Thursday, 27 February 2020

Wednesday, 26 February 2020

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.

Thursday, 20 February 2020

Beyond Words, Beyond Saying.


One intimate listening
One intimate seeing

Yin and Yang balanced
In perfect harmony

You touch my hand in the darkened room
The hour and day have no other meaning


While I am with you
I cease to be I

While you are with me
You are all that I know

We become one person
Two bodies one mind

One intimate listening
One intimate seeing

One sea of feeling
In the ocean of time


While I am with you
I cease to be I

While you are with me
Crowds become shadows

We do not need words
Language is selfish

We have laughter and smiles
The sharing of dreams


You kiss my face in the perfect dark
I kiss your lips  - We are lost in each other

We become one person
Two bodies one mind

One intimate listening
One intimate seeing

Yin and Yang balanced
In perfect harmony


Trevor John Karsavin Potter
18th. - 19th. - 20th. February 2020.

Sunday, 16 February 2020

The Myth of Life and Love Returning.


Last month I watched you walk across the still water
In the dark cavern
Underneath the concrete city.

You could have been a Sufi Saint,
Gliding out of this dimension
With consummate ease into another.
A rich mosaic of lights and laughter
Greeted you as a long lost soul.

Now I sit and wait on the opposite shore
Watching the shadows deepen the silence
With the ghostly chill of ancient visions,
The visions you talked of in your sleep,
Your troubled head pressed close to mine.

I sit and tremble in the lonely dark.
Sit and wait for your safe return.
Perhaps you will bring the light of new life
Across the vast and sacred lake.

The light that opened the flowers of Eden
In the clear dawn of the first Spring day,
When all the creatures lived at peace,
Fed from the hands of Eve and Adam.

And then, my love, we could plant anew,
Plant anew, without fear of destruction,
The sacred grove that once flourished here
Before this world was buried alive,
Buried beneath the concrete city.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
February 16th. - 17th. 2020.
Developed from a very different poem
written March 30th. 2015. - May 12th. 2017.
The image of the under city lake based on The Rose Playhouse site in Southwark.

Tuesday, 11 February 2020

Monday, 10 February 2020

Wistfulness. (New Longer Version).


Cleaning my Rock n Roll bullied ears
With the sweet tones of lute and recorder
I slowly become aware
Of all the delicate sounds that thrive in the
                                         world around me
Every minute of the day,
Every moment of the year.

And when I dream of all my many friends
Who died decades before their time,
I feel their presence in the wind,
I hear their voices in the rain.

But Rock n Roll music wrecks my ears,
Makes me forget who I am,
A lonely wanderer through wintry fields
Searching for ancient memories.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
10th. - 11th.February 2020.
For Pauline, Sharon, Shelah, Zoe, Rufus, John, George, Peter, Elisabeth, Priscilla, and both Christines.

Winter Night.