PICTURE OF OUR WORLD

PICTURE OF OUR WORLD

Dodging raindrops

Returning to the car

During a sharp shower

To fetch a bigger lens

There’s a Kestrel

Perching on a wire

Just outside the cafe

I want to take its picture

I spot a boat

Of twin-masted majesty

Which I saw sailing by

And stop to snap a picture

Then I hear a boy

Who I did not see

Say to his father

That man took my picture!

Which I ought to say

I did not - though it

May have looked that way

As I stopped to take that picture

The man with him replies

That’s why you must always

Wear your clothes outside

In case people take your picture

Which says a lot about

His view of the world

And about suspicions of

People carrying big cameras

Though if someone was dodgy

Would they really be so blatant?

When they ought to worry more

About phones taking sneaky pictures

But I really can’t imagine

Warped people lust over street scenes

They take their victims to dark

Secret places to take their pictures

A few minutes later in the rain

The father – I assume it was his father

Notices me once again and scowls

As I stand in the rain taking pictures

MAWH, July 2017

CAFE TRAIN

CAFE TRAIN

On a

Wet afternoon

On Anglesey

Sipping

A cup of coffee

From a large white cup

Sitting

In a damp café

Surrounded by

Multi-

Coloured wooden chairs

And cheap souvenirs

A child's

Voice calling out

Unexpectedly

Shouting

Electronically

Inappropriately

Hello!

Would you like

To have a go?

Go on!

Try it!

It cries out

A toy

Ride-on train

Flirts shamelessly

Gareth

Painted bright red

Pleading to the room

Trying

To separate

Parents from their cash

On a

Wet afternoon

On Anglesey

MAWH, July 2017

AMBULANCE CHASER

AMBULANCE CHASER

What to do

When you describe

Some appalling driving you’ve seen

Namely overtaking a queue of traffic

In the wake of an ambulance

As The Actions Of A Moron

And then

Two days later

The people you told about it

Laud it as a piece of absolute genius

When their friend describes doing

That very thing the night before

MAWH, July 2017

COLLAPSED AND DIED

COLLAPSED AND DIED (Not a cheery poem)

There's something terrifying

About the expression

Collapsed and died -

The unknowable story

Always

Told with such ambiguity

By those who survive you

Within that simple phase

Terror that could strike us all

Gone and without warning

A sudden end to our everything

All those

Important things left unfinished

As we go about our lives

The things we leave unsaid

Promises that we'll do it later

All those vital plans falling

Down and without warning

All gone

Your whole life’s sentence ending

With a sudden full stop

MAWH, July 2017

LEAVING WITH CAPALDI

LEAVING WITH CAPALDI

I can't go through this again

I can't go through this again

The problem I now have

Is that after forty-five years

For quite some time now

I've been talking about

Thinking about

Leaving with Capaldi

At Christmastime anyway

But you're not a true fan

But you're not a true fan

If you don’t watch the lot

If you can walk away

No matter who’s lost the plot

Stick with it all the way

Unless they picked

An absolutely astonishing actor

Who’d persuade me to stay

The head writer’s still a bloke

The head writer’s still a bloke

I've so little time for Chibnaff

I don't rate his writing at all

I watched the first season

Of Boredchurch

Found it derivative

Cliched bland rubbish

Decided not to go back there

Getting used to another one

Getting used to another one

They tell me it’s only kid's TV

Not like soft porn for "Grown-ups"

Peddled on those other channels

That I don’t have

That I won’t have

Never giving clever

Non-violent role models for kids

Only to have them jack it in

Only to have them jack it in

But now it looks as if

If I decide to do just that

I'm some kind of sexist

Mysogynist dinosaur

So now I can't leave

So now I have to stay

Learn to live to leave another day

Just as I'd learned to admire them

Just as I'd learned to admire them

Just when I thought I was out

They find ways to drag me back in

To ride another madcap ride

So now it looks as if I won't

Be leaving after all

Predictable as ever

It seems like after all I’ve said

I won’t be leaving with Capaldi

I can't be leaving with Capaldi

Martin A W Holmes, July 2017

WEATHER EXTREMES MONDAY 170717

There's a poem in there somewhere...

It's warmest in Otterbourne
In Fair Isle jumpers
May still need to be worn
It's wettest in Resallach
But in Morecambe
You won't need a mac

THE OWL BOTHERER

THE OWL BOTHERER

I see him sitting poised at the corner of the field

Eagerly surveying grey horizons growing gloomier

Cagoule hood flapping tripod erected lens extended

The solitude of waiting

Keenly contemplating

No time for debating

He’s done his research

Knowing where it will perch

I find him planted poised at the corner of the field

The orange ghost seeking the white ghost

I see her swooping over the corner of the field

Eagerly surveying over fields and through long grasses

Wings barely flapping eyes patiently hunting silently

The solitude of feeding

Providing after breeding

Food her chicks are needing

Her eyes keenly search

Knowing just when to strike

I spot her flying over the corner of the field

The white ghost there for the orange ghost

Martin A W Holmes, July 2017

THE OWL BOTHERERS

THE OWL BOTHERERS

Not a good night for owl bothering

Grey waves have clamped shut the sky

Curtaining the moon - hiding the blues

The skies won’t be dancing their flamenco

Although white lightning might still strike

I don’t want to go owl bothering

Light’s not looking promising

Not tonight my love – I’ll sit right here

Wondering of unseen flights fanciful

Remembering white lightning strikes

But someone will be owl bothering

They will have no objections

Venturing outdoors – watching the air

Cameras clicking binocular stares

Hoping white lightning will strike twice

Whilst I like to be owl bothering

I prefer lonely meanders

Solitary nights – company free

Lacking all vain hope or expectation

Then a flash of wild white lightning

Other nights I’ll go owl bothering

Pretending that I don’t care

Secretly yearning - Always hoping

For those unpredictable surprises

As white lightning soars and strikes

Martin A W Holmes, July 2017

MOON, SATURDAY 080717

Actually, I was rather chuffed with this one, taken on my evening walk on Saturday. After months of taking photographs of the moon, I do think this might be the most technically competent one that I've ever managed.

Heading back down the hill after watching the sunset and the moon rise between 9.00 and 9.30pm, I ran into a bloke with a camera and tripod and passed a cheery "Nice to see someone doing it properly!" and he replied with a cheery "I'm really here looking for Barn Owls..."

Now, I've been heading up that particular hill for a while now and, whilst I had been told there were Barn Owls about, I never really expected to see one as I lack the patience to wait, and worry about being out too late in the darkness of country lanes, so I mentioned that someone had told me that they were possibly roosting in the quarry, chatted a little about the Tawny Owls which we had seen and heard, and went on my way.

Happily, I still had the "big" lens on the camera, the one which I seldom take out as it's so heavy, and I'm rarely that successful with it as I don't lug a tripod about most of the time. It's a relatively cheap one, too, so the glass isn't all that great, but it serves its purpose.

Nevertheless, as I approached home, I decided to use a handy drystone wall as a makeshift tripod, and try for one or two last shots before heading indoors, just as an aircraft did that rare thing of lining up perfectly with the full moon from the spot I was standing and, given that I had about two seconds to take the shot, I was rather pleased with the resulting shot, especially as so much of it was actually in focus.

By the way, the next evening, walking down the hill after photographing another sunset, fully aware that it was too early and getting far too cloudy for the full moonrise on the 9th of July (about 10.10pm in our neck of the woods), I rather unexpectedly and astoundingly spotted this...