Keats at Shanklin by Byron Beynon

on the 200th anniversary of his major odes 1819-2019

His final visit
where he watched
the daylight grow
from the east,
a new morning
set free from its moorings.
The intoxicated letters,
soft words kissed
where her lips had been.
A luminous landscape,
the sea, honeysuckles, 
eglantines observed,
delighting his thoughts.
The approved months
full of recall
as late-summer took hold,
his travelling mind soothed 
from the pains yet to come.

Byron Beynon lives in West Wales.  He coordinated the Wales section of the poetry anthology Fifty Strong (Heinemann).  His collections include The Sundial (Flutter Press), The Echoing Coastline (Agenda Editions),  Cuffs (Rack Press) and Nocturne in Blue (Lapwing Publications). His selected poems appeared in 2018 (Bilingual: English/Romanian - published by Bibliotecha Universalis/Collectiile/ Revistei "Orizont Literar Contemporan", translations by Dr Monica Manolachi, University of Bucharest).