(i.m. James Wilson /1975-2006)
Hardened into the habitude
of self-discipline; internal
rhyme, assonance, ambiguity
having become a sixth sense.
What cafe-bars can contain
their leathery, comfortably-
at-home carapaces? Hardly
Parisian when the provinces
harbour these inner-emigrés
like outposts of civilisation.
Martello towers who beat
out faddish, jejune armadas;
solitary volcanoes who, having
erupted in youth, now exude
more tranquilly into the middle-
period with a regained hilaritas.
Indifferent to the yapping Zeit-
geist, they dig into life-giving
soil, fructify tradition with a
seasoned zest. Now solidifying
their techne with the engraver’s
patience, they wield biros with
a burin-deftness. Notebooks are
their lexicons-in-flux, a perpetual
re-routing of the Quest.
Painting by Marc Chagall ‘Mazin, the Poet’
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.