Charles Wilkinson
Charles Wilkinson’s work includes The Pain Tree and Other Stories (London Magazine Editions). His poems have been in Poetry Wales, Poetry Salzburg (Austria), Shearsman , The Reader, New Walk, Magma, Under the Radar, Tears in the Fence, Scintilla, Envoi, Stand, The Warwick Review, Otoliths, Snow lit rev and other journals. A pamphlet, Ag & Au, came out from Flarestack Poets in 2013. He has two collections of weird fiction and strange tales, both from Egaeus Press: A Twist in the Eye (2016) and Splendid in Ash (2018). His full-length poetry collection, The Glazier’s Choice, is due to appear from Eyewear in 2019. He lives in Powys, Wales.
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sejournant
— always the flit
room to room skip
the light not renewed
& the moon, its lease
dispelled to blue
bailing out -
charm’s movement
the view unfixed:
the window is
to jump
down
through
& as if groundless unyoked in air
this could be freedom or near nothing
to fly fast in Bede’s sparrow & no trace
stayed in the hall: wing tip in rising smoke
The End of Acrophobia
tilt & haze
& then a still chair on the move
travelling
across the stationary carpet to nowhere:
imbalance -
a way of being at variance with the world;
a changing
prospect inflicts fresh inclinations;
yet upright
we must welcome the perils of falling.
vertigo
not a hell of stuck radiance:
all the old
objects defining the self.
a loud click
snaps the spell of stasis
summoning
a desire to climb wild & higher;
to forget
the enticement of stable ground
embracing
a lack of poise is our heady risk:
a promise
of a pocket earth cupped in the hand —
though the light
is bent, immixed in riddle-dark
& no fixed
tempo for crystal spheres.
we will trade
terra firma for the end of acrophobia
Hail rocket!
every adventure involves ascent
The Courier
collects a card
& within hours
money moves
faster than isobars:
an instant’s transfer,
for they have the pin;
she’ll scarcely credit
the time of withdrawal
to far traceless numbers —
checking the tale
will bring tears &
a cleared account;
an old woman recalls
a moment on a doorstep,
her hands wide open
in draining daylight,
the snarl of an engine
starting, & the man
with his visor down —
the black motorbike
amiss in a running dusk.
‘chagrin’
sorrow & lost landscape swooning high hedgerow
the birdsong polyphonic retuned to dawn
sun-striped pasture time of the smaller field
corn stook-gathered an early morning gold
luminous last threads left by the harvesters
house of childhood & honeystone stored sun-warmth
the gate framing an entrance to a garden’s wild lawns
flower clouds half-forgotten sprays colour blown
a zigzag light through foliage water-skip on rock
so sadly with shadow toying on gloss of home
Charles Wilkinson’s work includes The Pain Tree and Other Stories (London Magazine Editions). His poems have been in Poetry Wales, Poetry Salzburg (Austria), Shearsman , The Reader, New Walk, Magma, Under the Radar, Tears in the Fence, Scintilla, Envoi, Stand, The Warwick Review, Otoliths, Snow lit rev and other journals. A pamphlet, Ag & Au, came out from Flarestack Poets in 2013. He has two collections of weird fiction and strange tales, both from Egaeus Press: A Twist in the Eye (2016) and Splendid in Ash (2018). His full-length poetry collection, The Glazier’s Choice, is due to appear from Eyewear in 2019. He lives in Powys, Wales.