GREY DAY

GREY DAY

 

 

the light

or lack of it

strives to deny

day’s movement

 

the change

from slate

to milky grey

holds sway

 

the sky

is unremitting cloud

shrouding the day

in timelessness

 

there are no contrasts

simply a hint

that the earth

may yet prove flat

 

 

                     

                                                        Malcolm Evison

                                                                       5 July 2008

 

Listening To Stockhausen

LISTENING TO STOCKHAUSEN’S CARRE
with COLIN (aged14 months)


High spaces, free and contained -
embraces, sacred and profane.

Each moment a change;
change the instant
start anew.

Fresh breezes, shrill streams
chimes ringing -

the baby smiles –
he shares
none of my amazement;

constantly amazed
his is affirmation.
He laughs, picks up a new toy.

I relax -
immersed in the present.

Spaces
free and contained.


Malcolm Evison

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

another poem, freshly unearthed from the archives, THE GIFT, can be read on Archive Mined and Freshly Spun

New Day on Archive Mined

I have posted a further poem this morning, NEW DAY, on 'Archive Mined and Freshly Spun'.

Nightscape with Rainfall

 

 

Nightscape with Rainfall

 

 

The rudiments of fear

trace each step;

the hollow echoes

dampered by the rain.

 

Haunted by absences -

the lack

of any company

to take the chill away -

 

a sudden surge

of cowardice betrays

his vanity.

 

The rudiments of fear

trace each step,

the hollow echo

silenced by the rain.

 

The last bedraggled remnant

of false pride

lies submerged

in his timid haste.

 

 

                       Malcolm Evison

Sanctuary

SANCTUARY

Witnessing a fresco
in the chapel of my mind -
I could not rest.

My past -
emblazoned on the walls,
of this my secret hermitage -

I wept.

All colours had gone,
and only words hung there,
empty and cold.

Quietly in the night
I saw eternity decay
and knew
my life must change.

I awoke -
you arrived -
my transient future.

Malcolm Evison

Aged Poet has done some more archive trawling

A (final) working draft of a poem from the Thatcher Era can be found on 'Archive Mined & Freshly Spun' (DOLE-FULL BLUES).

MOVING

Whilst putting books back on their shelves, following recent decorating activity, I noticed a few dated jottings on the end papers of some volumes. (I had a habit of scribbling on the most immediately accessible blank piece of paper in those days).

I'm slightly mystified by this one but, something appeals/haunts me as I try to understand my more youthful mind-set.

MOVING

Times climate false and reasoned

calls me out of the dawn

into the full of light; moving

with great deliberation

full of ideas

as they are full of me -

time is the length of me

but I am larger

undefiled; moving

beyond the impotence

escaping

the disciplined innocence

of values which weigh

no heavier

than my tears of joy.

Malcolm Evison

14 January 1969

(re-moulded 12 May 2008)

Freshly Minted on 'Archive Mined'

A freshly minted poem, NEED IS A PURPOSE, can be found on 'Archive Mined and Freshly Spun'

TWILIGHT SEARCH

TWILIGHT SEARCH

The mind finds purpose

in pursuit of meaning;

openly seeking,

not knowing what.

The sky is vacant,

anaemically slate blue;

but night will fall,

add colour

to a pallid firmament.

The eye will forge

patterns

from a scattering

of stars.

The mind pursues

a greater scheme –

not knowing what.

Malcolm Evison

20 April 2008

Morning

Morning


Blackly embroidered
against the morning sky,
three trees.

Filtering silver
through the mist; the sun
emerges into day.

But nothing seems
so real as in my dreams.

I grow into my death
it does not bind me:

the silence penetrates
my thoughts –
the face of Christ. In death
he conquered life,
turning even the shadows
into a source of light.

Death conquers life, life
death. The black and white,
merely the parts of one.

Under the endless weight of time
lies truth. Beneath the endless weight
of sky this earth. Waking
then walking through the quiet scene
the mist defines the dream
as truth.

Mist filtered early
morning sun
blackly embroidered trees.

The frosted earth
and silver sky destroys
all barriers.


Malcolm Evison

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

ADAM and EVE

These are two complementary poems from my collection 'THE STILLNESS MOVES' (Outposts, 1970)

ADAM

This man, this image is the scheme

of things. This pure delight

he finds as he touches

the flesh of a woman. Man-made

this gift of God, the rib that grew

and blossomed to preserve

the blossoming. The man seeks entrance, strives

to heal the wound. Who can unite

these themes; this earth, these images,

his dreams - deeper than knowledge?

This man, this image is

the scheme of things -

within it and beyond.

Malcolm Evison

EVE

There and unknown; unknowing. This one

this moment is. There

and she does not know it. She is.

The man moves from his loneliness

toward her. She looks ahead,

her gaze, steady and confident. Her eyes

affirm the day. He cannot share it, sensing

that her lips betray, this confidence.

He reaches out to touch

her face, her lips tremblingly apart;

a silent fear disturbs

and beautifies. There are no words.

(She, he, wait for the mystery

to reveal itself).

The touch. Words drop their silent veil.

“Amen”, she says, discovering the word.

“Thank-you”, he says, discovering their power.

Together theirs is praise: separate and one.

Malcolm Evison