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Queen of the Meadows<\/strong><\/p>\n Much I do not envy them – the cold houses, <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Elizabeth Rimmer<\/strong> is the author of two poetry collections, Wherever We Live Now<\/i> and The Territory of Rain<\/i>, published by Red Squirrel Press. Her third collection, Haggards,<\/i> will be published in 2018. She blogs at www.burnedthumb.co.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Queen of the Meadows Much I do not envy them – the cold houses, the meat-heavy banquets and bread like stone, haphazard medicine, and tolerance of fleas, mice, dogs under the table, and violent men drunk by bedtime. But meadowsweet, gathered in the summer and strewn among the rushes when floors were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"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":[136,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-poetry-picks","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14859","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14860,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14859\/revisions\/14860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nthe meat-heavy banquets and bread like stone,
\nhaphazard medicine, and tolerance of fleas,
\nmice, dogs under the table, and violent men
\ndrunk by bedtime. But meadowsweet,
\ngathered in the summer and strewn
\namong the rushes when floors were swept \u2013
\nthis I love. The curds and cream handfuls
\nof blossom, the flossy stamens, like flecks
\nof ripening butter, and sunlight burning crimson
\nin the stems against the hedgerow\u2019s deep green,
\nits scent of honey, freshness in stale air,
\ncomfort in the aches of winter \u2013 this I would choose
\nfor my house. A herb for the merry of heart.<\/p>\n