Easy when you know how   So you grab a handful of sand and let it run through your sausage fingers to catch the breeze spinning off those grey, soapy waves while one of us,...

        Sun Bet   I was sure the sun would win, so I put a bet on 9-1   I bet Egypt, Mexico and most of Spain I bet Lorca, too, for that matter   And you were...

          The Rain Watcher     Hello little sentry Sitting so still in the porch Your body round like a chess pawn Staring straight ahead At the rain outside Your...

      Paradise Found Wanting   Heaven turned out to be a bit shit. The Elysian fields were littered with burnt-out chariots,   the Valkyrie looked like hookers, the angels...

      Glimpses The buffet, Paddington Station, 1992   I find, behind a grubby mustard pot, a large and opened envelope, sent out and franked in purple, Hornsea School of Art,...

        The Water Lines   See - across the pale bright stream, above the water line, a small tree bends, its branches moving bare against a spring-clear sky. Below, its...

    Return Journey So here we are, dozing on a train which flounders along, travelling towards a place we call home. We know the tide will have turned before we reach our destination. The...

      Reading Sean O’Brien in the Bath On the first floor of an ex-council house this fat, pink alkie reads O'Brien in the bath. At his shoulder the pint glass of cider mocks his...

      Hanging the Mirror   I was thinking that maybe this wasn’t the way: then you arrived, perfectly-equipped - inflated hammer and rubber nails - City and Guilds poking from the...

      Easter 2013 ...and off we went to Burnham-on-Sea, creeping into the first gaze of the new icy sun. Oh! I held your hand and kissed your lips through supermarket sandwiches. Our...