Friday 30 June 2023

Speak to me Face to Face. 4 Pictures and a Poem..







Speak to me face to face,
Your hand in mine.
Intermediaries can only muddy the waters
That should be crystal clear,
Shot through with sunlight.

Speak to me face to face
Your lilting music,
Not staccato scraps of words
Printed on borrowed paper,
Then delivered in company envelopes 
That have seen far better days.

Your news is always difficult,
Packed with questions;
You have never been an easy person to cherish.
So speak to me face to face, not from the shadows, 
I would rather see the pale blue of your eyes
Expressing the true intensity of your Being
Than squint through abstract jottings, black on white.

And never send a go between, or friend;
They can only tell the story as they heard it,
Or dreamed they`d heard before reception died. 
Oh please make tracks from your sanctum to mine,
Or greet me on the way between the two,
Some place where we can talk without distractions.

Speak to me face to face,
Your hand in mine.
The marriage of true minds can make us whole.
While we are apart we are truly alone and broken.

 Trevor John Karsavin Potter, 
July 5th. 2023.

Thursday 29 June 2023

I will never be angry with you, but

 I will never be angry with you, but
You can never place religion before love
Because love is true religion,
And talking heads who smugly overstate
Views different from this
Are wildly off the mark.
We listened to them too avidly in the past,
Accepted their logic, and went our
                                 separate ways.
But now it is time to bid bygones goodbye,
Kiss and make up across the great divide
So that you can be truly you
And I can be truly I.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter, 
June 29th. 2023.

Trevor J Potter's Art: The Gardener. (Newly Revised).

Trevor J Potter's Art: The Gardener. (Newly Revised).: Blue Hyacinth for Mr. Thompson, Dying last night while the north wind                                                 swirled             in...

Sunday 18 June 2023

The Gardener. (Newly Completed Poem).

Blue Hyacinth for Mr. Thompson,
Dying last night while the north wind
                                                swirled
            in shrieking fits
That shattered the lattice porch
          beneath his window. 

A pompous man who, as Advent neared,
Sprinkled wine and words over seed trays
                 to invoke his dream of April.
And then, on Christmas Eve,
His chubby fingers working overtime,
Stuffed spring bulbs into treacle tins
To give to friend and neighbour.

Springtime was always on his mind
However bleak the winter;
And tinsel hung on plastic trees
Simply not his style.

Blue Hyacinth for Mr. Thompson.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter,
February 4th. 1963 - June 18th. - 29th. 2023.

Monday 5 June 2023

Becoming The Ghost of Hamlet`s Father, (Revised and Rewritten).

The instant I stepped onto the stage 
I seemed to enter transparent realities
I have not been conscious of since a child.
Then my mind was new and clear and
                                          mirror like,
Reflecting all things;
Becoming all things.

At first I had thought to burlesque my 
                                                     part,
But found I could not do it,
In fact, the instant I stepped onto that
                                     darkened stage,
I became the anguish deep in Hamlet`s
                                                    father,
And his strong baritone began to cloud
                                                my tenor
In a way that was so true it was not art.

Although my eyes were fixed upon the 
                                                      script
Because I had not yet mastered my part
I did not recognise the voice that spoke.
It seemed to sound in a far away dimension
That I was separate from, but also linked to,
Somewhere I did not dream but was not now.
I had entered a space adrift in many worlds,
And yet my feet stood firm upon the stage.

But the moment the scene ended I was back  
                                              in my daily life,
An out of touch old actor exiled to the 
                                                            wings.

Trevor John Karsavin Potter, 

June 5th, - 6th - 20th. 2023.

Friday 2 June 2023

The Kenwood Vermeer. (Revised).

The girl with a guitar is looking
Into a reality we cannot see.
She is smiling with child like grace
As if sharing a dare devil secret
With a friend and confidant,
Someone of her inner circle
Who is awkwardly in the know.

Or perhaps He has quietly entered,
His hat dropped down on the table;
Her letters tucked into His glove. -
Side lined from the picture, yet attentive to her music,
He awaits that deliberate silence 
Designed to be broken by complements.

Or maybe he`s an image in her mind,
A dream mate far away
In a distant part of the country.
She imagines him planning a piratical deed.
He will come a tip toeing late at night
Along the hallway that leads to her chamber,
The door key deep in his pocket.

These are the thoughts that spark through my brain
As I study this painting in Kenwood House
Of a girl alone in a curtained room
Wistfully strumming as shadows deepen.
But Vermeer transcends our conventional seeing
With ethereal brushstrokes and a clear wise eye.
If I could ask him why he painted this picture
He would probably just smile, then turn away.

Trevor John Karsavin Potter, 
June 2nd.- September 21st. 2023.