
Kris Spencer is an educator and writer. Brought up in…
After Neruda
You must be a chaos, to give birth to a dancing star – Nietzsche
Sandflies
coming up,
delicate as fishnet.
The water stands
fig-green in the hollows.
Clouds bunch
and thicken, the sea
turns the blue-black
of Seurat’s dog.
Bending low
to skim stones,
we watch the light breaking
on the swell,
like mackerel skin.
Turquoises in the shallows,
greens and blue-violets
in the troughs
with crimson points
at the crest;
and the dull orange
of seaweed floating
in the water.
In the white foam
not colours but light
at play. We blink
to see the changes;
laughing to have
the wind blow so hard,
and have all
the constellations
of the heavens
to ourselves.

Kris Spencer is an educator and writer. Brought up in Bolton, he now lives in London where he is a Head Teacher. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a thread running through his written work is a sense of place. His two poetry collections, Life Drawing (2022) and Contact Sheets (2024), are published by Kelsay Books.