{"id":244,"date":"2011-05-01T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=244"},"modified":"2020-12-09T16:23:25","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T16:23:25","slug":"poems-from-stephen-waling-and-joanna-boulter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/poems-from-stephen-waling-and-joanna-boulter\/","title":{"rendered":"Poems from Stephen Waling and Joanna Boulter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Still Bird on Goose Island<\/span>

the remains of a picnic<\/span>
in advance of refreshment<\/span>

\u201cwhen you\u2019re young and in love\u201d<\/span>

arrives         as it did last year<\/span>

Photo: the heart-shaped boating lake<\/span>
            being built<\/span>

new air in their sails<\/span>
swans arrive separately <\/span>
at a period of exploration<\/span>

blue shoes circling the lake<\/span>
a heron stood hours on one leg<\/span>
entrances into relationship<\/span>

as a flower\u2019s green inwardness<\/span>
unclenches on the lawn<\/span>



*Stephen Waling<\/span> a published poet from Manchester (Travelator<\/span><\/a>, Salt; Calling Myself On the Phone<\/span>, Smith\/Doorstop; and Captured Yes<\/span>, Knives Forks and Spoons Press). This poem was written for the 50th Aniversary of Platt Field's Park in Rusholme, Manchester.<\/span>




The Woman in White<\/span>

I\u2019ve planted double lilac <\/span>Mme Lemoine<\/span>
(that name itself redolent of French perfume,<\/span>
white lace and elegance down a long ballroom)<\/span>
twice now, in different gardens, different towns,<\/span>
and had to leave each place. I\u2019ve never known<\/span>
how either tree has made her d\u00e9but, come<\/span>
of age in beauty, filled her promised bloom.<\/span>
For all that I can tell, they\u2019re both cut down.<\/span>
Each May, I see where other lilacs stand<\/span>
in other people\u2019s gardens; but for me<\/span>
the glimmering light, the heady scent that scours<\/span>
my heart with sadness out of some lost land<\/span>
drifts from those vanished hopes. Beyond each tree,<\/span>
always, each May, a spectral lilac flowers.<\/span>


*Joanna Boulter<\/span>, shortlisted for the Forward First Collection Prize (2007)  for 24 Preludes And Fugues On Dmitri Shostakovich<\/a>, (Arc Publications), has recently completed a collaboration with composer Andrew Webb-Mitchell on a major symphonic song-cycle, Songs of Awe and Wonder.<\/span>


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

Still Bird on Goose Islandthe remains of a picnicin advance of refreshment\u201cwhen you\u2019re young and in love\u201darrives         as it did last yearPhoto: the heart-shaped boating lake            being builtnew air in their sailsswans arrive separately at a period of explorationblue shoes circling the lakea heron stood hours on one legentrances into relationshipas a flower\u2019s green inwardnessunclenches […]<\/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-244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244","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=244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23870,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions\/23870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}