How Short is Time

 

How Short is Time! (working draft)

A Fragment Rediscovered

 

Quite Wrecked

 

 

QUITE WRECKED

 

quite wrecked this morning

a generalized aching

discomfort

 

all organs

muscles, bones and skin

unhappy with their allocated place

 

In the bodies scheme

sadly I cannot lay the blame

on any over-indulgence

 

 

Malcolm Evison – 30^th May 2024

AND BLACK

 The following prose poem dates back to the late 1960s

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

AND BLACK

 

 

Night falls; the day disintegrates. All in a moment.

 

Have I been sleeping, or, is it a miracle? No-one can answer for me. I close the shutters of my mind, but always there is something. Always something there; no way of escape. Soon there will be another day, I know that – the mind cannot rest, but today, all I have done is forgotten. I can feel it, always the burden is there. Today, always there is a brooding yesterday, tomorrow will be another today.

 

I look. The mirror. I look into the mirror and see that I need a shave. “Tomorrow”, I say to myself, “tomorrow I will shave. It is no use now, tonight. I have a pen in my hand – it’s useless, how can I shave with a pen?”

 

Another voice: “I’ve caught you out. I can see you, you’re shaving”. But you cannot shave with a pen. You can chew it, write with it, just hold on to it. But you cannot shave. Again the voice, the same voice, “so you’re shaving; going out somewhere? Take me with you?”

 

I prevent myself from answering.

 

*******

 

The calendar tells lies. I know it; that’s tomorrows date; it’s always tomorrows date. I point at the calendar, put on a stern expression, and speak. “Why do you try to deceive me, what right have you to come here, interfering with my life?” The calendar is silent; must know better than to pick an argument with me.

 

I smile, slowly ….. a smile ….. spreads

 

                        RIGHT     ACROSS    MY    FACE

 

A last mad dash, and the smile is there. I feel it. I know it. I’m smiling. And I rush in vain seeking a mirror. I will not allow it. “You must stop”, again a voice, a strange voice, “you are not smiling, you are weeping. Forget your pride. It is tomorrow and you are weeping”.

 

“It is always tomorrow”, I sigh.

 

All mean-minded night falls.

 

*******

 

I am the city, green is the country; and black. The city is hope written in neon. I am the sprawling grey. I can always hope, for the city is warm, but the fields beyond lie green and cold. I am the city, green is the country. “And black” says the voice, “and black”.

 

The city is. The city dreams. The city says dream.

 

                 IT IS DREAMING

 

“Again”. All exclaim – “again!” Yes, again.

 

                THE CITY

 

It is trying to speak. Talking to you.

 

                AGAIN

 

The city says dream. They all dream.

 

                DREAM

 

The city is within. It is heavy. The people. Outside there is only emptiness. I am the city, and emptiness, like the face of a lonely man, terrifies me. Fear is the face of a man. A man alone. I am not alone. I; I am the city.

 

The people are the city is the people are the city is the people.

 

I am. The city is. I am the city.

 

*******

 

Now is the sum total of then. It is not constant. Is then so very far away? I can never remember, only feel it. Always tomorrow. It is always tomorrow, even the calendar tells me it is tomorrow. And I thought I was being deceived.

 

No; the deceit was in my mind. No-one or no-thing can deceive me. I deceive myself. It is always tomorrow, but today there is no cause for worry. It is the night, the night and the voices. The mirror. I am still standing by the mirror, there is blood all around my mouth. I have been shaving, I must have cut myself. Lying on the floor, beneath the mirror, an open razor. I pick it up, and write a poem with it. I always use red ink; each word then seems like a sacrifice.

 

I pick up the razor and write a poem. The calendar reflects in the mirror. I turn the mirror upside down.

 

I am standing on my head. It is night-time, and I am alone with the voice, standing on my head. The voice. I hear it again, “you thought you could fool me. You failed, you miserable wretch, you failed. Why pretend to shave; anyone knows you can’t shave standing on your head”. No; but I can write; I cannot shave but I can write.

 

Ridiculous!

 

All the time there was only me. There are no voices. I’m not going mad. It’s the calendar; it’s all the calendars fault. Shave with a pen indeed. Who does he think he is? The image upturned; I cannot shave, but I write, taking the mirror into myself.

 

There is a silence.

Night falls, the day disintegrates. I laugh to myself; “tomorrow I will return to the country. It’s a pity really; I so like like town-life, but I must return. The countryside is green, the city is neon lights ….

 

“And black”, adds the voice; “and black”.

 

********

 

Black. Reflections on black nothing. Cloth on wood in glass on wood in black. It is nothing – only there. There to be discovered. As it is, I try, I try to grasp it. I think ( a mystery can only be discovered as it is) again. Somewhere out there are people. I am here and the window is black and I am in the window on the black. (It is not really black) I think again (but I must take it so) I demand of myself (to retain the mystery). I, in taking will also take the people; they are powerless – I have decided. Out there somewhere – the people - they do not even know that I exist (perhaps I am a mystery waiting to be taken in freedom. In I am the taking as I will be taken am in the freedom of the here-being in the mystery of of … but maybe I am not … to them perhaps … I am not) for I have been, all my life, beside this table, in the room, where outside it is now dark – and there is nothing only the (Black) reflections on the (glass) nothing that is out there and contains (somewhere / the people) and …

 

 

                        

 

                                                                           Malcolm Evison

BROKEN?

BROKEN?

 

Broken

as tears flow

erupt and destroy

any resemblance of calm

 

He can no longer claim

that he has come to terms

with new reality

 

Yearning to close

the breach

restore the harmony

albeit In a different key

 

                         Malcolm Evison

                         09/10 April 2024

Squirrel In The Rain

poem and image by malcolm evison

BEING

A Glass So Deeply Stained

Golgotha Days

Word

        Word

       

The pain of not to know

a words true meaning -

(a heartfelt paradox

so tautologically entwined)

brain travels inscapes

of the mind

the universe declaims

I AM - the exocentric

altar. Delving

through layers of time

exploring a fresh terrain -

we dream of worlds

where words were not yet

known. We fail to understand.

Seeking our solace

in links with primal man -

we feel the air vibrate

with all our fears,

and through the storm

we hear the voice that tears

at our discretion.

All is, and nought eludes

our sense, each particle

is new, and each the wholeness.

Then vision fades.

Unable to untie

our deepest fears,

from realms of theory,

we seek salvation

in vacuity -

unable to unite

the reasons for this life

with joy in living

we yearn for sunlight

to dissipate the gloom -

at each encounter

ache for renewed creation.

The phase explodes -

gone is all sense

and reason yields

to circumstance.

Our reminiscence magnifies

the mis-spent days -

heroic sacrifice

now reeks of self-abuse.

Our word-linked knowledge

looks to primal man -

speaking of worlds

where words were not yet known -

no matter how we squirm

we fail to understand

that words

are still the master

of the man.

                      

                              Malcolm Evison      

rediscovered fragment - weft and warp

Weft and warp the winding river

Weaves a sky-glass mirror wide

Where broken reeds in woeful frolic dance

And all of nature is a song field

Happy singing softly low

Hush waves sift across the shallows

Humming pebbles flow

In my mind I know no resting

See the country torment side

Burdened down with woeful pity

Watching sorrow crease their smiles

In the heaving night I lie awake

I lie awake and think of green of day

When I with you through fields will wander

Our love we must not squander away

Away dull cares and lift the heavy shield

That guards my ears and eyes

I want to live, to breathe, to love

Far from my captive sighs

Malcolm Evison

(a rediscovered fragment of a poem I was working on circa 1966 – no prize for guessing the poet to whom it was indebted)

Night's Torments - a hasty first draft - an instant response

Squirrel in the Rain - repost

       
Having watched the acrobatic antics of a squirrel,  in various parts of our garden, this morning, I thought it was maybe time to repost this poem!


Squirrel InThe 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 


             

A Noble Silence - illustrated poem - Re-post

Two Poems dis-interred as a result of the High Court trampling on (the same) workers rights

Today the High Court found an excuse to prevent the CWU from taking strike action in spite of the ballot receiving 97% support for their action! 

The two poems below date from October 2017 when the Tory High Court previously ruled against these workers rights.

As If The Worlds Woe - draft IV

Some Frenzied God

Closing The Deal

I just stumbled upon some scribbled random lines & words I'd hastily drafted in March 2017 and elsewhere a few scribbled random lines from April 2017. This afternoon I played around with the two separate entities before realising that they really belonged together, hence the following:
.

Closing The Deal

once having flown

too close to a werewolf moon

he struggled to provide

a blueprint for his own

corrupted furrow –

his joy

was rarely ever real –

but cynicism

worn as self-defence

though jocular

was more

like the true deal-

he dreamt of heroes

but all too soon became

a doleful clown

Malcolm Evison

-         20 August 2019

The Candle (one poem - two versions)

by hirsutemal

Although most of the drafts for these two versions of the same poem were written in January 1991 (during phase two of the First Gulf War), subsequently modified in 2005, I am still unable to decide which is the final version. Each version has its merits and no doubt their flaws too.

THE CANDLE (Version I)

Waiting to break

this happy equilibrium

the flames shaft

laps the glowing air.

Today the bombs

fall on Baghdad –

I watch the candle burn.

A patterned globe

of wax emits

a subtle fragrance –

no flesh is burning

here in my room.

Is this the flame

that purifies –

surgically pue?

An opening of the door –

a minor turbulence,

the flame now licks

the candles side.

The meltdown of the globe

begins so casually.

Malcolm Evison

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

THE CANDLE (Version II)

A patterned globe

of wax emits

a subtle fragrance.

The flames shaft

laps the glowing air

waiting to break

this happy equilibrium.

Is this the flame

that purifies

whilst commentators whine

of surgical strikes.

Open the door, create

a minor turbulence –

the flame now licks

the candles side –

the meltdown of the globe

began precisely

with the strike

of that first match.

Today the bombs

rain down; a patterned globe

emits the stench

of burning flesh.

          

   Malcolm Evison

Continue-uMM

                        

              Continue-uMM (second draft)

                               time alone knows

what it is

it passages through life

but as for all the rest -

quite unaware

of what makes it tick

we struggle on -

but are we fixed

in an imaginary

continuum

                              Malcolm Evison

@ what I choose to call

30 June 2019 / 01 July 2019