{"id":11188,"date":"2016-06-15T14:30:18","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T14:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=11188"},"modified":"2020-12-09T15:04:54","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T15:04:54","slug":"and-the-pick-of-the-month-for-may-2016-is-ghosted-by-vicky-morris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/and-the-pick-of-the-month-for-may-2016-is-ghosted-by-vicky-morris\/","title":{"rendered":"And the Pick of the Month for May 2016 is… ‘Ghosted’ by Vicky Morris!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vicky Morris’ ‘Ghosted’ clearly resonated with many voters to emerge as Ink Sweat & Tears’ Pick of the Month for May 2016.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vicky<\/a> writes poetry and short stories. She runs groups and projects for young writers. In 2013 she made the documentary \u2013 Dyslexic & Loving Words and in 2014 she won the Northern Writers Arvon Award.<\/p>\n

She has asked that her prize of \u00a310 be donated to a local Sheffield charity Cavendish Cancer Care<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ghosted<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not like he\u2019d planned to wake up
\nafter 23 years of marriage,
\nto find the taps turned off,
\neverything dried out on the draining board,
\nno one checking the mains,
\nbulb gone in the hall,
\nthe garden too barbered for its own good.<\/p>\n

He laced up his quietest loafers,
\ngrabbed some socks from the top drawer,
\nslid his passport from a copy of Punch,
\nloaded his toolboxes into the car.
\nWhile she stared at the TV she\u2019d never watched before.
\nIt\u2019s plug without a fuse,
\nremote control in the drawer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Voters’ comments included:<\/p>\n

I love the simplicity of imagery – the quietness in the husband and wife after a long marriage. The feeling of isolation, separation and bleakness is palpable.<\/em><\/p>\n

A sense of loss I’ve seen that really struck a chord with me<\/em><\/p>\n

The imagery, words, and sense of raw emotion<\/em><\/p>\n

Such a beautiful poem with very powerful words, I was moved after reading this!<\/em><\/p>\n

accurately sums up a feeling which is almost impossible to explain. Very sensitive and clever<\/em><\/p>\n

Beautiful, almost prose style, captures that peculiar feeling of grief that comes with middle age<\/em><\/p>\n

It makes you curious about the bigger picture but with no need for further details.<\/em><\/p>\n

poetic lucid view of domestic life and relationships at the end<\/em><\/p>\n

It reminds me of a life I choose not to have<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Comments on the rest of the shortlist:<\/p>\n

Helen Calcutt, ‘Bird’<\/p>\n

Such unusual images – so authentic and strong – a total commitment to language and an utter (and refreshing) absence of cliche. One of a very few poems I’ve read online in recent moths that would genuinely encourage me to seek out the author’s works.<\/em><\/p>\n

Carrie Etter, ‘The Find’<\/p>\n

Love the strange surrealness, feels almost like a mini-movie.<\/em><\/p>\n

Brian Johnstone, ‘Pledge’<\/p>\n

I felt like I knew what it was like to make that pledge.<\/em><\/p>\n

Susie Wild. ‘In case…’<\/p>\n

I liked the social commentary behind this poem, its dryness, and also the way it exposes the dislocation behind our ‘so-called’ connectivity.<\/em><\/p>\n

Phil Wood, ‘Cardigan Bay’<\/p>\n

Simple presentation of a strong image as well as the father\/son interaction.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vicky Morris’ ‘Ghosted’ clearly resonated with many voters to emerge as Ink Sweat & Tears’ Pick of the Month for May 2016. Vicky writes poetry and short stories. She runs groups and projects for young writers. In 2013 she made the documentary \u2013 Dyslexic & Loving Words and in 2014 she won the Northern Writers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[135,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-poetry-picks","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11188"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23805,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11188\/revisions\/23805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}