Archives » February 2006

  • Darkest Before Dawn

    This is from January 1997. A poem about walking in the dark, colliding with the dawn…
    Darkest Before Dawn
    Movement, just there, branch
    Like a windscreen wiper
    Over moon. Ineffective.
    Then stillness till the screech
    Of car beyond
    Reminds me of houses
    And all that goes with them.
    Pennines, slumbering jurassics,
    Backdrop to the carnival
    Of streetlights
    Pitched along
    The midway of the valley.
    If only I […]

    Sunday 26th February 2006 - 11:09:58 PM | Comment (1)

  • Agoraphobic

    I wrote this about a girl I once knew. She was agoraphobic. I tried to imagine what it was like and this poem was the result! An illustrated version of this poem first appeared in FLUX magazine, an arts and culture magazine I think is still going and on sale in the newsagents […]

    Thursday 23rd February 2006 - 8:01:47 PM | Comment

  • Interregnum

    It’s the middle of the night, and I remember during long periods when I was unemployed and frustrated, I would emulate Marcel Proust by maintaining a nocturnal existence. I’ve always been of a nocturnal bent, really - I love the interesting pause in the world when everyone else (at least locally!) is asleep, and […]

    Tuesday 21st February 2006 - 2:10:49 AM | Comment

  • Sleepless in Surbiton

    I deliberately didn’t post anything on Valentine’s Day. It would have been far too distasteful to dig out a love poem and post it just because a particular day demanded it. Last post was a simple love poem, this one is about something more specific. Just one of those nights with an […]

    Sunday 19th February 2006 - 12:56:59 AM | Comment

  • Letter in February

    A simple little poem, probably best consigned to the poetic dustbin, but since it’s 12 months before it would be appropriate to publish it again, I thought I might as well include this very short old poem from my student days (we’re talking about February 1990 here!). I am still working up to actually starting […]

    Sunday 12th February 2006 - 11:56:52 AM | Comment

  • Office Hours

    I wrote this poem when I was supposed to be working. As the title suggests, I was in an office at the time. It’s quite a sad and desperate piece, but then the futility of humdrum daily life can often be quite sad and desperate. I’ve been very busy lately running the […]

    Saturday 11th February 2006 - 10:56:12 PM | Comment

  • Vision

    I’m starting with some old stuff. This one’s about thinking and writing, and that’s all I’ll say…
    Vision
    A footprint on the moon? Yes, a step
    In the once-happeningness of pilgrimage;
    Then, the furtive overlapping of cloud.
    My heart tills an alertness of love,
    Setting store for tomorrow’s troubles.
    I hunker down by the field of drought
    To see what can […]

    Sunday 5th February 2006 - 12:12:15 AM | Comment (1)

  • Welcome to my World

    Welcome to my blog, which I’ve called Blog Poetica for the time being. It could change - life’s like that, constantly evolving. I have changed so much in the last ten years it defies expression, but that’s what this blog is about. It might seem like a personal blog, but it’s not; […]

    Sunday 5th February 2006 - 12:04:27 AM | Comment