Richard Westcott's poetry

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Deflected Eyes

Portrait of Sir Thomas Wyatt by Hans Holbein I’ve always found this drawing haunting. Holbein used only chalks, pen and ink, with minimal work on everything except the face, especially the eyes. Probably drawn between 1535 and 1537, it has astonishing vitality: I feel an immediacy, as if he were – or is – contemporaneous, and that it is me rather than Holbein, who faces him. And as I watched I saw his eyes look past, past me, into the past – or was it yet to come about? That glance will now outlast the face so soon to go. We have not met but still askance he looks. Unblinking gaze, eye-witness of grave acts beyond my view I cannot see, nor find the words or phrase to tell. His face is blank. I must look through to see the man whose features show no signs of feelings – sadness, joy, relief or fear – just cautious observation. Through the lines the artist drew, his face and I draw near. The mouth and nose and beard I scrutinise, but first and last, I see deflected e

A Post Mortem Adventure

Even at the best of times, this is a dying season – I mean a season for dying. Throw in Covid, which puts daily death rates into the regular news headlines, not to mention the fear of death propagated by a government to produce behavioural change – stay at home and keep clear of others so you don't kill your Gran – and death is presently looming large. More positively though, admiration for the NHS, with all its committed professionals, has never been more apparent. Death all around, with dedicated doctors desperately working to save lives... We go back to the Battle of Trafalgar, back to William Beatty, Surgeon on HMS Victory. Here he is, portrayed by Devis, not long after the battle - a clear-eyed, confident but humane young man in his thirties. The surgeon triaged each wounded man in turn, regardless of rank, as they were brought below decks. There were three categories: not needing immediate care, so leave; sufficiently seriously wounded, with the possibility of survival,

The Three Hares

The Three Hares We continue on our way running, running, running around held together tip to tip so I can hear what she can hear as well as her. And the other follows me in front of her – we are joined up by our ears so we follow, lead and follow running, running, running around we continue on our way. Running, running, running around – no cause for worry – what's to come has already been. The future's past – watch us here – we're going nowhere – the last is first and first is last. Our present moment sees us still although we seem to race – running, running, running around we continue. On our way running, running, running around hearing your persistent questions – why do you keep on asking? We cannot tell you any more. May you share your senses and find soft silence at your centre which is so close, while you go on running, running, running around. The turning of the year, with the various thoughts about the past and the future that c

Fair and Foul

The Sea Captain Commissions his Ship Portrait Now tell me how you would like it – Full sailed, running, proceeding well all-set aloft, the boy at the wheel, prospect of fish from your line at the stern and the mate fast asleep in his bunk? Or only a jib and the driver with a couple of staysails drawn tight, almost hove-to – all straining through a storm that lasted the night? Maybe a soft sea lapping the stemhead, canvas bellied, as if all satisfied; galley door open, binnacle gleaming – just a wisp of a cloud in the sky? Or waters that gush through the scuppers, the steersman roped into place, restless ballast rumbling below decks, screams of a gale in the rigging? Fair or Foul – you’ve only to choose – I paint both of them equally well. As you stand with your foot on the fender, the little ones hearing your words it may be serene days of ease, breezes and translucent seas you’ll want to describe. Or when crashing through tens and elevens captain and crew together were chal

A Thoughtful Body

I’m a thoughtful body, you can see dear skull – you were once joined up like me, recognised and speaking. Now not a trace of all that made your well-known face – no flesh, no skin, no lips or tongue, no lungs or breath to sing a song – no eyes to see, no ears to hear – although you cannot shed a tear can you tell me what’s to come? Dear alter ego, I am dumb as you remarked. What can I know, a disconnected skull? So, live in the present, which is where you find yourself, and do not care about the future. What I heard said came from inside my empty head – but I think I can’t think that I heard since I can’t hear or say a single word. Halloween – the time of year for skeletons. Strictly speaking, Hallowe’en – Hallows’ Even or Hallows’ Evening – is October 31 st , the eve of the All Hallows’ Day, and we’re now into November. But the festival, if that’s the right word, of Allhallowtide runs for three days. Here then, with no apology,

The Barn Owl, Samuel and his pot, and me

The Barn Owl I thought of the barn as mine. But as she lives there it belongs to her I’ve been reading Samuel Menashe’s poetry. His most famous poem is even shorter. A pot poured out Fulfills its spout. The distinguished academic Christopher Ricks spends several pages poring (sorry) over this wonderful poem, pointing out all sorts of poetic techniques in play, and indeed the more carefully and the more often one reads it, the more there is to find – that pot just keeps on pouring. For example, it’s not the pot – it’s a pot, which is worth thinking about. Similarly, the American spelling of fulfills has something extra to say about a full vessel; not to mention the alliterations, sound play, rhyme, internal symmetry (each line of four syllables perfectly balanced, as you’d expect from a pouring pot) and the sharing of contents (that pot’s ‘ot’ moving into the ‘o-t’ of out and thence finding its way into, or should I say out of, ‘spout’ – having

Granny

Granny with dementia, reciting The Revenge At Flores, in the Azores – how she remembered it! At Flores, in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay… It was all in her memory, long ago learnt, locked up securely yet biding its time buried like treasure before we were born ready to gleam when the lid might be raised – At Flores, in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay, And a pinnace, like a flutter’d bird, came flying from far away: So we were captured, spell-bound prisoners. Each word was polished as if it were gold. I hear them now, those old rolling phrases like waves from the deep, the far Spanish Main, beginning their life so far, far away to roll over the oceans, washing up on our foreshore salty fragments now altered, tied up in new ways with some of their old rhymes – Lord Howard declaring he was no coward, he could not – no, I cannot can’t meet them … for my ships are out of gear. But like the Revenge, she still sailed on, against

Gray's Anatomy

Gray’s Anatomy Descriptive and Applied 34th Edition 1968 Begin at the beginning, with the fertilised cell from which originate all tissues and organs. Biblical, it lies open at the lesson for today, revealing that which is contained within to whomsoever would study this still life. My finger glides across the glazed page following vessels of red and blue, criss-crossing in their travels. Tributaries may be traced like roads or rivers, with accompanying prose – for it is preceded near its insertion by the second, or first and second, perforating arteries. Light streams down its old familiar course to pour upon a clean tiled floor. No dust here. Porcelain gleams, steel shines, even the page reflects. Little chained grapples draw back tissues to display the obscured – if not otherwise clear there are figures and diagrams, photos and pictures offering views from every angle. Here you see both hind and midbrain from the postero-lateral

Anguis Fragilis

I didn’t hear it either. An electric strimmer’s got a lot going for it – as opposed to my petrol driven one, with its noise, vibrations and fumes. But that very silence can be a killer too. My eye was caught by a flash of metallic sheen. There amongst the grass trimmings along the edge of the road was a beautiful torque. I bent down and picked up the silky smooth, still warm circlet which I could wrap round my wrist. I stood for a moment, wondering whether to show this discovered treasure to the strimmer up on his bank, but he was focused on his work, and what would have been achieved? Instead I called out good morning to him – which it was, the slow worm no doubt also enjoying the unexpected warmth of the sun a few minutes ago – and slipped the compliant creature into my pocket. When I got home, I laid it out on the table, admiring the different colours of its two sides, the ease with which it could make different shapes – letters and numbers – and the at

The Winners!

We are the Winners! They’ve packed up and gone – the whole bloody lot of them pushed off in their ships. So end of the story! Open the gates come and see for yourself – they are the losers we are the winners! We knew we would win with right on our side. Of course it took time and we suffered too for winning’s not easy we’re all well aware. But we stood our ground and they ran away – victory’s sweet! Specially when hard won but we got there at last – well done everyone! And look what they left in their hurry to go – a curious horse! help pull it inside as it’s ready to move. Come on everybody we’ll party around it all day and all night. History will tell how we saw them off! They’re gone and we won – Hey winners! Job done! There’s been a lot of win/lose talk recently – even, more specifically, the widespread deployment of military terms. Front lines, unseen enemies and casualty numbers, orders being