(1). Selected Poems of Yevtushenko, First Edition. (2). Stage Prop.(Revised).

                     1

Selected Poems of Yevtushenko.


This book smells of decay,
The pages are yellow,
The covers have ceased to be white.

The boy who bought this book
Is now aged seventy three,
Deep in the fall of the years.

For the book this is unimportant.
The book has its own agenda.
The book can understand nothing.

The book cannot read the words
That dance across its pages,
The book is a parcel of shadows.

The book only fills with light
When the pages are slowly turned
In the hands of a careful reader.

Unread it is merely a package
Of symbols that maybe important.

When the book is closed up tight
It ceases to have a meaning
Beyond its outward appearance.



The man has loved this book
For more than fifty years.

Sometimes it is a talking point.
Sometimes it is neglected.

It has rested on his bookshelf
Through all the changing seasons,

From the first snowdrop of springtime
To the final yellow leaf.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
March 10th. - 11th. - 13th. 2017.
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                     2.

             Stage Prop.


Left over from Pericles
A piece of chamois leather,
Something to clean old
                    windows with,
Rub out distortions,
Bring the long view into
                                  focus.
Even when every hope is lost,
Sunk deep into the ocean,
Despair is not an option.

One day an old song whistled
In a city full of strangers
Will remind us of lost friends
And tell us who we are.
A song from yesterday
Rehaping our tomorrows.

This stage prop, long put by,
Is just a cloth to wipe the windows,
To clean off dust and soot.
But as I study it for flaws
I recall the smiles and tears
From a season half forgotten:
The smiles of actors playing Shakespeare;
The tears of their farewells.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
March 27th. 2017.