{"id":16947,"date":"2018-07-25T08:00:54","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T08:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=16947"},"modified":"2018-07-25T08:04:09","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T08:04:09","slug":"christopher-jackson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/christopher-jackson\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Jackson"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Four Lavender Pots, November 2015<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
Our lavender are dead but there is<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
light on them. Browned, traumatised \u2013<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
the four pots failed in September,<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
while we were away, for lack of water.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
Their bee-summons purple is no more;<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
they attract no wing-flutter to their pores.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0I am not inclined to think them dead.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
Sun blasts the ledge, until their naked<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
neurons fire into life: \u00a0it\u2019s as if<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
their nods acknowledge my wife<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
for planting them once in summer\u2019s earth.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
They look relieved to be post-death<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
and still part, though changed, of creation.<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
And I think of the murdered in Paris again:\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
may a similar wraparound of light,<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
with the same perpetual mysteries in it,<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
cancel the disaster in everything,<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
brighten the travesty of their dying \u2013<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
and help them up, and out of pain, \u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
towards an equivalent benediction.<\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Christopher Jackson<\/strong> is deputy editor of business and culture magazine\u00a0Spear\u2019s<\/i>. He is the author of six books including The Fragile Democracy<\/i> (2016) on US politics, the best-selling Roger Federer<\/i> (2017) a book about philosophy and sport, and Theresa May <\/i>(2018). He was named one of five poets to watch by the Huffington Post<\/i> in 2013, and longlisted for the National Poetry Prize in 2016; his volume The Gallery<\/i> was published by the University of Salzburg to critical acclaim in 2013.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Four Lavender Pots, November 2015 \u00a0 Our lavender are dead but there is light on them. Browned, traumatised \u2013 the four pots failed in September, while we were away, for lack of water. Their bee-summons purple is no more; they attract no wing-flutter to their pores. \u00a0I am not inclined to think […]<\/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":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16947","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=16947"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17090,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16947\/revisions\/17090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}