Category Archives: Poetry

Arrival from Bombay

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Schooner off silhouette

And in and out among the flecks of foam
White sea-birds rose and fell upon the wind,
No different from the moving curves of spray
Until into the sky they rose and stayed
And joined the flocks which flew beside the ship,
All drawn along and upward in our wake.
Upon the starboard bow the distance broke
And there between the ocean and the sky
The land appeared, its highest peak concealed
By cloudy streamers, ribbons of the wind,
Its earthbase anchored in the purple depths
Among the corals and the waving weeds.

Our arrival in Seychelles by sea from Bombay,
After a journey of five days, July 1968

My secret

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I have a secret for you,
Let me whisper in your ear,
You mustn’t tell another soul,
I don’t want them to hear.

Just bend a little lower
And turn your face this way,
Now shut your eyes and listen
To what I have to say:

Of all the people in the world,
Of things and creatures too,
The one I love the best of all
Is somebody called You!

1980

Hanging out the washing

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I really do not understand
Why Mummy has to start each day
By hanging all the children’s clothes
Upon a line, high in the sun.

But all the same I love to watch
My nappies flapping in the wind,
With Helier’s shorts and Lucy’s tights.
All holding hands and blowing free.

From time to time throughout the day
My Mummy goes to feel the clothes,
And if it rains she rushes out
To bring them back into the house.

I trot beside her up the path
And watch the sun shine through the sheets,
It’s playing hide and seek with me
Behind the branches of the trees.

By teatime when the sun has moved
Around the house towards the West,
My Mummy goes to bring them in,
All full of summer air and sun.

For Beatrice, 18 months, who loves to hang out the washing with Judy. 8.3.78