A week’s residential Creative Writing Course
Hidden Voices
My home for a week
Born of a family feud
Can you hear whispers?
Stoney visage
Sir Thomas watches
As cars approach his castle.
‘Penny for your thoughts’
Ephemeral vision
Ghostly reflection
In the Conservatory
Appears – unbiddenBattle
The Lionesses
Valiant but defeated
In this ancient barnNow you see me, now you don’t
Room-mate with eight legs
Thinks that she’s invisible
Think again, Spider!

Wangedrocht
Body of stone slate
Sixteen strong legs of sandstone
What goes through your head?
Orange LSD
Tangerine poppies
Open like clockwork at dawn
Kaleidoscope eyesA three point five million pound rebuild
Fred built a glass house,
installed electricity,
Impressed the neighboursSun monument
Weathered stones of sand
Carve their own hieroglyphics
In a Yorkshire wood

Perfect symmetry
Pigeon netted portico
Eyes oblivious
‘Scroll-crested top rail with bobbin finials to bars. ‘
Iron curlicues
Mimic the marshmallow clouds
In caricatureIn the library
With wide wings outstretched
White plaster eagles observe
Laptops and iPads
Seat of learning
I write at my desk
Dwarfed by white marble columns
Can we reach the sky?
The peace and quiet of the English countryside
Heard from a distance
The roar of the motorway
Can sound like the seaSnapdragon
Dragon guards these stairs
Atop the castle folly
Who dares confront him?
The arch
Lichen overwhelms
And paints with master brush-stroke
Stones from the seabed
Eighteenth century Disneyland
Home is his castle
Like a stage set, nothing more
Actors! Bide your timeLucy’s Walk
I search for Lucy.
Broken hearted she wanders,
Barred from love – like me?A composition decomposing
Pillars divide us
But they crumble and dissolve
Let us reunite
Enter ye who dare
This arch is Norman
Could be Frederick or Cedric
But Norman it isRock-like sea critters
Fantastical stone
Wind and water have sculpted
Beautiful monstersAncient oak
With unseeing eyes
The dead tree looks down on me
One branch yet living
For posterity
Face at the window
Barely there, ephemeral
Capture that momentBreakfast
View and weather great
Teacake on my patio
What more could I ask?Thoughts
‘Mine, all mine’ she said
This fine house is her castle
At least for this week
Selfie
A moment for me.
Deer dotted vista spreads wide
From my rotundaIn the Serpentine
Oak tree slowly drowns
Reaching to the heavens for help.
Answer came there none
Morning skies
Clouds of beauty part.
Indiscriminate sunshine
Illuminates meAfternoon
Nobody near me
Tea for one and one for tea
Happy to be free
Spitting image
‘Look yonder,’ saist he
I strain hard, but find life is
Obscured by a frame
Master carver
Entwined acanthus
Ascend the ancient staircase
Pursued by cherubs
The dining room
Atop my salad
Allegorical figures
Of Fame and PlentyTen long years it took
To restore former glory
Many thousand hands.
Granted by myself.
Permission to write is given,
One word at a time.USA v England
M’lady in red
Battle of the two passports
One white and one redVandals in paradise
Bridge the Serpentine
Even today it remains
A source of friction
Dear deer
In the vast meadow
Fallow deer play peekaboo
Amid the long grass
Guests for dinner
Once on the seabed
Crinoidal limestone pillars
Support the ‘sealing’That lady in red
Don’t let it go to your head
She’s smiling at you.
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