CELEBRATION (V.E. DAY MAY 8TH 1945)

I could not on that day in May

THE RIDING SCHOOL PASSES

Clip-clop, clip-clop,

THE BOLSHOI BALLET AT BATTERSEA

The curtains part, the group ethereal

THE BERLIN WALL

It stands, its cruel concrete face

A MASTERTEAM MISS

Admitting her reluctance, she

CELEBRATION (THE SHERLOCK HOLMES CENTENARY)

The cover, faded blue, depicts

CHRISTMAS 1940

’Twas a week before Christmas in an

A CHRISTENING AT ALL SAINTS (FRESHWATER)

The atmosphere, well charged

THE GAP CLOSES

At billiards in a village club,

PAID HANDS (CIRCA 1928)

With frothy pints in hardened hands,

THE SEMI-FINALIST

She failed to reach the final test,

ACADEMY PICTURE

With patience and protractor’s aid

VALSHEDA

Unheralded she came, returning to

PICTURESQUE COTTAGE (CIRCA 1890)

“How idyllic,” they zays, as they zees

MEMORIAL TO MY MOTHER

She died at forty-six.

FLAT DWELLERS

Although she lives and eats alone,

CHRISTMAS CALENDAR

The calendar arrived by post.

CAVE-IN AT VENTNOR

Presumably he knew the risk

WELL PLAYED, SIR!

Eighteen eighty-two, remark it,

RUSKIN WRITES TO KATE GREENAWAY

If kisses, penned, meant naught,

EXPOSURE

How long before I hear again

TO MARION IN HER KITCHEN

No Valentine in all my days

THE SEASONS

When poets through the ages all have sung

NEW FOREST EXODUS

Picturesque? But would artistic

BACHELOR’S CHRISTMAS

Reclusive, old, he sits alone.

MECCA FOR MORONS

With Lennon, cynic, bunkum’s graduate,

BEYOND ’84

Long since, Cassandra-like, we cried, “Beware!”

LIGHTNING STRIKES YORK MINSTER

The controversy waxes, wanes,

CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME (CIRCA 1922)

For hours, it seemed, they reminisced,

YOUTHFUL FOLLY

Why do they, to themselves untrue,

YORK STREET SCHOOL DEMOLISHED

My mother told of schooldays spent

TATTOO

The anaconda caught my eye,

WINTER DEPRESSION

The draggled day had drawn

LIMERICKS

There climbed to the Long Stone a queue

CLERIHEWS

Robert Runcie, indiscreet,

REVELATION

I heard wise men debate

FALKLAND FATALITY

No danger gloomed his Dorset sky

DILEMMA

We, who lived through ‘red alerts’,

RIVAL ATTRACTION

A morning haze obscures

YOUNG MOTHER

Beside me on the bus

UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER

You came in unexpectedly –

FLASH-BACK ON FOLLY

The guide-book did it – woke

I DANCED WITH A RELATIVE’S MISTRESS

For bitterness she’d caused –

A RENT IN THE TAPESTRY

She lured him from a line of kings.

PARVENU

Though one of four, her bulk

BIRTHPLACE

It looks a happy house;

SCHOOL-TEACHER

We pass the time of day,

I DESTROY THE EVIDENCE

A letter to his mother from

CRYSTAL WEDDING

For fifteen years since walking down the aisle

LILLIE (Inspired by the TV performance of Francesca Annis)

Where other, more proficient pens,

WALK SLOWLY HOME

Walk slowly home –

BACHELOR’S REVERIE

I lay relaxed, my mood attuned

FROM MICHAEL, ON ACTIVE SERVICE

When I see you so wise and cool,

FASTNET TRAGEDY

“The only challenge left,” a yachtsman said,

REPEAT PERFORMANCE

It happened, says Herodotus, some years

AT THE BUS STOP

Five in a queue,

THE SHOT

The light was soft that afternoon,

THE LAST ANTIQUE

You’ll take my ‘blue-dash’ charger,

MIDNIGHT SERVICE

The lych-gate glistens, moonlit, in the rime,

ISLANDS

To be enisled – a dream of youth

AN ALCOHOLIC GOES SHOPPING

Quite sober now, Amanda halts

PRELUDE TO UNKNOWN PLAYS

An empty stage awaits a spate of words,

IMPERSONALITIES – ROBIN DAY

On Wednesday, when calls are made

IMPERSONALITIES – PETER DULAY

They’re often caught, the victim of his ploys,

IMPERSONALITIES – ROY PLOMLEY

What has this man become, to whom there clings

IMPERSONALITIES – HUGHIE GREEN

We marvel at this talented performer,

A PIG IS A PIG

Once, Bulgar hogs devoured their fare

LUGGAGE IN A WAITING-ROOM

The cases did it – stirred that blood

TO LYDIA (A villanelle)

If love should discipline my pen

THE MERRY WIDOW (East Cowes Town Hall, March 1975)

Filling our hearts with unwonted elation,

CHINA HEIRLOOM

A jug with a serpentine handle –

THE FIRST MASTER REMEMBERED (LA PIETA, ROME)

The crimson damask, deeper dyed

VILLETTE REVISITED

We, too, have tried and, in succeeding, failed:

TV, D.V.

The belt of Time encinctures history;

SENTINELS

Dumb, the scarecrow leans,

MICHAELMAS TERM BEGINS

Evening on Solent’s now indolent tide;

PRIVATE VIEW (Ryde Gallery, 1977)

Form and colour, challenging

WRITING ON THE WALL

No gunfire fills the air with awe-inspiring sound.

ST BONIFACE DOWN

Within its shadow, it is said,

VIEW FROM NORTHWOOD PARK

It was not wise to sit and face,

EVENING ON GURNARD MARSH

A sluice-gate bridge, a June-calm sea,

COCKLETON LANE

It dips between the rising fields,

IMPROMPTU TO ALAUDA A. A.

Ethereal bird, in rapture raising

MURALS BY RENOIR

Aphrodites by the dozen –

PORTRAITS IN THE PARK

19th Century

Along the walk Priscilla poses

THE ODYSSEY UNREAD

Deckle-edged, twelve decades old, the pages lie,

FOOTPATH

‘The Stiles’ we called that narrow way

NORTHWOOD CRICKET CLUB

Refusal to admit my limitations was absurd

CALLISTO AT NUNWELL HOUSE

By Nunwell’s limpid pool she broods,

RELIEF ROAD THROUGH SHAMBLER’S COPSE

The logs, a wayside pile, lie stripped,

THE COMMODORE’S HOUSE, COWES

Since William Three and Mary reigned,

COWES WEEK (CIRCA 1925)

At ease in basket-chairs, red cushioned, set

COWES WEEK (CIRCA 1939)

The scene of garb grotesque and odd attire,

OFF-SEA BREEZE

The wind athwart the marsh is cold,

NORTHWOOD GUN-SITE

The wind athwart the marsh is cold,

COMPTON WYNYATES

The warmth-absorbing brickwork throws

THREE-PART FORFEIT

It was one of those games in which forfeits are paid,

BRIDGE OVER THE ITCHEN

Learning I’d not seen the bridge, my driver

AUTUMN AFTERNOON

There was goose-talk behind the hedge,

THE WORD

Predestined by a current trend,

AEGOSPOTAMI

Seize and tow the triremes!

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION (Royal Court Theatre, 1965)

To lowest yet, abysmal depth,

CHAPTER’S END (1923)

Home-proofed against December’s chill

CINEMA INTO SUPERMARKET

A gaping hole in front;

CHARACTER CHANGE

What folly is this in our High Street,

GRAND CANYON

A mule and its master,

A TRAIN PASSES

Along the highroad, looking down

NOCTUARY

The night enfolds, emboldens me

AUTHOR’S FRIEND

For the life that I lived by your kindness –

TERMINAL

They enter, hearty clowns, and rip the hoop

ON WINNING A CUP AT 61

Poised on ebon plinth,

PRELUDE TO DEFEAT

When high on the Acropolis,

THE TALL SHIPS RACE 1972

I dreamt of tall ships sailing

LEST THE TAPESTRY FADE

We loved him ere his shoulders

PARTIR C’EST MOURIR

A vacant room: its fast-shut door

THE TRAMP POET

He writes his poems out of doors,

JESUS 1971

“We’ve in the studio a man,”

THANK YOU, MISS DOLITTLE

‘Authentic’ – that’s the word

SPLEEN

I’m like a dynast set in rain-curst ruth,

THE BRIDLE PATH TO WENDENS AMBO

I shall not take the bridle path

LOCAL HAZARD (Cowes Week, 1969)

Acres of Terylene, flapping and filling,

POSTER AND PASSENGER

The French Maid – quite so!

THE RED SHADOW SPEAKS

In spite of what cacophonists may say

IN PRAISE OF RADIO

A quiet home, impoverished of sounds

THE LAST OF THE ‘WESTERNS’

The bar-keep ducks no more from flying lead,

WEDDING RING (November 1973)

Mined in the Cymric hills,

JUNIOR WANTS TO KNOW

A paradox at Christmas;

GREENHOUSE BLUES

My cacti bloom in every room,

WINTER BEAUTY

I think no more of winds that chill,

SNOW SCENE

Burdened boughs in fear depending,

SNOW SCENE (later version printed in Reflections)

Burdened boughs, white-weighted, bend,

CONTRASTS

Youth in a painting,

PASSING OF YOUTH (A waterfront reverie)

What happiness my musings bring

SUMMER OUT OF SEASON

There’s summer in old bathing trunks,

THE BONNET

She wore an Army bonnet,

THE ANGLER

The sun is strong: his dexter side

HOLIDAY ALTERNATIVE

A name, a lodestone charged and strong

STEERING MARK

There’s a spot I know,

INVITATION TO ADVENTURE

Who is game for a cruise in the old hard way,

MORNING HYMN

Tho’ dark-winged evil stalked our world,

RESIGNATION

Why chafe and sigh for bygone days

THE SALON

Hushed the silken susurration –

DUMPING GROUND

Winter-stripped, the elm has showered

FREIGHTER FROM CHINA

What bring you from the mystic East,

POPPET AND PUPPET

“Walk,” says Linda. “You are slow,

THE LOST PEOPLE

Ancient Mayan temples stand:

JANUARY APPELLANT

O Golden Hero, glowing-targed and brave,

EXILE FROM TRISTAN DA CUNHA

Now take me again to my island,

MISTLETOE KISSES

Yvonne and Jean,

FROM PRISON

From inside a prison wall I write;

THE KING’S BIRTHDAY

Before the castle there, they stand

MODERN TIMES, MR CHAPLIN!

When your daughter does the can-can,

ANNIVERSARY

She eighty-nine: he ninety-three:

CLOVE ISLAND

Zanzibar, Zanzibar, scented with cloves,

ESTERIFICATION

She called my nature highly hygroscopic,

EXPERIENCE COUNTS

He has not left a ‘Palace’ job

PENELOPE ANN

Penelope Ann, Penelope Ann,

UNRESERVED SEATS

Ma’s knitting has been dropped awhile,

JUPITER PLUVIUS? NO – JUST RAIN

Through tear-streaked panes the landscape mourns,

THE BABY-SITTER

At two his blond and curly hair

JAIPUR TREASURE

Environed in sunshine and despotism,

OFF THE RECORD

I’m playing records – your request:

SPACE MEN

A cosmonaut plans

THE SEA AND I

The green is bruised in purple troughs,

THE BENT ROD

The Greaser told the Fifth on watch,

OAF LOAFING

I am bored, man, y’ see,

LAGOON REFLECTION

There’s a cargo now to choose,

BOUNDER IN SPRING

Up and down the path he frolics;

LAST POST

Another poet, and still no line

AN ODE TO REVEALED CHARM

When tenderly your hands displace,

THE QUEEN’S WAY

Leave Quebec with thoughts of Wolfe,

MAY MOURNING

Ye men of Oxford, harken,

L’HOMME ROUGE (Henri de Lespinasse de Bournazel)

Riffs, by Allah’s law abiding,

PUNCH AND JUDO

The children, faces upturned, stand

MATHEMATICAL MATTERS

If you’re hoping to plan your own rocket emprise,

SIESTA

Deck-chair low-notched, now lunch-full I lie,

HUNTING CROPPER

Hard riding-women, and hard-riding men,

A MASQUE

From lucubration’s futile toil,

THE ‘CAT’

It’s easy to talk about Justice,

ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE ISLAND 1

We well may envy those who gaze

TO DISCOVERED GENIUS

Sing on, O voice, thy notes inspire

TYRIAEUM REVIEW

Hear the light-armed chanting,

PHEIDIAS

On high the bronze Athene rears

EMANCIPATION

Extract from life what joy you may,

TO ANN MELHUISH in “The Bartered Bride”

Danced she not as one who dances

THE SEARCH

The you whose lips I press,

THE MIRAGE

A mirage thou, amidst the sands of thought,

A SCEPTIC AT CHRISTMAS

I hear the bells chime Noel through the night,

NILE SCENE

In the aqueous depths of the far-flooding Nile,

SONNET TO X

Within the boundless range of poet’s pen,

THE AMARANTH

Spicy carnations of scarlet and cream,

‘EAVIES (1914-1918)

When the dugout air’s made thick

THE FLOATING BRIDGE

Do you never hear the call of the sea?

AT THE CINEMA (an impression of Vaudeville)

In garish scenes to rhythmic sounds,

REFLECTION

My thoughts of you are as the wing

IN LIGHTER VEIN

When in fullness of time, by the Nation’s decrees,

THE KNIGHT OF THE BLUE BOAR

Inhaling perfumed evening air,

IDYLL

Come, leave the tomes of stern finance

FESTIVAL

Bid maidens fair bring rarest wine,

TO JEANETTE MACDONALD in “Bitter Sweet”

O bright-hued phantom, allied to a voice,

TO ANNA

May the roses of virtue which bloom

CAPTIVES CONGENIAL

Virginia’s creation,

THE FIRST VISIT OF THE ‘QUEEN MARY’, 1936

About three hundred years ago

COURAGE

From the Conquest comes our culture,

THE DORMANT SPIRIT

I see the Sun triumphant rise,

TO AN AMANUENSIS

Pleasing to the eye that comely form,

THE VICTIM

What shameful deeds they perpetrate,

THE FORBIDDEN KISS

A sacrifice at pagan shrine,

WHEN DIANA SINGS (A TRIBUTE to GWEN CATLEY in ‘THE ELIXIR OF LOVE’)

O can it be that mortal voice,

PASTORAL

I saw the laden hay-fork swing

TO GEORGIANA (CIRCA 1775) (A translation from the French)

Enchantress, condescend to tell,

BALLERINA (A tribute to Moira Shearer in “Red Shoes”)

O dance, and let thy steps create,

AUTOGRAPH

Shall I aspire to reach the light,

THE THREE WISHES

Whilst in a twilight reverie,

TO SONG’S ENCHANTMENT (A tribute to Gwen Catley)

I sat enthralled, your voice arose,

MOONBEAMS ON THE LAKE

Gliding on moonbeams, the fairy feet,

TO JAMES MASON

Mourn not actors passed away,

PORTRAIT OF A PROUD LADY

Thy gown, enchanting as the night,

PRODUCTION

Thoughts of bonus set them smiling

THE PENMEN

O would I’d been to Eton,

ANTIDOTE FOR ENNUI

Sigh not if life withholds those things

TO AN ESTIMATOR

Set high above on egotism’s pinnacle,

TO B.L.D.

Accept these lines at random penned,

WARNING

Heed not the drum’s inspiring note,

THE CUTTY SARK

No more will wind-torn spray ascend,

A TRAGEDY IN SPACE

Aeons ago at flowing Time’s far source,

LINES WRITTEN DURING THE PORTSMOUTH-TO-JOHANNESBURG AIR RACE 1936

From the Portsmouth ’drome in the dawn’s first light,

THE ABDICATION OF EDWARD THE EIGHTH

If all the world is just a stage,

TO ETON

Tranquil Eton, midst thy lasting calm;

TO BERYL AT SEVENTEEN

At seventeen you symbolize

VICTORIAN HARVEST

The corn is cut: its bounty spread

ONE COLD CHRISTMAS EVE

There was music and laughter

UNTO THE LEAST (Christmas 1920)

’Twas five and eighty years ago

LETTER FROM M.T.S. ODYSSEUS

Your letter written while at sea

A-HUNTING LET THEM GO

Clip-clop. Clip-clop.

LIFE CLASS FOR AMATEURS

The urge to move, to scratch, becomes

MISS MAKE-BELIEVE

That young and Eastern princess there,

OLD AGE ASLEEP

Let him sleep, the day

CLIPPER SHIP

Setting a record she cleaves the rough water,

LINDA SWINGS

Busy the swing in describing its arc,

RUSTIC SEAT

Two sturdy tree-trunk legs

EMBROIDERED BOX

Inspired by love, it stands unique,

THE LAUGHING CAVALIER

Is it humour or disdain

BREAK UP

Not a kiss on the lips

GOOD-NIGHT: OR PRELUDE TO ADVENTURE? (circa 1908)

Big Ben, long past the midnight hour,

FALL FROM THE HIGH-WIRE (Sketch by E. J. Lewis 1863)

Poised high above the trapeze,

END OF DAY

The hottest of this July’s days

THE ROSE BOWER (Painted by Sir Edward Burne-Jones)

Aurora lies asleep, amid

FOUR O’CLOCK DEPARTURE

A window frames the upper

ON THE SPREE

Zechariah Jones, strolling up and down,

MURAL BY AUGUSTE RENOIR

An Aphrodite generous in anatomical display

MIDNIGHT PAS DE DEUX (CIRCA 1900)

The curtain has fallen, the house lights extinguished,

VILLETTE REMEMBERED

We too have hoped and had our day-dreams

PAX ROMANA

Across the road, where once in meadowland

ILLUSTRATION BY MUCHA

Dream-created damozel,

KITCHEN SCENE (BALI)

Chewing her betel, and bare to the waist,

TIBETAN PRAYER WHEELS

Pass the wall, friend, on the left,

AESTHETES’ CHOICE

Examine golden trinkets from Mycenae,

PERSIAN FRAGMENT

Tea? A final glass, and then a deal to settle:

MODEL WITH LION

Hispanicized she stands:

FIGUREHEAD: A LION RAMPANT

Quaintest names, at least a score,

J.S. – CAPTIVE

I guard no moat-infested gate,

MARRIED MEN’S MECCA

When a man gets married

APOCALYPSE PENDING

In this life, where in the slips

THE WISER CHOICE

Our greatest Empire poet said

DECLINE WITNESSED

In this life we daily see

OPEN THOU OUR EYES

At Christmas, open Thou our eyes

MARY TRANSFORMED

How oft did artists try and fail,

DICKENSIAN CHRISTMAS EVE

Punch bowls on the table steaming,

PIERROT IN PENSIVE MOOD

Contemplative by casement seated,

THE PRICE

We note it in their reticence,

THE VETERAN

Unseen out on an astral plain

TRIAL BY THE SANHEDRIN

Crowded to capacity the columned hall

THE AFTERMATH

Back in the Roman barracks

MIDNIGHT SERVICE (CAROL)

North the wind that slows our progress

AMIDST THE LOWING KINE

Housed amidst the lowing kine,

CHRISTMAS PLEA

Bedded tho’ Thou art in straw,

HYPNOTIC AFTERNOON

The day was dream-like in perfection –

MARITIME MEMORIES

Cerulean blue, the Solent lies

CRUCIFIXION

The scene as oft depicted

HARVEST (circa 1900)

Balletic in their rhythmic swing

HARVEST METAPHOR

If at harvest time you’ve found

NAMMET TIME (Circa 1890)

’Tis nammet time, the reapers rest

THE HOUNDS OF CRIDMORE

Adders in abundance: phantom hounds that

OCTOBER AFTERNOON

There was goose-talk behind the hedge,

SUNSET OVER PARKHURST FOREST

A collar-up and scarf-to-chin day:

ST CATHERINE’S DOWN

The final stage, when tackled from the west,

MEDINA BASIN

An elongated skyscape fills with cumuli,

ARTEFACT FROM BOWCOMBE

Of archaeology I sing, November excavation and

NORTHWOOD BRICKYARD RE-VISITED

Incorporal, decolourised,

R.Y.S. REGATTA

Viewed as a series of geometric patterns,

FIRST COMMODORE

Allowing for the fact that memoirs often tend

FIESTA AT FIRESTONE COPSE

Had Autumn incandesced, its leaves

SACRED SEAMARK

A white plane hides the weathered stone –

BY THE TOWN QUAY

Epitome of summer, gracefully she rides,

ARTHUR COTTAGE RENOVATED

The swing has gone, but I, whose links

DISTANT VIEW OF OSBORNE HOUSE

Italian square-topped towers rise above

FLORA RESTORED

Your temple, we are told, was near

ON PRINCE’S GREEN

She left the beach to play

TEMPLE

Pseudo-Greek, superbly placed,

TOPSAIL SCHOONER

Gamboge masts rear high and domineer

SKETCHING ON ASHEY DOWN

From obeliscal shade the artist views

LOOKING TOWARDS LEPE

How near the forest seems today,

LUMINOUS MORNING

Magic morn, a country lane,

MAY 1942

A perfect sunset paints the sky

WRITING ON THE WALL

No gunfire fills the air with awe-inspiring sound.

AIR-RAID, MAY 1942

Hot were the guns that night,

ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE ISLAND 2

We well may envy those who gaze

EASTERS LONG AGO

I remember, oh so well,

CHRISTMAS CHRONOLOGY

No stellar miracle that night,

CHRISTMAS REPRODUCTION

The fifth ‘Old Master’ – one more card

PENTECOST

Throughout the ages learned men

WIZARD PRANG

“What did you do today, my boy,

RITE OF SPRING

Now once again the Spring we see,

LAID UP

Does she never hear the oceans call,

LEE-RAIL AWASH

Lee-rail awash, and a full gale now taking her

DECLINED INVITATION

“Elope with me,” you said, “and sail

GLOWING EMBERS

How elegant you were! Your legs

A LANDLUBBER’S WAY TO FRANCE

No more a vessel’s yeasty wake

ORESTEIA

Expressionless, the painted masks

LE SPECTRE DE LA ROSE

Dream on, fair maid –

FARM-HAND (circa 1900)

I bain’t no zort uv zcholar,

JOHN RUSKIN REVIVIFIED

Saint Ursula asleep – precisely plied

POEMS OR PERISPOMENONS

When Muses tug-of-war essay

VAINLY WE STRIVE (A Rondeau)

Vainly we strive if star-crossed we were born,

LARWOOD’S LEGACY

As long as cricket still is played

CANDIDA

I lay relaxed, my mind attuned

GENIUS INTO JOKER

No longer does he synthesise

PLEA

Say no wanton word –

EVENING ON VICTORIA PIER (Circa 1924)

Above Ytene the setting sun

MAXIE, R.N. RETIRED

They said he drank enough for three,

ART AND ASININITY

Profoundly moved I looked upon

INVITATION TO A WALTZ

“They play a waltz! Who now at leisure