milner place | 3 poems

don paco muerte

plays a mean
guitar

in a sound-proofed
room

the wick of time

that used to
burn
bright
as a sparkler

now

sputters
leans
to every
sigh
of breeze

now

has burned down
the wax
to
thin

now

precious
becomes
each kiss
of day

each night
a
dress rehearsal

death song of august wentworthy

night falls
for me it’s time
to tell

the wise words
of the wind
that day
it bent my ear
to say

i drive around
the globe
until
breath fails

a mountain
told me
that it wasn’t
high
and
point
ed
to a
blue
blue
sky

we live
a sedentary life
some tree remarked
a pool
unrippled
just agreed

birds
are shifty
noisy
sly
and drop
their shit
on my wife
and car

for the rest
i say
it’s a hotpotch
stew

i wish
to be buried
in brotherhood

at whipsnade
zoo

Milner Place…

…Born 25/1/30… First job timber faller before doing National Service 1948/50… Some time at Agricultural College but opted out… worked as barman… managed farm and estate… got involved in horse racin…1953… sailed to South Africa… worked as undergound surveyor copper mines… managed fruit farm...1955 returned to England to manage another farm, left and entered journalism…1958… sailed to new York …1958/61… Bahamas, did some surveying work.

Bought a dinghy and learned to sail. Then a sloop, freighting and fishing… skippered for Burl Ives… took over yacht in Miami… returned to England… left for Majorca…Dec 1961… smuggling run to Algiers during war, cargo one man… Supplemented income by smuggling money from England for Brit living abroad…1962… took over staysail schooner, working Balearics and wintered yacht in Ibiza…spent time in Bilboa and Madrid…Sailed to Italy, left Autumn 1963…wintered Madrid…1964…bought sloop and summered Burnham-on-Crouch…1965…took job as captain of ketch built in Holland and sailed her to Lisbon…met Count of Barcelona and his son (now King of Spain). Wintered in Gibraltar and Tangiers, then to Cadiz and Seville…back to Lisbon where did several ocean races with Count of Barcelona…quit job with ketch and sailed with Count for England…1966 Autumn…sailed own sloop to Bordeaux and via Canal du Midi to Toulouse…left for Denmark to convert a working trading schooner to a yacht…

1967…sailed same to Malta to effect conversion…did a delivery to Greece (minus keel)…August 1968 quit job and returned Spain…then France to pick up own sloop…lost it off Spanish coast, wandered round Andalucia, returned London courtesy of consular services…back to Malta to do honeymoon charter for couple, sailing to Tunisia via Lampedusa…1969…employed as consultant by Forte’s International Hotels on projects in Sardinia and Greece…left for Ecuador for job as consultant Tourist Investments S.A…9 months organizing marlin fishing fleet, Punta Carnero…left for Peru under threat of charge of Piracy, consultancy work on Manu River project, others in Brazil and Panama…1971…England and then Grand Canary, where scratched a living as a photographer…

1973…took off for Mexico to write unsuccessful novel…1976…moved to Majorca now with partner, Dorothy and stepson Paul…1977 first poems published in Spanish…trip to Canada – hashish smugglers – didn’t…1979/82…Boroughbridge, N.Yorks…worked as petrol station attendant, filling shelves at supermarket, night-watchman and running a B&B…1982/87…ran hotel in Alston, Cumbria until bankrupt…Jan 1987…came to Huddersfield, went to workshops, became sort of poet. source

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.