A Question of Balance

A QUESTION OF BALANCE

Garnering the thoughts
of others, he fails
to find some of his own -

he holds back tears to show
he does not share
the fears others know.

He balances the cost of feeling
against the numbness
of blind fate. He sighs

and calculates the cost
of caring, avoids the sharing
of any others woe.

He always felt that questions
would sustain his growth -
he never claimed to know.

He bought himself
a ticket to ride
then found

he had no place to go.


Malcolm Evison
19 November 2006

Aubade (sans le soleil)

AUBADE (sans le soleil)



Wrapped futilely
in the realm of beauty sleep –
dawn rarely dawns on me.

Long after the appointed hour,
the room is thunder-black -
draw back the curtains.

The sky has lost
its breathing space –
choked by the clouds,

voluptuously hanging
in their mourning drapes –
symbolic of a troubled world.

I sigh, and seek
the duvet’s solace –

for me the day
has not yet quite begun.




Malcolm Evison
26 October 2006

EMBRACE

EMBRACE


Wrapped in each other
we break illusions
of our separateness.

As bodies merge
we lose location
finding our place

in vaster schemes.
Thanksgiving, sanctified
with each embrace,

transmits a joy
beyond our reckonings.
Today

love knows no bounds.



Malcolm Evison
22 October 2006

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

NIGHT SHIFTS

NIGHT SHIFTS


Aimlessly walking through
the quiet town, an echo
painlessly affirms belonging.

Night falls;
the day disintegrates -
all reference fails.

I cannot wrap this world
in meaning. Slowly it burns
out the old images, the worn

words, the soiled. This is
the turning point; the nights
calm trodden underfoot.

Hold out your hands;
capture a fragment
of the neon-splintered

sky. A window brightly
shouts its wares.
Stares

into darkness
and reveals
its own banality.



Malcolm Evison (1978)

A Piscine Ploy

A PISCINE PLOY


Suspended in anticipation;
slow motion animation
is the name

of their new game.
They could be simply basking
in the sun

but I
with cynics heart and eye
suspect more base Intent.

Scatter
a few morsels
of delight –

Shatter
their tranquillity.
They swoop

like vultures –
swiftly devour
a non-resisting prey.




Malcolm Evison
3 – 8 September 2006

A Spun Illusion

A SPUN ILLUSION


A few slender lines
of spider silk

stretch
between wild grasses

deflect
and tantalize
the sun’s beams –

like wingless dragonflies -
a plenitude of insects seems
to haunt the lines –

an intermittent
iridescent sheen

darts between threads
and blithely skips

along the spider’s
anchoring



Malcolm Evison
8 September 2006

SONG FOR D

SONG FOR D

Sometimes an unforced smile

masks out fragility, band-aid

applied instead

of tourniquet. Sometimes

a fought for strength

defies understanding –

proclaims that everything

will be alright –

denies the fault line

that strives to undermine

the songs foundation.

Sometimes

we must return, strive

to uncover

a truth already known.

Malcolm Evison
3 September 2006

Rhythm of the Rain

A first tentative draft responding to my wake-up call!

RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING OVERHEAD

Full-bounce, full taps -
the odd rim-shot
snapped out –

the rapping rain asserts
its skylight presence.

Entranced -
I listen as
it riffs away -

a paradiddle plenitude
marks my emergence
into day.

Then lightening
fires a cymbal crash –

a bass drum sostenuto
now holds sway.




Malcolm Evison
18 August 2006

Morning Song

Morning Song


The large whites demonstrate
flirtatious flying

red dragonfly reflects
a darting counterpoint

to food frenzied
goldfish

the morning radiates
pure energy

unlocks
my heavy-lidded eyes.


Malcolm Evison
16 August 2006

Unveiling

UNVEILING (Draft II)

Some days, a few words
scribbled down in haste,
a simple melody, a subtle
turn of phrase, unclothes

another’s world. And there,
beneath a supple shell, you find
a heart that bleeds;
it seeds itself beneath

the skin, you share the pain,
then seek to radiate the joy
their presence in the world
discloses. Some days you know

that you are not alone. The wave
that rises, through the words and song,
washes away your frown. You share
a smile, a caring strength;

you know your world
can never be the same.

Sometimes, a word of thanks reveals
that we can overcome;
sometimes a body sings the joy
of sharing; sometimes

we simply share
the pain of caring.




Malcolm Evison
06 August 2006

Squirrel In The Rain

He perches, in sparkling eyed contemplation
of the goal. Like some celebrated stylite,
he squats on his post, oblivious
to the hostile elements. My stare

intrudes upon his gaze; defiance
resonates across the intervening space. And then
the sudden leap,
a precarious landing on the ridge; teeth bared

he nuzzles the meshwork tower,
seeking nutrition.

Losing his grip,
he hastily takes flight, back
to the stepping stone beam -
the garden fence’s parapet.

A sudden sure footed spring onto the post;
I stare at him, he glowers back at me,
brush-tail twitching. I sense
a mood of defiance; he leaps once more
to the bird tables roof.

A turbulent manoeuvre finds
a covered plateau. A sense
of instability
takes charge. He beats
a hasty retreat.

Post squatted,
he focusses once more.
He steels himself,
then springs.

The glistening plastic proves
more than a match; he takes
a floundering fall
into the sodden undergrowth.

Bedraggled, he climbs the austere fence,
tail discomfortedly curled,
shakes vigorously. The watery beads
propel themselves from body into air.

Straight tailed, disconsolate,
he beats retreat
along the wooden parapet.


Malcolm Evison 22 May 2006