Freda

I can't work, just remembering,
Freda, stiff backed, disapproving,
but dancing at my graduation
telling my mother not to laugh,
so pleased to be included
in academic celebrations.
You have to use words like indomitable
for her rise from Smith St to the direction
of the city's maternity unit,
for her conquest, for so long,
of heart complaints from
childhood Sydenham's chorea,
until defeated by her final operation.
Did her role require silence
on her early life or was it
a protection from remembered pain?
In any case I wish her beloved
poppies were in season
for her funeral.

lmc 15-10-2010

That Conversation

Of all the art centres in all England
I happened to walk into the one
where a man whose hair
would grow like a dandelion clock
whose care I could not imagine
was cooking a vegetarian dinner
and over the washing up
we talked of hitching to Australia
and how you get over the wet bits
Strange, how much we tried
with those first impressions
for he was a traveller on a micro scale
months and years won't be enough
for him to know France or Italy well
but it's rare I can persuade him
onto an aeroplane to travel further
and me? I've never been much of one
for washing up

LMC 21 June 2010

Silk Road of my Life

I try to paint the silk road
of my lfe
Miyajima's red torii
and peonies for my father
how can I paint my mother's songs?
no clouds, this is to target the beauty.
I'd add in Abbeydale
if I could paint it, build up
the layers of petals like the
factory painters, overlay the gold.
A swirl of Gobi should follow,
for those Edwardian Misses,
the real silk road explorers.
All China's glory leading to Kashgar's
sunday market, Kansu street's jade sellers
All the way to Venice
Burano's jewel houses
glass glinting, silver gondola prows
slide out from between palacios
and paintings everywhere
to steal your breath away.
if I take it further (as I always have)
then this silk road fascination
led to all my explorations
Paris, Havana, Santorini, Vietnam
Angkor Wat and the Taj Mahal
(pause for heart stopping, stunning beauty)
and to that travelling conversation
in that long ago arts centre
Turn for home to Pennine moors
endless beach of Druridge bay
or Lyminge forest bluebells
for coming down through vineyards
of a red-gold evening
hand in hand

LMC 21 June 2010

Take one small child

Take one small child,

Shake thoroughly,

Or enough to rearrange at least

Her natural trust

And there you have created

One woman who'll always look

For what might go wrong.

LMC June 2010

Hong Kong Coat

I take my work apart
never was it cloth of gold
but a useful working coat
sewn to stand the buffeting
of a season's work.
They don't want that, they say,
the thread to hold it together
is just too costly
the cloth too robust for their taste
stitch us something that
gives the appearance, just,
of covering at a distance
if they don't look too hard

LMC 27 APR 2010

Isa

Pendant un moment bref
Son sourire, sa vivacité m’accueillait
Dans son cercle d’amis
On riait comme des fous ensembles
Cet aprèm magique

Et plus que ça, l’ambiance totale
Qu’elle créait dans son hôtel
Faisait bien parti de la magique
Des cures d’Allevard
Je ne t’oublierai jamais, Isa

LMC April 2010

Office Blues

leaf green fools my eyes
outside trees shimmer and breathe
not paper colour

LMC April 2010