{"id":15385,"date":"2018-01-02T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T09:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=15385"},"modified":"2020-12-14T11:21:38","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T11:21:38","slug":"on-the-twelfth-day-of-christmas-we-bring-you-laura-davies-marc-woodward-and-debbie-strange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/on-the-twelfth-day-of-christmas-we-bring-you-laura-davies-marc-woodward-and-debbie-strange\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Twelfth Day of Christmas we bring you Laura Davies, Marc Woodward and Debbie Strange"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Spinning tops in Bethlehem<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pa was keen to be rid of me
\ngave me the little boat
\njust a board really
\ntold me to enjoy myself.<\/p>\n

Ma said I looked
\nlike a walnut
\nall bundled up
\non half a shell.<\/p>\n

Me and the other kids
\nout on the lake
\nsliding on the ice
\nspinning tops.<\/p>\n

Pa had to register us.
\nWe came on the cart
\nit wasn\u2019t far –
\nsome came from across Judea.<\/p>\n

Romans and their questions-
\nwho we knew,
\nwhere we lived.
\nWho knew they cared?<\/p>\n

Soldiers came
\nwith the lists.
\nNational security they said.
\nNo spinning tops after that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Laura Davis<\/strong> travels a lot. The people, landscapes and stories of the places she visits – and, in this case, as Bruegel imagined them -inspire her writing. Her poetry has previously appeared in Ink Sweat and Tears<\/em> (November 2017).\u00a0@LaDaBel<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Winter Blues Club<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tonight I’ll play slide
\nin that pine floor
\nbar down town.
\nThe sea will hurl pebbles
\non the street outside
\nand the storm will
\nhit and swing
\nthe hanging sign.<\/p>\n

January darkness
\nwraps a reason
\nround the flatscreens,
\nfires and hot dinners
\nof front rooms,
\nand I know the crowd
\nwill be slimmer
\nthan a Mississippi chance
\nbut, hey…
\nmy fingers need the dance.<\/p>\n

And it’s alright<\/em>
\nfor there are stories<\/em>
\nto be sung,<\/em>
\nand only a rough night –<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0 a night for Rojo<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0 at the crossroads,<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0 rain on tin shacks,<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0 engine house hobos;<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0 a night for black<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0 dog harp howls –<\/em>
\ncan stand witness<\/em>
\nwith any wink<\/em>
\nof honesty.<\/em><\/p>\n

So I’ll forsake the fire for
\nthe pick and pull of strings,
\nthe rattle of brass or glass
\nover rosewood board,
\nwhile pebbles clatter
\nat the shaking door.
\nRobin lifts his dobro,
\nBill clears his throat,
\nno one plays Summertime
\nnot even as a joke…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Marc Woodward<\/strong> is a musician and poet living in the rural West Country. He has been widely published and his chapbook A Fright Of Jays is available from Maquette Press.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Debbie Strange<\/strong> is an award-winning\u00a0Canadian short form poet and haiga artist. Keibooks released her full-length poetry collection, Warp and Weft: Tanka Threads,<\/em> in 2015. Folded Word released her haiku chapbook, A Year Unfolding<\/em>, in 2017.<\/p>\n

Note: This haiga received the World Haiku Association’s Haiga Award of Excellence in 2015<\/p>\n

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

    Spinning tops in Bethlehem Pa was keen to be rid of me gave me the little boat just a board really told me to enjoy myself. Ma said I looked like a walnut all bundled up on half a shell. Me and the other kids out on the lake sliding on the ice […]<\/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":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-twelve-days-of-christmas-2017"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15385","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=15385"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15537,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15385\/revisions\/15537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}