and eggs are frying, spitting fat,
over a single ring Gaz cooker.
Aah! Such delicious aroma of bygone days.
Tent door open, the sloping field stretches out,
rain-drenched green. Grazing sheep
baa out a catchy melody that makes us want to dance.
We begin to thaw like icicles in the pale sun
that has come to remind us this is high summer.
Where we sit, warmth-animated, harvest men congregate
in their leggy beauty, seeking suitable mates for the coming autumn.



























The moon's day-ghost gradually fades into blue,
and a gigantic bumble bee strays into our tent.
Today, we are going to Holmfirth, in search of Nora Batty's house...



























* For anyone who is unfamiliar with "Last of the Summer Wine"...it was a popular long-running British comedy series about a group of O.A.P.'s reliving their lost youth!

I am taking a short break, so will visit you all again soon. Have a great week! :))

THE DEVIL'S SORCERESS

There's a black hole forming in the sun today.
It's ten degrees colder than yesterday.
There's snow falling in the middle of June
as the Sorceress casts the chaos rune.

Well she's been here before at the dawn of time
chanting, chanting her deadly rhyme.
Today's no more than another turn
in the downward spiral before we burn.

If you don't believe it just look around:
the snow is burying all hallowed ground
and last year's storms that battered our lands
could only be the work of demonic hands.

There's a skeleton trapped in a Somerset cave
and a shoal of dead fish on the ocean wave.
There's a bumble bee trapped in a spider's web,
while a surfer drowns on the wild tide's ebb.

There's a king dethroned and put to death,
as a holy man takes his final breath.
There's a rich man stripped of his worldly goods
and orchids trampled in war-torn woods.

There's a plane brought down by a terrorist's bomb
and we've no idea where the perpetrator's from.
There's a fox dismembered by the baying hounds
alive upon a nobleman's grounds.

There's a blind man mugged by a bunch of kids
and satanic desecration of the pyramids.
There are starving children born to die -
do we really need to question why?

And the Devil's sorceress smiles...

IMPRESSIONS OF BODIAM

Robins and blackbirds sing from the trees
and magpies call from mid-air,
while butterflies ride the gentle breeze
home to their summer lair.

Wild deer come to gaze from here
upon this wondrous sight
of castle walls that yesteryear
were home to a medieval Knight.

Oh how I wish I could cheat time
and quietly slip inside
Bodiam's history most sublime
to watch the jousters ride.

For one would steal my heart I'm sure
and become my lover true,
after he'd achieved the highest score
whilst displaying my colours in lieu.

Then later, after the lavish bonquet
held in his honour that night
we'd ride off into the crimson sunset -
aah, such utter delight!

And when we returned his Lady I'd be:
mistress of all I survey,
and draped in silks this wannabe
would finally have her day...

But alas for fantasies, it's here I'm stuck
in century twenty-first,
where chivalry's defunct along with luck
and there's only unquenchable thirst.


Hi guys...apologies for being absent so long, but so much happening in my life at present that I've been tied up.
This is a difficult time, but I will visit you as often as I possibly can...I promise. :)

THE FAIRY TREE

The Fairy Tree stands sentinel over
this ancient woodland scene
where once both serf and cattle drover
worshiped their Nymph Queen.

But, sadly, today only modern feet
tread this sacred path
and no longer do we pause to greet
this monarch of bluebell swath.

For long ago She became invisible
to all but believer's eyes,
when weary of being an object risible
She assumed this sylvan guise.

MAELSTROM

The e-mail states you've gone away -
bland and cold, explanation free.
I don't know what to think or say.

The student gives the tutor his pay.
They depart for the Alps together to ski.
The e-mail states you've gone away.

The dutiful wife has had her day.
His waning interest she's failed to see.
I don't know what to think or say.

A wedding ring slowly turning to clay,
that spreads from finger to the rest of me.
The e-mail states you've gone away.

My equilibrium has gone astray:
images of betrayal are all I see.
I don't know what to think or say.

The fairy tale died when I read today
between the lines "You're nothing to me!"
The e-mail states you've gone away.
I don't know what to think or say...