{"id":13907,"date":"2017-05-19T15:17:28","date_gmt":"2017-05-19T15:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=13907"},"modified":"2020-12-09T15:15:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T15:15:08","slug":"and-our-pick-of-the-month-for-april-2017-is-david-subacchis-cross-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/and-our-pick-of-the-month-for-april-2017-is-david-subacchis-cross-country\/","title":{"rendered":"And our Pick of the Month for April 2017 is David Subacchi’s ‘Cross Country’"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

More than 250 of you voted – a record for us – leading to a sprint finish that saw ‘Cross Country’ by David Subacchi as our Pick of the Month for April 2017. This fine poem struck a nostalgic nerve with many of you although it was 50\/50 as to whether you loved or dreaded the sport itself!<\/p>\n

David lives in Wales (UK) where he was born of Italian roots. He studied at the University of Liverpool and he has three poetry collections with Cestrian Press First Cut<\/em> (2012), Hiding in Shadows<\/em> (2014) and Not Really a Stranger<\/em> (2016).\u00a0 David has also recently published a collection of Sonnets A Terrible Beauty<\/em> in commemoration of Ireland\u2019s 1916 Easter Rising. He writes in Welsh and Italian and blogs at http:\/\/www.writeoutloud.net\/profiles\/davidsubacchi<\/a><\/p>\n

David will receive a National Book Token<\/a> for \u00a310.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cross Country<\/strong><\/p>\n

A reluctant concession
\nFor those of insufficient bulk
\nOr violent disposition
\nTo take part in the awful
\nBattle of blood and mud
\nLaughingly referred to
\nAs a game.<\/p>\n

Unsupervised
\nOur route wound
\nFar away from
\nThe killing fields
\nPast gasworks
\nAnd railway lines
\nThrough the village.<\/p>\n

Once out of sight
\nA walking pace
\nCigarettes
\nSweets
\nTalking to local girls
\nCursing the brutality
\nOf the egg shaped ball.<\/p>\n

Then returning
\nTo the jeers
\nOf shirt ripped
\nCasualties
\nOur mock exhaustion
\nToo dramatic
\nFooling no one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Voters comments included:<\/p>\n

David Subacchi has the human touch – when you read him it is like you thought that, but didn’t know how to put it into words. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Distills the essence of a very familiar experience! <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Rhythm of verses felt like running <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Love David’s precision of language <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I like the skew of it. Interesting language from a surprising angle. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It brings back so many memories, it made me smile <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It evokes so many memories of cross country at my school. This poem creates so many visions and is so poignant. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Brings back the memories. Short cuts, false panting, an unnecessary puff on the inhaler to fool the teacher. Fantastic. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Reminds me of those awful childhood treks! <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Brings back happy memories of my school days, seeing the boys running past the perimeter fence of our school and laughing & joking (sometimes jeering lol) with them <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

David’s poetry always helps you to see the ordinary transformed.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It matches some of my own experience – though mine was more dull. Scared and useless at rugby & cricket.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Reading it twice and taking in the title, it reminded me of cross country as engaged in here in the States and the 2-word phrase “past gasworks” as an intended or not, echo of an early David Bowie lyric, using the phrase “past the gasworks” made me smile. It was a song called ‘Uncle Arthur’ from 1967. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

David Subacchi is such an observant writer; I love the way he expresses what he sees, what he feels and somehow captures how the listeners feel too.
\n<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

So much conjured up with so few words.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It has an element of Gritty Truth<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It reminds me of when I opted out of netball, was sent on a cross country run and my friends joined me. From then on we ran regularly. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I love his style and it reminds me of my ‘yoof’ !! <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Shows the pain of Cross Country!<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  More than 250 of you voted – a record for us – leading to a sprint finish that saw ‘Cross Country’ by David Subacchi as our Pick of the Month for April 2017. This fine poem struck a nostalgic nerve with many of you although it was 50\/50 as to whether you loved or […]<\/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":[136,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-poetry-picks","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13907","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=13907"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13928,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13907\/revisions\/13928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}