Fathers

Your father and mine- 
A lifetime of memories
A lifeline that threads
A story
Through our lives;  
Fathers who set our paths and shaped them 
Selfless with love
Encouragement and wisdom,
Rebuking our misdemeanours
Favouring  honesty,
Who gave us skills, who fashioned 
Our curiosity of ancestral roots;

Sharing their love of the sea and river, 
Of rocks and moorland,
Of stars and planets
And of the Emerald Isle;

Making connections
Their memories became our memories,
Making us who we are
And who we are to be;
As strands have been freed,
Unsteady and adrift we feel-
All at sea;

There is a gap,
But not a void,
For already
A lifetime of memories 
Falls into that place
Soft, soft as snow
With stitching so fine
As if upon gossamer silk;
A lifeline that threads
Between our world and theirs, 
Tracing rainbows through the rain,
Steering our course
As they always have done.



A familiar Sound

A call in the dark 
A familiar sound 
The cows went out last evening, 
Exuberant beyond all measure 
Overwhelmed by the space
And the smell of spring grass;
Like children 
Running and jumping 
Manoeuvring  their giant  frames 
In ungainly pursuit of jollity
With unconfined pleasure
After a winter in the barn; 
Tonight unease- 
Calling into the night 
Restless
In need of security
A familiar sound.

Fossil Hunt

When we place our feet upon the shore 
We hardly know what’s there
From recent falls and lowest tides 
Devonian  fossils shared.
The rocks beneath the Otter Sandstone and Devon Mudstone
Lying on the beach at low tide
Salcombe Regis East Devon

Actually this fossil I now believe to be a bit earlier than Triassic – a Devonian brachiopod 409 million years ! So changed one word to fit in the poem ! 


	


	







	

		
Four seasons of April
	


	
	

		


Twenty four hours 
Four-seasoned elements 
Wrestle with
Banks of heavy cloud
Traction  a different rhythm 
Of snow flurries that sweep across
Bent rows of daffodils;
A north wind pummels 
The naked branches of the ash;
Winter defies with its iron claw 
And blossom falls from plum and thorn;
The buzzard swoops low over the fields in a whitish haze
And disappears from view;
And the clouds- their anvil edge of farrier’s steel- glinting
Through spring warmth 
A fleeting sun
And wind abating 
Before song birds retreat to the hedge
And hail is released with orchestral precision,
Beating a syncopated rhythm
That dances on the stars of the celandines. 

	


	







	

		
Childhood Memories – Little Town by the Sea
	


	
	

		

Drawn am I to childhood haunts,
Memories of country dance on the lawns,
Long afternoons on the sand.
Nets and shrimps and boiling them  in someone’s holiday kitchen by the sea;
We went with people we hardly knew back then;
Days were long and carefree;
How many times have I walked that smart promenade and ,tired and hot, climbed the steep steps to the cliff path?
Just that the grassy path has gone- 
Fallen to the sea
And the gardens we walked behind- which always  smelt of fermenting grass clippings- 
Now tumble over the edge
Of the Jurassic coast-
The compost heaps long gone;
The coast has a fancy name
Fossils drop when the gardens slide. 
Now we turn left at the top 
And Granny and Grandad’s cottage (one row back) are now on the official  route- the path goes up their lane; 
The breathless walk by Grandad out  to his favourite view has shortened-
He’d like that! 
We always wished they had one of the houses opposite with the sea view,
But now those have shrinking gardens
And will one day be condemned; 
Yet Marley Cottage
Is just the same- 
Black paintwork and wonky tiles,  
And Granny’s kitchen garden built into the bank at the back
By the wooden gate,still there;
The lawn is still square but 
Without Grandad’s stripes;
How I loved to watch him roll the hand mower back and forth
And bounce on the red space- hopper
Up and down like a horse in the Grand National 
Did they ever dream like I do?
Memories that take me back
Like yesterday 
And pull me
To the little town by the sea
With emotion so strong that it scares me-  a sense that I belong 
Even though I never lived there 
Just holidays till I was 8.






	


	





	

		
Together for Eternity
	


	
	

		

Tonight maybe two stars will shine 
More brightly than before
Singing will be heard on the threads 
Of the heavens 
Fifty nine years together
and now an anniversary sealed for the first time 
In twenty five
Two lives who touched so many 
On their earthly  journey
Forever remembered 
Together for eternity.
Joy just thinking 
Of celestial celebration
Of angelic chorus
Where time and space is perfect 
Unrestricted and free.