(i.m. Robert Chapman)
Even the sky
engraves her tears
salves old wounds
proves our
baptismal upgrade
Interred
hummocked
your ultimate bedding:
Come all ye young men
& lay me down
in Carrickfergus or Long Sutton?
Not quite as Van sang
in his or your
Celtic New Year
Now as an enigma
hermetically sealed
you out-Houdini Houdini
as invisible icon-maker
A mystery manchild
& self-ordained hermit
composing your clefs
in the silence
as a clandestine
escape-artist
soi-disant
With the cunning
of Elven craftsmen
you glyph-incise
indelible runes
on your embossed grails
your carved chessmen
Analepsis:
it recalls your stylus
as it sharpened
into intenser flame
And the teary welkin
engraves her passion
your omega-cum-alpha
inscriptio
filling up with
precipitation
& your cup brimmeth over . . .
but you’re well gone
Mark Wilson
painting by Samuel Palmer:
Mark Wilson has published four poetry collections: Quartet For the End of Time (Editions du Zaporogue, 2011), Passio (Editions du Zaporogue, 2013), The Angel of History (Leaky Boot Press, 2013) and Illuminations (Leaky Boot Press, 2016). He is the author of a verse-drama, One Eucalyptus Seed, about the arrest and incarceration of Ezra Pound after World War Two, as well as a tragi-comedy, Arden. His poems and articles have appeared in: The Black Herald, The Shop, 3:AM Magazine, International Times, The Fiend, Epignosis Quarterly, Dodging the Rain, The Ekphrastic Review, Rasputin and Le Zaporogue.