<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Self portrait : diptych<\/strong><\/p>\n I<\/p>\n It will do, the Polaroid’s\u00a0black- in\u00a0gold\u00a0would better suit cheek burnished smooth, grin\u00a0still with nerves and nerve, keen to\u00a0pierce II<\/p>\n What fingers have dabbled pouched at the knuckles? and dewlaps crosshatched\u00a0; show accruing marks and details <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Steve Xerri<\/strong> has been a teacher, musician, illustrator and web designer. Recently published in Acumen, Clear Poetry, Stride Magazine, Brittle Star, and The Interpreter’s House. Awarded the Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year 2017 prize in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Self portrait : diptych I It will do, the Polaroid’s\u00a0black- &-white : but a ground of\u00a0sky-like azurite\u00a0with\u00a0aetatis\u00a0suae XX\u00a0lettered in\u00a0gold\u00a0would better suit this\u00a0curly-head\u00a0in starprint shirt, his\u00a0life\u00a0set permanently to May, cheek burnished smooth, grin\u00a0still bright as enamel,\u00a0straight-ahead gaze the sign of a body and mind\u00a0packed with nerves and nerve, keen to\u00a0pierce the blazing thickets […]<\/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":[137,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018-poetry-picks","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16708","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=16708"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16926,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16708\/revisions\/16926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n&-white : but a ground of\u00a0sky-like
\nazurite\u00a0with\u00a0aetatis\u00a0suae XX<\/em>\u00a0lettered<\/p>\n
\nthis\u00a0curly-head\u00a0in starprint shirt,
\nhis\u00a0life\u00a0set permanently to May,<\/p>\n
\nbright as enamel,\u00a0straight-ahead gaze
\nthe sign of a body and mind\u00a0packed<\/p>\n
\nthe blazing thickets of\u00a0lightbeams
\npouring on him from the\u00a0future.<\/p>\n
\nunder the skin of this face
\nand loosened it like a glove<\/p>\n
\nRender him Holbein-style,
\nwith scraped graphite stubble<\/p>\n
\nthe waning of distinctiveness
\nas the sitter leans into age,<\/p>\n
\non the surface of the vellum,\u00a0a crop
\nof scuffs and spatters, all\u00a0his own.<\/p>\n