tell you about the villages
close by yet still over the
mountain

where the good grub is
for midwinter

talk of concrete in pretoria
thoughts on moths in wales.

there is only air between .

talk goes on all day, about the heat,
the rain and drizzle,
no thoughts on the shipping
forecast. words red, remembered.

the bird, the boy, the machine,
there is only air between.

sometimes
a while in a box
will do nicely…

do you believe in omens?

james

pink sky
slight dampness
hanging

the summer house is gone

destroyed some years back now due to health and safety fears from the new owner

who was opening the house back up for holidays

i suggested that i could relocate it

yet they burned it, the pretty thing with all the imagined memories

i have a modern one gone faded now

then i wonder if she wanted to see my brother instead

all ok for me here
even though my battery
gone low

writing before
it recharges

life is pleasant
even with the arrival

of

monkey pox thing
avoiding zeds all together

guess you know more about war
than most

good you have your benefits
now

he asked to be friends
with suchlike

so we replies no just pals

and he don’t understand

hahaha

am not bothered
me

maybe you will help
with the writing

it was a documentary
so i guess it is still there

james

16.26

#slabcity

i need to move them into a place
of loose adjustment
of random offerings
and sketchy lines

is warm and i worry
about the ice melting

required for mending always
yesterday she explained to sew
the four holes in synchronicity
tight
on linen
yesterday the words came easily with labels

taught as required for copying  so we all looked the same
though some added bits and embellishments, which caused remark
while the space between lines was so immense

the voices rather quiet. we have had a life time
of listening, yet not understanding really.

so let us go forward and compare

we should look after things
better. i wrote a thing a while
back. it filled my head with
pictures.

it all a dream, or facts
in reality, made of mind.

all stone residue haunting.
our life. will we very know
forever wandering?

search hill

things will do for now
until it changes again
slightly

you ask for the menu yet we do not know what you mean

please speak plain

☆☆☆

you may have

giblet soup with sherry

scrag of mutton

****** of burnet with parsley

the consistency of good cream

& fried breadcrumbs

☆☆☆

then

a melange of blancemange, yet

we mostly make woollen cloth

hairgrips

at asda are two pounds fifty pence

those from morrisons are one pound

all delivered

ordered the blonde ones though

wanted grey….

jim


despite the dip things are now more cheery

having followed some of the remedy


you know
the bear is settled same position all night

pillow quite immaculate


it is a tidy bed

all clean linen yesterday
with laundry markings

from before the illness


came


now it is washed at home  with no mixing

now there is time and thoughtfulness
now there is time to read on the terrace

to look up and watch the sheets blow


you know
one can tell it is dry

by appearance

we need to concentrate on detail

to describe things properly

need to

go there each year a while

to retain to remain in memory

need to

care for  little things

moving out into the landscape
differing thoughts with exercise

added

on hearing rain early
delay the start of it

now is small stuff on paper
as who cares anyhow

we just carries on

regardless

all came interesting yesterday
not the day before that just yesterday
morning mostly

friends since 65 perhaps
number of the year ago

then to dispel gathered energies
attacked the borders with a saw
and mallet

and the neighbour assisted
he a slight fellow too who brews
beer when the weather keeps him

indoors

enough done
the clearing

up

starts today

the phases planned ahead

i don’t go to town much now
we don’t need nothing that

cannot be delivered

i guess you are out on the bike speeding about the tracks


whizzing along
and i may have found a photo and wonder if it is true


exercise came unusual friday

a walk with the cat in tow

not too far for fear
of losing her


then a repeat with seceteurs in the lane 


the log run came heavy unloading then stacking


required coffee after
and escapist drawing

out walking got to thinking

on a conversation with the neurodiverse child who considers me odd

walked a fair few miles today

in old money

keith

the mothth as collage.
a quiet ththing.

to think sideways,
practice makes a hindrance
when others think straight.

like gradually the markers came
maybe someone someday will
see them
suddenly

they  do not know the darkness

how the light can fade into latin

& all things unreasonable



today i write of glass and ashes inspired before

then swept by other’s moments witnessed  the cleaning

unlike the landscape hereabouts yet only up the road
up the road where all comes beyond reality to help with reality

sometimes takes a thing of note to come dancing
yet yesterday there was none of that though highly praised for labelling

did not wish to go to sea
went just the few times

that I remembered
last evening

the crossing

putting words in my mouth
like sweet sultanas in chocolate

they come in twos

sometimes
a while in a box
will do nicely…

ants in the kitchen will leave by easter. he said it should be on the same day each year; he is learned, pronounced as two bits.


do not fret, i know you worry, i will paint it over in the spring.

it is a long time since the sun shone in long and low like that.

something happened
everything repeated itself

on the page

lately i find if i bend the screen lightly
all appears back in order

unlike the brother
who appeared in auto fill

who is too deeply here
should predict as it

seems we have a similar taste, rather gathering than buying​
prefer reclamation than boutiques

seems we gets busy here and there
yet cannot verbally explained why we write

and paint

today we deliver eggs to blaenau
the family

and travel by bus
a splendid route

you know

flowers fall
petals separate

this is not confetti

we cannot see each other face to face

we must live alone on lockdown

we asked if he referred to the war

which we consider affects us all

he nodded then sat down in his garden chair

on a blue theme

new with gouache

come lately


hermes delivered
they know where I live now
learned quickly
after the first mistakes

we have to be brave and strong
like always
like we done before

we draw the ways we walk
daily

now in blue

though we wiped away the second coat
of paint

move on
with differing
music

the trial by glass

jim

pleased about the photos

i thought it was like a different
world up there

some of it is national trust
with douglas firs and violets

there is a bench for to lay
to see the tree tops and i

told her that I did not use it
being a growed up

she said she doubted that

a lot

walked back along the road
to see the new lambs

waved to the farmer on her quad

bike

she also reads the meters

round here

jim

there is not much more to add, it is lighter

now.                                       birds sing early.

once again we come back to ourselves.

metaphor.

darker.

especially the mornings,
i need not tell you really,
you must know.

ok if there is no rush to go,
easy, cosy up and write.

today i work with the imaginary

and bless all the foxes, their pointy ears upward.

you know i thought she come to see me all those years ago
i mean she was not meant to leave

although there was no section that time

i think

she had to go back
yet there  was no phone at grans

no one came for her

i have no memory
no recall

of

what happened after she arrived
except she looked small and clean

and was upset

and it was a warm day
dusty in the alley

bless all the foxes, their pointy ears upward

liked when you talked about childhood

our childhood.

later i sighed

and

placed my cold hands over my face…

to talk of food

each day we check and diary
for there is no popping into
the shops just now

we see on social which shops
are closed for decontamination

say deep clean again

and those gone sick

it comes from kimnel bay
the asda van and we use
it carefully

the basement is now a store
with a label
and categories

as is the outbuilding
amongst other things

part of the day is pleasant
in the kitchen chopping
preparing

boogie wonderland
ha

lots of nuts

james

briefly

early

some folk don’t say much
some folk manage
quite well
really
being independent

peter, i could not make things like that either and admire those that can.

it is good to mend and keep things nice

such an achievement

nice little house.

who knows what goes on there.

so here on the night watch,
all is quiet , no birds sing.

touched by the small thing,
softly, we drew together,
with words, and gestures
in air, in mind.

on monday which was mayday bank holiday only may day was saturday with monday being the third already

i drew pictures on scraps left over from the other pictures i had cut round carefully

all day it rained hard, drumming

a little world here of characters and stories none of them famous nor commendable

it was mentioned that some people don’t know what whitsun is and he agreed and said

what is it then?