Sitting alongside...

So I tripped this morning at the top of the stairs and fell awkwardly in the doorway to the attic, banging my elbow and landing palm-down on the flat-iron doorstop by the attic stairs... ouch.

I lay awhile, looking at the books on the lowest shelf, idly wondering where we had assigned 'Bell Hooks', who I want to re-read, but haven't come across since we moved..

Then I sat on the top step, testing each finger in turn, flexing my wrist and regaining my equilibrium. My little terrier arrived and sat beside me, in silent sympathy, the epitome of the definition of a friend...

Sunrise after Solstice

Not being a shepherd,
or a sailor,
I take delight
in the pink-painted sky
this early morning
after the longest night

Palimpsests

High above Aberystwyth
the woods are still deep
in autumn's copper petals
and woodsmoke hangs in the air

in your childhood garden
you laugh up at me,
wildly scattering the apple leaves
we have just raked into a pile and

somewhere in wartorn London
two young men, brothers,
are scrunching leaves in St James' Park
and woodsmoke hangs in the air

Saturday

A high, howling wind
this morning,
and the turning tide
meant we
alone
walked the beach.

Picked our careful way
through the debris
and the high-tide boulders
to the shoreline
and the spume

Scanned the horizon
for the sails
of a waiting pirate ship
and paddled
inadvertantly...

6B, for smudging and softening

The mist lies deep this morning,
not - as I was going to say - heavily,
as a grey woolen blanket, obliterating all opposition.

But lightly, as silver down,
caressing the folds of the hills,
gently erasing worn and battered edges

Chattering monkeys

Swinging precariously
from branch to dangerous branch,
Balancing distractingly
on the highest reaches of my mind -
Pulling faces...

I coax you down
to the heart's core of safety,
Cradling you
with unwarrented kindness -
Hush now, be still...

Sunday afternoon above Aberystwyth

The bay is as glass today,
silver-blue sea-glass,
muted and still.

Pen Llyn and Ynys Enlli
are clear on the horizon.

For a moment
a train in the distance
and a lone seagull
the only sounds.