When you are in the sea You do not grab The water to survive You try to relax Otherwise you might drown This is a basic lesson of life

It is not what you look at That matters It is what you see I can see nothing at present As the night surrounds me       Henry David Thoreau

The sheet of yellow paper Remained untouched On my walnut desk As I listened to the night songs Of the beautiful bird   I had wanted to express my love for you But was missing your last address It had probably been stolen from me As I slept in your final bed       […]

When I understand your soul I will know your eyes I will see you As you see me       Modigliani  

In Henley not far from the railway station There is an ornate church with a wonderful tower In front of this church lie the quiet crypts Where many Huguenots sleep in eternal peace I wonder of the many people passing overhead Who have no knowledge of what is beneath their feet Of refugees driven from […]

Yesterday whilst out walking I saw two women dancing on the coastal path They were a mother and daughter Aged sixty years and thirty years Both were called Elena I was sitting in my standard chair Near the grey pumice fields When a priest and his beautiful sister Passed me only pausing for cheerful greeting […]

I was walking the backstreets of a cool coastal town When I found in a dry gutter a pornographic magazine This fascinated me so much that I took it back to my studio I was engaged at this time in painting bright marine scenes On stolen or redundant cobble stones as these sold very well […]

one of my favourite lines of poetry is from Houseman’s Shropshire Lad   That is the land of lost content I see it shining plain  The happy highways where I went  And cannot come again    it is memorable but it is my opinion that it should have read   That is the land of […]

You were sitting on the high sea wall A refugee from a nearby wedding celebration Your lovely clothes (velvet skirt/white shirt) Were totally at odds with the rough stone nearby   You said to me that you were had become bored Of the jagged noise and the false excitement And needed to look at the […]

The same can be said of poetry If you are featured in a poem Then you have achieved immortality