Ordnance Survey

Leaf 328 – Looking Back

 

This linked sequence of verses is a meditation on maps, partly inspired by a geography field trip to the Chiltern Hills, which I went on while I was at school. Maps have always fascinated me. We are very lucky in the UK to have very good maps of the country, provided by the unceasing work of the Ordnance Survey, who have been mapping the landscape since the late 1700s.

 

 

ORDNANCE SURVEY

 

Following a fingerpost –

ascending the path

to Ivinghoe Beacon.

 

Tracing coloured lines,

along contours and

converging coordinates.

 

Folding in on itself –

trig’ points and squares

translating landscape.

 

Making sense

of maps and minds,

charting our course.

 

Glancing up in awe

– compassing the

view’s high vantage.

 

 

 

Westminster Chimes

Leaf 327 – Looking Back

 

Paul Rafferty - Big Ben After Rain (Portland Gallery)

For two years, between 2021 and 2023, I lived just around the corner from Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. It was an eventful time to be living there – with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee; the Queen’s funeral; the King’s Coronation; plus, a quick succession of Prime Ministers, hurriedly coming and then, just as quickly going. During that time too, after a period of silence which had lasted several years, the restoration of Big Ben was finally completed.

 

 

Mirroring the pavement’s

wet sheen –

Westminster chimes.

 

 

 

Book Browsing

Leaf 326 – Looking Back

 

During my undergraduate days, I used to haunt the Thames riverside with a close friend of mine. And many years later, I lived in the same locale, hence for me it’s a place of many happy memories.

 

 

Briefly back to ’95 –

browsing the

Southbank bouquinistes.

 

 

 

Photograph Credit: lxscrow963 (Flickr)

Picture Spot

Leaf 325 – Reflections

 

Raymond Depardon - Tourists at Universal Studios (Magnum)

There’s no doubt that having digital cameras in our mobile phones has made it much easier to record all aspects of our lives, but how often do we look back at those pixellated memories?

 

 

Framing snapshots

of places we’ll

never see again.

 

 

 

Fever Dream

Loose Leaves – Art Inspired

 

A poem about love, lust, desire and confusion. Inspired by an eclectic classic.

 

 

WANDA

 

Finally,

taking him

at his word –

she seems

to yield, yet

her look –

unseen, 

betrays

his fancy.

 

Stentorian

echo

of slender heels,

staccato

on stone –

proceeding

without pause.

 

At long last,

his

fever dreams

come true –

only to

turn into

night sweats.

 

Lacerated

and fretful,

heart

quaking

in agony –

wanting

everything

he fears most.

 

Stentorian

echo

of slender heels,

staccato

on stone –

receding

without remorse.

 

She leaves him

shivering,

treasuring

to the end of

eternity –

her indifference:

 

His desire,

demeaned –

exceeding

all his expectations;

heart broken,

left cold –

atrophied.

 

Alone.

 

 

The Velvet Underground - Venus in Furs (1967) - Past & Present

**WARNING: This video contains rapid flashing images and strobe-effect lights**

Written in loving memory of our old friends, Leo & Lou - Happy Birthday, Josephine. x

Photograph Credit: Girotti

Reading the Future

Leaf 324 – Senryu (or witty, tom-foolery)

 

Norman Rockwell - Girl Reading Palm (1921)

When I was a child at school, probably when I was around eleven or twelve years old, there seemed to be a phase during which all the girls became obsessed with palm reading …

 

 

Attempting to read the

future in her eyes –

too afraid to open my own.

 

 

Sheltering from the Sun

Leaf 323 – Reflections / Art Inspired

 

Matt Francis - The Woman with the Golden Umbrella

Living in Japan, where it is often sunny whatever the season, it’s interesting to see that parasols are still widely used here. I remember visiting at park in the UK during the height of summer with a Japanese friend, where we encountered a small English boy who was utterly perplexed as to why anyone would decide to use an umbrella on a day when it very clearly wasn’t raining! – But as our summers across the globe seem to be getting worryingly warmer each year, we in the West would be wise to re-adopt the parasol.

 

(Although, having said that, I’m slightly perturbed to notice how in recent years the use of handheld battery-operated fans and even jackets fitted with in-built electric powered ventilation systems are becoming increasingly common here in Japan. It seems illogical to me that adapting to climate change by adopting technologies which require the increased consumption of power is a sensible response. In the long run it will surely only make things worse. Short-term thinking, always in favour of personal gain first and foremost is perhaps our biggest collective enemy.)

 

 

Sheltering from the sun

– a girl under a

golden umbrella.

 

 

Photograph Credit: Matt Francis (PhotographizeMag/Instagram)