<\/p>\n
Fire Gathering<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n By striking stone like this<\/em> on stone<\/p>\n we flake a fragment of the jagged pain<\/p>\n exchanged when angry clouds lash out<\/p>\n at hunch-backed hills and growl at sprawling plains.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By wrapping breath \u2013 soft<\/em> breath \u2013 in straw<\/p>\n we draw a single fibre from those cores<\/p>\n of hurt that writhe in dry bruised scrubland,<\/p>\n fierce enough to swell and swallow forest.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The cradled ache begins<\/p>\n to pulse and spread and stretch the skin of darkness<\/p>\n to a dome where we can watch<\/p>\n ourselves. A ring of facing-inward eyes<\/p>\n sees past a ring of shoulders<\/p>\n into opened ground; we can deny<\/p>\n surprise to any shadow-born<\/p>\n intrusion creeping in to seize us singly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our breathing back and forth<\/p>\n is roughened by the thick and shifting air<\/p>\n whose curling throat-catch taste persuades<\/p>\n our hunger it is satisfied. \u00a0Our minds<\/p>\n are freed to hold dark fears<\/p>\n beyond arm\u2019s length. \u00a0Sometimes we hear, within<\/p>\n this borrowed wound protecting us,<\/p>\n a crack of extra blackness being broken.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Michael Bartholomew-Biggs<\/strong> is a semi-retired mathematician and fully-functioning poet who has published three chapbooks and two full collections (see http:\/\/mikeb-b.blogspot.co.uk\/<\/a><\/span>). \u00a0He is poetry editor of the on-line magazine London Grip<\/a> and a co-organiser of Poetry in the Crypt readings in Islington.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fire Gathering By striking stone like this on stone we flake a fragment of the jagged pain exchanged when angry clouds lash out at hunch-backed hills and growl at sprawling plains. By wrapping breath \u2013 soft breath \u2013 in straw we draw a single fibre from those cores of hurt that writhe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"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-3347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3347","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=3347"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3349,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3347\/revisions\/3349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}