Category Archives: Jersey

My Roadside Stall

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I’ve gathered all the windfalls
And made a roadside stall,
I’ve put them in a little box
Upon the garden wall.

I hope somebody buys them,
They’re very good, you see,
They’re good for apple crumble
Or bramble jam for tea.

I’ve washed and dried the apples
And polished every one,
If you pass by you’ll see them
All shining in the sun.

I think somebody’s stopping
Beside my roadside stall,
I hope they like my apples
And maybe buy them all.

For Lucy

Summer Days

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We took our teddies on the beach,
My cousin Camilla and I.
The golden sands reached down to the sea
And the sea stretched away to the sky.
We played all day by the edge of the tide
With the seagulls circling high,
And at night we dreamt of our day on the beach,
The teddies, Camilla and I.

August 1982

Down the Gullies

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The silver sandbanks beckon me
Towards the ebbing sea,
So down I go with shrimping net
And sandwiches for tea.

My favourite gullies stretch away
Towards a distant land
Where sea meets sky beyond the rocks
And bars of untrod sand.

This is the shore where Neptune reigns,
Where mermaids swim and play,
Where tides stand still before they turn
To rise, then flow away.

Among the rocks a thousand pools
Lie cool and green and deep,
With seaweed forests still and dark
All seemingly asleep.

But in their depths the blennies dart
And green crabs hide and dig,
The hermits scuttle out of sight,
Their shells a shade too big.

Here all is calm and I’m alone,
The sun moves on his way
Across the cloudless summer sky
Towards the end of day.

The tide has turned, it’s time to go
Back to the distant shore;
My jam jar’s full of shrimps and crabs,
Tomorrow there’ll be more.

For Helier, Lucy and Bessie – August 1979