Back in January

for the next River of Stones.

Dark

Dark at four -
tomorrow will not come
for sixteen hours.

Close

Somewhere close
invisible foxes
cry at midnight.

Blur

A black dog runs
beside a bicycle -
blur of legs and spokes

Alarm

Walking carefully
on carpets of decaying leaves -
a car alarm screams.

Pale

In such thick fog
so little place to hide -
this pale tree.

Already

Dark already -
the whole day eaten
by idleness.

Echo

Footsteps echo
in the hollow before dawn -
the brain still sleeps.

Imperceptibly

The hard white cloud
thins imperceptibly to blue -
light, then my shadow.

Skies

Open your eyes
and discover blue skies
or grey.

Dragons

Dream interrupted
by the clang of morning -
dragons slink away.

Before

Foggy silence -
the city hesitates before
another week.

Backview

Chilly afternoon -
the earlier sunshine's
receding backview.

Can't be

Sweating, shucking off
fleece and waterproof - this can't be
November.

Ambient

Friday evening -
ambient sounds
alter.

Ribbon

Pale light on the river -
shiny ribbon snaking
through the grime.

Shelter

His face in the rain -
a sleeping bag gives
scant shelter.

Glow

In the dark day's
darkest corners, the glow
of golden leaves.

Spit

Only the rain
may spit in your face
with impunity.

Listen

Time has stopped -
listen to the wind
fidgeting.

Smoke and shadow

November the fifth:
smell of smoke and shadow
of a cowering cat.

Parquet

All the chairs removed
but two - poised to pirouette
across the parquet floor.

Low-flying

Sycamore leaves
busy in the wind - a hundred
low-flying moths

Trumpeters

Waterloo station
invisible trumpeters
entertain the queue

Heal

Soggy leaves -
a poultice will not heal
the earth's wounds.

Imagine

Below the bridge,
brown water - imagine floating,
imagine sinking.

Scattered

Pale, dried leaves and stems scattered on the pathway: bleached and shrunken by sun and rain, they recall the bones of small, featherlight creatures.

see

Hour gained

Trees flushed with fever,
dry, coughing carpets underfoot:
delirium of this hour gained.

Muffled

Early morning streets
muffled in a striped blanket
of moon and mist.

Same

From behind: two chubby, near-the-ground West Highland White Terriers with a short, stocky woman in a black trouser suit - all three, the same gait.

Orange

A man walks briskly in the rain with two luridly orange shopping bags - a matching pair of bobbing orange reflections in the wet, shiny pavement.

Loom

A bright red crane looms suddenly above the trees and rooftops, out of scale, like King Kong - the monstrous beast of endless demolition and construction.

Statues

The red bus-ticket machine and the woman in a yellow coat: same height, both slim and straight - two bright Brancusi statues on the footpath.

Whited out

The blue sky whited out -
the light still fierce,
but through a frosted pane.

Low

The light so strong and, even at noon, so low: every shape and colour - this blue, this square, this curly edge - is distorted, over-emphasised.

Colder

As it gets colder, everything seems further away - buildings and people shrink darkly into themselves.

Treasure

Triplets

Two tiny girls with bobbing afros,
two tiny voices sing off-key,
but this one is silent -
oh, there are three!

Autumn

Liquid light
and airy shadows -
Autumn trembles.

Invisibly

In the beam of passing headlights,
the footpath glistens:
it rained, invisibly, before we came.

Stopped

The bus has stopped and isn't starting: a change in the engine's thrumming and in the thrum of voices, which falters and assumes a plaintive, questioning note.

Restless

Night wind's
restless ache
cries at the window.

Skirt

A pale, skinny girl in a battered leather jacket and...
oh, a brightly striped and wildly swooping and dipping flamenco skirt - for a moment, everything dances.

Suddenly

Greasy grey paving stones suddenly cheerful:
fallen red berries line the cracks.

Caught

Brittle oak leaf caught behind a windscreen wiper:
its pale, crisp serrations, shadowed on the glass,
stand out against the soft, reflected street-scene.

Slip

Cold cloud hides the hot sun.
Boiled blood slips and shivers:
what cooks call a reduction.

Trumpet

Big blue trumpet-blooms, the colour of the sky, crane over the garden fence, surprising the street with a bright, twiddly fanfare.

Soft

The young man speaking, smiling in the crowded bus aisle has a smile so soft and wide it breaks open the surrounding, pressing chaos.

Bruised

In the cafe window, a small old man with skin like a dark, bruised plum and greying, wispy corn-rows sits rocking and staring out.

Shiny

The texture of a small, smooth, shiny book; the trails and patterns of words dancing up towards the eye as a featherlight page floats over.

Restless

Endless trails of vapour cross the sky while endless trails of people cross the street: relentless, restless movement that pulls on the heartstrings.

Single

Infinitely slowly downwards, past the window, floats a single brown leaf - a lone parachutist; soon there will be many.

Muted

Through thick, sticky drizzle, a pale skyline against a pale sky; the cyclists in luminous yellow and orange a rather shocking foreground to this muted panorama.

Late

Even the late sun,
turning old stones into gold,
cannot melt this fear.

Fading

Everything is illuminated, golden, and seconds later, as the sun drops behind the domed Victorian library, everything silhouetted against a fast-fading sky.

Statue

The twisted wreck of a bicycle crouches shockingly on the footpath, for all the world like an avant-garde depiction of a homeless street-person.

The end

In the darkness, a scarcely perceptible wave of sighing and sniffling. No one gets up as the credits roll.

Weird

Weird  weather: grey and wintry, humid and clammy, with chinks of sunshine and blasts of wild wind, it's all kinds of weather at once.

Dismantle

The blue-overalled men are jerking and pulling the joints of the steel poles; the canvas roof, a raft of darker blue, dips and flails in the wind and rain.

Bounce

Silhouetted against the blue steel shutter of a closed shop, the young woman waves her hands wildly as she talks and her long curly hair bounces.

Twinkling

While their respective humans chat, the three terriers - brown, white, spotty - dash to and fro, twelve little legs twinkling like animated cartoon dogs.

Signs

Alongside the bright billboard, leaves are curling, fading and waxing anew in the same flat yellow as the giant lettering.

Spire

The church repairs are finally finished and instead of the cumbersome tower of scaffolding the puddle again reflects only the slender, ethereal spire.

(exceptional addition of photo to kind-of make up for missed days)

Teeter

Bus stop: alighting passengers surge towards the back door. The first one teeters, turns and pushes back - outside is a deep, dark puddle too wide to step across.

Sheepish sky

Clouds from a child's picture book: plump, puffy sheep dozing on a blue blanket.

Aftermath

Smoke and sirens:
the smell and sound
of unease.

Soup

Green, gloopy, grainy, creamy, clumpy, tangy, fibrous, viscous, luscious fennel soup.

Office, evening

The framed view of brick wall and windows grows darker as the clamour rising from the unseen bar just below grows louder.

Tunnel

The long, straight, sunbleached path is a tunnel between shadows: mindlessly, one foot in front of the other.

Redcurrants

Edible necklace of red glass beads: all these small, sharp pop-pop-pops of pleasure strung together.

Puffy

This dull warmth with low, puffy clouds and the air thick with emotions like a sponge full of water and waiting to be squeezed.

Rosebud Gong Fu

No rosebud in the first expectant sip, but then a bitter-sweet, dried-pink flowering on the tongue.

Streak

The streak of orange is a fox in the road - we hear, but never see them; so much suddenly unleashed and surfacing.

Silky

The dark, silky cover, painted with yellow letters, opens to creamy pages where fingers love to trail and linger: no such sensual pleasures from an e-reader.

Hard

I'm finding it hard to continue this exercise right now. There are difficulties in my personal life that sometimes feel too much, and then I find myself withdrawing increasingly from the present moment, operating in robot mode, seeing little of what's around me. On top of this came the riots in London, a shout-out that it's not just me: the whole of life, of our society at least, teeters as close to the edge as I often do as an individual. In the face of all this, I think it's more important than ever to have a practice of being quiet, being present, paying attention. So I don't revoke my commitment to doing this, but there may be days when I don't manage it.

Rumours of riots

8 pm: the sky grew dark and rain began to fall. The street was empty and almost silent. The shops had closed their eyes, pulled down their steel eyelids.

Toasty

Sunshine: fragrant, toasty, blackened at the corners
- needs some butter.

Wake

Wake again to the sound of raindrops pooling in my navel.

Glass

A fine and fragile
water glass
with bell-shaped rim -
like drinking from
an open flower.

Damp

The rain has stopped. Today's damp comes from trickling sweat and tears.

Trousers

Through the front window of the bus, a back view of the cyclist's madly pumping calves in tight white trousers.

Clock

Clutched awkwardly under her other arm - the one not wielding the mobile she's bellowing into - is a large, battery-operated wall clock.

Lavender

The sky is the colour of the overripe lavender flowers whose perfume rolls on the stormy air.

Gilded

Sunshine on dusty, yellowed pages and a shabby, gilded cover with curling corners.

Early

Quieter, softer: early morning - we should get to know each other.

Mexican

Mexican chicken salad: green, pink, brown, herby, spicy. Gently, it bites.

Unanchored

Today I was unanchored to the world - my eyes saw nothing. Try again tomorrow.

Patterned

The abandoned freight container has become a work of art, its deep-blue panels patterned with layers of half erased graffiti and the peeling traces of fly-posting.

Slender

Four slender white legs come flash, flashing on the grey road. Four dainty black shoes tap, tapping. At the edge of vision: green, amber, red.

Insidious

Despite the soft, stippled sky, there's a small, insidious chill that makes the body stiffen. It's as if the cold is a worm within.

Painted

My painted plate: the white yoghurt runs into the burnished yellow of turmeric, the smooth surface broken by floating beads of channa dal.

Undignified

The men sitting opposite read the news on their phones. It's an undignified activity: two outsize, baggy children poking and peering at their tiny screens.

(I've been away for a week without internet access, but continued to write these every day)

Heightened

In the sculpture park, everything is sculpted by the eye, aesthetically heightened: tree, gate, sheep.

Rectangular

The big, rectangular window in the white gallery wall is a picture that dissolves and re-forms with the shifting angle of view.

Unchanging

In the millpond,
time’s unchanging
reflection.

Invisible

The heron is invisible – so still – until it unfolds wide, blue-grey wings and floats above the water.

Wavering

The wavering reflections of tall windows in the dark canal conjure a fantasy of living in this elegant, haunted place.

Ragged

These ragged purple flowers that sprout against the old, red bricks must have bloomed here unseen when this was all dereliction.

Pointilliste

Rain on the train window turns the landscape into an unfurling pointilliste fresco.

Muggy

Muggy heat, but it might be cold tomorrow. Noisy electric fan, but behind it is silence. Mounds of work, but no urgent deadlines. Floating anxiety.

Deep

Suddenly, vibrating warm air and deep colours:
a storm approaching - or passing over.

Sticky

The office pot-plant crouches miserably on the window-sill: a thick layer of sticky black dust coats its once shiny leaves.

(after writing this I washed it and talked nicely to it)

Noisy

Deserted office after hours, but noisy still: a tumult of voices funnelled upwards in the cleft between buildings and a roar of low-flying aircraft funnelled downwards.

Grey

The man is all grey - hair, clothes, aura. He moves so slowly. Doesn't want to get to where he's going. Doesn't want to get to anywhere.

Cool

On a warm day the cool pleasure
of clothes holding skin less tightly,
skin holding flesh less tightly.

Mournful

Baggy, mournful eyes,
ears of long, grey, silky hair -
spaniel woman.

Red-black and blue-black

Cherry and blueberry
Red-black and blue-black
Shiny and velvetty
Bite one and suck one
Neither too sweet

Alien

White smudges all along the street - the paw-prints of an alien visitation?

Pink

The sun comes out. The thousands of old pink bricks in the wall opposite my window light up softly and emit their infinite gradations of rosy glow.

Chill

Chill rain pounds on the roof, which hunches self-protectively, dribbling at the edges.

Floral

Back-to-back in the bus aisle, two floral cotton dresses, two flushed bare arms, swaying in the clammy heat - they could be a single, two-faced creature.

Oily

The deep, gentle, oily scent of lavender reaches over the low garden wall, clings to trailing fingers, fills the pale London air with purple.

Green

The man in the green dragon suit bends over, carefully packing his groceries into a big back-pack. His stiff, bright-green tail sticks straight up.

Diagonal

Behind the fluffy tree, two perfectly diagonal contrails cross at right angles - a thick, bright X chalked on the sky.

Uneven

A thin ankle falters, high heel caught in the uneven pavement - for a moment it looks like a pile-up, then she rights herself and the surge of walkers moves on.

Rosy

She has rosy cheeks. Can black cheeks be rosy? Perhaps it's a reflection of the pink tint in her cap of shiny, straightened hair.

Tense

The darkness deepens
and grows tense - everything sweats
as we wait for rain.

Dissonant

4 am: the dissonant croaking of an unfamiliar bird cuts through the thick damp air that heat will soon burn away.

Sudden

In this sudden heat,
slow-moving shadow puppets
on the raw, bright ground.

Skimpy

Pale girls in skimpy dresses tramp the grimy streets, on their determined way to somewhere.

Vague

On the side of the street in deep shadow floats a vague, slight figure in a long, dark dress. Blink and she's gone.

Scruffy

Outside the junk shop, five broken, battered kitchen chairs with blue seats are lined up expectantly like very scruffy baby birds.

Shiny

The heaving rain has stopped as quickly as it started. Dazzling sunshine sweeps the shiny street; steam rises from the puddles.

(Rather a lot of weather here lately - it's been quite hard to see around it)

Today's is here.

Trapped

A pair of light aircraft buzz and bumble fretfully, trapped by the lid of low clouds.

Black

The church spire bursts
a ballooning black cloud,
unleashing torrents.

Red

After the storm,
sunshine licks
the fallen red petals.

(Fiona and Kaspa's wedding day - 
send them a 'small stone'.)

Lurid

The pounding, sloshing rain, the chill, the lurid orange lights, the siren howling and the howling child, face downwards in a puddle.

Glistening

Water bounces on the glistening, slippery path. Everyone walks carefully. Soft footfalls, noisy rain.

Phantom

Always beautiful, now half the size she was, she still lumbers, hauling a phantom weight.

Unknown

The sunshine strokes and dazzles, prods and hovers, lingers, rippling, insistent on something as yet unknown.

Vibrating

A runner threads her way through the surge of shuffling commuters, lifts a foot and searches, vibrating with quiet energy, for a place to put it down.

Aching

Das Lied von der Erde: I listen lying down, feel my stomach muscles unclench, my hair want to leave my head and float away.

Mellow

At six the bells are pealing from St Clement's pale tower. Their mellow resonance outplays the frantic roaring of the traffic.

Gathered

Nine of them, gathered around an outside cafe table. One, at the head, is speaking, waves his arms - conductor of some group project for the day.

Wood-panelled

The old, wood-panelled walls seem to foster a slower, deeper, more relaxed conversation - or at least the illusion of this.

Unadorned

Outside the Travelodge, a flat, unadorned building with masked windows, a woman stands smoking, her watery green jacket almost bright against the pallid wall.

Monochrome

Under the long line of trees, a rippling, monochrome shadow-world distinct from the rest of the clashing, chaotic street scene.

Mashed

The mashed purple flesh of fallen petals is an impasto painting, increasingly abstract, dissolving already as the rain continues.

Dirty

The rain is dirty, sticky, simultaneously cold and warm - surely this cannot be mainly water?

Wilder

The wind that purrs and rattles in the tall beeches fringing the park tells of warmer, wilder places.

Wheeled

Lurid teeshirt, tight trousers and very high-heeled bright pink shoes: tenderly manoeuvring a harp in a wheeled case, she defies every stereotype of the lady harpist.

Jagged

The fierce contrast of sunshine and shadow makes the jagged metal outline of the railway bridge's underside so sharp it could slice you.

Brown

The brown, barely moving river has a suddenly eerie look - the whole city starting to congeal.

Blank-faced

Workmen in luminous jackets and white hard hats are pulling down a fence, dwarfed by the high, blank-faced new building now set free to lean into the street.

Liquid

Liquid light pours through a window, flickers like flames across cool shadow and the open, white pages of a book.

Beady

In the small darkness under a parked car, the beady eyes of a squirrel: look right, look left and a mad dash for the nearest garden!

Gloomy

Gloomy clouds descending, pressing down on the day. Not really cold, but a chill stagnation in the air.

Constant

Cold air, dark clouds and - was that distant thunder or just a crescendo in the constant background rumble of the city?

Hurried

The footpath resonates with all our hurried steps: grey and greasy, hard and long as the day to come.

Abstract

The concrete building so intensely grey, the sky this morning so intensely blue that their sharp, intersecting angles evoke an abstract painting.

qv

Assorted

Assorted teenage girls in brown school uniforms: they cluster and peck like free-range hens.

Tantalising

A tantalising sparkle in the air. The trees shift almost imperceptibly. The pavement glints.

Softest

Boistrous rain in the night, but waking again to a sky of the softest blue like a little girl's smocked blue velvet dress.

Break

Taking
a short
one.

Last

Lengthening shadows

in an empty yard -
the last evening.  

Puncturing

A jagged wind

punctures the sky -

holidays ending.

Flickering

Caught between

March and May,

the days flicker.

Parting

Grey curtains part:

the afternoon

is shiny.

Imagining

On a sunny plinth,

the pigeon imagines

being a statue.

Enticing

On a blank wall,

phantom windows 

entice the eye.

Slumping

Sacks of sand

slump in the fading heat -

building-site blues.

Drifting

We drift like

fallen blossoms -
too long a weekend.

Marrying

Marigold

marries gold

and green.

Draping

Thunderclouds

drape the sky -

grey and sweaty.

Meeting

Here, where the sun 

meets the shade -

my habitual seat.

Thickening

Now the heat thickens,

dusty and insistent -

too early for this!

Being

After the gallery,

everything 

is a painting.

Wrapping

The evening wraps you

in a generous cocoon

of heated shadows.

Postponing

The slothful mind

of this unanchored day

postpones words.

Encouraging

Iris, your blue wings

and tiger heart

encourage me.

Coming and going

A shifting wind:
the scent of freedom
comes and goes.

Whispering

The rain whispers
damp little words like
trickle and drip.

Sparkling

Savagely scrubbed clean,
the concrete sparkles -
such renewal!

Persisting

In the grey morning
of my heart, these
purple flowers persist.

Falling

Yellow petals fall
beside the garden wall:
drifts of gold-dust.

Drinking

Drink up the sun -
cold will be back
tomorrow, they say.

Rising

Music rises
in the light
like dust.

Pretending

Dress rehearsal:

spring pretends
to be summer.

Dancing

In the sunshine, words
dance across the page:
London Review.

Looking

Seamless blue cloth
stretched across the sky -
look up!

Casting

Today, sunshine:

the young tree

casts a small shadow.

Burning

Back-garden bonfire
burns away
what's left of winter.

Sleeping

Warmth invades

winter-weary bones -

I sleep late.

Climbing

Grey dawn

climbs the sky,

bird over bird.

Floating

White magnolia

floats into view

on a city street.

Shaking

A raw wind shakes
the unfurling froth
of new leaves.

Creeping

Along the low wall
purple aubretia creeps
towards April.

Squeezed

The extra hour of daylight: squeezed flat by descending black clouds.

Drill

Outside, the jangling din and vibration of a drill attacking concrete. Inside, the strung-tight tension of jangled minds.    

Blue

Above the rooftops,
a steady, expert hand
has painted blue, blue, blue.

Spring sun, not yet grown

Like a heedless puppy, it plants warm, cushiony, slightly damp paws on my face and licks my nose.

Flocks

A flock of gaudy tulips; far above them, a flock of squawking geese.

Hazy

The hazy almost-warmth of late afternoon: 
a dreamscape seen through a voile curtain.

Shiny

The morning cold is shiny with a film of gold and green, melting already. It reminds me of the south of France in winter.

Arms

A slim young woman in tight, black jeans and teeshirt lopes along. Bare arms - oh my. Smooth, brown arms. No goose pimples.

Cusp

Loud birdsong soars and grates; the air has an edge of sunshine and an edge of cold.

Treat

Seared pink salmon with melting yellow plantains, a scattering of peppery rocket leaves and a small glass of bright, slightly flowery Sauvignon.

Gallery

The visitors arrange themselves before each painting, posing, then shifting: harmonious and inharmonious tableaux.

Tangled shadows

The park is all dazzling sunshine: bare trees cast long, tangled shadows that worm their way through crowds of walkers, crowds of daffodils.

The Hare with Amber Eyes

A book that shines: the smooth, cool cover; the thick pile of pages promising story and intelligence.

Streak

The grass is a pale-green sea of dewy sunshine. Near the horizon, a white streak of dog.

More like Autumn

A mist that chills and a crying of crows: this is more like Autumn.

Morning

Morning damp: the budding hedge steams and drips.  A great darkness over the horizon. Here and now, this small cleansing and resurgence.

A day missed

For the first time this year, no small stone of observation. The fear and horror of events in Japan overcame the capacity to be present.

Gooseberry yoghurt

Clean and green; sharp and satiny; sour and creamy: a rare taste whose complexity rivals rhubarb.

Soften

The earth is softening into grass and flowers, while elsewhere it convulses.

Up

A contrail parallels the church spire, then shoots up, up, up towards the sun - a clear, strong line in this mottled morning.

Greening

Outside the shop with the apple-green sign stands a woman in an apple-green coat, and next to her a girl with an apple-green backpack.

Daffodils, still

Even wider open, they breath and stretch out their petals to the four directions, like a yoga class in two-tone yellow leotards.

Dark figures

The naked sun dazzles. Dark figures stalk the sidewalks criss-crossed by their elongated shadows.

Daffodils

Daffodils pose on the windowsill, wide open, chests out, yolk-yellow petals pointing and peering this way and that.

Trill

As the light dies

and the cold pinches,

a long trill from the bare tree.

Trying to be March

Tiny pockets of blue squeezed between coarse, giant puffs of grey: an undecided sky, sporadically trying to be March.

Diversion

The bus is on diversion. Suddenly, a strange city, not the daily route imprinted on my expectations, which abruptly flex and flux and readjust.

Tired

The world became quiet and blurry - as though an invisible, compassionate hand had lowered the volume, dimmed the contrast, allowed a weary brain some respite.  

Cold night

The return of cold: skin shrivels; breath rises like puffs of smoke in the black chill.

Yellow legs

A tiny girl overtakes me on her scooter, yellow-stockinged leg pumping vigorously.

Shift

She shifts from foot to foot, her hair, hands, smile all aflutter. But her eyes are deep and dark and steady.

Only the rain

The only sound, only sensation, is rain beating on rooftops, windows, umbrellas and on the first daffodils, palely bobbing, their heads more bowed than usual.

A brilliant dusk

At dusk, the sky briefly flashes pink, orange, yellow against the weeks-old, glowering grey.

Puffy

The small girl in the lilac-coloured puffy jacket tips back her head and spreads her arms: a Spring flower opening.

Slow motion

They all walk so slowly, today on the bridge. Or am I walking faster and faster?

Author event

The famous writer has all the austere charm, the steady, dusty vivacity, of his books.

Reading on the bus

Much like the bus, the poem jerks and sways around its own axis as it moves forward on the page.

Flutter

A ribbon of dirty plastic flutters in a bare tree: I am lost and tainted.

Bells

Church bells peal, each note deepened and hollowed by this Sunday morning's thick, damp air.

Cambridge to Ely

Rain on the Fenlands. A huge, muddy sky leaks endlessly onto the black fields and tiny trees.

Crane

A crane so high I squint to see the top, and stumble backwards.

Tower

The heights of the new tower block are lost in the mist. As we come closer, there it is again, hard and overbearing.

My shadow

Morning, 7.30. My shadow, faintly, on the footpath. When did she last leave the house with me so early?

A single wing

She steps fast. The white canvas bag on her shoulder billows, away from her body and back - a single wing.

Pale sunrise

Intensifying white light, then suddenly, at its centre, a frosted-glass Christmas tree bauble.

Sunday

Necessary Sunday nothingness. As if the week, set stiff with activity, requires the admixture of empty to regain a malleable consistency.

Black dog

A black dog ambles past - heavy, porcine, rather sinister. Poor old guy. He didn't ask to be a metaphor.

Weather

The rain taps my face. The cold taps my fingers, my elbows, and crawls up the back of my legs.

Two

In the rainy pavement, the reflections of two orange umbrellas like big, wet, bobbing flowers - the people are the stems.

Evidence

Along the road, a zigzag pattern of half a dozen fallen coathangers. Someone grabbed an armful of clothes from the wardrobe and ran?

Niño

Throughout the showing of the film about the Zapatistas, the baby coos and sucks and, over his mother's shoulder, surveys the room with quiet composure.

New moon

A tiny, perfect crescent moon, straight from the pages of a children's picture book, rocks gently above the multitude of glaring sodium street-lamps.

Mean and dirty

A mean wind slaps the house and whips a mass of dirty clouds across the sky.

Mayfair carpet shops

Behind the plate-glass windows of the Eastern carpet shops, the soft, dusty weight of woven gardens in the subtlest of colours.

No harm in trying?

Outside at lunchtime, I try hard to notice something. A great big glutinous globule of effortfulness floats before my eyes.

Dazzle

Dazzling light from high above the city-centre skyline slants off the sharp, stretched-out shadows on the pavement. It's an unfamiliar contrast after all these weeks of grey opacity.

Sycamore island

Inside the front door, a huge sycamore leaf has come to rest: pale-brown and brittle in my hands like an intricate cut-out from an aged parchment map.

(I wonder if I should ban metaphors and similes here, like in strict-form haiku?)

Space

A small space, like an empty matchbox, to be filled each day with words: light them carefully, one by one.