In Every Sense Of The Word Poem by Tony Jolley

Touch: Our first kiss: light, lingering and yet so explicit and explosive
I can still feel the reverberations behind my smile.

Taste: You, so sweet on the tip of my tongue I didn’t dare drink for a week
for fear of washing ‘you’ away.

Hearing: Your singing, ringing bright as a bell chock-full of Rock & Roll angels.

Sight: You almost wearing that bikini!

Smell: Your Aqua Allegorica Parfum in kiwi.


Touch: Baby’s fist furled around my little finger – all pink and perfect.

Taste: Freybourger’s Jambon au Crémant at Félix’s First Communion celebration.

Hearing: Jackson Browne’s ‘For Everyman’ from first time on the turntable
[and every play since, from vinyl, via tape and CD right through to MP3]

Sight: The Girl in the Yellow Kagoule beaming from my start-up screen.

Smell: A noseful of Minty’s 3-month old puppy fur.


Touch: The strong arms that kept my head above water and towed me stiff to shore when cramp and cold had got very much the better of me off Durdle Door.

Taste: José’s Sylvaner Cuvée Particulière and Chandesais’ St Aubin Les Charmois deux-mille trois.

Hearing: The rain beating its rhythms against our bedroom Velux window tumbling Matrix-like patterns down the pane.

Sight: You spinning me round on our first ramble up to the Reservoir
to face a panorama of Alps viewed from our own ‘back door’ –
and knowing you’d saved up that surprise rather than merely tell me.

Smell: The olfactory orgasm that was the old ‘Transport Caff’ at Fisherman’s Walk where Dad used to take me for a bacon butty of a Friday lunch if I were lucky.


Touch: The sleek feel of the fretboard on the Taylor you treated me to for my 50th.

Taste: Sunday’s beans on toast brunch [courtesy of the ‘Bruebach Breakfast Fairy’].

Hearing: Laughing together fit to bust in bed last thing the other night and, in fact, giggling most other nights.

Sight: Did I mention: that bikini.? Ah, I did? Well, it sure rates another, believe me!

Smell: Nuzzling your neck on the pillow, drawing a last deep draught of your sweetness to keep me company me ‘til morning.

My Darling,
You are all of the above:
All ways and always.