Author Archives: colinhopkirk

You can tell that he’s a sailorby the way he standsby his double-breasted coatwith old brass buttonsby his Atlantic Starhow he salutes passers by(longest way upshortest down) the way he calls me ‘Sir’in that soft Irish broguethe mischief in his eyeshow he protests at firstpolitely demursbut then gives into double-egg and chipsat the Viking Café

Hi, I’ve been absent for a while. Apologies if there’s a flurry of postings, I haven’t stopped writing. Hoping all are well. Best wishes, Colin

(found poem) Bold maritime endeavours remarkable feats of navigation the hardships of life at sea celebrated in sea-songs Excellent maps kept secret Privateers and merchants susceptible to the lure of grandeur and great wealth and dubious fame after death

I dream of an old friend who has become a recluse I dream of him as a tramp with lanky hair and yellowed teeth dressed in an old overcoat (the kind they wear in dreams) In this dream much the worse for whisky he is beside himself beating at the air shouting the odds besetContinue reading “Hornets”

In a folder beneath the stairs my father’s papers – useless insurances receipts for several powerful cars dwindling bank statements nursing home bills a lapsed funeral payment plan his pastor’s business card and in a section of its own a letter confirming his membership of a right-wing party

(without land, a man is nothing) By tropic lightby moth lighthe spends his hours with mapscircles the mountainsettles on the Eastmakes cattle calculationsplots a territory in reda hundred thousand acresmostly foothill scruba hundred thousand acreseven now he thinksthis may not be enough

I wonder what happened to the curly haired young man shy, thin as a whippet in faded nursing scrubs who fed and cleaned my father who tended to him, tenderly?

What does it take to gather what wits are left and decide decide once and for all to cease a multitude of meds to eat only just enough and drink a little now and then to take your own life in your own hands cut the lines cast off and set your boat on fire?

This Cairo looks nothing like the pictures he has seen stone walls and minarets appear in waves hovering above the ground In this heat thoughts fly scattering like small birds though any fool can see there is nothing green here no land to speak of none that he can use There are too many peopleContinue reading “Captain Fey in Cairo”

I went to art school partly to annoy my father partly because I could think of nothing else but mostly because I wanted to to blacken my hands with charcoal wrestle the blank canvas really get down to it become painterly I went to art school and was taught by a bitter man who demandedContinue reading “Art School”