The news from Louisiana isn't looking good; possibly several thousand dead and a complete breakdown of law and order.

Of course, here in Britain we like to think of ourselves as being safe and that something similar won't happen to us; however, that's not been the case in the past.

I've been checking on the net, and in 1703 the south coast was hit by a hurricane and 8,000 people died and in 1606 more than 2,000 were killed by a tsunami in the Bristol Channel.

PASSING OF TIME

Total eclipse of the sun;
When daylight returned,
One less standing stone
In the circle.

PARTNERS

And...as
They danced,
Their shadows
Jumped up
And joined them
As they were
Cast onto
The stones.

I received a letter yesterday from the editor of a magazine that's published one of my poems...no free contributor's copy though, but I am allowed to buy just a single copy without needing to subscribe for an entire year. I don't think so.

I don't have a problem with not receiving payment for my work; there's no money to be earned from writing poetry (apart from the occasional workshop and even rarer bursary), but I'll be damned if I'm going to pay to see my work in print.

OVERLOOKING WALSDEN

The two of us reached the summit,
A setting sun in the west
Greeted our eyes.

The sun's reflection
On a still millpond
Also spilled a shadow.

In the field,
Sometimes two and two
Makes five.