{"id":230,"date":"2011-04-19T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=230"},"modified":"2020-12-09T16:23:26","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T16:23:26","slug":"poems-by-martin-figura-and-larry-kimmel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/poems-by-martin-figura-and-larry-kimmel\/","title":{"rendered":"Poems by Martin Figura and Larry Kimmel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spring <\/span><\/font>

Snow keeps falling though April\u2019s begun.  The city <\/span>
is buried while we sleep in our beds <\/span>
and the council\u2019s run out of molasses and grit. <\/span>

People move through the streets like hospital patients <\/span>
out for a smoke or a breath of fresh air,<\/span>
the onset of chilblains cracking their skin.  <\/span>

The park is bereft of hopeful spring tulips <\/span>
and so are the verges and vases on sideboards.  <\/span>

There\u2019s just enough power for a couple more weeks<\/span>
what then?  We\u2019ll start to burn tables and chairs I suppose.  <\/span>

A family in crampons takes the road into town <\/span>
for what\u2019s left in the shops, their faces are stung <\/span>

by the wind from the lake, where anglers in pin-stripes <\/span>
crouch over the ice, watching the city the other way up.<\/span>



*Martin Figura<\/span>'s work ranges from the humour of <\/span>Boring The Arse off Young People<\/span> to the dark subject matter of his Ted Hughes Award shortlisted collection and show <\/span>Whistle<\/span>.   He won the 2010 Hamish Canham Prize.  Find out more here<\/a>.<\/span><\/a>





Taking Notice after a Long Dark Night<\/span>
 <\/span>
 The dew is not yet burned<\/span>
 from the orchard grass\u2014<\/span>
 <\/span>
 Crows range the open sky<\/span>
 on easy wings\u2014<\/span>
 <\/span>
 To the north,<\/span>
 a chain saw pitch-shifting<\/span>
 gnars a tune\u2014<\/span>
 <\/span>
 The forsythia is yellow, the lawn,<\/span>
 salt-crusted with Spring Beauties\u2014<\/span>
 <\/span>
 A wasp dangles by\u2014<\/span>
 <\/span>
 To the north,<\/span>
 a great conifer falls, sputtering<\/span>
 like firecrackers\u2014<\/span>
 <\/span>
 I raise my coffee mug, greet<\/span>
 the acrid bite\u2014<\/span>
 <\/span>
 How clear, how crisp the air!<\/span>



*Larry Kimmel <\/span>is a US poet.  He holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and Pittsburgh University, and has worked at everything from steel mills to libraries.  Recent books are Blue Night & the inadequacy of long-stemmed roses, and The Piercing Blue of Sirius.<\/span>
 <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spring Snow keeps falling though April\u2019s begun.  The city is buried while we sleep in our beds and the council\u2019s run out of molasses and grit. People move through the streets like hospital patients out for a smoke or a breath of fresh air,the onset of chilblains cracking their skin.  The park is bereft of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23881,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions\/23881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}