AFTER YOU HAVE GONE
Morning moves with tempered sound.
A heel turns by the green gate.
The alley setts rest in purple curves.
Some night seems to have been left here.
Pots of sweet herbs are placed
to fill the yard with subtle scent.
Somewhere a call comes, an unseen voice
waiting for the sound of a reply,
finishing its note on an echo.
There is small table with an open book
making a diamond shape in bright sunlight.
On a page a photograph of this scene
flicks in the eleven o’clock air;
the only movement in a solitary place.
Roger Allen began writing poetry when an editor of Continuum (Lancaster University 1964 . He runs a writing group at Pioneer Projects, North Yorkshire, has worked with Ian Gardener (watercolour artist) and contributes to Beautiful Dragons Press anthologies (editor Rebecca Bilkau).