Words Fail - A Fell Revisited

THOUGHT and PRAYER two vintage poems - freshly illustrated

PRAYER - a poem - Malcolm Evison 1970

THOUGHT - a poem - Malcolm Evison (1960's)

burdock

burdock

the gnawing pain

increases its intensity

in elbows, wrists and knees,

adheres to despondency

like burdock

to coarse clothing

and I, the bystander,

can only stare

into a void of despair

observe

my own decay -

words fail to proffer hope

they only weave

a crude blanket

around an emptiness

which only faith

can fill

Malcolm Evison

13 October 2016

Cementing Relationships

CEMENTING RELATIONSHIPS

Seeking a concrete image

to convey

             a pre-stressed thought

I lay foundations

for a fettered space.

The blue-print fails

the structure

              falls

far short of my emotion.

Set in my ways,

unable to explore

               the breaking strain

my need will carry.

Construct a hermitage

of words;

              contain

a solitude

upon the pristine page.

                                 Malcolm Evison

WORDS FAIL - (A Fell Revisited)

                                                 

                                                                                        WORDS FAIL

These words do not ring true,

cannot contain the tread

of rubber sole upon the beaten track,

the slide of stone beneath the feet,

the rustling of leaves

among the tangled roots.

These words cannot ring true;

as roots erode the step

whose shelf they form –

my words fail to express

the stressful joy, fail to commune

with nature. These words

do not permit the real footfall.

The fell remains

Unconquered.

Malcolm Evison

09 January 2016

Revision of Apropos Kings How – May 1981