I am a retired librarian who has written poetry and short stories over many years. A longtime Kent and Sussex resident but now living in Norfolk.

My greatest satisfaction was being chosen in the top six of a Mail on Sunday competition back in 1989. Entrants were asked to write the first paragraph only of a potential novel. The judges were John Mortimer, Fay Weldon and Colin Thubron. We enjoyed a literary lunch with them in a London hotel as part of the prize.

FAREWELL

You found me diminished 
by years of inhibition,
fast dying from emotional hunger.
I still treasure the short reprieve.

At once delightful and destructive,
caring yet calculating,
you wove your web with a smile.

Farewell, bitter-sweet companion
of a mid-life crisis
you neither created nor resolved.

MAP OF MY LIFE

At seventy I pause to take fresh
bearings, check my position
relative to youthful
ambitions and ideals.

The keen needle of conscience
indicates degrees of failure
never anticipated,
not widely known.

On the unique map of my past
the long finger of memory
traces detours taken, often
across difficult terrain.

Here was joy in relationship;
there I felt very alone.
Emotional experiences punctuate
routine’s flat landscape

Crises for contours;
boundaries and landmarks
set by small communities
and by ordinary folk.

This map, in part
still to unfold, 
will one day reveal 
my lifelong journey.

TO A FOUR-POSTER BED

It would appear ( from romantic
tributes in the visitors’ book )
you have played a supporting role
in scenes of intense passion.

Though an undoubted stimulus
to the ardour of others, sadly
one couple alighted upon you
too late for transformation. 

Would earlier acquaintance
have rewritten a tale of two
Scrabble players, afforded
them a second honeymoon?

You know ( silent conspirator
in wedded and elicit bliss )
he did make it thrice nightly -
but that was only to the loo …