<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Running Club<\/strong><\/p>\n This morning not their normal urban route: Instead the dip and lift of country lanes, They pass in groups and then in single file. The press of blood in artery and vein, Two rabbits dart across a drainage ditch, <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ian Heffernan<\/strong> was born just outside London, where he still lives. He\u00a0studied at UCL and SOAS and works with the homeless. His poetry has been published recently in the High Window, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Cha, Antiphon, South Bank Poetry, London Grip, Under the Radar, FourXFour, <\/em>the Moth<\/em>\u00a0and elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Running Club This morning not their normal urban route: The busy paths beside dual carriageways, The quiet in the longer avenues, The brief, ill-thought-out streets where people tend Their flower beds like grudges and the cars Are parked along the pavement on both sides. Instead the dip and lift of country […]<\/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-20532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20532","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=20532"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20558,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20532\/revisions\/20558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe busy paths beside dual carriageways,
\nThe quiet in the longer avenues,
\nThe brief, ill-thought-out streets where people tend
\nTheir flower beds like grudges and the cars
\nAre parked along the pavement on both sides.<\/p>\n
\nUncertain tarmac, little muddy pools,
\nA loneliness of clearings, half-attempts
\nAt tracks which jink away between the trees,
\nAnd, early in the run, a hidden bridge
\nAdjacent to the point where two streams meet.<\/p>\n
\nOne checks his watch, another\u2019s spectacles
\nAre covered with the scribblings of light rain.
\nThese runners represent the mind engaged
\nIn settling inner debts, but doing this
\nThrough physical activity, which means<\/p>\n
\nThe solemn rasp of breath, warm knots of sweat,
\nThe grimaces and intermittent farts.
\nFor thirteen miles or so they pay their debts.
\nThey see a crash between two builder\u2019s vans,
\nA girl outside an isolated pub,<\/p>\n
\nA roadkill badger stretched out on its side
\n(A black-brown turd protruding from its rear).
\nThe world flows backwards from their tight-strung frames,
\nTheir bleak ascesis strengthens with each stride,
\nThe sound of their own footfalls goads them on.<\/p>\n