This is an original oil painting of Heacham beach in west Norfolk, completed on stretched canvas, unframed. Size 51 x 41 cm.
copyright Francis Barker 2019
Original Oil Painting, Heacham beach, West Norfolk
Tag: seaside
Poem: Strand
I walk out on to the strand
the only person around,
my shoes sinking some way
in to the fine washed sand.
The world of the town
is stacking high behind me
like multi-coloured pieces
of sweet rock and bubble gum
with the long line of beach huts
parading before them –
those little homes for the English
never wanting for their English tea
and comic newspapers
which they still read and believe.
But none of them are here now.
I’m looking out to the flat horizon,
a line of dark blue beyond
this stretch of local turquoise sea.
Somewhere around here,
maybe even on this easterly shore,
my DNA must have arrived
via Angle, Cimbri and La Tene,
a strand on this strand
in these islands afar.
copyright Francis Barker 2019
Tanka: By The Sea
A few summer weeks
Punters head for crowded coasts
Overindulgence!
The sun, sea and sand play games
Make September quite daunting
copyright Leofwine Tanner 2019
Poem: ‘Love Shack’
Once more we are here, leaving our mark in the sand,
each time like a beginning, distant memories
of our first sight of the sea and the stretching beach.
It’s a smile you can’t stop, a sense of freedom
among the elements and primary colour,
dead pan voices of young and old
muffled by wind and rolling wave.
We look out on that flat horizon
spoilt by scattered wind farms, feathered
by painterly coasts
and we walk and talk along the strand,
laugh at the silly names of beach huts
and wonder what we would call our own,
to sit in the sun
on one of those few good days of summer
with our rug and thermos,
munching make-do cream teas
bought on a budget.
It would be a life, I suppose
copyright Leofwine Tanner 2019
Poem: Carousel Kissing
And so I followed you,
holding desperately your trailing hand.
From dodgem screams in head-on collision,
to long kisses on carousels,
sitting the wrong way—
facing you,
holding you—
Yes, I was daring you!
That smile behind your eyes like a loving sun
which I met devouring candy floss;
sugar highs spinning lips together,
meeting and melting our cares;
suspended in ghost trains,
scaring you, opportune for me.
And later, strolling slick sands,
the far bass thuds
tripping our hearts,
setting off our lives.
Still in motion
copyright Leofwine Tanner 2019
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Ciscography 