Harsh Times

Knocking on my window
The shadows of lost children
Trying to break through
Or is it just the rain
Or is it just the rain
Trying to break through
Wash away the glass
That keeps me dry and warm
That keeps me safe not sorry
While the wind knocks down the chimneys
And lifts the mossy slates

Knocking on my window
Knocking on my window
The homeless unloved children
Rough sleepers lodged in doorways
Beggars in the subways
Hands cupped for gifts of money
Hands bruised and red with cold
Shadow children pleading
While their matches flare then die

I turn over in my bed
To try to get some sleep
But all the time the knocking
But all the time the knocking
Shadow children knocking
Trying to break through
Trying to break through
The gypsy in the ditch
The orphan in the doorway
The match girl in the snow

Tonight beneath the bridges
Huddled into cardboard boxes
The homeless watch the rain
The homeless watch the rain
While I lie snug in bed
Warm as toast and safe not sorry
But all the time the knocking
But all the time the knocking
The shadows of lost children
Trying to break through


Trevor John Karsavin Potter
March 12th. 2018.
In recent bitter weather I saw a homeless man at the entrance to London Bridge Tube Station trying to keep warm by striking matches. People were passing by staring deep into their magic phones but seeing nothing. We may be technologically advanced but morally we are stuck deep into the sticky quagmire of inequality that polluted the 19th. century. We may have wi-fi and high-fi and messages stored in the air but in other ways we are stuck in the 1840`s. Dickens is still a contemporary writer.

The Return of the Traveller.

Displayed by the window
My miniature rose tree
Greets the hubbub of dawn
With a whisper of Spring
That lisps through the whole house.
It lights up your smile when you call.

This time your radio
Is packed in your suitcase
Along with the shower gel
Your pants and your nightie
Your copy of Oliver Twist.
You seem to be planning
A long term vacation,
Much more than a year and a day.

Your spot on the sofa
Has now been made ready
The cushions plumped up
The footstool in place.
The fridge has been stocked
With your favourite goodies
Along with the the milk shakes
The meat and the veg.

I have trimmed my rough beard
To eliminate straggle,
But believe me I wont cut it off.
And please keep your trainers
In the rack by the back door
And don`t scrub your teeth in my bed.

I have set down the lamp
By the miniature rose tree,
Closed the thick curtains,
Dimmed the bright light.
Our love is not blind,
It glitters with wonders.
I smooth down the duvet
And kiss you goodnight.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
March 8th. - 9th. 2018.
Since early childhood I have loved Alice Through the Looking Glass, and to a lesser extent, Alice in Wonderland. I think we all spend our lives balanced between fantasy and reality, even when we appear to be at our most concentrated and alert. I particularly love the state of mind present in very vivid dreams, and those hazy moments poised between waking and sleeping, when nothing is certain, nothing is concrete.

Memorials. (After listening to Madama Butterfly on the radio).

                    1.

My paintings are the poems
I cannot write,
Songs without words
Preserved in stillness.
Likewise the photos,
Static portraits of far off times
Silent
Silent
Ice cold                           silent.
Memorial stones bereft of flowers.

                    2.

Your signature
                              In my pocket book
Is dated 1967.
A vivacious moment in a too short life
Preserved forever on a yellowing page.
None of the photos that hang on the wall
                                              Are vivid
As this singular word
Shaped to the rhythms
That danced in your voice.

                  3. 

My paintings are the poems
I cannot write,
Butterfly carcasses
Pinned behind glass.
They shadow the stories I cannot speak,
The sorrow      too deep      for language. 


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
March 4th. - 5th. 2018.                   

Trevor J Potter's Art: Last Night I Became Aware of the Beauty of Wood. (...

Trevor J Potter's Art: Last Night I Became Aware of the Beauty of Wood. (...: Last night I became aware of the beauty of wood, A beauty I had been taught to disregard By parents in love with modern things, With gla...

Delayed Spring.

A week of snow prophesied.

You say you want to move in with me?
Also, that cotton ring was really gold.

Love can be difficult,
People are not so straight forward, Ivy.
A change of season every minute.

Sirius scratching a chill clear sky
Confirms the weatherman,
His crystal ball seems accurate.

Yes, you had better move in quickly,
Your home is just too far from here,
Parked under a grove of icicles,
The makeshift roof leaking.

Your presence on the sofa in the front room,
Would bring the glitz of Easter
So much closer,
And no, I do not mind if you play Mother,

That is if I am not too dull and awkward,
Too long in the tooth and grouchy
To accommodate the changes,

The wind too often from the east.

Your presence on the sofa in the front room
Would make my house feel cosy,
Not just a draughty storeroom.

Yes, you had better move in quickly,
Burn your caravan, sell your dogs and chickens.
Even if the snow should last a year
Your smile would melt the frost that wrecks my garden.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
February 26th. - 27th. 2018.

Trevor J Potter's Art: Media Savvy Eve. (Revised).

Trevor J Potter's Art: Media Savvy Eve. (Revised).: The girl in this photo is ecstatic. One kiss, there will be a child, Two kisses, maybe not. But whatever happens next Her life is marke...

Media Savvy Eve. (Revised).

The girl in this photo is ecstatic.
One kiss, there will be a child,
Two kisses, maybe not.
But whatever happens next
Her life is marked forever,
She has broken all her rules
Because the serpent wooed her.
She has burnt her books and boats.

She has snatched the serpent`s gift
To find that it defeats her,
Breaks her will to shards
Reflecting different options,
Spins her mind to rubble.
Joy and pain revealed as twins,
Entirely indistinguishable
In this restless greed for love,
For self annihilation.
The serpent slithers deep into the earth.

The need to keep a record meant her mobile
Was kept on hand to snap each awkward detail,
Text her friends with updates and reviews,
Reveal some edgy pics.
Her first night out of Eden.
God absent from the garden.
Adam in his cups.
Unscheduled interactions morphed into epic news.

This lass was not the first girl on the block,
Lillith beat her to it by an epoch,
But had to scarper when her children proved
Too much unlike old Adam;
In fact it seems the serpent left his mark,
And then returned to sneak a second bite.
In spite of her bravado
Eve simply lost her nerve
And stayed true to her partner.

The apple stung her lips like Bombay Mix,
So sweet she had to share some with old Adam,
Who loved the taste, but guessed that Eve was scared,
That snake had almost nested in her heart.
For this her partner named the reptile evil,
The trickster that had cheapened Paradise,
And dragged it to his level. Adam packed the bags,
Eve ditched the phone and gathered up their kids.
They, Hand in Hand with wandering steps and slow
Now seek a simpler Eden.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
January 31st. - February 14th. - 23rd.  - 24th. 2018.
Note 
The penultimate line printed in italics is from Paradise Lost by Milton. Lilith had children, and Eve, being naturally gregarious, was secretly in touch with them, although Adam was not. Adam and Eve were still innocents when they were banished from Eden, but they had gained self knowledge by eating the forbidden fruit, and thereby lost their ignorance. Innocence and ignorance are two very different things.