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Welcome
Please enjoy the poetry I have written throughout my life. Just click on a theme or browse the full collection below.


Epiphany on the Oldham Road
Brecht, back in industrial Germany, after a trip to the countryside, gazed through the sooty air at the grubby rows of houses and said,...
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With Klee’s Two Lost Ones
Two lost ones walk proudly into the picture, What do we make of this brown figure striding or the orange one smaller, momently pausing? A...
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Down the Line
a tribute to Paul Klee Painting like poetry begins with the Line. It labours uphill and bounces fast down, heads in a curve when gravity...
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The Child in Paul Klee
Some quality in Klee’s paintings asserts assuredly they are his, and childish is a general word quite often used for this, but does it...
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Michelangelo’s Snowman
At a time when Columbus first stumbled on America, Lorenzo’s son, Piero, ordained that Michelangelo shape a body out of snow. That...
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Van Gogh’s Starry Night
Watching over quiet water he set a church with ten black houses, then a black and vacant sailboat inviting passage moored below; two dark...
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Van Gogh Self Portrait
His eyes look over our left shoulder searching in an unseen mirror, pondering his own reflective self. White stands for thought he’d...
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Magritte’s La Bonne Aventure
His wintry trees branch bare across the evening sky And grow in orange light behind two windows. The chimneys of three jet black houses...
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Ambroise Vollard
Sustained by strong black coffee, He sits there immobile On a rickety chair on a rickety platform, Under the warning, watchful eye Of...
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The Castle in the Pyrenees
Suspend your disbelief. This Is not a rock, a boulder or a stone About to drop. Magritte Is there to fool you into truth, A kind of...
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Leonardo's Shield
When he was small Leonardo Formed a scene upon a shield, From crickets, fireflies,bats, Lizards, glow worms, serpents, And delicate wings...
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Le Primitif de la Voie
When he set up his easel, As often before on the hill Above the Chemin des Lauves, Clouds gathered over Aix And storm cones flew. Cézanne...
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Where Constable’s Easel Stood
Quam tenui a filo pendet Today is Sunday and here day trippers accumulate where Constable stood and Willy Lott lived eighty years to...
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Munch’s Eye
Twixt what is there and what we see resides, he felt, reality. Corneal scars upon his sight scatter bright dendritic light, a retinue of...
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Paul Klee's Death and Fire
Bedside Companion A painting by Klee hangs over my bed, Man, rake and sphere frame a sinister head. A cornered pilgrim digs into the...
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Lowry Poems
Windows Three faces face outwards, surprised by their master who renders them timeless as they pursue business (no business of ours)....
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Dufy in Bouville
Dredgers churn the seabed, A sunlit lighthouse gleams On the sea-front where he strolled, After painting some French interior In...
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