Paul Tristram is a widely published Welsh writer who’s currently up to his elbows in Magic, and long may it remain this way.

When Gifts & Curses Collide

Pablo Picasso was mistakenly

thought a ‘Stillborn’

and left upon a side table.

The first word 

to leave his lips

was ‘Lapiz’

which is Spanish for ‘Pencil’.

I feel that there is a Spiritual

‘Link’ between both

of these incidents…

the Artist NOT Finding,

or [Accidently] Discovering

his Pathway later in Life…

but, in fact, ‘It’ being

Birthed right alongside 

of the [Meat and Bone] ‘Body’.

Neither ‘Look Down’ Nor ‘Pedestal’… The Way’s Straight Ahead

      … the Hermit returns with Treasure…



If your ‘Core’ is all twisted up,

you will not see Evenly…

and take other folk’s happiness,

achievements and blessings…

as a cruel-curse upon yourself.



Walk ‘It’ tall, alone and bravely,

and the weak ones will follow,

forever mocking as you go…

their petty ‘Envy’ pitted 

against your inner ‘Strength’.



I fix problems quickly,

and eject myself

from complications faster.

‘Self-Sufficiency’ 

is one of the greatest ‘Gifts’

that I have ever given to myself.



I found a slender pathway

through the middle of Chaos,

and up onto a Higher Road

of detached Understanding…

through a doorway of Silence,

opened by a key of Self-Control. 

Carrion Crows Descending To Uneven The Lights

… which pockmark

the mundane, grey landscape,

flaring up Brilliantly,

before disappearing

back into the rare, magical realm

which births them.

Obnoxious tail feathers,

razor wingtips,

and blackjack bludgeoning 

beaks of ebony.

Eyes, cruel, merciless

orbs of death and destruction…

hating the very notion

and thought

of sanctuary and safety.

The kill, is not enough…

they peck and bully

what remains,

the stilling flesh

and seizing-up bone

beneath the flint

of their cold logic.

Sadistic shadows,

they hunt the kaleidoscopic,

colours that warm,

flashes of anything not bleak

or ordinary.

Ravage by nature,

garbed the way of the grave,

their trick and their talent

lies in the balancing of undoing.