Midsummer

© C A Lovegrove

Midsummer madness!
Bald head browning, not quite burnt;
must remember hat.

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First posted 20th June 2014.

Beach walk

Aberdyfi beach © C A Lovegrove

A bracing beach walk:
sand and shingle alternate,
scrunch joins surf’s roar.

Lone seagull mews overhead;
breezes cool my heated brain.

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A tanka in remembrance of a recent holiday

Summer chills

I reached for a thriller
as holiday beach reading,
my spine a whole lot chiller
while corpses lay a-bleeding:
What evil under the sun?
I confess to no remorse:
‘And Then There Were None’
by grande dame Christie, of course!

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A response to a fine tweet by Neil Philip, folklorist:

On Camber Sands

sibillant squeals,
insistent, persistent:
parent-pestering young gull,
close-following, food-demanding,
noisome, brain-numbing:
nature’s survival ploy

seconds tick, cries continue,
minutes pass with constant mews;
unsated hunger; wanders wide;
wonder of wonders! parent flies,
youngster follows, peace returns:
save for surf’s hiss, bliss now reigns

but I still hear it

rock

standing proud, alone
part submerged twice daily, rock
surveys visitors

Church Rock, Broad Haven South, Pembrokeshire

runnels

raindrops on windscreen
dribbling down wiper runnels
draining to the sea

Merlin’s cave

site’s ignoble fate
wizard’s influence replaced
by man’s effluent

Sign near South Beach, Tenby, Pembrokeshire

eye

sea-washed stone in cleft
Nature’s art a false fossil
Leviathan’s eye

flag

lifeguard uniform
scarlet yellow flag matching
red sun sandy beach

sand

sand between wet toes
clings limpet-like, grains of
scratchy souvenirs