Café Artist

view from one of my favourite cafés in Dresden

You can read more about my trip to Dresden on Crafty Green Poet, here.

In our illicit rendezvous,
oblivious to most, except
the promise of forbidden pleasure,
we were barely aware of you,
sketching quietly in the background.

At next season’s
‘Meet the Artist Night’
we wonder as your eyes light up
in recognition we don’t share.

We wander carefully round to view
(no touching just in case).
The pictures do not inspire or move,
but disturb in some peculiar way.

We stop before a canvas –
the largest in the room,
a portrait of our favourite haunt
and unmistakeably of us.

Our infidelity on display,
we need to find a place to hide,
when from the corner of my eye,
I see someone I recognise –
his wife,

she’s with another man.

Previously published in Poetry Scotland and nothing to do with Dresden!

for Totally Optional Prompts

Weißig, Dresden

A church in Weißig, a village on the outskirts of Dresden. You can read a bit about the youth farm in Weißig on Crafty Green Poet here.

der volle Mond -
ein frisch gebackenes
weißes Brötchen.

the full moon -
a fresh-baked
white bread roll.


(evening barbeque at the Nickern Jugendbauernhof, Dresden)

Thanks to Angelika for correcting my German. You can read more about my trip to Dresden on Crafty Green Poet here and here and more to come!

The Puzzle Box by Paul Squires

I was delighted to receive a copy of Paul's book The Puzzle Box. It's a must read for anyone who is a fan of his Ginga Tao blog, and if you're not a fan yet, why not start reading his work today, here....


The Puzzle Box starts with a letter to a Mr Valesquez, thanking him for the gift of a Chinese Puzzle Box. Not quite poetry, not quite short fiction, some of the pieces that follow feel very cinematic and feature recurring characters (including a jazz pianist and two mysterious Japanese gentlemen, one of whom may or may not be the film director Takeshi Kitano) and recurring items (including the puzzle box but also various hats and a ball with a bell in it) and themes (including tattoos and the meaning of poetry). The writing is clever and visual, my favourite part is probably this, the ending of (...)


if the thought is the poem before it is slowed
by words it hides in here,...,
or in here 'x'
or in (you)


But best of all is the way all the pieces play off each other, tied together by the recurring elements. I really would like to see the film of this book.....