How Short is Time

 

How Short is Time! (working draft)

EMBRACE

MOMENTS

MOMENTS

spooned in one-ness

whirled

into a world

of their own -

they can let go

                     of worldly woe

reality will dawn

upon them

far too soon

malcolm evison

07 may 2016

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.

Old Comrades

OLD COMRADES

Wearing the anguish

of old age

like some military honour,

he follows the cortege.

He remembers the Somme,

and how his thoughts

had turned to the mill-girl

two doors down.

Sometimes the dream looms

larger than his life.

A smile emerges, creasing

His well-worn mask –

his sorrow smothered

by her freely-imaged warmth.

Flossie her name was,

now she’s gone –

his death was living,

hers is snugly wrapped in wood.

He wears his grief with pride;

alone, misunderstood.

Malcolm Evison

That Day (For Helen)

THAT DAY (for Helen)


That day we found each other,
or perhaps the day
found us.

Though neither of us knew
what we were looking for,
a clasp of hands, an affirmation

of each others presence -
meant more
than either of us knew.

That day we found
each other -
and suddenly we knew.


Malcolm Evison
May 2007

The Poet

I've just been riffling through a few old working manuscripts and stumbled upon this one written sometime between 1969 and 1971.

THE POET

That is, if I dare say, my destiny. To grasp

and to expand, each feeling moment. Eternity

not mere renewal. Fearing the used-words

of my thought. My destiny. Are the words mine

to use, is any word, a property. I speak

in fear of loosely spoken

words. My destiny!

***********

Today and alone, I return. To what –

all has changed and still I know it is.

My returning. Home and the word

And the thought of the word. Home, and the skies

are open, and a song

of welcome pounds through my veins. Home,

and my eyes can see the song.

Today. And no more alone. I return.

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

And night conceals. Not even a whisper is heard.

So silently another dawn – and the fields,

the fields open as if to swallow me. I sit

and remember

(before the night/ another today)

a home. A destiny.

Alive. A sound. A shattering.

A whisper of you

from you for me. All is alive

with sound. The yawning trees, the birds

burst into song – the trees and images

of you. The blossoming and songs.

Songs in my mind and you

beside me. A song. A touch of you

on me; I feel

that you need me (not only I need you)

a sound, a touch – transforming words into

a destiny.

Malcolm Evison

TRANSFORMED (for Helen)

TRANSFORMED

(for Helen)

Right now I feel

the urge to scream

forget the aching limbs

dance deftly

on the brim

of my emotions.

Right now

I feel the lure of love

the light

that breaches

my stoical defence.

I see your face

I glow with joy -

right now

there is no you or I

as we rejoice.

Right now I am

alive with you -

I feel -

imbibe the air of this

our perfect world.

Malcolm Evison

13 December 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

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

The Fear of Fall

THE FEAR OF FALL


Though clouds have cleared
still I fear

their returning fall.

Your smile reflects
my whispered yearning –

presence and absence
jointly affirming

love’s own reality.

Each meeting proclaims
a joyous creation –

departing pre-figures
my fear
of the final fall.


Malcolm Evison