Here are a couple of recently published books featuring my poetry...

The poem I have printed in this book is called Listen...

When the landing light goes out

And the stars begin to glitter,

Did you hear that distant shout

Or that secret patter-pitter?

 

Hold your breath and lie quite still,

Let the darkness slowly settle...

What was that - the creak of wood?

What was that - the clink of metal?

 

Or the trees that sway outside

In the wind, their dry leaves rustling?

Or could it be that night`s dark cloak

Softly hides a ghostly bustling?

 

And up there beyond the ceiling

Did you catch a sudden squeak -

And suspect that in a moment

There`ll erupt a long high SHRIEK!!

 

And a gurgling and a splatter

And a bubbling and a plop,

And that through the lath and plaster

Something horrible will drop...

 

But don`t worry, so you say,

For it`s all inside my head...

Until you hear that dragging noise

From underneath the bed!

 

I have two poems in this book, both of them about Wales where I spent my childhood. The one below is called Inside The Church...

Every silence lingers

a rippling whisper.

So much empty air

and ancient slanting sunlight

through rainbowed glass,

and dust,

and memories of prayer.

 

We stay a moment

hushed by all this grandeur

built for one man`s simple agony

and death;

try to feel stirred, or awed, or bowed

amidst the mouldy Bible smell -

but turn towards the light instead;

the endless hillsides` endless breath.

*

 

Watch Out There's A Ghost About is published by Oxford University Press - www.oup.com/uk

 

One River Many Creeks is published by Macmillan Children's Books - www.panmacmillan.com

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