I have watched you for many months Throughout your days of enforced vacancy Made all the bleaker by the grey white clouds But now that the sun has returned You are celebrating once more Your visitors are sharing their recreation But I will not enjoy your golden wide sands As I am still trapped behind […]

I have lived in Paris for over twenty years as a translator of erotic fiction Surprisingly in these more puritantical times there is a great call for these novels Puritanical is a poor choice of word I think but unlike the Paris of the 1990s There have been in my view erosions of freedom which […]

My Silver Watch was Five Metres Tall And had been a good friend of mine for many years We travelled together by train throughout Europe and the Middle East When the war came along we fled to the United States And purchased a Hacienda Style house in Los Angeles In 1944 my silver watch was […]

My wife and I had been on holiday for nearly a week And had spent our time exploring the island We were staying in a villa with a rather large wet room Which as most welcome after exhausting days in the sun However this morning whilst enjoying breakfast We received a knock at the door […]

I met my wife in the red desert on a white day in the middle of a summer We were sheltering under some rocks away from the direct heat of the sun Je m’appelle Caron She said to me in a hushed voice I asked her what she was doing in the desert She did […]

Harry and Edward were fishing in the Rochdale Canal When both their lines became dull and heavy With great effort both men raised an ancient statue from the murky waters And placed it on the towpath to dry off and enjoy the sun During the next hour they quietly discussed How to gain the maximum […]

Almost silently a small crabbing boat Picks up its buoys in the early morning light There are storms breaking on the horizon Which will freshen the humid air But for now the sea remains calm And the mists have yet to thin

On the day of the storm My wife and I had travelled Back from the coast My wife had stolen The Catcher in the Rye From a railway bookshop And was reading it on the train When we arrived in our home town The storm was at its height So we sheltered for a while […]

A rose petal blew into my hut this morning It still retained its sweet perfume My daughter placed it into a thin bottle She will release it on her wedding day

I have recently moved to my coastal house From my writing desk I can see the sea Which brings me a great deal of pleasure Nathalie Cardone is singing Hasta Siempre  As she always does on her weekly radio show But I do not listen as my interest in the revolution Is fading as the light […]