A companion to THE WORD OF SINNA LUVVA blog. An Outlet for new poems, drafts of poems and even rediscovered or reworked ones! For more poetry by Malcolm Evison see the Related Sites listing.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

SHADOW LIGHT

SHADOW LIGHT



shadows cast light
they resonate
through history

they never die

each action
stretches
through time

the ripple

reflects intention
on all who follow
the choice

is ours

to be wrapped
in darkness
or grasped by

the light



Malcolm Evison
10 November 2009

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Gardening In Autumn

Gardening In Autumn


mist hangs
like drops of perspiration
from the weary fronds

of autumn shrubs -
my senses sharpen
as they caress

my cheek.



malcolm evison
28 October 2009


Friday, October 02, 2009

Accordion



Sometimes

I feel


like an accordion

squeezed

by some

disembodied self


each chord

vibrates bruised reeds

each inspiration

teases out


a latent voice -

rarely

to be sustained -

almost as if


it chokes

on its own

respiration.



Malcolm Evison

02 October 2009

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Garden Paradox - Twittering Garden


twittering garden







GARDEN PARADOX



I walk into a paradox

the garden
lightly breeze stirred

breathes
false serenity
elsewhere

it seethes
it reels and jigs

frenetically



the shrubbery resounds

with babbling twittering

the birds crescendo



shakes it to the core




Malcolm Evison
14-09-09


Thursday, August 27, 2009

The Simple Life

THE SIMPLE LIFE

Wet grass gleams
through the dullness
of the day

he tramples it
underfoot -
treads slowly

across the lawn
towards the pond -
surprised

by sudden
piscine splashes
he smiles -

the sun breaks
through the cloud.



Malcolm Evison
26 August '09

******************

Another (even more recent) simple write, The Goal, can be found on 'Archive Mined'

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

SPIKE

SPIKE


Daylight confusion reigns,

the creature fails

to separate diurnal from nocturnal rules.


One easily discerns

something’s amiss

but has no ready answer


to the hedgehogs plight.

Find a nice box, line it

with newsprint, hay and towels


for the bewildered traveller,

leave it a snack

to nibble on. Come morning


the food has gone,

a coil of spines

heaves sleeping breaths


amongst the packaging.

I compliment myself

on job well done. Later,


the sun has reached it’s powering height,

the creature ventures out

and dozes on the sun-drenched lawn –


I move the spiky one

back into sheltered snuggling warmth

where he remains this time


but never roams again.


Malcolm Evison

12 August 2009

Thursday, May 21, 2009

On Reflection

 
ON REFLECTION
 
 
 
Sunshine
on puddled rain
reflects
 
the pride
of plants
refreshed
 
by elemental
forces
it lifts
 
my spirits
I hope
they won't evaporate
 
as I bask
calmly
in the afterglow.
 
 
 
 
Malcolm Evison
 
21 May 2009


*******************

The natural sequel to this poem, A PALE REFLECTION, can be found on ARCHIVE MINED & FRESHLY SPUN.


Saturday, May 16, 2009

BIRTH OF AN ALIEN

BIRTH OF AN ALIEN - A work in progress.



The following three poems (or three parts of one poem), still in draft form, are of necessity laid out consecutively; ideally (though impossibly) they should be read concurrently as each covers much the same period of the same individuals life. Autobiography is a new verse game for me but, I would appreciate any comments on the work so far.



BIRTH OF AN ALIEN

Part One - SHADOWS (Draft IIIA)



I was born -
unimaginably young -
to a backdrop of war
fought on a global scale.


Doodlebugs fledged their way
across the scene of my nativity -
I swear (a legacy
of wild imaginings)


I heard the engines stall
as death descended
plague-like
from the sky.


Childhood and youth
were spent
in the shadow
of a mushroom cloud –


as if by miracle
our lives went on.
Remaining unconvinced
by the ‘deterrence’ lie -


and guided by the light
of ‘Spies for Peace -
I joined the siege of bunkers -
which did not exist


according to
the parliamentary line –
where those that govern
could survive




improbable attacks.
Loophole acknowledged -
their reasoning must be
to strike pre-emptively



and I declined
the opportunity –
disowned all those prepared
for genocide, became



an alien in my own land.







Malcolm Evison
11 - 13 May 2009



BIRTH OF AN ALIEN

Part Two – LIGHT


Wrapped in a world full of love
whilst all around
was hate and fear -

(the enemy was thwarted
but not forgiven -
their future generations

would be tarnished
by the mark of Cain -
I failed to understand

that reasoning).

From my own comfort
rich in love
if not in pennies

I began to see
the world
through eyes

of others understanding -
took stands upon
my parents faith

reluctantly accepted
proscriptions
unknown to many

of my friends.
Sunday was decisively
the Lord's Day -

my father worked
being a preacher man -
my mother worked

looking after the family -
that was the day
I could not venture

out to play
with friends
whose parents

were otherwise
persuaded.
The radio was silent

save for the news
or hymn singing.
This was our Sabbath Day -

the would be sanctified
could only pray
for those proverbial sheep

so far astray -
it seemed
as if the second covenant

was made of rules
almost forgetting
the liberty of grace.



Malcolm Evison
14 May 2009



BIRTH OF AN ALIEN
Part Three – THE SCHOOL OF DOOM (Draft IIA)


A rebel prepared
for any cause
I traversed many
scenes but never found

my niche. I knew
from early teens
what I must be, but first
I must break free.

Eager to break the bonds
of school (a kind of punishment
for being young)
I dreamed my time away.

Moving from one school
to the next, never quite worked my way -
fell foul of alien traditions.
Compelled to join a company of snobs –

(a secondary punishment, once removed,
for my eleven-plus success) -
teachers just failed
to understand the differing curriculum

from one part of the country
to the next; dismissed me
as unworthy of attention
when I couldn’t understand

their different scheme of things.
They made me hooker
in their rugby union game,
when all I knew was soccer

not the queer toffs routine -
no-one attempted to explain
the rules and I became
a victim, kicked and ground


down. The previous absence
of a swimming pool
ensured I never learned to swim,
except against the tide -

they held me under
at the deeper end, then failed
to understand my trauma –
a baptism through drowning.

Loving to play with words
I soon lost patience
with the drill of prosody;
where words for me

had always throbbed with life,
they squeezed out their last breath
and bound them in a shroud
of grammar. Music

to me was singing,
but others in the class
had learned to read
a simple score -

the music man interpreted
attendance at a different school
as ignorance, my forte thwarted
by a different scale

of learning, and a tyrant’s whim.
And these were meant to be
the best years of one’s life?
Even school trips, had I been able

to partake, were way beyond
my parents means; in fifties Britain -
skiing had never been a part
of our lifestyle scheme,

not even part of any dream –
I made excuses, skulked
in the background
as if ashamed of being poor –

I never left these shores.




Malcolm Evison
15/16 May 2009

Friday, May 08, 2009

Windswept

WINDSWEPT


the wind seizes the moment
turns tangents

scuds debris
through fresh accented
passageways

inertia becomes momentum

it takes
one’s breath away.




Malcolm Evison
08 May 2009

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

HER BOOK

HER BOOK


Loose pages from time
collated and combined
to form a seal. ‘Fidelity’

italicized, illumined
on the manuscript –
an idol or ideal

once thought immutable.
Priestess enfleshed
as traditor, she stumbles

on her many tentacled
equivocation –
recalls the ritual

rending of the veil.
No longer able to maintain
her former love’s sectarian claim

she riffles through the pages
of her life. A few words
underlined, her youth transcribed

on parchment; genial memories
transformed into mysteries –

a facile binding
of a former liberty.




Malcolm Evison

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

SEMINARIAN

SEMINARIAN


A sanctuary, this studied room –
a sacred place without divinity.

Here, he first began to scour
the weed-strewn paving of his mind –
thought-loads of words strove to devour
his piety.

The books, which thronged
his living space, provided sustenance –
a new found grace.

Alone,
a hermit walled in by abstractions,
striving to fill a god-shaped absence
with well-honed words.

Roomed in his study, studying his mind,
vacuity – that most tenacious weed –
has left him blind.


Malcolm Evison

Thursday, March 19, 2009

BEING

BEING


God spoke –
I dare not listen.

I could not face
the stillness
of simply being there.

God spoke:
there were no words –
I simply saw

the suffering of others.
I could not share

the stillness
of simply being there.

One day I knew
God could not speak -
I used my eyes,

I saw and felt
the suffering of multitudes –
I listened to their cries –

then cautiously I whispered
“I am here”

and from my helplessness
I knew -
that God was there.




Malcolm Evison
28 July 2005

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Aged Poet celebrates his Beloved

A new video of Malcolm reading three poems for Helen can be found on the Aged Poet's Space (Archive Mined & Freshly Spun) - why not have a listen.

The poems read are: EMBRACE, TRANSFORMED and THAT DAY.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Reclamation


RECLAMATION


Just another
lightly throbbing
gritty grey day

a second chance
to modify one’s outlook
divert one’s gaze away

from the reality -
begin to play
the game

of life regained.



Malcolm Evison
29 January 2009

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Malcolm reads Five more Poems



The poems by Malcolm Evison are 'A Spun Illusion', 'Grey Day', 'Mist in Fell Country', 'Lines Beside The Garden Pond', 'Aubade' (sans le soleil)'.