The elf angel of Ardingly
In West Sussex,
Is sixteen years old,
Smells of flowers
And looks like liquid sex
In jeans.
Her voice sounds like
A fairy bell
Heard behind waterfalls.
She doesn't walk;
She flows
Sinuously
Like a reed
In the breeze,
Too slim for friction.
Her coursework
Is averagely badly written,
And she wears her school tie
Unacceptably loose.
She doesn't use a mobile phone,
Or an iPod,
Doesn't watch television,
Won't eat meat
Or anything cooked
In a microwave oven,
And she sleeps
Ten hours a day,
Next to a basket of crystals,
Saying that that is her main work:
She has dreams to look after.
But notice her eyes.
What colour are they today?
Look at her eyes
When she is sitting
Next to her mother.
Her eyes are older
Than her mother's,
But they dance more.
Her lifestream is old,
Yet young,
Experienced,
Yet forever fresh.
A few boys have kissed her,
And many girls.
And they all say the same thing:
Her lips flutter
Like eyelashes,
Her tongue darts
Like a lizard,
And she tastes of Jellybabies
With a hint of lemon
And something else.
It is the something else
Which people remember,
And it is the something else
Which people look forward to.
..................................
Teen issues
..................................
Kristianne Wych Christian Wicca
A dream is a portal
Small visitors
Toenails
Private collection
Never settle down
Mermaid
Unusual cloud-form over Launceston
A new scripture shortly to be published
I am the Moon
More Norfolk koans
Index of blog contents
Showing posts with label Sussex. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sussex. Show all posts
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Old hands at the bar
Alcuin Bramerton profile ..... Index of blog contents ..... Home
It is said
That if you sit down quietly
On your own
In The Parkes Hide
At The Rye Harbour Nature Reserve,
In East Sussex, England,
Facing south west,
And train your Leica
10 x 42 Trinovid binoculars
Carefully
On The Ternery Pool,
In the distance,
And using only
Your peripheral vision,
You may see
The cloud spirits
Over Fairlight
Re-enacting
Scenes of rape and pillage
Dating back to 1377,
When the French invaded Rye
Without invitation or consent.
But who,
Exactly,
Would say such a thing?
And why has it become
Common knowledge
Among the shingle banks,
And the Sea Kale
And the lonely, deserted
Rotherside pillboxes?
These are not questions to be asked;
They are questions to be answered.
And local help is available
From old hands
At the bar
Of the Inkerman Arms,
Where you can get a decent plate
Of cod and chips
And volumes of lubrication
Of the kind which would keep
An entire saltmarsh happy.
Sadly,
Not everyone
Appreciates East Sussex.
....................................................
That if you sit down quietly
On your own
In The Parkes Hide
At The Rye Harbour Nature Reserve,
In East Sussex, England,
Facing south west,
And train your Leica
10 x 42 Trinovid binoculars
Carefully
On The Ternery Pool,
In the distance,
And using only
Your peripheral vision,
You may see
The cloud spirits
Over Fairlight
Re-enacting
Scenes of rape and pillage
Dating back to 1377,
When the French invaded Rye
Without invitation or consent.
But who,
Exactly,
Would say such a thing?
And why has it become
Common knowledge
Among the shingle banks,
And the Sea Kale
And the lonely, deserted
Rotherside pillboxes?
These are not questions to be asked;
They are questions to be answered.
And local help is available
From old hands
At the bar
Of the Inkerman Arms,
Where you can get a decent plate
Of cod and chips
And volumes of lubrication
Of the kind which would keep
An entire saltmarsh happy.
Sadly,
Not everyone
Appreciates East Sussex.
....................................................
The Rye Harbour Nature Reserve
The Inkerman Arms at Rye Harbour
Rye Nook Fishery
100 acres of still water on the edge of the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. Barbless hooks only. Includes a hundred peg match venue for roach, rudd, bream, dace, eels and carp.
Fairlight cliffs
A photograph
Images of Sea Kale
1 2 3 4 5
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Wednesday, December 27, 2006
A required tonic
Alcuin Bramerton profile ..... Index of blog contents ..... Home
A long slow lunch
With like-minded friends
In misty mid-winter
At the Queens Head Inn
In Icklesham,
East Sussex,
Is a required tonic
Before strolling wistfully
Over the Brede valley downland
To the ancient medieval hill towns
Of Winchelsea and Rye.
This is Old England
At its best.
There are ghosts hereabouts
And the memories of ghosts.
Creep into
The thirteenth century
Rib-vaulted cellar
Beneath The New Inn
In Winchelsea
And listen,
But do not extinguish your candle
And do not go there after dark:
The smugglers will have you still.
The liquid treasure
Of Gascony
Still lubricates life
On the other side.
And then on
Past lonely Camber Castle
To Rye
And The Mermaid Inn
Rebuilt in 1420.
Those who remember
Still talk in the tea shops
About what happened here
In 1377
And spit, politely,
At the French.
In this part of the world,
It is only the present
Which seems unreal.
................................................
The Queens Head at Icklesham
The pub's website
The New Inn (Winchelsea)
A photograph
A note on the cellars of Winchelsea
Camber Castle
A photograph
The Mermaid Inn (Rye)
A photograph
...................
Happy hour
A taxi is possible
Out beyond the Gas Giants
With like-minded friends
In misty mid-winter
At the Queens Head Inn
In Icklesham,
East Sussex,
Is a required tonic
Before strolling wistfully
Over the Brede valley downland
To the ancient medieval hill towns
Of Winchelsea and Rye.
This is Old England
At its best.
There are ghosts hereabouts
And the memories of ghosts.
Creep into
The thirteenth century
Rib-vaulted cellar
Beneath The New Inn
In Winchelsea
And listen,
But do not extinguish your candle
And do not go there after dark:
The smugglers will have you still.
The liquid treasure
Of Gascony
Still lubricates life
On the other side.
And then on
Past lonely Camber Castle
To Rye
And The Mermaid Inn
Rebuilt in 1420.
Those who remember
Still talk in the tea shops
About what happened here
In 1377
And spit, politely,
At the French.
In this part of the world,
It is only the present
Which seems unreal.
................................................
The Queens Head at Icklesham
The pub's website
The New Inn (Winchelsea)
A photograph
A note on the cellars of Winchelsea
Camber Castle
A photograph
The Mermaid Inn (Rye)
A photograph
...................
Happy hour
A taxi is possible
Out beyond the Gas Giants
Friday, November 26, 2004
In Sussex
An Apollonius of Tyana lookalike
Is preaching
The Sermon on the Mount
On the summit
Of Ditchling Beacon
In Sussex.
There is a large attentive crowd.
It includes several thousand
Human beings,
Four hundred and fifty
Giant pandas,
Twenty nine
Archbishops,
And a rear admiral
In mass vestments.
The preacher notices a giant panda.
"Animal people can be saved, too,"
He says.
The panda reaches into his sporran,
Pulls out a mobile telephone
And in a little-known mandarin dialect,
Leaves a message
On an answering machine
In Austin, Texas.
Is preaching
The Sermon on the Mount
On the summit
Of Ditchling Beacon
In Sussex.
There is a large attentive crowd.
It includes several thousand
Human beings,
Four hundred and fifty
Giant pandas,
Twenty nine
Archbishops,
And a rear admiral
In mass vestments.
The preacher notices a giant panda.
"Animal people can be saved, too,"
He says.
The panda reaches into his sporran,
Pulls out a mobile telephone
And in a little-known mandarin dialect,
Leaves a message
On an answering machine
In Austin, Texas.
..............................
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