Cadiz Cathedral

Create a space
And decorate with rising arches
Sparkling with a holy light

Spin nets of delicate cobwebs
To catch the falling morsels
Of salt-air-damaged stone

Describe a space
Where organ notes ascend
Are flattened, tapered
Whine a little, bend
Blend with the long and wavering
Squeal of children
Skittering like black and red beetles
Crawling over Catholic stone

Sit in the square
With other tourists sipping tea
And chatter
In the old café

Erect a yellow crane
Tall as the cathedral’s yellow dome
Swing it just so
Where the complicated scaffolding
Will soon support
The Virgin’s procession

Country Roads Two

The gig went well – and it was a swell party. I hoped to have a picture to post but my camera let me down. The flash just isn’t strong enough. Hopefully I’ll be getting a few pictures from other party goers so I’ll be able to put a picture up then. No more band rehearsals now until the New Year.

This week some writing. Hurrah! On Thursday my last school visit followed by a trip to Nottingham for Jill’s works party – have to wear a dinner jacket for that – oh my. Then a free run to Christmas.

Which means it’s time to buy Christmas presents.
So – here’s the question. What Christmas present would you really like? What would make your year?

And what present are you really looking forward to giving someone else?

(What do you mean you don’t yet know? It is almost December for goodness sake.)

Country Roads

Well, an interesting week so far. Monday - a Damn Right rehearsal. We’re playing at a party on Saturday – and as well as playing our regular rocky-blues set we’re playing a specially-learned country set for the birthday girl who is going to sing. She lives in South Africa and doesn’t arrive in the country until Friday and so Marie Claire, daughter of the bass guitarist, has stood in. Great voice. Great fun - but I wouldn’t want to be in a country band full time.

Tuesday - a day of infants. Lots of joining in poems. Jill is away at a conference in London. Tuesday evening - stuck in the traffic that is Wembley. It took me four hours to get home and I was fifteen minutes late for my creative writing class. Talk about being rushed.

Today – some writing planned but spent the day “catching up.” Maybe I’ll get some words down tomorrow. Need to do some serious planning or the next few weeks are going to disappear into nothing.

The Things You Are

The keeper of my heart
The healer of my soul
The hit song in my chart
The glue that makes me whole
The walker by my side
The holder of my hand
My student and my guide
The one who understands
The finisher of thoughts
My spokes, my wheel, my hub
The crosses and the noughts
My reggae and my dub
The laughter for my jokes
My wherefores and my wise
My hub, my wheel, my spokes
The blue that fills my skies
Disperser of my gloom
You blow my clouds away
The painter of my room
You brush away the grey
The seas that lap my shore
The rudder on my keel
The peel, the flesh, the core
My hub, my spokes, my wheel
The maker of my dreams
The slaker of my thirst
The miner of my seams
My second and my first
The raker of the leaves
That fall across my path
The one who still believes
The one who makes me laugh
My racing car of fun
The lock that fits my keys
The icing on my bun
Yes, you are all of these

The Northern Children’s Book Festival

Had a wonderful time in the North East. Three schools, the first two in the library at Crook, near Durham, and the third at a very large secondary school in Redcar where I read The Journal of Danny Chaucer (Poet) to three groups of 12/13 year olds. Three hours more-or-less solid reading with a song and a few questions and answers thrown in. Tiring, but great fun.

Also I met up with several other writers staying at the same hotel including Korky Paul. How fantastic is that?

The hotel was quite interesting. We had to wait for over an hour for a meal on the first night which was gruesome when it finally arrived (soggy risotto) (not helped by watching England’s dismal football performance against Spain on the bar’s big screen). An unusual bathroom, too, with a mirror so high that only a tall person could see his face in it and with the shower controls near the ceiling. One of our party, Sally Crabtree, who is a musician and writes books for young children, and isn't very tall, said she had to stand on a chair to wash! The following night we went for a Thai meal which was totally delicious. I won’t bore you with the details.

Wrote quite a lot on the train. Well, not literally on the train – it was in a book. Some more work on the graphic novel. Some poem bits. And a haiku. Well, of sorts. (See below)

But it’s good to be home.

Funny Haiku

Ha ha ha ha ha

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Ha ha ha haiku

Another Busy Week

Sunday night. And another busy week coming up. A school in Peacehaven tomorrow. A day and a half of writing – did I mention I’m hoping to finish my children’s story? And the Poetry Zone to update. Then heading north on Wednesday for the Northern Children’s Book Festival.
Travelling by train – so a chance to get some writing done. Maybe work on my graphic novel. I’ve got the first draft sketched out. It’s a Faustian tale. Something a bit different for me at least.
Another busy week next week – and them oh joy, a few weeks at the computer writing.
Writing – I like that.

If you had written a best selling book. Well – any book actually. What would you liked to have written? And if you were going to write a book – what would it be?