Tableaux Daydreams

₀

 —Poetry by H. K. G. Lowery,
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
—Photos Courtesy of Public Domain

 

 

DEPARTURES

losing CO2 in the Jet2 queue,


staining Carhartt with heartache, 


barcodes beep & promises pall



 

between staff & sightseers 


& parents cheering up children 


& new lovers arriving

chinos & eyes empty


into a grey tray, passing 


Saint Peter with an automatic

& cutting through pictureless clouds


to arrivals, you were waiting,


& you opened your arms, like wings

 

 

 

 

VILLA DIODATI

like a leaf, you were ambered,
acquiescent, ambling the grounds—
gravel crunched with Converse
& a tableaux daydream:
Byron sailing, or the Shelleys
in love—& then, the villa doors
unveiled untouched antiques
& portraits eyeing every word
like the porcelain it was spoken over —
& sobering outside, ringtones
revealed Omicron will part you,
for months or more, before
the sun left for another city,
& the stars began to emerge
with the shyness of spiders

 

 

 

 

GENEVIÈVE

there you were: star-crossed
                      

                        & stark, nipping the neck
               of Calvinus, flicking Winstons from
                          windowsill,
                              scribbled MA sonnets
                     & scrunched love letters smothered
                                              under feet & frown,
                                        Twelve Carat Toothache
                                     cutting the silence,
            your rib cage crushing, lungs
                                heaving in the June heatwave
               with undiagnosed pneumonia
                                  & pleural effusion,
                                 coughing blood
                            & wheezing cheater

 

 

 

 

 LIGHT YEARS

 

another spin around the sun, & since, 

I’ve learnt that every mirror needs light: 

if light is c = 1/(e0m0)1/2 = 2.998 X 

108m/s (James Clerk Maxwell, circa 

1864), it’s the magnetism keeping us 

close—if light is electromagnetic 

radiation (Wikipedia), it’s the life of

moths—if light is a wave, it's scattering 

most from our hearts of silvered sand 

& limestone—if light is The Dark Side 

of the Moon (1973), then it’s you re-

fracting all my colours—& if light is a 

distance, it’s always between us, 

because I have realised there is not a 

greater love poem than a blank piece 

of paper, or the cursor, blinking for us 

to begin, reflecting me in the screen 

where you have been waiting for

light years 

 

____________________

Today’s LittleNip:

I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.

—Og Mandino

____________________

Newcomer H. K. G. (Harry) Lowery is a writer from Newcastle upon Tyne. He graduated from Lancaster University with an MA in Creative Writing (Distinction), where he was honoured to win the 2021/2022 Portfolio Prize for achieving the highest mark in the faculty. He has also just recently returned home from teaching English in Seoul, South Korea. Welcome to the Kitchen, Harry, and don’t be a stranger!

____________________

—Medusa

 

 

 

 Harry Lowery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For future poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
(http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html)
in the links at the top of this page—
and keep an eye on this link and on
the daily Kitchen for happenings
that might pop up
—or get changed!—
 during the week.

Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.

Poets’ bios appear on their first MK visit.
To find previous posts, type the name
of the poet (or poem) into the little
beige box at the top left-hand side
of this column. See also
Medusa’s Rapsheet at the bottom
of the blue column on the right
side of this column to find
any date you want.

Miss a post?
You can find our most recent ones by
scrolling down under this daily one.
Or there's an "Older Posts" button
at the bottom of this column.
(Please excuse typos in older posts!
Blogspot has been through a lot of
incarnations in 20 years!)

Would you like to be a SnakePal?
Guidelines are at the top of this page
at the Placating the Gorgon link;
send poetry and/or photos and artwork
to kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post
work from all over the world—including
that which was previously published—
and collaborations are welcome.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!