History lesson

"Tell us about the seaside!" I try to demur
But realise that Billy's not heard it before:
"We went in the car from city to sea-" "What's a car?"
I pause to explain what vehicles are
"And played on the sand and soaked up the sun"
"You went out in the air with no pressure suit on?"
"Yes, and swam in the water" "How brave! Were you scarred?"
"No, the water was clean; and then in the yard
We'd each have the choice of our favourite dish
Mine was fish and chips-" "Grandad, what's a fish?"

A war of words

Words are weapons
Words can hide
Different words
Deep inside

Words can anger
Pacify
Can explain
Or mystify

Words have power
Be aware:
They should be labelled
"Use with care"

Falling off a planet (2005): contents

Sonnet: Wisdom
Greek wedding (anniversary song)
Pre-nuptial agreement
Attempted limerick
Euphemism
Simile
Mental hygiene
Youth
Zen in a traffic jam
Contact
Creation
Well-read
Cookery class
Gender difference
Entrained
Cinquain: Aurora
Cinquain: Triad (after Crapsey)
At home with the Muses
Explanations
Three views of age
Going back
The geography of loss
Cri de couer
Short sonnet: The thesaurus of love
My son the farmer
A stag-headed oak
Election address
A singular occurrence
The Painted Desert
Collateral damage

Lessons in life (2002): Contents

Human geography
Patience
Blocked
Experience
First frost
The gospel according to Thomas
Sand
Age and wisdom: a birthday poem
A walk in the park: a piece for two voices
Textual analysis
Ozymandias speaks
Character sketch in three sentences
Curfew
Leaving

The silent prison (2004): contents

Into the silent prison
Peace or war
Welsh industry
Apology
Two Classical poems
Two limericks

The Wittgenstein amendment (2004): contents

The pastoral myth
Unsung
Haiku: Spring
Australian epitaph
Limerick
A mother's advice to a bride
Eight modern proverbs
The craftsman
Philosophy 101
Poetry 101
Binary 101
Spiritual sustenance

The fall of Troy (2003): contents

Mr Eliot's Saturday afternoon service
Time management
One person's Swansea
Rhyme and reason
Landscape painting
A churchyard cross at Evensong
Proverbs
Typographer's test-piece
Halfway
Time over distance
The fall of Troy

Other rooms, other lives (2000): contents

The New Millennium Experience is a registered trademark
February in Evans Country
A sermon on hope given at Saron Chapel, Abergwynfi
Porthcawl out of season
Dunraven after the storm
Other rooms, other lives

A poetry of place (1998): contents

A poetry of place
Peterstone
Below Saddleworth Moor
Doubt in a Bath attic
Dusk
Sex instruction manual
Despatch from the home front

The Shadow of Eliot's Ghost (1997): contents

Dead water, Oxwich Bay
A Monmouthshire hedgerow (Wonastow, January)
A lost world (Pen-y-Clawdd schoolhouse, 1940)
Eliot's ghost
Seven cities
Reclamation
Senescence
Nocturne
Only natural
Student poet
Sleepers
The blackout
The cloud of unknowing
Stations of the cross

Encounter with an old flame

Meeting up again
I hope that you haven't changed
And hope that I have