On returning home

Family issues have required me to return to the Isle of Man, where I lived from 1966-1979. It has changed a lot but still has a geography of memory and poetry....

Ersatz Memphis

Your old school only with extensions, of stiff joints, 

Smeared and running down, draining, creaking gulls, salt grime 

sticky, blown dry, of corrosion to that pretender syndrome. 

Newness equals something quintessential like the early eighties - 

ersatz Memphis 

Of a bad idea bankrupt in poor locations, dregs. Sacrificing First 

Nation hate sanded & mouldering to resentment that corporal 

arrogance aspires only to commissioner syndrome. But linger

Nice skies and fresh air and concrete of pebbles and small stones 

cracking and damp 

With salt

Memories 

   like the Latin for ‘flying buttress’ 

   Normal distribution is to American churches as vinyl

   over slate and stone is to Old haunts – 

there and gone with scaffolding in beautiful geometry with only

Spring further on.

 

Barney on the Beach

Barney's first experience of the sea was a shock - not knowing what it was, he followed the black labrador in. The look of horror on his face is hilarious.

Holiday

Off to the Isle of Man until Easter:
http://www.iomguide.com/