Poems

SHELLS on a DORSET SEASHORE

Remember the joy of the sound of the sea?
In your mind place your ear to a shell
Shells from dark caverns where salt weeds are swaying,
Tossed through the surf by an ebb tide retreating
From banks of bright seaweed on blanched sandy beaches
Thrown there so wildly by a gale in the bay
Hear the waves roaring hear the winds keening
A fistful of treasure to bridge the long winter
'Til next summers day comes to Man o’War Bay
Remember the sounds in a shell?

GOING UP TO OSMINGTON

A kestrel hovered as I drove by close to
An Esso pump in sight of the White Horse
Not the first day of Spring but a morning in mid-
March when off-white clouds filled the sky
And trees had yet to show their Easter fashions
Rooks and pigeons thumbed over the greening soil
bright with the promise of Summer barley
And a cold wind drove the Portland gulls
to forage inland
The sun slanted a puckish beam through my traveling
Conservatory at two o'clock over my right
shoulder, and in that moment a hawk hovered.

DEATH

"Ashes to Ashes"
and "Dust to Dust"
Such is the cry and we do laugh
In the face of adversity and hidden foe.
At least we think we do until the time
we're called upon to practice what we preach.
And then white feathers float around as birds
upon the wing.
Or shall we do as our forefathers did and rally
with honest heart
to defend our home and country
---- Till death us do part?

SKY

"Red in morning, shepherd's warning, red at night, their delight."
How beautiful the glow of morning sky
As sun tipped clouds announce the coming of the day,
And paling moon yields to her fiery Lord.
Like streaming banners in the wind
So white and soft against a faultless blue,
The clouds change with the growing day.
A bird then poised so high to 'scape the eye
trills his welcome as the quivering heat.
Expands and leaves the sky an empty vault.
The sun in full ascendancy looks down,
completely master of his own domain.
Until he's shepherded once more to rest.
Then pale pink, blood red, orange clouds
play mute witness to the dying King
and shelter him in his departing life.

Behind these come the vanguard of the night
blotting out the cleanness of the day
like mourners in their customary garb.
Till twinkling stars appear to tone
the black to velvet of the softest shade
and leave the sky once more at peace.

SEA

Reflect, mortals, how in days long past
The sea did drown the world and all therein
except an Ark built by a man of God
that braved the storms and rode upon the flood
While all the rest did perish for their sins.
A chosen few were saved to carry on
with God's work as he had planned,
To make the world a better place to live
for their descendants -to eternity
And now the world has gone stark raving mad,
Will sin be wiped out in that self-same way?
Will greed, Lust for Power, replace all gentle thoughts.
Death, Rape and Plunder are watchwords of the day
and famine spreads its clutching hands above us all.
Can we predict how it will end and where,
A second Ararat to wash away all sin?
Who are the chosen few of earth's full score
Again to make the earth a place to live?
In England now is gathered of each race and clan,
Is there higher purpose beyond the ken of man?
or might the scene be laid out here in Palestine,
The Home of Christ, the Promised Land, and Calvary?

STORM

The sky is overcast, the sun is dark and
distant thunder sounds the prelude of the storm;
The stage is set for nature of put on her show.
Wind, rising off the hills, bestirs the trees
who sigh and murmur as a soft violin.
The dirge is picked up by the beating rain
In eddies, waves and gusts the tempest rings,
The air is filled with frenzied harping,
As the elements rise into crescendo,
and lightning forks out to beat the time
and signal for the drums to roll again.
A deathly silence, then renewed
The full force of the gale is reached
In nature's orchestration of herself
With trumpets blaring, tom-toms thudding,
Violins wailing, seconded by flutes,
While eerie voices scream and sing in turn
Until the final chord is reached
The notes fade out in soft discord
And gentle rain, like faint applause
Pays tribute to the symphony.

END.