I watched you glow

I watched you glow

You two talked of metalwork,

a language I did not know.

Whole sentences full of nuts and pipes

and something you called swage

clanked and clattered from your mouths

all over the dining table

whilst we sat silent, somewhat stunned

by mystical terms.

The magic between you sparked

soldering, welding, copper and lead

you made a connection,

lit up each other’s eyes.

Oh your delight!

The molten metal flowed

unstoppable

and, mesmerised,

I watched you glow.

September 10th 2012, Hounoux. For Jude who was there.

A ballet in the air

A ballet in the air

The pool is dappled, on the move

flickering in liquid dance,

lime and bottle, shades of green

all of the tree-tops too.

Bees and butterflies are buffeted, warm with the wind from the south,

the sea.

So, high in the sky two buzzards mew

and slow circle, wings wide on the thermals, lift and climb

sublime

a ballet in the air.

September 8th 2012, Hounoux, for Clare with love

Heartfelt

Heartfelt

Well past the mid-year turning

towards Autumn’s equinox

our lovely land to furthest view

horizon, all is baked and burnished

ochre aubergine with flash of lime-bright yellow green

an artist’s choice today

and even early (roused by bells)

the sky’s already lit and clear

cloudless, as bee-eaters whirl by

and cockerel somewhere crows.

Who knows the whys and wonderings

how such beauty came to be?

No matter, I’ll be still

subdue will

heartfelt, for this moment

I’ll be glad.

28th August 2012, Hounoux

Say twenty summers hence

Say twenty summers hence

I wonder will they

young men, grown

say twenty summers hence

recall the sunlit boundless days

unclothed

together friends

warm skinned, the barefoot boys

water grass and sand

tyre- rope swing

a garden hose

today a game of dogs, throwers and catchers of sticks

and pirates, bug-hunters

divers and splashers

fruit-pickers

explorers down the lane

beyond the garden gate

learning to leap, where water’s deep

to splutter and stay afloat

finding their inner brave

building a bond in busy-ness

in sunlit, boundless days

surely indelibly fixed

forming their future

friends together

say twenty summers hence?

31st July 2012, Hounoux, for Luca and Zachy

Boy, sand, water

Boy, sand, water

Boy

Sand

Water

Poured and mixed

Absorbed

Feeling the grit and wet

Watching it flow

Or slow

Silt and pool

Never a word

Absorbed

Poured and mixed

Water

Sand

Boy 

31st July 2012, Hounoux, for Zachy

Art

Art

Tiny bird upon the wire, a serin sits

as golden note on a stave

treble clef, pouring the sweetest song

and in the honeysuckle, lavender,

hummingbird moths abound

no sound, perfectly poised in the dance.

Between the peas and climbing beans

unruly poppies blow and campion,

larkspur lovely, a masterpiece by chance,

or simply the mountains misty blue

dreaming under the sky

landscape in layers, shades that shock

oranges, ochre, rose.

As bee-eaters flash in a gaudy group

swoop of the swallows too

rise then with the swallows, skim the sky

solace my troubled soul.

July 3rd 2012, Hounoux