Category: Artwork inspired

• Journey poem in response to the exhibition ‘Between Realities’ by Graham Lowe

  

  The busy main street is a world away,

  I am met with space and light,

  look left and right from coast to coast,

  simplicity of memories in black and white,

  my young life magnified under the lens,

  comes back like a flipbook of time.

  Captured against the windswept shoreline,

  the panorama sheds its skin,

  the wild imposing landscape lies open

  in dramatic escape and raw emotion,

  white sand beaches and steep rock silhouettes

  morph into the environment.

   

  Cut off from civilisation,

  awakened by light and igniting life,

  I immerse myself within,

  opened by the elements,

  atmosphere washes over me,

  echoes of the sanctuary.

  I trace my finger around

  the Arnside estuary on the map,

  the route we took on my dad’s bike,

  we walked with ice cream on promenade,

  escaping his nine to five,

  looking at the tide.

   

  I feel the North Sea on my face

  remember the rugged shore,

  the elements shape my young features,

  a tempered sky obscured by clouds,

  charcoal absorbs, reflects and transmits light

  I am set free by perspective.

  September 15, 2026

  ---

• Sanctuary House

  

  Chartreux cats bask in sunshine,

  on my arrival from the allotment,

  small birds feed their young,

  next to the apple orchard and polytunnel,

  the kettle whistles and

  I am reminded of the simplicity of life,

  how we live and how we die

  and how we should make importance

  of time and those closest to us.

  Closer to earth,

  hear the traffic of mother nature,

  Roe dear and Red squirrels in woodland,

  Nightingale’s song echoes through the air,

  Swallows and House Martins return to the barn

  to raise their young,

  Butterflies seek blossoming flower and nectar,

  the owls coo in the midnight hour

  feel the peace of Sanctuary.

  Rural France is complex in its beauty,

  the oak tree towers and casts

  shadows over the rural road,

  stacked firewood lays at the wooden gate,

  leading to the house and acres of green,

  where soaring buzzards and kestrels breed

  next to the potting shed the heart opens

  like the strawberries and red and white roses picked,

  there is growth in this space.

  September 1, 2026

  ---

• Made of Prayers

  

  Rocking between life and death

  like a turbulent sea,

  this is where I found my faith,

  God spoke to me

  and I realised some people

  are made of prayers,

  in the space between the human

  and spiritual world.

  I was just a core,

  a shadow of my former self,

  a young boy’s dreams redundant,

  wired up to a machine,

  locked inside,

  desperate to break out of myself.

  Some of us are made of prayers,

  I know this because every time

  I go into a Cathedral prayer room

  and hear bells ring,

  I feel peace

  and know God is in the people.

  August 11, 2026

  ---

• Brocken Spectre

  

  Silence echoes across the land,
  where mist hangs low in morning,
  I find peace beside the walking stile,
  in the shadow of Scafell Pike.
  
  The thunder of waterfalls and flow of steams,
  surround the rocky escapes of Wasdale, Borrowdale,
  and Eskdale, Wainwright lists peaks and outlaying fells,
  snow turning to sleet, with heavy rain likely at times.
  
  The biting wind jars my rhythm,
  immersed in atmosphere and cold to bone,
  routes etched in mind’s eye like elevations steep lines
  my feet slip on rugged terrain.

  
  Navigating the high-altitude of the landscape,
  to the heights where thoughts are free,
  in a melody of nature I embrace the space,
  away from the industry of the city.

  Here, in the perspective of summit,
  I reflect on the victory,
  until I see my spectre and my spirit gently releases.

  August 10, 2026

  ---

• GAZA

  

  From a bird’s eye view
  charred and scorched
  like bits of charcoal
  scattered across
  the land after fire.

  In between settlement blocs
  Commanders and leaders
  fight for borders
  conflict and displaced refugees
  see terror in occupation
  war crimes in the making.

  Desperation in eyes
  there’s nothing left here
  no food either
  and the war is far from over
  a flood of aid is needed
  for the people of Gaza.

  Contemplating peace – I meditate on prayer
  for an end to violence, oppression and uncertainty.
  A focus on food, water, medicine
  and other humane aid.

  Will Isreal ever make the desert bloom?
  in ‘A land without people for a people
  without a land’.

  Or is it The Promised Land?

  Light can always enter shade
  but for how long can historical origins remain.
  And how many hostages can ever be retained?
  Boundaries for Democracy
  Ceasefire Now!

  October 9, 2025

  ---

• Tranquility

  (in response to a walk on the seafront in Heysham)

  
  The cool breeze wraps around my ears,
  I forget a camera and pause,
  absorbed in panoramic view,
  the bay brings peace to thoughts,
  freedom whispers around in silence,
  Cumbrian mountains in mist
  like a citadel to a secret world,
  not a ripple of water around me
  in sight of the ocean.

  My eyes close
  and reflect this moment of solitude,
  the soul calmed and captured in this stillness,
  sky reaches out forever
  my concern released to the world,
  twilight direct to heart,
  encapsulating the mind.

  January 19, 2024

  ---

• Walking Boots In response to Mike Barlow’s painting From the Crags’

  

  Silence echoes in the choice of path,
  my feet step in the dry terrain,
  trees reach high and light peters through the leaves,
  where butterflies glide and bird’s fly
  in nature’s spiritual shrine,
  unlocks mechanics of mind
  like dapples of light from a stained-glass window,
  bringing freedom and release,
  a new lease of life.

  The arched sheltered trees meet,
  eclipse the nine to five,
  away from that small working room,
  here there is everything to find,
  when the view opens,
  trees stand alone in solitude and resilience
  with roots anchored into the earth,
  escape in the compass needle,
  works the inner dynamo.

  Ascend the Old Pale Hill,
  look down on the Cheshire Plain,
  see the Mountains of Snowdonia,
  that distant volcanic rock,
  a landscape of mix steep gorges,
  a chain of heather clad fells,
  between the hills of the Clwydian Range,
  sun light projects and hears the heart open,
  for nature to carry and lift the soul,
  like pollen from the bees,
  a rich source of protein
  and the sturdy trees feed their wisdom.

  November 6, 2023

  ---

• Hidden Depths

  

   

  Thoughts on the exhibition of paintings and poems

  I immerse myself in colour,
  in a moment my past comes
  together in contemplation,
  the hard wiring of the world
  stripped away.
  
  Layers surface in meditation,
  memories dance through darkness,
  a life time of work
  at my finger tips,
  I am liberated.
  
  Looking at my bare bones,
  through detachment from life itself,
  hidden depths echo,
  in between flashes of entity,
  memories position in abstraction.
  
  Paintings punctate
  in explosions,
  freedom in the turbulence,
  harmony in division,
  bringing meaning closer to existence.

  August 16, 2023

  ---

• In the Arms of Nature

   

  

  As day draws to its climax,
  red sun falls in patchwork cloud;
  fragmented colours of pink
  lie across the horizon
  in fading blue sky’s canvas,
  holding onto the day
  in mid summer’s moment;
  air passes bridges
  and trees flower.
  
  If this is paradise, then
  I’m in heaven,
  cocooned in Nature’s bosom.
  For this time I reason with nobody,
  nature is mine to see
  what I choose.
  Inspiration reflects from water.
  The darkness cuts through
  a thousand images,
  as day folds gently
  over the bay.

  June 27, 2023

  ---

• Season’s change

  The colour of seasons squeezed on canvas,
  like the voices echoing from the paint brush,
  mixing the soft and the strong,
  echoing and spreading
  like the wings of a dove
  released into the sea breeze,
  waves fold and cast the summer aside,
  the days begin to hide away,
  looking into myself through layers,
  visioning to reinvent myself.

  June 27, 2023

  ---