The English Writer

The English Writer

Thoughts to words to thoughts…

104
Writings
40
Followers
49
Following
104: The Big Wash

In crystal streams that barely flow,

Where sun-dappled shadows come and go,


A tiny fish with dreams so vast

Watched village life drift slowly past.


Each morning brought the same small sights:

The water-worn stones, the filtered lights,


Three lazy minnows drifting by,

The same patch of endless sky.


But deeper currents pulled his heart,

Whispers of a world apart,

Where mighty waters rushed and r...

3
Spiral

Like a spiral staircase

Drawn by the hand of Escher


Life lived in the mind

Stale memories grow fresher


A relived past

We try to change forever


Mental simulations

Hindsight


The irony of spiralling rumination

While trying to get our minds right


Ending up as stagehands

While dreaming of the limelight


Half heartedly chasing it

And finally facing it


Nothing will come of us

And so it ever wa...

Ice Skating

Swift, delicate and pearly white

With eyes as dark as night


Silky voiced

Fleet of foot


Silently wandering over

Creeking wood


Old houses

Steep stairwells

Covered in egg shells


Is today the day that she’s nice,

Or am I skating on thin ice...

Sweet Potato Pudding

My grandmother always told me


Grate the sweet potato


Never blend it


Befriend its texture through toil


Or the pudding will spoil


Sticky and blocky, not sweet and fluffy


Lovely and yummy and orange


And glazed


You must grate it, not blend it


For hours unfazed


Then mix it, bake it and leave it to cool


You must grate it, not blend it


You’ll end up a fool


So grate it, shake it, mix it an...

100: The New World

The Cathedral loomed like a giant’s tomb, its towering spire clawing at the storm-laden sky. Inside, Walter sat on the cold, splintering pew, his head bowed in mock piety. Around him, a sea of peasants huddled, their breath fogging the frigid air. From the pulpit, Father Anselm’s voice droned in harsh, alien Latin: _“Dominus dixit: servite dominis vestris sicut me.”_ Serve your lords as you would ...

Carbon Copies

‘That’s Tony’s son, I know it!’. This, surprisingly wasn’t the first time it’d happened at some big family or diaspora event. One of grandad’s old friends or acquaintances recognised me.


My face, was simply my dad’s face, which he in turn had inherited from grandad. A little clone, prone to defensiveness and with a knack for making complexed things. Or pulling everything in the house apart to the...

Vapour

Flora took a deep breath. Deep enough that she could feel her nostrils flair into the little stiff, inviting roundels Alex found so cute. They were currently rather pink, going on red rimmed in the depths of winter.


She’d just gotten to Leopold cafe on Avenue De Tervueren, or is it Tervuerenlaan? Flora sat in a plywood corner stuffed with oversized cushions. Trendy, cozy, Gezellig. Agréable she t...

1
Easy

Perfect, and getting better by the day.


That’s the only way I can describe my life. It goes through these periods of sustained calm, steadily growing toward the ‘good’.


It hadn’t started so easily. The early years were far from a suburban dream, they were grass filled but urban. We came up in the intermittent chaos of a very large city.


Tumultuous, exciting and always things going on. Cultures ...

Love

Yet we love


Despite rain, famine fire and flood


Distances over terrain


Space, time


Blood


From the time the flower buds


To when it sets its pollen free


Which settles in an ovary


That it may grow another tree


Plant, flower, fruit or seed


Love and life is all we need...

Under The Purple Sky

Whispering willows.


Trees full of corvids imitating human voices.


Cooing, talking spirits.


Ghosts made of shiny feathered mischief makers. Invisible under the purple sky.


I lay silently on the grass, fearless. Careless.


Because I know these little critters.


They come to me for bread and seeds in the mornings and say the same things as they do in the night.


I do not fear these flighty ghosts...