TINY SNAPSHOTS OF A CRANE'S LIFE

 

A man goes whistling,
A woman without tea; numen shines,
House-light is happy.

... (21/12/1971!)

 


In a cheesenet trapped,
Twelve little dark fishy things -
Their name escaped me!



Nettle-fume that curled
from webs has met its Angel
in an opal Heaven

(Ospringe garden 14th August 2001)




Low-slung sun, god-gold
I.D. disk swings in my eyes,
Aten remembers me!


All my life I was
A winter child; my spring comes,
Full moon melting snow

 

Why, why, why? -
Swale & Wales
Pam Pam Pam!



Red  May
Her second brood
My two duvets

(15/05/04)

 

 

Under my toes
The new gravel
Last year's begonia

(16/05/04)

 

Seaside G& T
''Listen - a cuckoo!''
It is two o'clock

(16/05/04)

 

 

Looking for heaven
I move, and dream of moving
Mountains and thunder

 

 

Under my window
Chattering, laughing, fighting
People and sparrows

 

 

Immaculately
Turned out now in watered silk
At God's beck & call

(Stella scattered in Duddon Valley

Sept.04 - 30/09/04)

 

 

The pink taste - rosehips,
luminous quince, clear bright beads
of pomegranate

 

Under a full moon
My frogs croon - our dreaming doves
Mourn transfigured loves


 

Wet cave, frog peeping,
Elephant washing - my pool,
My piece of heaven

(23/4/4)

 

 

Song
Of a light plane -
Summer high

(16/05/04)

 

 

My garden Buddha
Crowned with a summer goldfinch
Now I can meditate

(11h45 22/05/04)




Our friend's funeral -
One butterfly in the sun
And purple flowers

(29/06/04- Gillingham)

 

 

In the twelfth autumn
Preparing quinces; the breeze,
My mother's perfume

(October 14th 2004)

 

 

Autumn.
My hair is falling.

(3/11/04)

 

 

Nearly sixty-two,
Bemused by bone, dying stars,
Dumbfounding I Am

(14/11/04)

 

 

All wrapped up -
The first winter drifts
Whiten the hall floor.

(18/12/04)

 

 

At sunset, grateful
To have been part of this brief
Human miracle

(25/01/05)  

 

 

Spring tinnitus - rain
over lunch, plans, muzak, all
Falling on deaf ears

(14-16/04/05)

 

 

Cold May, clouts not cast;
One experimental rose
Amid the bird scraps

(26/05/05)

 

 

Painting the Chapel -
Yet another Monday gone
Without Tai Chi

(Oct.17th 2005)

 

 

Drowsy rituals -
Scrabble, Astropocket -
Unread magazines

(Oct.23rd 2005)




Am I eating soap?
Goat's yoghurt and strawberries
This odd June evening

(17/06/07)

 

 

Bluebells! eleven
Under my quince - the loved Sun
Blessed with a halo

(23/4/08-another sun rainbow!)

 

 

Wind off Great Orme's Head
History streams old eyes blue
As the Med in May

(25/04/08)

 

 

Just resting is good -
Horses nibble each other,
My costume waiting

(2/5/08 - weary patch before the Extravaganza)

 

 

Quince blossom, moonlight
I wait for his late white car
Ghostly, a seagull

(7/5/08, c. 22h45)

 

 

Forty-four summers
Remembering your birthday
Forgotten pictures

(Rob sends my old prints!11/5/08)

 

 

Blown Ceanothus
Blackie is after my worms
Digging in blue snow

(May 2008 - planting geraniums & lobelias round the front paving)

 

 

Down by the dead pool
Faded confetti - half-term
Pantomime wedding



The Sunday service -
Norman on organ, young Daz
On coffee machine

(8/6/08 @ Costa Coffee)



The dark is lighter -
Despite the mask, my skin
Feels silver with birdsong.

(3/7/08-a night poorly with no sleep)

 

 

Beside my window
The clutter of people's lives
Passing at sunset

(Holyhead train 21/09/08)

 

 

Yesterday's breakfast
Haunts me - Yes, it's time I fell
In love with toothpaste!

(Oct 19th 2008)

 

 

Out in a hailstorm
Birds scattering seed. Indoors
I spill peppercorns

(Oct 29th 2008)

 

 

Two more tiny lights
And all the stars of the Plough
Burn in my bedroom

(Electrics on standby 26/11/08)

 

 

Saturn Ascendant.
Frost, Vick - too late for garlic.
I can't hear my clock.

(miserable with the 'man-flu' 30/11/08)

 

 

Even in the sun
Prom white with frost, a new year
Crunching underfoot

(1/1/09-a week sub-zero by the sea!)

 

 

Diamond bare twigs
Full of nithering starlings
Nearly my birthday

(Hard winter - 15/1/2009)

 

 

I miss fluffy snow
Knee deep, still, muffling wheels -
I want my world back

(Unsatisfactory winter - 22/1/2009)

 

 

Unmoved by mountains
Theme-park snow, too far to touch
Winter is hearsay

(Unsatisfactory winter - 22/1/2009)

 

 

Brief reunions
Two leaves caught in an eddy
Floating and drowning

(Feb.15th 2009 - not heard from her)

 

 

My glorious wife
The golden face of my son
Histories later

(24/2/09 - mask of Tutankhamen in fancy dress window)

 

 

Spinning a light line
I catch you with your bright tail
Plunge into your sea

(8/3/09 - conversing with RevPeter)

 

 

The light on the Orme
In my garden sapphire snow
Homeward donkey bells

(30/05/09-lovely holiday week! NM on MC on 24th.)

 

 

Early shift. First bird.
Still the blue lights, men searching.
My feet are freezing.

(12/09/09 at my window with cameras from 04h45 for 2 hours - 2 fire engines & 3 police cars at our crossroads. A firebug.)

 

 

Peeholes in the snow
our poor eyes puzzling head
and the heart dancing

(26/11/09 - migraine. Did Mum have it too? We are so alike .)

 

 

So loud through my wall
The voices of the neighbours
Who never hear me

(21/12/09 - after 11pm trying to sleep)

 

 

Saturn square Pluto
Black ice on the road black ice
On my winter road

(22/12/09 - Ceres/Neptune under siege - swine flu and a Nuisance!)

 

 

That suspenseful joy
Of not quite seeing the sea
Salt on a railing

(7/01/10)

 

 

Inside I am five
Crying to print virgin snow
The sea stole from me

(12/01/10 - the whole UK is snowbound except us.)

 

 

Thursday - Betws train.
Snow printed, child pacified.
Haiti in ruins.

(14/01/10 - solo excursion to get snow out of my system.

Quake mag 7 Jan 12th wrecks  Port au Prince killing tens of thousands)

 

 

The 42nd
Mother's Day without a card
Or a daffodil

(14/03/10. As usual.)

 

 

dancing with fiddles
Joyously stamping chiming
rhyming with fiddles

(Fiddlers Bid at Theatre By the Lake Easter Sunday 4/4/2010. Ecstatic!)

 

 

Aging I run down
More in my charging cradle
Than this well-worn palm

(8/06/2010 - don't do evenings any more!)