Best Nostalgiasun Poems
White Wine Emparado Sun Shine ( 2007 )
The frosted glass
Trickles in the shade
Little rivulet’s marking times smiling
Hazy cool sips
Of the second bottle
Shared with talk and laughter
While Costa Del Blanca heat
Bakes the dust devils
Dancing at the seas edge
Shared bread of the day
Tuna olives and jalapenos
Spell their twang
While giggling on some silly joke
Its smells like goats cheese
And tasty trinkets of fishy squid
Cold crisp vino blanco
Hazy cool sipped
Of the third bottle
Cork’s popped
Tourist frying in sun tan oil
Unaware of the benefits of shadow
We kick back
Souls replenishing in lazy skies
Friend filled eyes
Enjoy the silence of company
Lilting with Spanish guitars
And the dusky Arab “looky looky” man plies his wares
The sleepy heady slows
Bodies stretch comfortable with tans
And cigarette smoke
Drifts hours to the soft washing
Sighing Mediterranean salt
Away for the duration
Left back somewhere the cold chill
And rain of England’s
Dismal lowered damp grey
Shrugged from these shoulders
And forgotten
We kick back
Any further back would lead to snoring
Souls replenishing in lazy blue skies
HOW TO LIGHT A BARBECUE FLAME
My garden in Ireland was at first merely
A windy exposed open field sloping down right
To the sea, a half-mile away nearly :
My pots of musky-smelling marigolds blew away in the night.
Yellow petals were ripped off my freshly-opened tulips;
My roses and her berries got bad doses of windburn -
Black along the edge of her shining red hips:
The wind I couldn’t stop; but I tried a little to turn.
I turned it up-and-over the plant beds,
Put in three windbreaks across the main flow -
Large hawthorn trees with a Russian vine’s tentacle threads
Were front-line defence against the airy foe.
Behind this, an escallonia hedge, thick and tough with shining leaves,
And behind that a lower viburnum hedge
With scented winter flowers creeping up the walls to the eaves
Speading tiny white flowers on the window ledge.
My marigold beds and tender shrubs hid,
Spread in the sun behind these tough guys;
And then, in turn, my cat and kid
Behind the flowers and shrubs under blue skies.
In the sun everyone was ready
Waiting for the barbecue.
When it was lit, the match flame was steady:
No breeze ever got through.
THE FISHERMAN
He casts his net in cool deep water,
Intent on things below.
Silently I watch him work,
But he will never know.
The sun gleams off his sun bronzed back,
His muscles glisten, shine,
As sweat and water mingle,
Emphasize each line.
He comes out here most every day,
Fishing from a skiff,
Bare but for some faded shorts,
He gives my heart a lift.
Judy Ball
I REMEMBER YOU
Alone I walk along the shore,
And think of you from time to time.
Your sun bleached hair, your sun bronzed skin,
I memorized your every line.
I wonder what became of you,
I wonder where you went.
What was your name and what you did,
When you weren't fishing, so intent,
On things that swam beneath the waves,
You saw naught else around you.
You never saw me standing there,
Or knew I thought about you.
The years have come and gone now,
Our song of youth is sung.
I see you still casting your net,
Forever strong and young.
Judy Ball
(Sometimes the best love affairs are the ones that only happen in your mind.)