Author Archives: colinhopkirk

                 last week he disappeared            carving stubbled tracks                  into familiar countryside           throwing gold dust at the sun                 and hours later found himself     Continue reading “A distant Combine gathers grain”

What if you stood  quite still right at the edge feet firmly planted about half a yard apart breathing steady the sun at your shoulder then leaned out  being careful not to fall looked into the water saw someone you half knew looking back?  

Pulling the string releases rain stored in long pods to swell amethysts.

Imagine your mother somersaulting down cellar stepsseeing what looks like the shadow of a dovefrom the corner of your eyethese things are unusualthey could unsettle a kidso you ask her, ‘what the fuck was that?’she tells you not to swearsays she was only dancing that she slipped and lost her bearingsand now your father has disappearedwithout aContinue reading “Circuses”

‘You’ve really come up in the world here …the whole of London is yours on a plate.’                              * In the rotating glass restaurant (one complete rotation every twenty-three minutes) Dave is trying to catch the waiters eye.  Sue is straightening the cutlery.Continue reading “The rotating glass restaurant”

You hear about these things at a distance down long chains.              * The motorcycle boys The bush beaters The unlucky three  (call them what you will) left school at sixteen. Within a year or maybe two there was an incident an accident, an RTA where Andy died. Ram, with shatteredContinue reading “The truth is manifold”

An outdoor bath with wood-fired copper boiler. An African hut with charcoal-powered cooler. A renovated rare-bat-friendly belfry. A 50s soft-porn stereoscopic what-the-butler-saw. A well used long-wheelbase Landrover Defender. A Dartmoor clotted cream ice-cream. A furlong of interesting and quite interesting  books. An old stuffed-head of a slightly puzzled antelope. A battered pair of crepe-soled bhundu-boots, sizeContinue reading “Uncle Kennie, listed”

‘I am heavy. I walk like a giant.  Or maybe a great ape.’ Dave delivers this deadpan. As matter of fact as Max Wall.  He knows all about  neurotransmitters their gaps and imbalances stutterings and surges. He understands the mechanics of synapses. Why his fine-motor skills  aren’t so fine anymore. Why his vision these daysContinue reading “Heavy, Dave”

Geoff Cochrane. New Zealand poet. Formidably concise. Witty and wild. Give him a go maybe? If you’re out there writing, may it go well.

They say that, once fledged young swifts will not land. Airborne for two years they sleep among the stars alternately switching off  separate halves of their brain enough to find some rest  yet always half-aware. That’s nothing. I did this for a decade grew sabred wings reached dizzying heights crossed continents at will covered halfContinue reading “Once Fledged”