Author: Chris Nichols

Captain Tom We grow up fast.Being sexually active at five weeks is, you would say, precocious.Productive too: me and the missus had fifty kids last year.And not too picky. I…

Elemental I am earth: the grounding cool, the feeding rootI am fire: the rage-filled blaze, the sacred flickerI am water: life taker, life giverI am air: seed bearer, breath bringerI…

A Week at Newlyn Art School First, I noticed the people,the fitness walkers, dog walkers, the phone walkers.A woman living fromcarrier bags making coffeeon a beachside bench. The Scillonian setting…

The Zen Master alongside steaming bowls the chanting flows and forty orange robes bow receiving rice vegetables a smile some owls call the day is not dawning the light is…

Wistman’s Wood We are the stewards of rock, granite soft-sockedWe are the speakers in whispers, earth vespers We are the singers to night-skies, leaf lullabies We are the wearers of…

Sally Wax Sally is swimmingdeep and slow.Out, beneath the daily flow.She dived so fast:Did you see her go?Her towel still spread out on the sand.A tiny daughter’s outstretched hand,fingers feeling…

Two Short Pieces 1. A Martian visits the farmPassing over the ridge, I watch to myLeft, a giant, clothed in greens and yellows and browns.Overcalling the wind-song, I hear her…

The Gaunts’ House Tree I think of myself as gnarledWith a wonderful twistI’m attractive,In mist Part of the pack, yetapart, at the backI’m not trying to hide:I’m in front, from the…

Rendre hommage Wired on the JFK expressway no plans for sleepa world away Paris waits for dawnwe reach the kerb on 46th knowing we will walk into the night.Fifth Avenue…

Recalling my lunch with Albert Einstein and Mr Ghandi at Simpsons-in-the-Strand on 17th November 1931 Somehow fragments of anchovy - visible in entangled whiskers famous fromPathe newsreel images - dancedas…