Posts

Summoned

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It happened just outside the allotments On a ground baking day in late July  The top buttons of his white shirt were rent The skin underneath was burned pink and dry He lifted his straw hat, mopped his forehead With a hanky the size of a bed sheet Then dropped to his knees as if he would wed Into a puddle since dried in the heat A woman in a headscarf and sundress Clashed the wooden gate and dropped her small purse  Crouching so that her hem swept the dust excess She cradled his head and let out a curse The horses standing in the paddock plot Flicked their tails and broke out into a trot More midcentury ramblings here

The Best Parts Are Around Edwinstowe

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I remember Edwinstowe with dry fern fronds As a flared child I was tucked, squeezed Into the open throat of the Major Oak I forced down my doubts to try to believe that Robin Hood lived here. The widespread oak is wired now Held up as a living Marionette A puppet show of our need for Robin Hood For something beyond our Ollerton Roundabout  The tiresome circle of existence The AA Illustrated Guide to Britain  More writing by Sarah Miller Walters

Stow

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 I have a postcard inside One kitchen cupboard door Yellow sellotape border  It's fake primary colours Flower a flint tower Just out of sight, lens left A slatted wooden shelter and Companion concrete bench is Where I waited one day The bus subject to delay Even so, I was still first As I always am, will be Round the block, fake purpose Forever waiting it out For someone to start something Books by Sarah Miller Walters

The Sudden Churches of Holderness

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 Sea frets Tides mither clinker Beneath the road that might end, or Might be lost to view in Water spray-studded web Wheels break Tarmac Pushchairs and scooters Taking air that is thrown up To make wrapping sky Bells strive Behind or aside from view They could be summoning Further the sea The AA Guide to Britain - East Yorkshire  Books by The History Usherette

Thinking of Wye

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Will I cross Bakewell Bridge this year When daffodil heads are crisp crepe And the ducks keep their velvet brood From the eddys of the Wye Weir Where my memories hang and swirl Among the catkin ticker tape Books by The History Usherette

A Woman Hand Sews a Glove at Woodstock

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Sewing at the window in high daylight Hood eyes, calloused fingers endure neat rows That track out tradition in time and taste Ask her if she can sew gloves with eyes closed She shifts her head once to the side, eyes low The AA Guide to Britain - Oxfordshire 

The Car Park Ponds of Tintagel

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A stone bookmark in the holiday  By annexed unmade car park I slid along my back seat domain Wondering what to look for Sun bleached information boards Moated by Wind-whipped oily water Say nothing I have damp feet Numb fingers But there’s time, yet Books by The History Usherette