A QUIET ANCHORAGE

 Out there she floats where usually

 Only small craft are seen

 And the odd dolphin.

 A monster of a merchant ship

 Modern, business like

 No sign of a mast

 Carrying cars to Dublin

 According to the local paper

 Waiting for a berth.

 Meanwhile she has found

 A quiet anchorage;

 We stare through binoculars.

 He...

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  ALEPPO

 Experts say if the stones remain

 What was within can be restored,

 But they make bombs now

 That can penetrate

 The strongest cover;

 Expensive but occasionally

 They use them.

 And lives destroyed

 Cannot be recreated

 By mechanical diggers,

 Architects or builders;

 Only silent museums

 Filled with the debris

 Of destruction.

 The...

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                                                     SIDOLO

Spent shell casings everywhere

gleaming in the July sun

bodies of three martyrs lie

victims of a German gun

Italy is crying now

see how fast the tears run.

Three priests in nineteen forty four

slaughtered by the devil’s hand

innocent of all misdeeds

outrage sweeps throughout the land

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A WELSHMAN IN CROATIA

In Croatian the word for three is tri

Just as it is in the Welsh language.

It is tre in Italian and trois in French

And in Spanish it is tres,

But the Croatians have got it right

Although all their other numbers

Are quite different in Welsh.

Here in the summer Dubrovnik sunshine

There is time to wonder about such things

Seated...

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 A55

 Wet windscreen

 High up

 Near Holywell,

 Relentless rain

 Pounding glass

 Obscuring

 Merseyside's

 Distant landmarks,

 Eyes focussed

 On tail lights.

 Soon we descend

 Heading eastwards

 Leaving behind

 Welsh hills

 Veiled in mist,

 Wipers waving,

 Overtaking,

 Still listening

 To Liverpool

 On the radio.

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THE ROYAL CHARTER

(Wrecked off Moelfre, Anglesey 1859)

From Melbourne to Liverpool bound

in less than fifty eight days, by sail

and steam the Royal Charter comes

via Queenstown in Ireland and around

the Skerries with cargo of wool and hides

weighted with golden dust and coins

from fortunes made in a far off land.

To Moelfre’s razor rocks on Anglesey coast

a total...

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 WHERE IS WALES

 Where is Wales in this library

 Between wooden shelves

 Or sitting obediently

 With more confident

 Bulkier neighbours

 Is she leather bound

 Or plastic covered.

 Is she hiding quietly

 In the reference section

 Grimacing silently

 At teenagers

 Playing with phones

 Holding chewing gum

 Conversations.

 Or is she at the de...

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