Two Superb Poems by James Walton

 

No compass for wrack

 

They say, in the north country

rain has lost its bearings

and wanders seeking a daughter

or son to remember the touch

of earth on cheek and knee.

How bones, out of kilter

keep clear of steeping gulch

and scry for penance in feldspar

weigh each measure of loss

to shy at every consequence.

Deep south, the indifferent sky

curls back a sodden blanket

and stars take binary turns

switching on and off by rote

for a reader some light reaches.

 

 

waiting for cache

 

from the overburden night

we return to normal time

as though a flick of a switch

the reverse of hands tallies

for the fox in the lane

a possum pausing mid bite

the shiver inside Autumn,

some cuttle fish shining

a humour of the once living

trespassed moon guilty of release

quiet seeds abed

and all around this throbbing

shakes against listed constraint

countless the resident hurt,

as slow heartbeats trial day

wake for bridling purpose

dreams crash against the guide

rub a wing flapped eye

oaths of life are sworn anew

whatever is now called leaps

over the warble of what was

 

James Walton is published in many anthologies, journals, and newspapers. He is the author of four widely acclaimed collections of poetry. ‘The Leviathan’s Apprentice’, ‘Walking Through Fences’, ‘Unstill Mosaics’, and ‘Abandoned Soliloquies’. His fifth collection will be released shortly. He was nominated for ‘The Best of the Net’ 2019, and is a Pushcart Prize 2021 nominee.