Island musician, song writer/poet, chef and more, Mal Hamilton, is the first of our poets to contribute to magnetictimes.com Poetry. His three poems, which were written in 2001, follow.

I Have No Song for You

I have no song for you
such a song would fall alone
on your ears, the air between
our confidant.

Hearing, you would know
why my heart becomes an open flower
my life an open book for you
to read
or not.

Hearing, you would understand.
I want to play forever
in the shadow of your smile
to walk along your dappled thoughts
and plumb your ocean depth.

Sadly now
no word or note
is equal to this task
how can I sing or play?
You bracket my day,
first thought and last.

My sweet, sweet love
I am undone.
Unknowing you have set this fire
and even as I burn
Wordless, tuneless
sorry too
I have no song for you.

Mal Hamilton



A Trick of the Light

Words
take shape as they wait
in our minds and mouths
for utterance-
specific gravity
density, texture
surface and centre

Words
leave shapes in the air
(between us molecules dance)
like footprints in sand
trees on far horizons
heartbeats on a line

Words
leave echoes in the heart
sounding darkly, or lying cold like stones
dropped down wells
by children.

Once
in a far land
after one glance
at my young hand
a mystic said to me-
'You will never be happy in love'
but he was wrong, so wrong you see-
it was merely
a trick of the light.

Mal Hamilton


Lover, Moon

To believe in things unseen
requires a martyr's lust
propensity of lepers
for dour self-sacrifice
all this and more I need
for sacrifice I must
(bereft of sense by lover, moon)
dance naked in the dust.

Mal Hamilton