The Hollow Tree

There is a tree in my memory

Hollowed out of mollusced softness

Black and burnt she felt like a cloak

Where one could hide from others eyes

Seek shelter where no one spoke

The fox is sleeping

At the side of the road the fox lies sleeping
In the heart of farmland and homeland
Stretched out as if at ease
Legs obediently paired
Tailed tucked in, snout out in relief

Harvest Home

We laid our back against the stack
Wiped sweat and hayseeds from our brow
Caps cocked to shield the sun
Thirst slain in the billy-can

When you lose someone

For Deirdre

Faye said
How beautiful, from a story-teller who paints with words =). 

Barbara said

" I know Deirdre will love it.  She has just been widowed and I know your book will bring her much joy.She is such a lovely soul.  They came to Dublin from NI many years ago due to the economics there, and started again from nothing, raising the children in the south.   Losing Eddie has been a hard blow for her and I know your poems will lift her."

Deirdre said

" What a lovely surprise I got this morning.  Thank you!!  My house is full of family at the moment, a gathering for a family wedding up in Donegal.  I want to sit down and really read your lovely evocative book.  From a quick perusal i was able to get a wonderful sense of place, the sights and sounds, I could even feel the tickle of the straw!! "

November Open Mic night ARTS4EVERY1

Thanks to Simon Falconer

Cafe Costa, cuesta?

Strange where your knowledge of languages come in.  

At our local coffee shop in Whetstone, a couple were trying to decline the Pluperfect of the Spanish verb 'escribir' , to write.

Open Mic session poems

The four poems are:

1.'Hands' by Ted Hughes
2.'The Rock Heads' from O Derry boy
3. 'The Door was open and the House was dark' by Seamus Heaney
4. 'Butlers Bridge ' from O Derry Boy

The Book ' O Derry Boy - a childhood in pictures & poems' by Mervyn Cooke
The venue is the Arts4Every1 centre in High Wycombe.