True Alchemy

Birds fall off branches, dead to the cold, all over the known world…

Epitaph

We suspect no-one of his death. No one of his life, either.

Not Gardening

I am at a funeral. I do not know who is being buried. I see the coffin lowered into the ground. The pallbearers wear long dark coats with tails, their tall hats decorated with white bands. I stand some distance away. The mourners, dressed in formal wear, do not notice...

A life less written

Writing has always been a passion of mine, indulged by both reading and writing fiction and poetry. And although I never pursued a career in science, I retain an interest in astronomy, particle physics and weird mathematics. I don’t pretend to understand the world...

Poetry & particle physics

Has anyone else been following the BBC’s awesome Atom programme these past few weeks? OK, I know it conforms to the formula of similar TV Science shows: sweeping panoramas of Earth and Space, ghosted equations floating across the screen and a casually dressed...

Feeling like a poet

Up early and having  a look over recent scribbling. When write a poem I usually have a good impression in my head of its worth. Some poems are just tunings, to get the head into gear. We could have a long discussion here of the sources of inspiration, but I...

Time

I tell of the lost hours playing games – in the fun of distant worlds, and words framed from disappointment, another hour ticks by. My disease is tamed, in a circle, two remote hands edge, semaphore to the knowing, ever closer, nearer now then far apart… …is it an...