Byron Beynon coordinated Wales’s contribution to the anthology Fifty Strong (Heinemann). His work has featured in several publications including Agenda, The French Literary Review, Wasafiri, Cyphers, The London Magazine, Poetry Wales, English: Journal of the English Association, and the human rights anthology In Protest (University of London and Keats House Poets). Several collections, including The Echoing Coastline (Agenda) and Where Shadows Stir (The Seventh Quarry Press) which was launched at the birthplace of Dylan Thomas, Swansea in February 2023.
The cicadas already
conduct the sound of the day.
Early conversation in a garden
with olive trees and a view
towards the Mediterranean.
The optimism you had –
being an old man
with crippling arthritis –
for life, health,
the beauty and vigour it could afford.
Inside the house your studio
with armchair, easel,
brushes and frames,
the quiet edges of the room.
The hushed strokes of passing
time, the depth of eye
as figures walk by
flooded in red-golden light,
the sensuality touching
a disclosure of heat.
PIERRE BONNARD’S WINDOW
An enduring landscape
outside a Mediterranean house
entered with sunshine and shade,
arranged the furniture of the mind
by waking the morning’s mirror
in the early calm of day.
Yellow mimosa, maroon-
pink, apple-green, those blossoming
jewels borrowed from nature
inside the hush of interiors,
a medley of patient brush strokes,
the key of iridescent light.
THE COAST NEAR COLLIOURE
The distorted triangles of canvas
billow towards a nameless horizon.
The sea is alive,
an energy of unguarded motion
as the profusion of land
views the scene
with a fierce hunger.
It has already experienced
the weather of time,
unflinchingly it stares
beyond the breath of sky.
Seasons continue to visit here,
while the brush’s churning
rhythms understands
the treachery of ebb and flow
brought by the perceptible tides.
Poetry in this post: © Byron Beynon
Published with the permission of Byron Beynon