Joe Fearn
Mahareeshi
We who shuffled awaited he who never did.
On arrival his voice was as a crystal chandelier,
in a light breeze.
He took our one pound fifty.
He sat like Buddha.
‘Truth,’ he said, ‘cannot be taught,
Truth can only be learnt.’
He smoothed his hair with a glittering wrist.
‘Is not a pebble in a raging torrent,’ he whispered,
‘As smooth as that in a still pool.’
His laughter tinkled like a wind chime.
He had taken our one pound fifty.
He who tinkled viewed we who shuffled.
‘Is a tiger,’ he said, ‘in an emerald cage,
Just as ferocious as a wild one.’
He laughed his tinkling laugh.
He took our one pound fifty to a Rolls Royce.
He laughed his tinkling laugh.
We shuffled outside and waited for a bus.
My friend said, ‘A wet bird never flies at night.’
We laughed.
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The