The book is available from Amazon, and it is a beautiful and unusual journey through life. It begins with birth, progresses through life, and after a winter of loss ends with a moment of hope. Here are some poems from the 'Love and Work' section of the book, mine first, then Ashley's...
The Madonna of the Peninsula
I draw up the sea’s whiteness, like litmus.
Its brilliance outstares me. Tidelessly, its
flat face beats back the hammer blows
of relentless midday that press flat
the
seared land. Arctic water, homeopathically
dilute,
recedes to another shore that spewedout our dull grey sand. The scurf is shorn off
by weighted men under wicker creels.
The
man who lights my candles has eyes
steel-hard
that the light rings soundlessly off.My heart sings in its white carapace for him,
for him. I am a beacon for the ships at sea
and the hopeless insomniac walkers who
stalk the cliffs, becoming weightless, as
the dull brass plaques are shined to the sun’s
brightness; its deadened saltpan stare.
The Thing With Work
The thing with work
Is it can hurt
The body,
The mind,
The soul.
It’s supposed to help you
Achieve a goal.
Instead it leaves
Some kind of hole
Where love was
Is now lost.
The price of earning
Comes at a cost.
Balance,
Where family comes first,
Is gone.
When people thirst
For more than they need.
Evidence of this,
Proof of that.
An unending greed.
Some say
Life’s a beach.
Not if
You decide to teach.
