The Darker Angel of the North

Soft, silent, you came With the breeze over the pines, a northern angel, wings spread, Feathers like fingers, Feeling, catching   Every nuance.   A master of energy, you exploit the faintest currents of air.  You hardly seem to move, No beat, no flap, just a hint of tilt,  and an opening like a fan, of wingtip and tail.     You close the span, narrow the profile, incline... Read more »

There’s a gap in my life.

I have absolutely no recollection of what happened.  I stayed and wrote up my notes for a bit.  Then I went into the basement, collected my keys and drove up through Broomhill and westwards out along the Fulwood Road towards the moors.  I can't remember what I was thinking.  Mum... Read more »

Praise the Lord

They're raising the roof of the church today! The building's in scaffold, a big yellow crane Is removing the tiles that cover the nave And disturbing the sleep of the souls in their graves Oh, they're raising the roof of the church today.   They're raising the roof of the church today! The foreman's come round to... Read more »

Chatsworth, Good Friday 2009.

Grey with grief, the sky wept Windless drops, a softer tap, that hist, slipt and glist; a gentler keening, a meaning in mist, its wraiths clinging to the side of the hill; the greening of reverence.  .    Narcissus bowed its head as the early bird Uttered a muffled refrain, and black-cross daws, glid down from the shadow of... Read more »

Not for you

Not for you, the intimacies of the night,   you like the light, the freedom of dawn, when scampering winds shepherd clouds over the hills of your dreams.        Not for you, the beguiling song of the blackbird, The one you cannot trust.   You prefer the high rise worry of larks, the pied piping of oystercatchers, the querulous... Read more »