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Archive Mined and Freshly Spunpoems old and new by Malcolm Evison |
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May 21 A Pale Reflection This poem was written very shortly after ON REFLECTION which has just been posted on MAL's FACTORY (Poetry & Prose Poem Blog)
A PALE REFLECTION
The shadows of the taller trees cast silhouettes
across the pool - they overlay a pale reflection
of the more immediate scene. Sometimes
I fail to grasp immediate delights allow
my darker memories to shield me from the light.
Malcolm Evison 21 May 2009 May 16 An Attempt at Verse Autobiography BIRTH OF AN ALIEN - A work in progress. The following three poems (or three parts of one poem), still in draft form, are of necessity laid out consecutively; ideally (though impossibly) they should be read concurrently as each covers the same period of the individuals early life. Autobiography is a new verse game for me but, I would appreciate any comments on the work so far. BIRTH OF AN ALIEN Part One - SHADOWS (Draft IIIA) I was born - unimaginably young - to a backdrop of war fought on a global scale. Doodlebugs fledged their way across the scene of my nativity - I swear (a legacy of wild imaginings) I heard the engines stall as death descended plague-like from the sky. Childhood and youth were spent in the shadow of a mushroom cloud – as if by miracle our lives went on. Remaining unconvinced by the ‘deterrence’ lie - and guided by the light of ‘Spies for Peace - I joined the siege of bunkers - which did not exist according to the parliamentary line – where those that govern could survive improbable attacks. Loophole acknowledged - their reasoning must be to strike pre-emptively and I declined the opportunity – disowned all those prepared for genocide, became an alien in my own land. Malcolm Evison 11 - 13 May 2009 BIRTH OF AN ALIEN Part Two – LIGHT Wrapped in a world full of love whilst all around was hate and fear - (the enemy was thwarted but not forgiven - their future generations would be tarnished by the mark of Cain - I failed to understand that reasoning). From my own comfort rich in love if not in pennies I began to see the world through eyes of others understanding - took stands upon my parents faith reluctantly accepted proscriptions unknown to many of my friends. Sunday was decisively the Lord's Day - my father worked being a preacher man - my mother worked looking after the family - that was the day I could not venture out to play with friends whose parents were otherwise persuaded. The radio was silent save for the news or hymn singing. This was our Sabbath Day - the would be sanctified could only pray for those proverbial sheep so far astray - it seemed as if the second covenant was made of rules almost forgetting the liberty of grace. Malcolm Evison 14 May 2009 BIRTH OF AN ALIEN Part Three – THE SCHOOL OF DOOM (Draft IIA) A rebel prepared for any cause I traversed many scenes but never found my niche. I knew from early teens what I must be, but first I must break free. Eager to break the bonds of school (a kind of punishment for being young) I dreamed my time away. Moving from one school to the next, never quite worked my way - fell foul of alien traditions. Compelled to join a company of snobs – (a secondary punishment, once removed, for my eleven-plus success) - teachers just failed to understand the differing curriculum from one part of the country to the next; dismissed me as unworthy of attention when I couldn’t understand their different scheme of things. They made me hooker in their rugby union game, when all I knew was soccer not the queer toffs routine - no-one attempted to explain the rules and I became a victim, kicked and ground down. The previous absence of a swimming pool ensured I never learned to swim, except against the tide - they held me under at the deeper end, then failed to understand my trauma – a baptism through drowning. Loving to play with words I soon lost patience with the drill of prosody; where words for me had always throbbed with life, they squeezed out their last breath and bound them in a shroud of grammar. Music to me was singing, but others in the class had learned to read a simple score - the music man interpreted attendance at a different school as ignorance, my forte thwarted by a different scale of learning, and a tyrant’s whim. And these were meant to be the best years of one’s life? Even school trips, had I been able to partake, were way beyond my parents means; in fifties Britain - skiing had never been a part of our lifestyle scheme, not even part of any dream – I made excuses, skulked in the background as if ashamed of being poor – I never left these shores. Malcolm Evison 15/16 May 2009 May 08 WindsweptWINDSWEPT
the wind seizes the moment turns tangents scuds debris through fresh accented passageways inertia becomes momentum it takes one’s breath away. Malcolm Evison 08 May 2009 April 14 A Noble SilenceA NOBLE SILENCE
Malcolm Evison March 19 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 [1977] |
just what it says
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