June Garden

Badger

If a badger should come into my garden

Then I would consider the night kind
One less would face the dogs or rifle
And I would have summer dusk
The veil of night that draws over day
To sit within my kingdom of midges
And watch my stripy badger pawn play

Toothy Wraiths

Everywhere in peaty, damp, moorland air

Are the stinging, stabbing wraiths of summer
They come sideways in all the shaded idylls
There is no escape, no sweet spot of calm
Where they cannot penetrate and attack
To back, ankle, calf and cuff they cling
Siphoning off the precious blood in irony
To form the basis of the next annual horde
And being how I am over the years that pass
It has probably sharpened their fangs more

Thunder

The sky shall turn a mighty black

Upon the sound of thunder crack
Swallows gather upon power poles
Rabbits flee down sandy holes
Rain begins to downward pound
To spit and curse the eager ground
Lighting weaves like a violet eel
Swimming across the thunderous peal
Midday turned shadowy as night
The tempest passes; returns the light

Coal

Of long lost coal trapped deep in tar

Black rock to diamond is not very far
In troubled shadow if we pray for rain
Touch the crescent moon and wish again
The oracle draws down the ragged sky
But never once does he need ask why
The embered dawn and purple night
Delight the weary in emotional might
I thought once all my time was spent
Now I realise each day is heaven sent

June garden

Laburnum

 

 

Pond 3

 

Pond 1

Double laburnum flower looking like 1 very long tassel

 

Central walkway

 

Late apple Blossom

 

Yellow Poppy

 

Shield Bug

Clemency

Thought would indeed indicate clemency

Clemency through the empathy of pain
Thought would also indicate reason
Reason through understanding of pain
Thought indicates nothing within humanity
Humanity effete creature of chances error
We destroy all that is sentient around us
And there is no consequence for the soul
It is a waking omission of honour in us all

Pattern

Hidden among the wrinkles

There's a story on my skin
It is quite a beautiful tale
But you only see it
If you look long enough
and...
Without prejudice

Bluebells

Now upon my green, green hill

Fade from view the daffodil
Bluebells wither under sunny sky
Apple blossom ends as petals die
But such joys memory may recollect
When to live within nature we elect

Nemesis

No nemesis ever seemed so unwelcome

The touchstone of delinquent want
Now walks away before the dawn
It has slumbered in irregular thought
Breaching the angry night in dreams
Now it could never be anywhere else
Floating past on chance's ebbing tide
To say goodbye upon a passing night

Wraith

The imagos stir then sleep

Colourless wraiths
Encapsulated in paper
That cannot come forth
Until the wasp colour runs true
And they gnaw out their cell
But their home is cast down
They cannot know
Rain slushes its rigidity away
Or that outside the Queen rages
For she has worked so hard
Chewing wood for a month
To make her palace of paper
Now it is gone; she is lost
Tired; so tired; her children are dying;
Upon the ground in the May rain
She mourns, she regrets, and then she leaves
And the imagos still sleep
Until water washes away coverings
And the blue tit comes
To think nothing of great compassion
When there are young to feed
The Queen must begin again
There is wood to grind
And her abdomen is full of eggs
That will not wait another summer
Perhaps there is time enough left

Summer

A perfect, green day I have to say
Is always found in the month of May
But what delights might come too soon
Now on the horizon is flaming June
On the warmest wings does summer fly
Its zenith reached in hot July
Of all the months of heat and dust
I love most the winds of August

Candle

But no candle flickers in the still, hot night

Nothing that is wrong is yet to be put right
When lovers do feel such unanswered pain
Know truly that there is everything to gain
For if a man does his best in loves fair game
What but his pride, can ever be put to shame?

Yesterday

 

Black headed Gull

 

 

Robin

 

Wholly Dapplement

 

Roe deer last night

 

Late spring lambs last night

Drop

Slither into my bed like a cobra

Bring not one drop of rain
Nor breathe out blowing wind
But together we may raise a storm
If we make no sound;
Moving with the softness of cats
Velvet pads stroking on silken cloth
Till all stills in the sated purr of joy

Veins

See another sun rise out of the night

A dragon aflame, riding morning's sky
Opened by warmth nectar runs freely
From gems that nod on slender stems
Sweet blood from unstoppable heartbeats
That emanate from the very Earth itself
Bees leave comb for these glorious veins
And the honeyed vampires drink their fill

Aegean Flowers of Mykonos

Heartsease

There is no green-eyed monster

Only the dappled shade of May
Jade hills awashed red and blue
Heartsease in the midst of chaos
No ill thoughts may come here
Not till day embers still in the west
Not until La Luna appears icy cold
Full curved and shimmering above me
As crystal clear water slips through fingers
As badgers play outside loamy setts
Then shall I think of you again
See the monster appear in the gloom
Wrapped about in laws and improbability
Stands instance with outstretched hand
And I shall take it and join you; it is time

Troll

The soft light on breaking dawn

Stumbled step and muffled yawn
Mopeds move on dusty streets
Old man shuffles, smiles and greets
A pelican at night does stroll
While under windmills lives a troll
I have not found a golden fleece
But a paradise exists in Greece

Palace letter

Sorry for not posting anything for a while as I was on holiday in Mykonos for 12 days. I'll post some photos soon as I have processed them. When I got home I was given this. Mike had sent a copy of my book to the Queen. I now have a mental picture of them in bed reading it and the Queen yawning.

Oil

From a Tuscan harvest
Of a long past summer
Precious oil flows
Smears on skin like silk
Glides; caresses a covering;
Too many autumn's old
This field accepts the harrow
For the welcome kiss of moisture
And I am ready for growth
After a long lonely winter

Colonnade

Walk in a temple of Spring

One bare foot to dewed grass
Feel coolness slip around toes
Along a colonnade of rosemary
Thyme high priestess of antiquity
Lies sleeping on the altar
One touch awakens all
Eucalyptus lies underfoot crushing
Among spires of wooded antiquity
Rising to meet a warming sky
Pigeons fall into the fluid air
All thought is dissolute at dawn
But tis the first steps to freedom
And the new day brings ever hope

Ragged

And I wander
On the ragged shore
Under Aprils sky
A lifetime gained
Now lost
Where did it go?
Floating away
On chance's tide

Defence

I shall defend you

Though I never knew you
Perhaps you are indefensible
But I cherish my memories
Of you; a mighty force of nature
And I hope to see you
One long day off
See if those eyes still shine
And under your gaze ask
Did I do right?

Easter

Gold is the common currency of spring

Fortunes mass on every slope and common
But the noblest blue is coming
Cerulean edging form on bluebell tips
Sapphires to replace the dragons hoard
Shimmer beneath the ever climbing sun

Temperate winds stride greening hills

Shaking loose the cobwebs of winter
The new leafy suburbia of avian society
Makes of each bush and tree a nursery
And I am reborn by the warmth of days
In a thought never was Easter so blessed

Easter walk

Bilberry Flowers

 

Gorse Flowers

 

Mallard

 

Robbie

 

Heron in Flight

Followers

Spring lambs

Mole

Upon the night that passes

Where the mole burrows
See the slanted moonlight
Weaving through fingers
To lie on the rutted ground
My last resting place of calm
It has now; no lucid thought
But I shall take some comfort
To this wanton loss of spirit
In a flight of lunar secrecy
And touch upon the heavens
For one last, glorious time

Pictures

Swallow

 

Black sheep

 

Black cat

 

Sunset

Seethe

Where do shadows dwell

Soft, flowing grey snakes
Curling across moonlit floors
Climbing starlit walls onto beds
To lie empty in our arms

Spring and Deer

Stag with velvet covered antlers

(Great camouflage)

 

Daffodils

 

Forsythia against a grey sky

 

Cherry Blossom

 

Tortoiseshell Butterfly on Primula

Birthday

Birthday why does thou mock me?

Bitterest savour of sweetest harpy
Give of hope; taker of dreams
You would not watch fate so
Yet you mark my finite time
My lost grace and decaying rhyme
Would your lips death kiss?
So he may know your withering bliss
Why make me wiser year by year
When all is over, too soon, I fear

Weft

Strip away instinct

These wefts of silk
Studded in moonlight
What tales they could tell
Yet in the Vale of Eden
There is no room
Not branch or bush
For a spider there

Frogs and Newts 2014

Elf

Moonlight pours through open door
Spider runs across oaken floor

It needs to cross this silver sea
To come and say so long to me
Firelight warms my eager toes
He turns back; in shadows he goes

In place where fire and moon meet

Sits an elf close to my feet
He has come to escape the cold
He is after all, so very old
He warms himself and when he's done
Fall to sleep and waits for sun

Extinction

Operating systems

Are not a viable species

They offer only

A window on extinction

In my lifetime I have seen eight

Pteradactyldos

Threepointoneasaur

Ninetyfiveus Rex

Ninetyeightus Rex

Diplodocus Two Thousand

XPDimetridon

Stegosaurus Seven

The new species invariably kills the older one

They have evolved to hunt consumers

Predatoradon Eight has finally got me

And an apple will not stay their hunger

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thunder

Thunder makes its sonic boom
Wakes up spiders in every room
From rafters, cracks and corner dark
Out they come to leave their mark
Across the house the arachnid treads
Carpets, walls; even sleeping heads
They wreak no havoc to any man
All they follow is instincts plan
So while lightning above does crack
I'll stay awake in case they come back