Events and sudden absences Being inhabitants of older vintage,we pass on by, for the most part,and rarely meet. Any conversationis likely to be short, could be the firstfor years and rich as a result, even ifwe do not know each other’s names. Houses here were built an age ago.They seem to be identical. We…

Early Doors They always said the larks were here in spirit,having disappeared while meadows were transformedto streets and drains when this became a gardened suburb. Heading for their allotment, my neighbours rose earlyto catch the day’s best light. On relished mornings,blessed with beginning, the earth still damp with dewwelcomed their trays of tender seedlings. Each…

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash           An Away Match   One long and wide hall filled with dancers limbering and jostling at each of three crowded bars, while a band in suits got ready on an unlit stage, lean among the sequined drapes and shadows. A padded door on the…

    Photo by Alessandro Bogliari on Unsplash            Another XI   A cricket tea on a boundary edge in old heat. Trains and cars passed, skirting the park’s rim where sunlight was streaming through poplars. On the surface, at least, we weren’t normal sporting types – sweaty and earnest or urgent. A…

        Golf Behind Trees   An elegant course is exposed by newly opened air. There used to be a thick hedge, armed with trees. We would hear the thwack of their swings and hits followed by good silence or disappointing scutter. In days gone by, for all we could see, those golfers might…

  Oliver writes: These are part of a ‘calendar’ of 12 poems set in Pitshanger Park, near where I live in Ealing. The Park is a place of leisure, but also a setting where small and large histories play out and which is not protected from the mayhem around.           Evening Clouds…