To begin with, it was the only Way It sneaked out of the coastal plain And headed into the hill and mountain country Separating it from the Ionian and Adriatic seas. On the way from the grandeur that was Rome to the grandeur that was Greece. Then, he discovered other...
Now I was satisfied with an ANZ Sheraton built on a reclaimed mangrove swamp in Nadi Bay with artificial ‘beaches’ giving way to murky waters squishy underfoot. Like Le Gosier on Guadeloupe or L’Ile aux Cerfs on Mauritius, I no longer felt there. Was anything wrong...
The delta in front The great river behind. The Volga boatman Wondered Which channel he should take In order to create The feature which would speak To those sailing by In the Caspian Sea.
That love for which You neither did nor died? For which you no longer pine? Which you can hardly remember Brussels, January 31st 2017
Remember, remember Those times of hope! A lace-trimmed chapel In the chestnut grove, Fat carp swimming in the lake below! We held hands and sauntered Along frost-trimmed footpaths Attentive students of the laws Of love. Remember, remember Those times of hope?...
I had never seen anything, Anything so vertical, To the glory of man. At a time of war, So bold, so arrogant, So ruinous. A pathetic clearing, In the infinitely vaster cathedral Of nature. When death was at the door Of Smith Coffee Daniell II, And of cotton too. All...
A plant cannot grow on a weed infested lot But it cannot itself remove the weeds A gardener has to come from outside. When the field is tended, The plant will grow again. But even in a tended garden, There are trees that grow well and give fruit And others that don’t....
Paint like Van Gogh’s brushes That starry, starry night. Where is right and where is wrong? Go to doctor or go to psychiatrist Or go to lawyer? Give Debra, that sweetness of my heart A happy journey, that she may take Something of me with her and keep. To Julien whose...
Play of space and light. Habiller du vide et Créer un écrin pour des trés\ Segovia, Toledo La Meseta, Le Jardin du Prince La ville agglutinée Sur un éperon La vallée Avila ou de Chinchon. Despite the art and the mysticism They discovered much September...
After four hours of limitless Meseta As things got greener, We reached the Somosierra, the Madrid plain spread below. L’héroisme oublié, l’héroisme, Finalement inutile. Rien qu’une plaque Posée par les ennemis eux-mêmes Témoin de l’injustice de l’histoire… De la vie....
I have been to where life is no more. I have scratched the stone and scraped the steel Felt the echo bounce to and fro of still-born thoughts. How is it that when all the oil has spilled and gone The old drum is sentient still? Did someone forget to switch off? Or...
I sat in the Air New Zealand lounge Looking across at the old lady Wearing a shawl. Where on earth was she from And what was she doing here? Should she not be with the milling crowd? She turned in my direction And, in a matter-of-fact way, said: “Quànn pàrt...
Peeled away by loving hands the dirt. And now A tide of light warms the neatly laid slabs of stone convalescent pillars and mosaics. Like them, I had been feeling bruised and raw that morning in my familiar, soiled cocoon of lethargy. The moment of release,...
Wentworth Castle College, Had seen better days Mostly, frayed at the edges Tired looking with daily use and scouring. Then the desolation and devastation of Chester That was Le Street. It is grim up North! I had insisted.there was romance Until she believed me. And...
With a house full of old clothes She kneads bread, pasta Vegetable soups. Hardly anything is bought All Is put to use. Yet, lunch is always ready, The pullover mended Even the cheeky joke told! A long-suffering road has brought her To productive, self-supporting...
Balmoral had disappeared The street had become one-way I looked at the flat, Compact, incongruous, Like a switched-off TV screen. Had a romance really Been premièred there? Or had the ghosts Gone with the winds?
Reeds and water lilies; deep yellow flowers. Meadows with six-cygnet swans. Buzzing dragonflies Scampering a grey squirrel in the willows.
Hate Hatred Anger Fury Intolerance Desire for blood, to kill. Can it too be Written about? In which language? “De tanto andar . . .” Hate. Also fear? You call it fear? Because man Is good when he is not afraid? Who knows! Perhaps you do For you produce the milk We...
Hate When all love has been uprooted Hate. When all that grows Brings scythes slashing through the air. When cold, heat, sensation angers; Let fresh blood spurt forth From those wounds untimely sealed. You suffered, God-head. But not enough. You wanted to wash away...
I once saw a small child watering a plant The season came and The flower grew beautiful as the day The boy was delighted. Many days passed until The man came To pick the flower But his fingers bled at the touch. When he tried to remove the poison From the petals The...
I thought I had fallen in love. The symptoms were there. Suddenly, like light coming in, everything about this hitherto unremarkable young woman became wonderful. Panicked, I sneaked different looks at her profile to try to find the hardness, the plebeian pouting I...
Fifty years ago, A menacing, puddly, rotting Farm Now sanitised, comfortable Artificial wedding location! What had happened to Cathy’s ghost In the corner bedroom? The coal-burning fireplace? The vegetable patch? The only things I recognised Were the Off-yellow...
Fields of buttercups Muscular horses. Cyclists, dog-walkers Enjoying the evening glow. Nurtured nature.
It was mid-October and I was sitting with Debra on a bench at the top of the Hochfels, with the setting sun turning the Sûre into a quicksilver ribbon flowing between slopes of emerald green and burnished gold. It was a beginning of the worlds; a mixing of the...
We flew over the last ridges of Mongolia Towards Khabarovsk. Countless rivers, tributaries Snaked between the low-lying barren hills, Like veins in the yellow grass then the plane Turned south-east to Tokyo.
What have I learned? That nothing matters. Neither wife, nor children, nor house, nor Country, nor values, nor personality. I am supposed to be negative and depressive? I will be positive and outgoing - to whatever comes my way. No calculations. No plans. Just follow...
Tokyo is a mix of London elegance and poise with Washington new Quiet, almost absent, innocent Convalescent. Not torn-up juxtaposition like Germany All garden city new. City of silence – the antithesis of Naples. Twelve million people thrust in a world they thought...