A Communist in Hong Kong

Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime? — Milton, Paradise Lost Entertained by two boys stripped to their boxer shorts, Their brown-skinned bodies muscular and glistening And whose primary intention appears to be To sink their teeth into the other’s flesh (A feat in which one of them finally succeeds); And repeatedly disturbed … Continue reading The Last Days of Rome

Colder today, swaddled in overcoats worn once a year, The pretty girls strut the street in a new layer of fashion, Schoolchildren run in blazers instead of cotton dresses And businessmen belt matching trenchcoats, beige and navy blue. The hum of waiting taxis muffled by the winter morning, My stockinged feet grow cold as I … Continue reading Land Ahoy!

Par a noi a- crit i cal town where Sand is raked into waves of a lake Bushes are pruned to resemble rocks Rocks are arranged to represent islands Gardens are raised to look like a mountain Canopies of woods trimmed into clouds And Niwaki trees sculptured like pagodas Whose roofs are pitched to the … Continue reading Pagoda

I shall wait for my friend, compose a poem and dance in play. — Matsumushi (early-15th Century) Winter sun on a wind-rippled pond Waves of light break on the shadowed eaves A garden daubed with autumn’s last brush. — Kyoto, December 2025 • • • • • Sen no Rikyū was a Japanese tea-master from … Continue reading Beloved of Sen no Rikyū

Once every hundred centuries He slithers from his mountain lair In a hauberk of silvered scales, Ridged back, snaggle-toothed, ice-blue glare, Crawling turquoise down the valley, Clinging with chameleon claws, Saliva dripped in frozen drools. Everything in his path, even The sun in the indigo sky, Has been slowed to the time of myth That’s … Continue reading Ice Dragon

She turns away in search of adventure, A vanishing dot in my fading eyes; But through the binoculars I recognise The deliberation in every gesture; xxxxBoth palms folded flat against her bowed back: Conquering weariness with raw desire; xxxxThe balls of both fists pressed into her hips: Weighing the cost of climbing higher. Below the … Continue reading Herzog’s Penguin

What labours must we endure to get there? What effort of muscle and will to arrive? What pains must we suffer under its whip? What concentration of thought and mind? What dust and blood were we forced to swallow? In what dirt and mud must we struggle? As we walk to the horizon What depths … Continue reading Lost Horizon

Fate is the force that pushes the water Down the valley, out of the glacier; Life the contingency of the path it takes, Now meandering through an alpine lake Where many streams converge and divide, Now carving channels steep as water slides, Hurling themselves, contemptuous of safety, With the roar of a lifetime’s worth of … Continue reading The Unclimbed Mountain

Till over us we heard the waters close. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx— Dante, Inferno 1. England Welcome aboard South Western Railway’s Service to Dorking. Calling at Earlsfield, Wimbledon, Raynes Park, Worcester Park, Stoneleigh, Ewell West, Epsom, Ashtead, Leatherhead, Boxhill & Westhumble, And Dorking. Inside my head I count the seconds Before the voice begins again. Please ensure you … Continue reading No Man’s Land