The world received the sad news this week That Leonard Cohen had passed away But for some reason death does not seem so final When you are beside the sea I did little apart from purchasing two copies of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam One of which I took to a football match  

We were sitting on a winter’s beach Listening to the sparse language of mermaids On the horizon fires flickered And were reflected in the low cloud Is Europe ablaze again?  You asked I removed my blindfold Those are isolated fires you know   Such is the brittleness of history     

I ran a mile and a half today It was the first time in my life that I had felt alive No that’s not true I felt alive a long time before this Just for a second and then it was gone Until now   Caron Miller Osborne 2009  

Your dull green shroud Provokes little excitement The mourners are long gone And it is left to me To guard your memories  

But that is the name of a Brad Pitt movie Milne It was spelt with a k Come again It was spelt Kalifornia not California Why are you calling this story California? Why do you think? Because we are in California Right first time Nelly was sitting on the settee looking at the ocean The […]

Winchester Sound is where the mermaids reside For most of the year the waters are quiet But on the night of the Super Moon They come ashore and mate With the fisherman who are cleaning their boats In return for my silence They leave their names on my favourite rock May May May May May […]

My condition was self-inflicted I was building a wall To keep me safe When a brick fell on to my head And now I am lying on bed Feeling bruised and battered And have taken to writing confessional poetry     The author is feeling low having had a flu jab    

Whilst in my dreamlike state I steal newspapers from a farmhouse that once belonged to the Crown The house is set away from the road and is partially hidden by a large hedge It belongs to the Pointing family And the newspapers are deposited in mailbox at the top of the drive by my holy […]

Later this month The moon will be close I will sit on a bench With Al Robot And we will collect its dust This will be used as talcum powder By the women of our town  

When my dogs were young we often played a game when driving either to Budapest or to Vienna to pick up my friends from university The game was simple the first to see a railway viaduct scored a point and the creature with the most points at the end of the journey was the winner […]