Monday, February 22, 2016

Jonathan Beale- Three Poems


Man and dog

After portrait of the hound (unfinished) 2011 by Lucian Freud

Viewed, as a god might see
Or an avant-garde film director
The unfinished indicates
Some unbiblical connection

      Their sitting joins them a
            Controlling comfort
            The comfort of being
Controlled together they are

Then as the brush strokes swirl
And strike
Canine in its own like
The dog speaks its own tongue

      Their sitting joins them a
            Controlling comfort
            The comfort of being
Controlled together they are

From the artist to canvas
Or as of mother and child
Chain invisible to the human
Eye there since whenever.

      Their sitting joins them a
            Controlling comfort
            The comfort of being
Controlled together they are

As the dog is merged into his
World and so will go on
To run alongside his human
Companion 

      Their sitting joins them a
            Controlling comfort
            The comfort of being
Controlled together they are

Viewed, as a god might see
Or an avant-garde film director
The unfinished indicates
Some unbiblical connection



Cephalonia

The strange dream of now
We were drunk on the air
As it greeted us.  Elmore Leonard’s
Narrative - threading
The words to Proust, echoing
À la recherche du temps perdu. 
The Greek towering worlds
Argostoli this queen of the Ionian
Proust’s parallel universe,
Completed, fitted perfectly. 



Russia Times

Those Russian times: he regaled us with
From those oppressive 
Communist years, now a lifeless history.

Smoking those vile Russian cigarettes
I won’t forget.  And bitter, bitter winters.
Now forgotten as Chernobyl is.  

Those books I churned out – now.
Out – of – date & out – of – print.
I had to sweat to finish. my hubris  

Those kids from seas of tower
Blocks.  Wanted to know about:
My Volvo, Arsenal, and London.

And what of those books all gone
And those kids?  All must be 40 by now.
If they made it through, that is.  


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