Hospital

Going to hospital now
No hope of wi fi.
Surgical assessment
JL Oct 30 14:27

Surrender

This Monday,
The trees are aflame
Burnished hands
Reaching for the sky
Surrender
To the autumn chill.

JL Oct 29 16:46

Leafless

Tripping into dark
The collared doves
Bounce to roost
In my oh so friendly
Sycamore
Shortly to become
A hand
Of witches' fingers
Reaching for the red eyed sunset.

Along the lane
The roosting rooks
Top the great beech stand
Soon to display
Their spindly village
In the sky.

The chill calls
The leaves to ground
And leaves me also
Leafless.

JL Oct 29. 17:20

Emmie 20

Emmie moved into the living room and switched on the light by the door. Yasmin stood by the hob in the kitchen.
" I've put the kettle on, " she said.
" Have you indeed?"
Yasmin turned to look at Emmie and Emmie saw the bruise over Yasmin's left eye.

For some reason Emmie remembered a phrase from a story she read the children: , " Who hath dared to harm thee?" The phrase repeated in her head as she took Yasmin into a kindly. almost motherly embrace. "The Selfish Giant" it was. She remembered the picture of children under the tree.
" What happened?"
" It's nothing to worry about. Just a foolish mistake, just a glancing blow because I said no." She smiled. " It won't happen again."

" I'm glad to hear it. I think we might have that cup of tea now. I see the bag is back."
" Yes, I am quite settled now. The university have awarded me a special access scholarship grant. I have had all the interviews my grades were better than expected and ...
" What ave you opted for?"
" I have decided to do physiotherapy. I have a good chance of getting on an accredited NHS funded place which comes with a bursary. The teaching hospital is just down the road from the Uni and they have found me a place to live with a family. Some domestic chores will be involved but it is supervised by Student Services, so I should be ok."
" I presume you had help?"
" Yes Mrs Evans and Jenny's mum." .
" Well you know you're always welcome here. And what about the family?"
" They have sort of disowned me but not disowned me. I think it will work out in time. I am going to stay with Jenny tonight and tomorrow and go back on Monday. It's good Jenny and me are settled but she has a place in hall which could be handy."

They spent the next hour with tea and buttered scones and a discussion on clothes, uniforms and materials. Yasmin then left for Jenny's with an extra twenty pound note in her pocket and instructions to get in touch if things started to get too much.

JL Oct 28 16:27

Breath

Raised a finger
To the wind
The direction
Of the draught.
So difficult to tell .

Clouds scud
Shadows slip
A moving patchwork
Over field and fell.
Along a lane
A chapel spire
Within a copse
Hidden from
The prying eye.
The praying heart
In spired
Within a well
Of silent aspiration.

The direction of the wind,
A wordless breath,
An offering set aside
To sanctify the soul.

JL Oct 26 13:35

Three Lane Ends

Leaves ankle deep,
Though fuchsias
Still dance
By my window.
But
Roses so sadly
Bow their heads
Along the last line
Of summer resistance.


Out and about,
Well drained
Chocolate fields
Are harrowed
To a tilth.
While
Pastures retain
The stain of
The last deluge.
Below the rising ground
Clumped rushes
Are in standing water
Still half hid.

Beyond the marsh
Above the church's tower
The crusader's flag,
Unlike the land
With dogged hope,
Not drowning but waving
Albeit,
Beneath the doubtful eye
Of a solitary rook.

JL Oct 25 12:49

Caterpillar

Late caterpillar
On a curling leaf
Autumn left behind
To winter sleep.

Summer will see
It fire its way
Into flamboyance
Just for a day.

JL Oct 24 18:13

Late post clinic day

Grace

The smooth sweep
Of cloud
Above a far
And distant hill

The poise of wine
Just flowing
Oer the brim

The seal slip
Beneath
The flow of sea

The graceful things
That sing
The peace of grace


The inward grace
That blesses
All our thoughts

Yet in our frailty
Can we give ourselves
To disgraceful things.

JL 23. Oct. 11:51

Coils

Caught in coils
Of being
Somewhere else
The silver spirit
Deep inside
Laid on the riverside
Watching turgid waters
Swirling by
Waiting for a further flood
To carry me off
Just for today.
Tomorrow will be
A day for singing
And graceful play.

JL Oct 22 15:27

Chrysanthemums

Glory tinted globe
Chrysanthemums ,
Burnished copper
Turning red on gold,
Clustered feather ends
Falling roundly to the hand,
Most apt for gloomy apse,
Their ragged edge
A superficial smile
Nodding at the coffin's edge,
Most apt for autumn's gift,
A munificence of fruit
Before the winters chilling depth.

JL Oct 21. 13:47

Emmie 19

Saturday morning and Emmie set off for church again to do the flowers. In the hall Dorothy was already there with her arms full of chrysanthemums, all glorious yellow and burnished red and gold. They aimed to keep the arrangements quite simple, letting the vibrancy of the colours speak, uncluttered by frippery and artifice. Their underlying principle was to strive for adornment rather than decoration and they usually achieved it before lunchtime.

By 12:30 they were finished and walked the short distance round the corner to the "Copper Kettle". It was a popular spot and tended to get very busy on market days and Saturdays and so they booked a table every other week for the two of them between 12:30 and one o'clock. As they opened the door they were met by the welcoming clatter and chatter of the lunching occupants, mainly ladies of a certain age and style. They ordered quiche and salad and shared a large bottle of still water.

"Have you heard from Yasmin?" Dorothy enquired, between mouthfuls.
"No, not a word. I was thinking about her yesterday when I dozed off in church. I imagined her turning round and smiling with a wave. And the next thing I knew was Fr Costello waking me up -very embarrassing."
" I hope it wasn't an omen!"
" I hope not. Jenny is coming over tomorrow afternoon, so I will know more then. I think she would have said if anything major had happened."
" Yes I'm sure."

When they had finished they ordered two coffees. The young girl asked if they would like to see dessert menu. Dorothy demurred but Emmie said she would treat herself and ordered a slice of Sacher Torte with whipped cream. When it arrived Emmie smiled appreciatively and savoured the first delicious mouthful. She looked up to see Dorothy smiling at her. "What?"
" I was just thinking, some of us have to watch our waistlines."
" Never seemed to be a problem with me."
" No I know, you're lucky that way."

After the dessert and the coffees they settled their individual accounts and manoeuvred their way toward he door. With a nod and a smile, they went their separate ways. "See you in the morning." Dorothy called out.
Emmie turned back. "I'm not sure. I may go this evening and leave Sunday free."
" OK I will see you later in the week. Let me know the news if there is any."
" I will. "

Emmie smiled at the michaelmas daisies at her garden gate and put it in mind to sweep up the first fallen autumn leaves from the path. She let herself in and closed the door slowly behind her. It was a gloomy afternoon and the hall way was quite dark. She switched on the hall light and there, hanging on the newel post at the end of the bannister, was the brocade shopping bag.
Her voice quavered, "Yasmin ?" She called.

JL Oct 20 19:04

Friday Folk

Sunny space
To touch
The falling leaves
To glint
The goldfinch wings
To cheer
The lunching ladies
To promise
Foraged bargains
To end
The working week.

JL Oct 19 13:42

Night and Day

In the wild wood
Silver birch bark
Shines
By the dark pool
Moonlit.

So soft
In sunlight
Dab chicks ripple
By the sedge edge
Dipping

The swan's flotilla
At a distance
Lumbers into cloud.


JL Oct 18 14:18

Whimsy

Midweek melody
Of leaf fall
And darkening
Afternoons,
That fall
Into night slip,
Where memory
And dream
Mingle into
Scent and softness.

As the poet recalls
In pages long ago
"Never to recapture
That first careless rapture"
When you first
Let fall your tears
Upon my tie
And I with casual
Deftness
Slipped from your arms
To pursue
An alternative
Attraction.

Oh how the past
Can punctuate
Our foolishness
With but a semi-colon.

JL Oct 17 11:50

Great Gale

A tapestry
Of creation
Weaves colours
Into flowers and fields
Brings a Michaelmas
Of purple by the wall.

The gale today
Great waves rise
Mid October
Blown away.



JL Oct 16. 14:02

Far Tractor

In the distance
Sunlight tints
A tiny tractor
At fell foot,
Its dark plough
Kicks up
A spray of gulls
From broken stubble earth.

There is a cycle
To this feeding
Delve and seeding
Where I am caught
Upon a spiral
Of unbroken words
Catching my breath.

JL Oct 15. 14:14

Shifting Sand

Today
Late sun
Leavens my lazy
Afternoon.

I'm wrapt
In the mystery
Of chains
Anchored
From a heavy sea
To foot slip
Shifting sand.

I wait
For another day
Another tide
To lift me free.

JL Oct 14 17:01

Emmie 18

Still as still, she caught the corner of Father Costello's eye. He was not sure, but as he made to move down the aisle he became aware of the almost imperceptible rise and fall of the woman's shoulders. Not wishing to give her a shock he rattled his keys against the radiator. She came to with a sharp intake of breath.
" Oh it's you Emmie! "
" I'm sorry Father, I must have dozed off."
". That's all right. When I first saw you, I thought you had dozed off for good. "
" I could well have, but I don't think he is ready for me yet." She gave a smile and a shrug. She was aware that her knees seemed very stiff as she tried to get up.
" Let me help," He said. " Old bones, that's something we share. Would you like to come in for a cup of tea? You feel quite cold."
" No thank you, all the same. I must get back."

They walked together down the nave. Father Costello opened the door into the porch, and let Emmie through into the darkening evening air, " Now you just take care," he said and locked the door behind her.

She stood by the gate and paused to gather her thoughts. " How embarrassing being found asleep in church. Like a vagrant," she thought. And her knees still felt a bit wobbly. She would walk back slowly. She wondered whether Jenny was visiting that evening. She would check the calendar when she got in.

Opening her door, she hung up her coat and went to the calendar. Jenny was due on Sunday afternoon. " Good, " she thought. That visit to church had left her quite drained, time for a nice cup of tea.

JL Oct 13. 13:04

Nettle Matal

These days
I need a soft
And rounded
Gentle light.
To push
Sharp things
Out of focus
Into my holding.

I do not need
The prickle thistle
Nettle-metal
Thorn horn
Hard to handle
Daytime shine.

Me is to
Even shadows
Crepuscular,
Misty dusk,
Geese skeins
Horizontal
Against the sunset
All in silhouette.

And as some
Fjord lord
I could
Take myself
Upon the tide's ebb
Out to sea.

JL Oct 12 15:44

Southern Wind

Here is the
Autumn
Southern wind
That bends
The willows
Fit to break,
That rattles
Outhouse doors,
Lifts latches
And brings rain
To fill
The lower meadow
Once again.

JL Oct 11. 12:00

Wild Duck

The evening sun
Purple tints
The heather
Over distant hills,
Peaches meadows
Flooded
After days of rain,

As it flies
The curlew cries
High above
The salt marsh,
Where this week
I hear
The wintering teal
Are coming in to land.

Such season seasoning
Adds some savour
To the fare
Of one so welded to a chair.

JL Oct 10 12:39

Wrestling

Heard birdsong
Rare this time
Of year
To cheer
The ear.

Familiar
Blackbird
On the lawn
At dawn

While
On chimney pots
Raucous jackdaws
Wrestle.

While
With words
I wrestle
Locked indoors.

JL 9 Oct 11:59

Empty Monday

Empty Monday
Waits upon
The coming week,

With each dawn
The coming hope
Which lies asleep,

That we could rise
And ride before
The haunting eventide

To choose the moments
That bring the sharpest colours
To our lives.

JL Oct 8 16:45

The Sun Settles

As my sun settles
Into sand and sea
I need your armful
Warmth about me.

In an empty room
The dust settles
Your presence there
In rose petals.

An open window
Rustles of leaves
The soft sureness
Your words weave.

As my sun settles
Into sea and sand
I feel your softness
Beneath my hand.

Wherever I go
You'll still be there
With that scent
Of lavender in your hair.

JL 7 Oct 13:47

Emmie 17

It was Friday, the end of another week and Emmie was on her way back from the covered market. She thought she would just pop into church on the way back and have a word with Him upstairs.She pushed against the heavy door and stood in the sense of coolness tinged with a scent of guttering candle wax. The emptiness was quite dark, lit only by the red and blue light through the stained glass windows of the nave. She brushed her fingers against each pillar of the south aisle, recalling the many fingers of a century of days before. How many hands..........?


Making her way to the sanctuary, she genuflected on the lower step and walked slowly towards the candles holder at the foot of the statue of the Sacred Heart. She placed two small candles on their spikes and lit them with a match from the box on the ledge below the statue. They stood there, upright and plain, each with its steady flame, untouched by any draught. There was one in remembrance of David and one for the future of Yasmin.

She sat in the front pew quite quietly. Her hands rested in her lap as she drifted into the past. She saw the image of David in his skullcap with a cream silk prayer shawl around his shoulders. In her mind's eye she counted the tassels and as she did, she saw his hands with palms upwards slightly stretched towards the altar. She held him there and as she did, she felt the tears slowly blear her eyes and as they flowed she felt his image slip away.

Yasmin shimmered in a more vibrant light but was just as present, there in her pale blue hijab and modest school uniform. As she turned she smiled with a faint wave of the hand. Emmie gathered them both to her, placing them in her heart before The Lord, the one being held in her love from the past, the other in her care for the future. There they were, Christian, Muslim and Jew, a faceted trinity of individual souls, joined in Emmie's heart without any religious chains to nail them to the world's uncertain ground.

Emmie became aware of the traffic drone outside and with a rueful smile
wiped her eyes with a cursory finger, tucked her scarf deeper in her collar, crossed herself and made to leave this moment of peace for the hurly burly of the world outside.


Father Costello found her sitting there, quite still when he came to lock up, just as it was going dark.

JL Oct. 7. 11:44

64 Bus

Every school day morning
Whether in the rain or dust
One's innards did a shuffle
At the sight of the 64 bus.

The prospect of the journey
With its attendant lust
Against a convent cultured thigh
Held tight on the 64 bus.

Adolescent chatter
Discretion was a must
For calculated coquetry
On the morning service bus.

Those delicious handheld moments
That forever stay with us
When first we went a wooing
On the morning service bus.

These days all is different
Just a wild and noisy fuss
Where all finesse is lacking
On the special schoolie bus.

JL Oct 5 13:07

Poetry Day

Poetry today
A panoply of poems
Purposeful
And possessive
Personal
And poignant 
Purple passages
Of perfect pitch
Pace and pressure
Preferred parallels 
In painterly pictures
Of pleasure and pain
All put together
With lip smacking
Plosive impact.

JL Oct 4 12:23

Just For Today

Sometimes I can't but help
To see the flowers fade
The petals fall to floor
And into leaf mould laid.

The streamers of the larch
Hang towards the ground
The procession of it all
That moves without a sound.

Sometimes I hear far voices call
Furtive whispers in the leaves,
Echoes of my summers' past
That bring me to my knees,

From whence I cannot rise
On the ground perforce to stay
Make virtue of necessity
Tis a fitting place to pray.

"Not for tomorrow Lord
Just for today".

JL Oct 3 12:05

Judas

I have you
In the corner
Of my eye.
Your smile
Slightly turned,
As in the crystal
Corner of a glass.

Across the table
Your slender fingers
Twist the knapery.
The sorrowed remnants
Of our meal
Are tumbled into disarray.

Even now
I feel the tension
Of your distress,
And count the tortuous 
Travel of your tears
Along the intervening years.

I can taste them even now
As I am looking 
Out to sea.

JL Oct 2nd 11:27

Another Monday

However dark the day
Settle your eye
On the half open rose
Dew drop dazzled,
Unfurling freshness
Of scented promise.

Look to the distance
Upon the silver shimmer
Of wind turned
Willow leaves.
Or taste the sense
Of forest dampened 
Autumn floors.
And
Remember
We are
Also part
Of this creation.

JL Oct 1st. 12:12