Patrick Williamson
(England-France)
I travel the road of ashes
how light they are
flesh experiences
unfolding wings
tension in the small of the back
the gap between
launch and attain
absence invisibly split
made whole when pierced
man’s strength in that
core of words
tenderness stored
in those circles,
aim, draw, strike
you step back
rewind, melting
heart form
less
VISITING THE COUNTRY
The valley’s soft smoke rising,
the flat-roofed houses
where men sleep as wind rips past rock
and stones, reaching into
the pungent warmth of alleyways,
now only a few old men laugh dryly
about the young’s need for clamour & the city
« they’ll be back again », they say
walking slowly, guarding their flocks,
faint tinkling figures on the slopes
how little do I know
as we stride, run, and climb
the rocky paths & visit the dark
of a church whose outstretched Christ
stands in a corner, the power of fear,
the bell tower, blood red.
On the pinnacle before the gorge,
stand in awe, laughing with the ease
of language, the gestures of spirit.
I am your sight and your silence,
& we are twelve seated, breaking bread
drinking wine, we are waiting
on each other, at table,
by the silver embers of fire.
The depths
The sea is a great mouth eating
our final helplessness,
shaken as in a snow globe,
a world in eye, in that moment
I become salt
and lie on the wounds of the earth
and it shivers with rage,
we have one thing left to solve
before we go
under the globe of light-shade
we never turned a corner
in our lives, never knew better
soundless, open-mouthed
fish that bury ourselves in sand.
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Patrick Williamson, a British poet and translator, who lives in France. I also work with music and filmpoems (Afterwords, set to music by Mauro Coceano). My work is increasingly focused on Italy, where I have published two collections Beneficato(English-Italian, Samuele Editore, Pordenone, 2015), and Nel Santuario (Samuele Editore, 2013; Menzione Speciale della Giuria in the XV Concorso Guido Gozzano in 2014). Editor and translator of The Parley Tree, An Anthology of Poets from French-speaking Africa and the Arab World (Arc Publications, 2012). Recent and ongoing translations of poetry by Italian writers Guido Cupani and Erri de Luca.