blushed apricots, green-skinned Hasses

Can you believe two years have passed since the London Olympics? I was fortunate enough to attend an evening of paralympic events. It feels as though it was only last year that I was sitting in the massive stadium, with an enormous lion emblazoned across my t-shirt and yelling encouragement at the athletes. Clearly, it wasn’t. That

Genuine

When it is from deep inside and through my eyes, that crinkled nose – my truest smile. — For some time I was a regular attendee of a writing group. I often presented very short poems (some of which were to feature in ‘Shining in Brightness‘, my first volume and others which are earmarked for

Two Summer Poems: one about fruit, the other about birds

Pakistan’s Gold, a poem about a mango’s journey, explores the relay of fruit exports that brings the taste of summer from one place to the ingesting of summer in another. Twenty Auspicious Cranes, presents very plainly two experiences of coincidence, captured and formulated as wonders and then taken for signs.

Ode to a Golden Mango (Pindaric Style)

Pakistan’s Gold  A loose Pindaric* ode to a delicious mango As still-hard flesh, this baton passes blushed apricots, green-skinned Hasses,** to triumph in a grocer’s tier. Event two in a domestic Mount Olympus: here ripens the sweet-juiced summer discus. — My 87-year-old landlady swears by the small, golden-skinned Pakistani mangoes that are imported each summer.