Sunday, 20 February 2022

Sunday February 20th. Squalls and Showers. (New Longer Version).


Debris from trashed houses flies high above London,
Chip board and cheap tiles buckle like bats wings
Under the heft of the wind.
Early Spring weather, squalls and showers 
Wrecking swathes of streets and quiet cul de sacs
Easily as a Russian Tank rips through fields of wheat.
Hail stones clattering against my backroom window
Zing their automatic rifle fire,
But not one fragment penetrates the glass.
If I were in the street I would scurry to a doorway
Hood pulled over my head. A refugee in flight
From forces I could never overcome.

But life can be light hearted. Caught in this storm
Our Kerry Blue crouched underneath a hedgerow
When my daughter tried to walk her in the park.
She did not want to imitate a canine cosmonaut
Lifting off through clouds into the roaring dark,
Or to be tossed like a stick into the dogs` Nirvana.
Close to where she crouched, early daffodils flourish,
Tall and straight, laughing silently.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
20th. - 22nd.  February 2022.
 

Thursday, 17 February 2022

Feeling Nostalgic for the Twentieth Century. (New longer Version)


 
Feeling Nostalgic for the Twentieth Century.

I am feeling nostalgic for the other century I`ve lived in,
The colourful clothes,
The lack of mobile phones.
I am feeling nostalgic for rent of just a few shillings,
For ten bob notes,
For threepenny bits weighing down my jeans,
For cash in hand,
Not virtual pounds the Bank devours each night,
Filching my wealth when I am safely sleeping.
I am feeling nostalgic for hitch hiking for laughs,
For getting a lift from Apex Corner to Leeds
Just because I fancy a trip along the A One.
The last time I stopped a car was in Baden Baden,
But that was because the bus broke down that day.

I am feeling nostalgic
For making love at first sight,
Not waiting - waiting - waiting until the time seems right
Close to the hundred and thirty third dinner date.
I am feeling nostalgic for the freedoms I once had,
The freedom to roam across international borders
Without buying a visa or having my passport stamped.
I am feeling nostalgic for setting up home with a partner
Who is not a native of the country I happen to live in. 
I want back those days before carnivore Banks and Brexit
Hemmed in my well earned time and hard won spaces
For illicit commercial reasons.
I am feeling the need for taking some random chances,
Before there are no choices left to make.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter, 
17th. - 18th. - 21st.- 24th. February 2022.  

Saturday, 12 February 2022

Saturday afternoon Zen, Listening to Pulcinella. (Revised).

Unwilling to trash the mood made by gentle music
Now playing on my radio
I do not pick up the telephone when it rings.
Living alone in lockdown I find I have new choices,
I do not have to answer every question on the dot,
I have reached a point of equilibrium,
The still centre of a lifetime, perhaps a new way of being.

I might be on a mountain top looking at the sunset,
The wild ox I hunted, caught and deftly saddled
Reclining at my bare feet, but of course I am not.
Everything I need for happiness is hidden deep within me.
Even Stravinsky`s music seems a part of who I am,
Or just now I thought so, before I switched to OFF.
At sundown I cherish silence, but I`ve never quite known why.

After a while I turn the radio back on.
An early Beatles classic makes the day seem real once more.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter. 
February 12th. 2022.

Monday, 7 February 2022

Monday 7th. February. Waking Early.

A clatter of broken wings. 
A cascade of paperbacks.
My picture fallen on the carpet.
Old ornaments knocked off the mantelpiece,
Also on the carpet.
February is not my favourite month.

I do not think there was an earthquake overnight.
A sudden wind blowing through crevices
Too narrow for a moths wing to penetrate
May have been the culprit.
This morning the mayhem was emphatic.

This morning even points of daffodil spears
Look out of place in the wind torn garden.
February is not my favourite month,
But it will soon be passing:
A child`s hand waving farewell from a window
Open to the sun.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter, 
February 7th. 2022.

Wednesday, 2 February 2022

Waiting For a Parcel.plus Denouement. (Completed Poem).

Waiting for a parcel
Curtails my social life
My spiritual life
Until the postman calls
And then abruptly leaves.

I cannot leave my home
Until the postman calls
To drop a cardboard box
At my unshod feet
Before abruptly turning.
I cannot leave my home
Until he softly knocks.

Waiting for a parcel
I cannot visit friends
Fill my shopping bag
Stroll in the back garden
Go to church.
I must stay in one space
The radio softly playing.

But when the parcel comes
I shall have ten new light bulbs
So I can stay up late
So I can write my cheques
So I can read my books.
Waiting for the postman
Now keeps my life on hold.

          Denouement.

Waiting on the fifth day
A sharp thud on the front door
Shakes me from the numbness
Glueing up my brain.
The postman smiles at me
Like the Hangman at a wedding
As he hands the parcel over.

"Have a nice day" he simpers
Before retreating down the pathway
Like a cat evading guilt.
I gingerly break the seal -
Four lightbulbs in pieces - six intact -
A cheap comment on my life story? - Perhaps.
I cannot recall a day when something was not trashed.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter. 
2nd. - 6th. - 7th. February 2022.

Winter Night.