Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Fallen Angels Poem No.2 - Transcendent Song. (Revised)

You always remark
I fell from the stars
The day that we met

Angels must gather
Where true love is found
Purer than words can explain

You could give me such love
If you truly dared
But safety first is your game

Your ego has snapped
Your Angel wings
And left you alone in the dark

The stars I fell with are in my hands
Trust love - then soar like the Lark


Trevor John Karsavin Potter. 
June 29th. 2021. - July 5th.
Fallen Angels Poem 1 is very different. I am holding it back for now.

Friday, 25 June 2021

Lost Tears.

If I could recover all the tears I have lost
I would become a lake wider than Windermere,
Deeper than the depths of wild Loch Ness,
Or the ocean due west of Sligo Bay.
And all the islands would be misty with ghosts,
The whispering ghosts of friends and lovers
Long decades out of touch.
But tears once shed cannot be recovered,
They evaporate like prayers in the morning light
When the candles are snuffed and the altar is cleared
And the church is locked up for the day.
Tears are sacred, that is why we hide them
 From neighbours and strangers passing our way,
Pale shadows in the rain.
Their healing words are just background noise
When we want to rage at the sun.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
June 26th. 2021.

Tuesday, 22 June 2021

Art, I am told, is fabulously useless.

Art, I am told, is fabulously useless,
A commodity beyond quick comprehension,
Yet fattening the purses of the wise.
I can hear God in the cool voice of the cello,
The anguish of a Sinti violin
Played by a refugee to earn some bread.
Profit and loss disrupt the music scene.

Art becomes holy when we truly love it,
Heals the anguished heart, the broken mind,
Makes dreams come true, if only for a minute.
Life without art is sterile and unkind.
Art is love expressed in song and Ikons.
 
I watched the towers of Rouen fade in rain,
Transformed into stone clouds above the city,
Losing solid mass, yet retaining their perfection,
Silent prayers merging with the storm.
Prayer is a type of art, a spiritual outpouring
Expressed in words, in paint, in Cathedral spires
Writing silent music on the sky.
Art is in the kiss a mother gives
With true compassion to her weeping child.

Art is not artifice, it does not hide the truth
Behind a glittering face mask of conceit
That will soon be packed away when fashions alter.
Art has no time limit. It has our generous love
That does not change although our hair turns grey.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
June 19th. - 22nd. 2021.

Saturday, 12 June 2021

Trevor J Potter's Art: The Holy Feast, Launcelot Andrewes, Southwark Cath...

Trevor J Potter's Art: The Holy Feast, Launcelot Andrewes, Southwark Cath...: Our saint`s tomb is buried in autumn flowers cut down at dawn, the dew still fresh on them, but soon to lose their colour, shape and scen...

Random Thoughts in the Herb Garden. (New Version).

I sat and dreamed in the lee of the chapel,
Sat and studied the herbs that now grow there
To create a metaphor of the resurrection,
Vivid new growth between worn stones.

"My head is like a sieve", the old woman cried;
As she sat down next to me on the low wall.
"Pour words into my ears, they fall straight off my lips,
Then evaporate into the Sunday air".

"But nothing is really lost", I thought as I sat silent
Studying the herbs and heaps of old stones;
"I can see the outline of the Bishop`s Chapel
Etched in the earth like a buried ship".

I would like to haul that ship out of the soil,
Set up the mast, a spire slashed from young oak,
Swing on the ropes and climb sky high
To fix a cross between wind riven clouds.

Pre reformation England haunts this place,
But the traffic gridlocked on London Bridge
Shakes the ground deeper than thundering bells,
Cathedral bells that call the people to Mass.

What sort of resurrection is implied
By these herbs that mark the wreck of the chapel?
Perhaps the interface of spring with winter
Where Launcelot Andrews was laid to rest?

"The garden is now closed", the old woman whimpered.
It seems that even she still keeps the hours
That drive this city to the edge of distraction
Grinding all quietness right out of our minds.

The Ship of Faith I sculpted in my imagination
As I mourned the loss of the Bishop`s Chapel?
Oh I wish I could sail that ship to a gentle land
And there recover the solace of Eden.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
August 28th. 2016. - February 14th. 2017. - June 11th. 2021.
The herb garden is situated at the east end of Southwark Cathedral, on a narrow strip of land between the cathedral and the southern end of London Bridge. The Bishop`s Chapel was demolished in the 1830`s when the 19th. century version of London Bridge was built, just to the west of the famouse medieval structure. The tomb of Bishop Launcelot Andrews was moved into the choir of the cathedral, where he is honoured as a saint.  The quirky remarks of the elderly lady were made to me one Sunday afternoon after Mass. As a catholic who loves and greatly admires the C of E I adore this place.

Winter Night.