(1) Watching War and Peace Adapted for TV.(2) My Mother`s Fine kimono. (3) Dragon. (4) A Note to my Son in Law....

                1.

Watching War and Peace Adapted for TV.


Little snippets of War and Peace shown
                                           on television.
Little shredded snippets, not the full fat book.
Torn leaves soaked in adolescent blood
falling
            falling
                        falling.
            Falling onto white white snow.
            Nothing real. Nothing really Russian.
Plastic picture post cards flashed onto a screen.
Tourist Board Dickensian. English without tea.
And all the time I hear my great aunts voice
Crying in the wilderness of London.
           "Oh show us who we are, please do not
                                                      mock us.
For Christ`s Sake show us who we really are!"


Trevor John Karsavin Potter,
January 10th. 2016.
------------------------------------------


                2.

My Mother`s Fine kimono.


My mother wore a kimono
Even though the eastern war
Had made Japan unpopular.

The dragon sketched in silk
Was a small defiant symbol
From a culture bombed and burned.

Politicians come and go
Like shoddy goods they are expendable,
But a burnt out temple cannot be replaced.

Nor can an ancient manuscript of haiku
Praising resting by a mountain river
More highly than a skill required in battle.

A thoughtful neighbour washed the fine kimono.
The dragon melted in a sea of colour.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
January 9th. 2016.

Early in her life my mother learned a love of Japanese culture. Her pride and joy was the fine kimono of the poem, and she was criticised for wearing it during the latter part of the Second world War by less understanding, less forgiving neighbours. The kimono was ruined in the wash.

       --------------------------

                    3.

               Dragon.


The dragon in his lair is not alone
Despite eternal solitude.

Distant scholars have remembered him.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
December 13th. 1971. - January 9th. 2016. 

For David Bowie. 

      ------------------------------

                     
                    4.

A Note to my Son in Law to thank him 
for obtaining Three Tang Dynasty Poets.


Three Tang Poets have arrived in the post.
They are all old men who drink lots of tea.
If I stumble on their long beards I am lost forever.

Meanwhile I await the arrival of old Wang Wei.
Transport is slow. His ox is the problem,
It just wont negotiate the gateless gate.

Meanwhile I sit and contemplate my wayward garden,
Daffodils in January break all the rules;
Next summer I may travel through a barren land.

Thank you for these books, they are perfect for my library,
When the blossoms wither I shall quietly sit and read,
That ox groomed and tethered, out of sight and out of mind.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
January 8th. 2016.

An email sent to my son in law thanking him for the safe delivery of a book.