I have collected here some poems which stand alone, and are not part of any particular collection.

Click on the link in the list below to read the specified piece.

Black Agnes

I wrote this in 1981 on revisiting Dunbar in East Lothian, the place where I went as a child 8 years in succession for a summer seaside holiday.  The title references Black Agnes' Castle in Dunbat harbour.  Because of these holidays, Dunbar has taken on an almost mythic quality for me - days on the beach, country walks around the town, and early brief seaside romances.  It's a piece I've always felt quite proud of, as it seems to me to capture quite well the evanescentelation of holidays by the sea during one;s childhood and early teenage years.

Black Agnes: 1994 Extended Version

In 1994, I added some extra material to the original "Black Agnes" for a two-voice perfoemance in Islington.  This followed another trip back to Dunbat with my partner, when we stayed in the same hotel (even one of the same rooms) where I had stayed on those family holidays.

Samadhi Night

This was written after learning a new medirarion technique at Oxon Hoath, an old Kent country house turned retreat centre.

Winter's Heart

Here I was attempting a metaphorical map of my feelings on the close of the season for country walks at the end of autumn and the hibernation-like attitude which can develop during the weeks approaching Christmas.