It is comforting to share Our time with stopping trains Five a day in each direction With no service on Sundays

I had decided to book a weekend On a Welsh railway station In an old booking office Now much modernised We stayed there last year And enjoyed the isolation Along with the sea views I

On this occasion I chose the lift As I was carrying heavy shopping The upper doors opened An empty sunlit platform It was over in seconds A rake of sleek carriages Passed almost without sound And the afternoon returned

I encountered beauty and kindness after Waterloo but also troubling and dysfunctional counties Plagued by traffic wardens poor councils and sour milk machines But I was a happy boy as I had the chance to sit on station seats and leave my autographs all over the place I adored the transparent refuse sacks Full of […]

I have spent a great deal of time in France It has by far the most beautiful language The most beautiful women I adore its poetry and its art I adore its cinema I adore the feminine

When I wore my glitter clothes I used to dance on southern beaches Until the early hours These were our discothèque’s We would dance under vivid stars And splash in the cool shallows Until we collapsed totally exhausted Into our smooth sand dreams

Every time I come to Margate The first thing I see is the statue Next to Eliot’s sea shelter A Friend to All Nations In 1897 there was a surfboat disaster A number of brave men died It originally stood opposite The Marine Sundeck But was moved in the 1920s To its present position

Am I the only one Who hears the music Above the golden fields Stay with me Dear Clara My heart is an open door

But not in pink or cerise There are many browns available A few greys and pale blues Can also be ordered Viola

You are flirting Your behaviour Is disconcerting Garth