Shrove Tuesday, February 2020. (Re Written)

The cherry blossoms are already out in Tokyo.
Here in London I have daffodils and crocuses,
The swift shadows of inland gulls in flight,
Darting across my driveway;
The uproar of children echoing through the school yard
As they rabble rouse home - kicking - laughing.
If this is winter then spring is just a rumour.

I love all nature, but often shut the window
On all that happens outside my run down semi.
I turn on the radio to feed my addiction to news bites.
Even if politics makes me as poor as a dormouse,
Curtails my civil rights, traps me in one country,
Steals my I D, shreds my pension with taxes,
I have found a kind of solace in everyday things.
Yes I love all nature however tiny or cosmic;
The clouds of bright stars shimmering over the rooftops;
The elemental crying of urban foxes;
The unlikely regeneration of half dead rose trees
That in summer host a crowd of butterflies.
The world is a kaleidoscope of delicate miracles,
My neighbourhood and garden are no exception.

It is half a century since I was in Kyoto,
Strolling beneath the blossoming plums and cherries,
My eyes dazzled by the dance of micro colours,
The returning power of the sun. -
While there I was taught that song birds, flowers, foxes,
Are my intimate friends on this our magical planet,
Friends to be cherished with love and true compassion.

I watch the infants skedaddle out of the school yard,
So like young monkeys escaping out of the pen.
I hope that politicians will not blight their new lives
With post code stereotyping and retro - nationalism;
Our world is too precious to be carved up into fiefdoms,
Grim technocratic islands of corporate - feudalism. -
I turn off the radio. I wish to hear myself think;
To sit by my opened window before the sun sets. -
Close to my garden walls a hyacinth is blooming.
The cherry blossoms are already out in Tokyo.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
February 22nd. - 23rd. - 26th. - 27th. 2020.
I want to try and put the whole of life into my poems. I have tried to put magic, politics, human relations with the planet into this poem. My love of the Tao and Zen are also in here somewhere.