Collaboration Poetry & Photography from John Winder & Phil Wood

Portents

This morning the portents are ovular.
Her spoon cracks the crown
with a deft tap like Debussy
orchestrating the life of possibilities
over a freckled sea; as light flickers
her painted nails begin to peel the shell,
an act that's delicate and clinical:
the albumen is pure, an oval of white.
Her palette knife slices the top off
and yolk spills towards the rim
with a slow promise quickening
to stains and stickiness,
a Hodgkin splodge of illumination
spreading over the frame
papering walls with a summer's day.

Butterfly

Within the butterfly net
the black and white 
flickered a film of when
I fidgeted in the leather chair,
where granddad wintered
and fought his ire of clocks 
with a spice of briny tales
to ungrind rainy days.

I chew a Black Jack 
in the fossilized light
of my study, the flutter
of childhood escapes.

She Bought Me Coffee

I shiver in my jumper, the skin
I knitted before she moved in.
The path shimmers. Her diva face
pouts and poses - it's getting late.

The zigzag home: a venture rite
of inclines, a puddle theatre of night.
My jumper snags on fate. I comb
the air and fall. She buys me coffee.

Bio Phil Wood

Phil Wood was born and lives in Wales. He studied English Literature at Aberystwyth University. He has worked in statistics, education, shipping, and a biscuit factory. He enjoys watercolour painting, bird watching, and chess. His writing can be found in various publications, including: The Wild Word, Autumn Sky Daily, the Abergavenny Small Press, Ink Pantry, Fevers of the Mind.

Bio John Winder

John Winder is a creative photographer working in both colour and black and white. He began creative photography 40 years ago and enjoys trudging around outdoors, hauling camera gear, and spending time behind the camera. He has art work previously published in The Bangor Literary Journal, The Fly on the Wall Press and The Abergavenny Small Press.