Momentary mystic
I sit in an optician’s chair, tested by the flashing of lights, trying to see more clearly, but it is no use: I remain addicted to the illusion that life is fine as it is finite, filled with stories of…
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2016
45mph – the speed of death
I have to admit that I can be impatient. Fortunately most of my friends are patient with my impatience, but sometimes it spills over and reveals itself. To an extent it’s always been there, but it’s been getting worse since I…
Colours
In a grey summer dreamworld you wear a coat of many colours but remain invisible until someone touches you, when you radiate that cool, unreachable light, changing everything: hell into heaven, for example, or absence into closeness The yellow bird…
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Ways to improve the Olympics
There is no such thing as a level playing field. In view of that, I would like to make suggestions for the next Olympics. You may find them controversial. First, I suggest we ditch the whole anti-drugging industry and let…
Ancestor
I am lost in here, beneath the brambles and the weeds My grandson’s grandson looks for me He wonders what sort of man I was if I was somehow like him, searching He could hunt down the histories, line by…
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Saltmarsh after the war
The track to the edge of the saltmarsh is rough enough: beyond that, the sky dips I opened my eyes when the war ended, and to me it was normal: the broken buildings, the emptiness, the echoes There was no…
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Craft fairs – an attempt at beauty
During a short stay in North Norfolk recently, I suffered an attack of craft fairs. I tried everything, but they wouldn’t go away. Funny things, craft fairs. A craft fair is really a crowd of mainly nice people with certain skills,…
I know exactly what you’re thinking – or do I?
I hesitate to write anything about the EU referendum because of the deep passions involved. It is tragic to see the divisions that have struck between friends and family members. Can it be that those we thought close to us…
Leave or remain
It was the third day of rain: we started hunting for doves and acacia wood A pool deepened outside the house, and ducks sheltered below leaves at the water’s edge We paired off and found high ground – a nest…
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Seriously, it’s not just a bag of wind
Guy Martin, I understand, is a motor cycle racer. I have no information on what he wears (though I could guess) or how much he earns (probably quite a lot, as he is also apparently a TV personality). He does…