I was the astronaut the world forgot about Mission Control lost contact with me As I travelled in the shadows on the dark side of the moon They assumed that I had crashed and although a rescue craft was sent It ran out of fuel and had to return to Earth So that was that…

Exactly fifty years ago I lay in my bed Watching the moon landing on television   Exactly ten years ago I lay in a field in Cornwall Watching the moon in all its moods   At present I am listening to music on my headphones But I am thinking about the moon

Whilst I was waiting at Avignon TGV I heard Erik Satie’s Gymnopedies being played on a piano The pianist who was missing some of the more difficult notes was waiting for a train with her cousin An American woman asked about the pianist and was told that her name was Texas Poem and that she…

An Angel Visited Me Today An angel visited me today But I was not at home I was climbing an impossible mountain When the angel became aware of this fact She left me a message of joy Noting that I would come to no harm   Angel in a Mirror do you believe in angels…

I have never touched the claws of a rapacious bird Or travelled from Edinburgh to Berwick on Tweed I have never read a Spanish newspaper Or worked with a chap called Steed That is the reason that I sleep naked I own some pairs of pyjamas And a few rather lost bed socks But I…

Why are you so familiar to me Yet such a stranger I ask this question of myself Within my first waking hour I am on a train to Porto To attend the opening of a new park Which was constructed to my designs But I am unlikely to arrive on time As this train is…

I was the youngest of six children And was the only boy We were all born within a period of ten years But I was always treated as the baby of the group Which I enjoyed a great deal as I was doted upon My sisters all had names beginning with M Martha Mary Marlene…

Don’t talk to me of London dames Nor rave about your foreign flames They never lived – except in drames Nor shone except on paper I sing you about a girl I knew Who lived in Ballywhacmacrew And let me tell you mighty few Could equal Mary Draper     I do not know much…

I have always had a contempt for physics Even though as your train sped past me at the railway station We were for a micro-second only feet apart I would like to sit next to you as you sunbathe nude On another platform overlooking the Mediterranean And read the book that was covering your backside…

The summer days are made up of three colours Orange yellow and green   On days such as these little moves in the village Apart from the busy butterflies on wing   A resting cat watches a sleepy bird But neglects its quarry as its eyes have grown heavy   Under the hot sun that…