Byron Beynon’s work has recently appeared in the anthologies “Winter in America – Again” (Carbonation Press) and “The Polaris Trilogy” (Brick Street Poetry, Inc). Collections include “Cuffs” (Rack Press), “The Echoing Coastline” (Agenda) and “Where Shadows Stir” (The Seventh Quarry Press).
Where Shadows Stir, a superb new book of poetry by Welsh poet Byron Beynon. A poet whose experience and intelligence shine throughout a collection of carefully crafted poems. Byron’s poetic voice is original and one that offers a variety of subjects, each one showing his masterly control of language. (Peter Thabit Jones)
An afternoon stirring memory
beside the marble tower of the winds.
I gaze at an architect’s imagination,
scattered flowers,
the urn chiselled with water
flowing from a precursor in history,
a solid octagonal craft
taking flight towards
the ebullient light,
this survivor from antiquity
displaying a calm dignity,
the sprawling compass-beats etched
within this city’s congested heart.
A GREEK ISLAND
I watch the sea’s glint of blistering light
mirrored towards a matured rock’s
anchored surface, the faded stone with parched hills
moored in an active Aegean.
Coins found and graced
by Dionysus’s purple grapes,
Demeter’s corn of yellow,
as Poseidon’s dolphins leapt
to the music of Apollo’s lyre.
To-day’s mortal scene of houses,
cuboid, small and white,
gauge their narrow streets
seething with summer’s tourists,
caught in a sunburnt bottleneck.
BRINDISI
The summer port of Brindisi
is full of tourist traffic,
where cautious police
with sniffer-dogs watch
back-packers drift in and out
on a continuous ship of history
between east and west.
Here I walk the ancient
steps of Brindisium,
leading to the boundary
columns of the Appian way,
near to where Virgil died.
I spend the evening
in the freshness of the Piazza Cairoli,
watching middle-aged men
gather like pigeons,
they stand and gesticulate
at the sparkling Saturday girls,
accompanied by the cadenza of the fountain,
a durability of people, thought and place.
For other contributions by Byron Beynon, please follow the link below:
Poetry in this post: © Byron Beynon
Published with the permission of Byron Beynon