Writing as a Longevity Pill. Ok. so now you are eighty, in the land of diminishing returns. So many friends have taken leave by the wayside and, like part of an expedition into the unknown, beset by danger, you belong to a small cohort, braving the hostile terrain ahead. To live a long and healthy… Know More

My son Joseph mentioned that in Japan, where he lives, ceramics are worth a great deal more if they are broken and then mended with gold filling. That led to me writing some lines in a Blues, as follows: Yet the greatest thing I have to share Is that love’s like china and oft needs… Know More

What’s in a gift I ask of you? Over my life I’ve received a few But none to match my five year old joy At receiving a gift from a miner’s boy Of a brown lead cow with a leg short of four  Which I carefully placed in my secret drawer From then until now… Know More

“Don’t visit my grave,” you said “It’s an empty shell,” But I lay purple petals on the earth Defying you with a spell For though you were right you weren’t to know That I need a certain place  Where memories may come and go  And looking down on my small bouquet They form a mandala,… Know More

The family sits separate around the tree Among wrapped gifts tied in ribbonry Carols on the telly and turkey on a spit Sweets being chewed, mobiles all lit Cars outside under fairy lights Hanging from trees and eaves through the night Under floor heating at 30 degrees Tee shirts with logos and neatly pressed jeans… Know More

One day when I was six or seven And doubted there might be a heaven A place with angels and a bearded God Who ruled the Earth with his lightning rod Well, on that day, I had to pee And Mrs Drummond let me be So out I went into the yard Where urinals waited,… Know More

Stop the world I want to get off For I hear my father in my cough My life was carved in words now worn On the altar stone when I was born Stop the world enough’s enough Of collecting all this material stuff That builds around me like a tomb And turns the sunlight into… Know More

This morning I woke up in my secret lover’s bedI woke up in a cold sweat in my lover’s bedI‘d just had a nightmare that filled me full of dread I was dead in a coffin made from the willow treeI was dead in a coffin made from the willow treeAnd my eyes were open… Know More