Writing Resumed

After a gap, having been busy working with clients in some interesting climes (Estonia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan) I am back to writing and, having moved to Tunbridge Wells, am now more active in the Tunbridge Wells Writers Group.

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.

Halibut Beats

Cold fish

swimming in sesame oil

shimmer in my dish

to the rhythm of my wish

On the next table

a shoal of spinsters

pour down a waterfall

of white wine

releasing ripples

of loose laughter

A dish of Broccoli

A dish of Broccoli

Across the table

Green-eyed, young, fresh and moist

You sit temptingly

I want to take you,

Dripping with dipping sauce

Into my mouth

NaPoWriMo 10 - an advertisement poem

Buy our brand
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

The challenge here was to write a charm, a simple rhyming poem to bring fortune, or ward off ill.

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 4 - a lune

Taking bird form
Flying nearer the mad moon
Fearful freedom looms

NaPoWriMo 2 - myth

Grendel awoke, angry, esurient,
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

You brighten my day
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

Fare well
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 Godfather bemoaned
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

Once I stood tall
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

Children, darlings, young and old
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

Father forgive me,
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.

Eating for Epicurus

It's a while since there have been posts on this blog. Perhaps because my overindulgence in other Epicurean pursuits has allowed little time for leisure time writing. So, to put things right, I am going to add restaurant reviews and recipes to this Epicurean column.

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.

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

The snow comes

Cruel clouds cover countryside

Bringing cold cargo

The roads

Inherently distrustful of the snow

Are treacherous

The trees look innocent and crisp

In their christening dresses

Waiting to drop

Cold kisses

On passers-by

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

Christmas dinner - festive row

Vegetables in human form

Do you ever meet someone and think to yourself "what an onion!" or " he is really a bit of a turnip!"?

Well maybe these weren't real people, but the walking spirits of the vegetables themselves. We found lurking in our garden several different vegetables on their way to taking human form. For instance, this carrot family...

and the rather nosy tomato...

Autumn treasures from the vegetable gardens

So, Autumn is presenting us its feast of mud and flood. Fortunately we managed to salvage from the vegetable garden some morsels to add interest and flavour to our own feasts.

We had gathered many small onions and heads of garlic...

And a seething mass of purple carrots...

Asolo gardens

From the terrace of the Villa Cipiriani Hotel, Asolo

This is a gem of a hotel in a beautiful mediaeval hilltop town. If Asolo is an Italian Saint-Paul de Vence, then this is its Colombe d'Or. A wonderful place in the Prosecco region of Northern Italy, and one of my favourite hotels in the World.

Muir Red Woods Standing