Carillon Magazine

Poetry from the magazine

Issue 15

 

Festival

Ken Champion (Goodmayes)

 

Watching last rehearsals in the old market

rising klaxon of trumpets and drums

then collecting the canes to bind borders

round the crowds in the park near the zoo

 

In they come, symphony everywhere

clarinets, saxophones, trombones, flutes

the two trumpets behind a tree

one turning a second before the other

taking the pitch perfectly,

for a while the silver sax on the café roof

your blazed hair, lips smiling around the mouthpiece.

Boss man's fingers stretching for the crescendo

fluttering hands for the scribble

One, two three, four, arms flung. Cut

 

Crowd thinning, I pick up flattened sticks

muddied string, help pack instruments, reflected glory.

They go to the pub still in This Beautiful World t-shirts

shaking hands, talking tunes, percussion discussion,

me trailing a bundle of bamboos

like a mate-less panda.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time Measured

Bohdan Yuri (Orlando)

 

time measured

the sound of snow in her heart,

she watched me leave

and knew I’d never come back.

 

the fall was in its final stage

why should I care, I knew she didn’t,

did she;

when our comfort lost its affection

her once tender heart

had lost its ability to kiss my soul.

 

why bother to look back,

it’s only a lost memory anyway,

a ghostly touch of soft smiles

vanished,

from now until the end

of one of us.