The very sweetest thing

The very sweetest thing

Love is, no doubt about it
The very sweetest thing
It's sun upon the planet
The day the Earth caught fire
Purpose, meaning, other half
Completion, family
It glues and bonds, it cherishes
Elastic teflon-tough
Omnipotent, eternal
One touch to change the world

Love is, no doubt about it
The very sweetest thing
So absence casts a shadow
Of bleak unending night
Dear hostages to fortune
The loved ones fly the nest
While love, enduring, waits for news
In hope and dread in equal part
For ties that bind can hobble
Confine and suffocate
And elastic stretch rebounding
Will deal a vicious blow

It is, no doubt about it
The hardest, sweetest thing
A love that lasts a lifetime
Hooked into the heart

26th March 2010, The Drove, Brighton, for me

Witch today?

Witch today?

Witch today or

Mother/ smother

Hug or shrug

Monkey grip and velcro tight

Or glue unstuck

Hanging dangerously dangling

Unattached

Which today the kiss

Or hiss, pinch and poke

Or josh and joke together mother

Joined and bonded each to other

Love not lost nor lone nor longing

Best beloved dote and dearest

Safe the circle of embrace

Or love conditional, meagre rations

Needing pleading all unheeded

Bonding glueing not adhering

Dropped and damaged

For a lifetime

Unattached

23rd March 2010, Kemp St, Brighton

Ever the message

Ever the message

Along the shore the pebbles shift

Unnerving under foot

The sea moves in the sea moves out

But dread is pulsing loud

As flotsam jetsam time and tide

In lunar circle turn

So salt to sea to shell to sand

The soothing rhythm pounds

Hiss and shush the pebbles shift

Tug and undertow

This is constant this will last

For all eternity

Ever the message in and out

But still no comfort found

18th March 2010, Tavistock

Hopper in Rome

Hopper in Rome

Sunlight on a wall

White glare

Square facade is lit

Stark sharp shape ånd form

In bold geometry

Luminous the shadows lengthen

Backwards cast

Architecture line and light

From eye to heart to hand

Two women for eternity

Turning to the sun

Sea and sail and lighthouse

Cape Cod morning dawning

Dazzle bleached

White glare

Sunlight on a wall

13th March 2010, Hotel Condotti, Rome, for my friend Jude, who made it happen (at last!) Quoted in the exhibition: Hopper 'All I ever wanted to do was to paint sunlight on a wall'

Reasoning

Reasoning

Want some chocolate
Lolly ice cream, mummy now
Foot stamping, he declares
Patience little boy is what you need
The mummy’s calm reply
Want some patience, patience, patience mummy
Want it now!

6th March 2010, Hounoux, for Rosie with love

Unforgivable

Unforgivable

And on the box the blurry
Images of toddler led
By older lads astray
Lost for all eternity
Replaying in our memories
Forever on a loop
With bitter mother’s words
Redemption or forgiveness
Acrid burning in her throat
Spat out
So what of Lent and Easter
One sacrifice for all
Trespasses reciprocal
Forgiven?
That little lad now grown a man
The tabloid’s evil spawn
Empathy not extended quite that far
To loveless ten year old
A nation not now willing
To embrace a loving god
But quick to spot the Devil in our midst
To fetch the wood and bang the nails
A gibbet or a cross?
Be deaf and blind to inner pain
Refuse to see a link
Declare beyond the pale
This mother’s son an angel
The other, go to hell

6th March 2010, Hounoux

Is this the life?

Is this the life?

Is this the life well chosen
Meticulously planned
In bullet points from nine to five
Will the poem scan?
Is it trimmed like city hedge
Or rampant gypsy rose
Will it trot with dressage steps
Clip one clip two clip three
Or scent the wind and toss the mane
Hang the humdrum take the leap
Swop daily bread for hyacinths
Risk all for fragile dreams
Is this the life well chosen
Prosaic or free verse
To feed the soul while belly groans
A poet in a garret bathed
In light from distant stars?

March 4th 2010, Hounoux, for Jenny G, who gave me the line, with love