.
Corner of a Room
.
Can a room
preserve a memory?
The key is hidden,
but the curtain is drawn
back to allow the eyes
to settle on other lights.
Chairs, a table simply laid,
canvases at rest,
quietly the corner emerges
from darkness.
Summoned by the act of patience,
it is there in the mind’s uncharted
corridors where life goes on.
.
The Bead Chain
.
A barefooted adult and child
linked together in life.
They stare at each other.
Do they read
each others thoughts?
Are they the same?
They stand in a rich space,
but the silent guitar
has been banished
to a corner.
There is no music here,
only two apprehensive minds
contemplating the translation of their lives.
.
An Open Collar
.
I think of Keats wearing an open collar
fashionably turned down,
the black ribbon
round a bare neck,
his fresh, shy nerves
tapping against a window-pane
in a room of quiet intensity
and free movement.
In the early hours of an October morning
he sealed a letter,
dispatched a sonnet
to a breakfast table,
the anticipation conceived.
Seeing the compass of words
he gathered from experience,
moods captured from natural objects,
the heavily marked book
an exorcism for disappointments,
the murmurs rightly used.
.
Byron Beynon lives in Swansea, Wales. His work has appeared in several publications including North of Oxford, London Magazine, Chiron Review, The Lampeter Review, Poetry Wales, Poetry Salzburg and human rights anthology In Protest (University of London and Keats House Poets). Collections include Cuffs (Rack Press) and the Echoing Coastline (Agenda Editions)
North of Oxford 