1.
Easter 1966. For J P. (New Version).
Girl
I remember the warmth of your love in a cold house:
The April wind rattling the sash windows:
The street dogs yelping.
We seldom linked our fingers, cuddled or kissed;
For hours we lay side by side writing ballads,
Their words long since forgotten.
One night we wove two wedding rings from strands of cotton;
But the plaintive wail of passing trains
Told of unplanned journeys.
Twice we consulted the cards, measured our life lines.
Your fate seemed tied to the north,
Mine to the City, close by the docks and the river.
My life has been lived out in London,
Yours in Belfast, right through the dark of the troubles,
Decades devoid of pity. A shadow has fallen between us.
Girl
This poem is an intimate letter
Encrypted into the night
On the keyboard of my computer.
I have not, for one moment, ceased pining,
And time does not value compassion.
Please send a few words tomorrow.
Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
April 11th. 12th 2014. October 7th. - 8th. 2014.
April 6th. - 7th. - 8th. 2015.
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2.
Elegiac Dawn.
Obscurely in autumnal light
Dancing figures on the lawn
Attend the death of youth.
Clutched by gloved hands
November fruits
Wither and pall,
Decaying beyond all hope or use
Before they have fully grown;
They shrivel and blacken then fall apart
In the frosty light of dawn.
Summer brought new hope
But summer was brief;
Love waned and sickened in November light;
Love learns to die while being born.
Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
Sketched September 15th. - 16th. 1976.
Rewritten and completed, April 4th. 2015.
Written after looking at sculptures by Henri Mattisse.
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