The moon glows low, old ivory hanging in the trees, shining down the river in a crisp and cobalt evening. Clouds loom on the horizon as our passive words circle round and round what may be. We turn each stone again, rake through old leaves – foraging for options, contriving prudent actions when all that […]
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Category: Poems
Ice storm 1973
We watched the flakes drifting into that Sunday afternoon with anticipation. It was the first snow of the winter, and coming a week before Christmas was perfect. Whenever there was snow, there was an instinctive hope of school cancelled! It was well below freezing, and the tiny flakes meant we were in for a few […]
Gifts of Light and Dark
Creativity – incubation in divergent thinking, then illuminating associations. With a smaller corpus callosum, both halves work alone and then ‘ah ha!’ – connection, inspiration. Distraction as creative tool. The neuregulin 1 mutation bestows mixed gifts: poor memory, over- sensitivity, psychosis and yet enhanced odds of greater creativity. Creativity – born, not made yet nature […]
Journal
From a Vineyard shop of long ago, this cover (soft with amber leather) holds pages worn in edge and ink. “… last night beneath the Milky Way we swam in the lagoon. Water slid like silk against my skin, phosphorescence swirled about…” Each day was huge – aglow or gloom: strident […]
Seasons
Life has its seasons. Friendships ebb and flow. Close ties can be stretched to breaking by busyness, distance, time. All the masks we wear to survive our lives keep others at arm’s length – build inner walls in layers by years. Time moves on, leaves gaps in its pattern where friends should be. Wounds of […]
Maelstrom
Lord I don’t know how to handle this. The whorls of circumstance now turn, entwine, spin tight – spiral down to the unknown deep into dismay. How do I reach You in these darkened days? Questions veer and multiply – where do I begin? I look down into the endless depth from a high stretched […]
Dénouement
Long shadows from the probing moon stretch across the kitchen floor. In the silent house, an abandoned meal lies on the table. The phone stays mute. She gazes at the snowfield pressed against the still, black edge of forest and silence spreads beyond the horizon – wider deeper than she can reach. — Christine […]
Recession
As the long, lavish day expires, a streetlamp stammers against encroaching gloom. The chill wind slices through all confidence, drives the day’s news along an empty street into shadows thronged by phantoms. A concrete wall, graffitied with fear obstructs the feeble light intensifies the dark. For these uneasy hours sanity is eclipsed, optimism blinded in […]
Gone Aground
I miss the changing view outside my window; how each new day discovered a new place, and the slow blossoming of days that felt like two. As I travelled I had bed and galley with me, saw friends each place I went, other boaters who waved, and easy chats by the lock side. Gone is […]
An End To Summer
As the autumn day awakes, she wraps her son in the soft routines of morning, and time is still. The phone shrills on the wall – his voice fragments – “darling … a hijack… I love you…” — connections break. She stares down at the phone, at the clock at weekend coats, his slippers, the […]