“Westering, Exeter”
There have been a thousand thanks given,
a thousand vows shaped in golden beeswax
Poetry
“On his Cross”
What do crucifixes show?
The dying or the death?
“Knit together”
God settles in for the evening,
radio on and the latest project to hand —
“Right justified?”
You who imagine ‘Here Be Dragons’ beyond \ these shores \ to set St George against himself
“Seeking asylum”
St George stares out of the hotel window. / His ears are filled with sun, / family, orange trees and childhood.
“Cadenza”
Compose yourself in the scene
in first century Judea
“The long arc”
seek justice
and you hold
a seashell to your ear
“Some of our conversations”
Some of our conversations have become songs — delight, appeal, lament, contentment with a job well done
Hot off the press… The Silken Twine zine
The very first issue of The Silken Twine, by the poets of the Black Ven (Exeter) Stanza of the Poetry Society.
“Passing of the Artist”
Celebrating the artist Veronica Gosling, 10 May 1931 – 20 November 2025.
Uncut Poets, March 2026
I chose to interweave poems about family and science for my open mic, including “QED”, on the subject of buying presents for my dad.
“Gaza 3-6-5”
Gaza covers 365 square kilometres,
one for every day in the year.
“Ars prosaica”
Only Didcot’s distant cooling towers and the Clumps
punctuated the sentences of my early geography
“The Moho Discontinuity is exposed”
You would walk Coverack shore on the ebb
from the far north end to the harbour wall
“Us English”
Us English are a country
of boat people.
“In winter I survive”
Morsels // of heliotrope / daphne / gorse / bid — // come close / and breathe / our fugitive / breath.
“Who shatter upwards”
A poem for International Women’s Day 2026. Women and under-represented minorities are more likely to be appointed to leadership roles during a crisis.
Uncut Poets
Yesterday I read for the first time at the monthly in-person Uncut Poets at the Phoenix.
“Heartwood”
Written while on retreat at Tymawr Convent in September 2025, responding to some of the many trees in the grounds.
“Address to a Grapefruit”
An (even more niche) second poem relating to the chemo diet… with apologies to Burns and his haggis!
“You can keep the kimchi”
Written for a friend who has recently started chemo. It was a real surprise to see what’s on the list of foods to avoid.
“The heart-shackles are not as you think”
After a line in Mary Oliver “When the Roses Speak, I Pay Attention”
“Praise God in luminescence”
Praise for inflorescence of the swaggering wisteria!
“Ask the Scarlet Pimpernel”
He sought it here, he sought it there— /
the poor man’s shy barometer. /
Am I in heaven or am I in hell? /
he asked the Scarlet Pimpernel.
“Tiny blue flowers”
Hiking through woodland and over Exmoor seeking the source of the Exe, accompanied by the occasional helicopter or light aircraft.
“Mar-A-Lago lies”
Given what DJT is currently doing to the White House, I think it’s about time I shared this triolet.
“Fractured”
My patio is becoming an ecosystem. Maybe one day nature will heal it.
“Selling my soul for a low GI roll”
The internet knows me better than I know myself… maybe.
“The greater and the lesser lights”
O Oriens is the Great O Antiphon for 21 December, anticipating the light of the world. “O Morning Star, splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness: Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.”
“Behind the wheel”
It seems to me significant that cars have come to signify the soul in many dreams. In the driver’s seat? Then you are in control of your life. Careening down the hill with no brakes? Well… And that’s the path the climate is on as we refuse to recognise our addictions.
“Uplift”
Acknowledging something of the darkness at the lightest time of year might remind of the possibility of finding light at the darkest time.
“In the beginning”
A response in poetry to Elaine Goodwin’s beautiful mosaic “Fragments of Light 2020”.
“After the lecture there was time for questions”
When we have killed / all the butterflies / will that be an end / to tornadoes?
“Sowing seeds”
“unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12.24).
“And there was light”
Responding to the Easter Vigil service at Exeter Cathedral on 31 March 2024.
“At Tymawr Convent”
Place your hand upon these walls, /
soft on rough rock /
hewn haphazard into a house of prayer.
“VJ Day 2025” on BBC Radio Devon
BBC Radio Devon interviewed me about the poem and my faith for the Breakfast show broadcast on the morning of Sunday 17th August.
“Kilpeck Church”
Back or forth in time—which way do echoes carry?
“VJ Day 2025” stories
A number of friends responded to the poem with stories from east Asia and Ukraine.
“VJ Day 2025” reading in Exeter
I have the honour of taking part in the civic ceremony hosted by the Lord Mayor of Exeter to mark the 80th anniversary.
“Liberties”
My small, raw offering for Jyothi, Sue, and the other peaceful protestors arrested on 9 August 2025 under Article 13, and for environmental campaigners willing to risk the same. Respect. This what it is coming to.
“Blythburgh”
Blythburgh Church is a numinous place, with centuries of prayer saturating the stone. Luminous too.
“VJ Day 2025”
On 6th August 1945, the Allies dropped a “Little Boy” nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later on 9th August, they dropped a “Fat Man” bomb on Nagasaki. The Japanese Emperor’s announcement of surrender was broadcast on 15th August 1945.
“Everyone welcome”
During Lent in 2024, I aimed to write a poem a day, prompted by the Gospel reading for that day.
Three months of poetry
I’ve happily had quite a few poems come out since May. Watch this space!
“Continue in my word”
Since April 2020 I have been hosting a Lectio Divina group, one beautiful outcome of the Covid lockdowns.
“Lacuna”
When I was 8, I broke a front tooth playing silly games. Three root canals and three crowns later, the infection was extensive…
Turn the Tide Festival
A couple of my poems on the subject of Marine Conservation will be appearing in the Dawlish Poetry Trail 2025.
“Let’s do something nice today” for “Get On Board 50”
Something nice happened today: “Get On Board 50” went up at Studio 36.
“Let’s do something nice today”
Veronica Gosling asked me to contribute another poem for Studio 36’s Get on Board 50, so here’s something celebratory.
One Haiku
how do I begin? the song of a robin is lost in the telling
“And the darkness”
Composed on the walk to St Michael and All Angels, Christmas morning 2023.
“Writing on my hand”
Sometimes I make notes of things to remember on my left hand, and then go up to receive communion…
It never rains but it pours
…literally today, bucketing down, blowing a hooley, and thunder and lightning to boot. But also figuratively, in terms of published poems.
Four Haiku and One
redefining pink –
bursting magnolia buds
stretch their baby fists
“In a car park a tanka”
Ho hum.
“Made for your hand”
Pebblebed Heaths lie inland of Budleigh, and the beach is formed of pebbles, beautifully smooth.
“Learning to float”
I learned to float when I was 53, off the beach at Budleigh Salterton, Devon.
“18”
Poem published by Wildfire Words, with audio recording of my reading.
Buses come in threes
…and I’ve had three poems published recently in different journals.
“Entwined”
Terza rima sonnet inspired by walks through the temperate rainforests of Lustleigh Cleave, Dartmoor, and Isaac Newton.
Notes to self
Poetry is an exercise in patience.
“How do I like thee? Let me count the ways”
Inspired by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Facebook. Gotta love the AI image generator’s attempt to produce a “cloud of thumbs up emojis”. It really can’t do hands… or faces.
“Highways agency”
Prompted by the variable messages overhead as I drove home down the M5.
“Think chair” poetry reading
A reading of “Think chair” and other poems more or less related to items of furniture
“Think chair” for “Get On Board 39”
When I responded to an invitation to ‘think chair’, Studio 36 published it.
“Think chair”
Veronica Gosling sent out an invitation to ‘think chair’, so I wrote a poem.
New ventures into poetry
strange how December / triggered reading and writing / poetry again
Green Words
Two haiku, one responding to the news of record September average global temperatures, and one celebrating a bit of biodiversity that is often overlooked.
“Hope springs eternal”
In 2010 I wrote a series of four haiku spanning seven-year intervals in response to Deepwater Horizon: 1996, 2003, 2010, 2017. Now it’s 2023, maybe an update that ignites the will to keep plugging on would be helpful…
National Poetry Day
Writing haiku, inspired by the natural world around (and perhaps inside) Exeter Cathedral.
#DIYLent #poetry #light #prayer
In this year of quarantine, I have been observing a DIY Lent. I thought it would be wonderful to get together (via Zoom of course) with one or two different friends each week. Both of us bring a poem, or piece of poetic prose, or art, or music to share and reflect on.
“Dress for overcast”
In which I was a creative lead at a MozFest Fringe hack day, and also tinkered with Javascript to create some generative weather forecast poetry in motion.
“Petroleum”
BP has been found “grossly negligent” in the lead-up to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I wrote a series of haikus in response to the original event, and other oil-related events past and imagined,
“#turnedoutgreyagain”, a Twoem
Blackbird perched precariously in pyracantha, picking at plentiful berries. #ventriloquismforbeginners
“Presence”
A poem inspired by Iona, and commended in Earthing Faith’s “Inspired by Creation” competition, October 2010.
“My soul has taken flight”
An experiment in a geo-located poem, August 2010.
“Waiting for the Fionnphort Bus”
Poem published in Poetry Scotland, Late Spring 2010.