Roy Stannard's Blog

When you think you know it all, ask the next question

Memory

  • Always, my Friend

    A friendship that is never tested Because there is no cross examination. Where the beginning Is also the end. Always, my friend. Read more

  • When your child has a child

    ..the grand pursuit of the heart of La Grande Bellaza in the cradle of civilisation like turning out of an alley and finding light in the piazza.. Read more

  • The End and the Beginning

      The End and the Beginning   Because others had named the day We can plot the moment When first in a church and then in the barn of an after bouquet of a wedding you caught a glimpse of the future in each other deftly like a slipping shadow at first then ripening boldly Read more

  • The Language of Us

      The Language of Us Before you, I walked at the edge of the group A straggler in strangers My life didn’t fit, held together with an unsafety pin I was made not to measure A bird not of a feather And my hesitant shadow held back Expecting never to be expectant, half a step Read more

  • April Showers – Abandon Ship (Chrysalis ‎– chs 2787 12″ 1984)

    ‘Abandon Ship’ emerged from all the stars colliding in 1984. Jonathan and Beatrice writing a romantic, panoramically lush pop song and asking Anne Dudley before she was famous to score and orchestrate it. Chrysalis records put it out on its Big Star offshoot as a 12″ with the vocal A side, instrumental B side and… Read more

  • Joyeaux Anniversaire, comme ils disent

    ‘Comme ils disent’ ‘As they say’, and they did about us But we stepped to one side and let the dissenters pass We let the March become April and the thunder become light. Read more

  • Farewell, Old Long Since

    It was a year that didn’t stop for anyone but there will be another one along in a minute. Read more

  • Somewhere, Nowhere, Everywhere

    Somewhere, nowhere, everywhere Before the rise and fall of everything When the tilting storm clouds creased their foreheads And the world felt numb I searched for meaning in words and phrases like a dictionary compiler struck blind I couldn’t see for the eyes in front of me I couldn’t hear because there were too many Read more

  • Moment

    Moment   There was a New York moment An ice-splinter in a sheet of sunlight When without the aid of smart devices Using dumb mind trails and heartstrings We managed to connect Like two sparrowhawks circling the Downs Two wayfaring strangers caught in eye contact A brother and a sister separated at the orphanage The Read more

  • Alfriston

    A poem about Alfriston, East Sussex for National Poetry Day, with apologies to Jim Webb and Glen Campbell. Read more