NEWS FROM THE ISLAND plus a poem

MEANDERINGS a WORK IN PROGRESS -  My latest poetry manuscript is now finished ahead of the delivery date I promised, and been delivered to the publishers. The new book's name has been approved and the cover has been designed, and everything now, as of today, signed - next thing to do is translate the paperwork for US tax laws.

I have got my dining table clear again and my brain can start thinking of something else after all the concentration needed over the past four months.

7.30 a.m. and off to Mainland

So off to the Mainland to have lunch with friends, return Library books, get a haircut, and everything else I had put to one side.

 

Passenger on the Water Taxi

Why would a woman live alone on an island?

Hide herself away from love and friends?

She’d have to be a recluse, self-reliant, maybe

weird? – Or have a very strong belief

in being some sort of emerging artist?

Choose one or all, it can’t be easy.

She asks the same of herself – if she knew

she would answer – though she can’t

imagine anything other than island-life.

But I can tell you. It’s the boat in flight

away and back that holds her there:

her relaxed slump, her trance-blank stare

don’t reveal the involuntary rush of joy

flooding her limbs as her eyes drink

up the sea. in all its green blue-green moods

as if once again she’s following the call

of ancient memory like a migratory bird.