Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Writing Resumed
My writing is diverse - some poetry and working on several long-term fiction projects, including a set of children's stories (Timmy the Tiny Talking Tiger), a young adult novel (Jimmy Jaluka, about a South African teenager with telepathic gifts who goes in search of his missing uncle, a popular footballer and DJ), an adult novel (Angelhair, about an extraordinary infection of a fungus from Mars that makes people almost invulnerable before reducing them to blood-thirsty zombies), and a Tunbridge Wells based crime thriller, which I am working on with a writing partner, Sylvia Howe.
This blog will carry on as an intermittent set of reflections and poems.
Enjoy, and let me know what you think.
Wednesday, July 09, 2014
Halibut Beats
A dish of Broccoli
Thursday, May 01, 2014
NaPoWriMo 10 - an advertisement poem
Our brand is best
Don't put the others to the test
We're not biased
We are bold
Our brand is much the finest sold
What does it do?
You needn't know
Our brand will make your money go!
NaPoWriMo 3 - a charm
Passport, ticket, bat and wicket
Toothbrush, pants, songs and chants
Phone and money, wine and honey
Headphones, glasses, black molasses
Mix them in a bag of leather
Travel well, whatever weather.
NaPoWriMo 2 - myth
Saw spring growth, green, luxuriant
Fearing the sun, crept into city shadows
Seeking young blood, saw where the hipster goes
Doorman devoured, Grendel slunk inside
Dark booths and bathrooms to hide
Sucking deep on coke-head brain
Grendel felt the race, no sense of strain
So preyed again, again, again!
Beware the club, beware the spas
Grendel lurks behind the bars.
NaPoWriMo 27 - Lakeside Drive
Like the scent of hay
Said the hard road
To the blue sky
Refresh me with rain
Direct or by drain
Said the low lake
To the cruel clouds
I wish to be free
To grow like a tree
Said the long wall
To the grumbling hills
But the sallow wind
Stole their words
For the birds
NaPoWriMo 31 - Poem of Farewell
Or fare badly
The end will be the end
Darkness at noon, and through the afternoon
Permanent silence
Until then
Rejoice in the light
And sing in the silence
NaPoWriMo 28 - Words from the news
The Nature of money
The vulgarity of art
And the Scale of Values
People performed pop pieces
Of ridiculous vulgarity
For enormous amounts
Of artificial hilarity
Once fitting heads in
Where we had space
Now Living well
Is the best revenge
NaPoWriMo 24 - masonry
Above the wall
Fresh-fitted, windows
wide and wonder filled
Tiny steps on giant stairs
Echoed through my curtained lairs
Roof tiles that enjoyed the rain
Looked down on Portugal and Spain
Now I lie still
And broken
No longer plundered
The good has gone
My youth and treasure taken
Moss gathered stones
Peep furtively
From bramble nettle land
NaPoWriMo day 22 - Children's poem
Never fear the winter's cold
Take your parents good advice
It catches fire in a trice
Take their coats - and try to pawn them
Or give them to a frozen doorman
Take their hats and take their scarves
Wear them backwards, just for laughs
Children, darlings, young and old
Never fear the winter's cold.
NaPoWriMo at the close
it is two years since my last post...
Let me count my sins
I have been neglectful of this blog
I have claimed to be a writer
and part-time poet
I have squandered time
and talent.
Inspired by a new writing group, I have been trying to write poems for the daily challenges of NaPoWriMo, April 2014, but have failed to upload them until today, the 1st of May. They lie scattered around like drunks at a party, in different states of coherence and presentability.
So I will post the few that I can find nearby, that seem vaguely lucid.
All the normal please of mitigation apply: I was very tired and emotional, they haven't yet been edited, you shouldn't believe everything you find on the internet.
As it is still April in Anchorage as I write this, and was April in Paris when they were written, please treat them as experimental, in the spirit of NaPoWriMo.
Wednesday, December 05, 2012
Eating for Epicurus
Mmmm, my mouth is watering already. I might have to go and put a pan on the stove for some spaghetti that I am about to cook for the kids.
As you are reading this, I would like to invite you to add your own recipes and reviews. They don't have to be true, just interesting.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
The Vegetative State
4 February 2010
Reports on the radio today tell of patients believed unconscious in a vegetative state, but brain scans showed some of these people to be responsive to spoken questions, aware but frustratingly inert.
Reports also covered the frustrations of the public that only a minority voted for the government yet they act as if having a god-given remit, and that there was no way for them to influence the actions of whoever is elected.
Increasing transparency, like the Iraq enquiry, only increases the sense that politicians, once elected, are beyond public control.
Do we live in a vegetative State?
The Vegetative State
No conscious sleep
Could be this deep
Hearing, feeling, mute
Aware of all
Within the hall
Responsive as soft fruit
Skull-trapped and impotent
See transparent government
Unmoved by public, shoot
Friday, December 18, 2009
The snow comes
Christmas in Cranbrook
High Street buzzing like a festive hive
Comes alive with yuletide jive
Revellers drinking at the Crown
Spirits up and standards down
Christmas hats and Christmas mats
Christmas rats and Christmas bats
Fairy lights on Tudor barns
Santa sets off house alarms
Someone’s husband someone’s wife
Thinking of a different life
Kiss beneath the mistletoe
Hope the guilty flush won’t show
Christmas eve brings Christmas cheer
Christmas morn, amnesia
Christmas walk - see festive cow