{"id":472,"date":"2011-12-20T17:45:46","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T17:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=472"},"modified":"2011-12-20T17:45:46","modified_gmt":"2011-12-20T17:45:46","slug":"david-calcutts-stone-meets-a-ghost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/david-calcutts-stone-meets-a-ghost\/","title":{"rendered":"David Calcutt's 'Stone Meets a Ghost'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stone Meets a Ghost<\/span>

Stone\u2019s just standing around among the ruins<\/span>
He\u2019s waiting in the shadows to see the sun come up<\/span>

A ghost comes along <\/span>
It\u2019s weeping<\/span>

It has no shape no face <\/span>
It looks like mist it weeps<\/span>

Stone thinks<\/span>
Is this just mist<\/span>
But it\u2019s weeping<\/span>

Stone tries to comfort the ghost<\/span>
But his arms wrap round nothing<\/span>
They come back cold and damp<\/span>

Stone tries speaking to the ghost<\/span>
Gentle words his voice disappears<\/span>
It flops soundless a wet rag on the ground<\/span>

The ghost weeps its sighs<\/span>
Long weeping deep sighing<\/span>
Stone fills up with its eternal sadness<\/span>

Stone weeps he sighs<\/span>
Long weeping deep sighing<\/span>

Not even the early morning birds<\/span>
Not  even the starry snails<\/span>
Not even the grandmother trees <\/span>
Can comfort him<\/span>

The ghost wraps its arms around him<\/span>
The ghost speaks gentle words in his ear<\/span>

Stone goes numb<\/span>
He dissolves in the sunrise<\/span>
The ghost laughs.<\/span>




*David Calcutt<\/span> is a playwright, poet and children's novelist. His latest novel The Map of Marvels<\/span> is published by OUP. He works on a project making poetry with people with dementia and is currently writing a play for Midland Actors Theatre based on stories by Chekhov.  This is his <\/span>website<\/a>.<\/span>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stone Meets a GhostStone\u2019s just standing around among the ruinsHe\u2019s waiting in the shadows to see the sun come upA ghost comes along It\u2019s weepingIt has no shape no face It looks like mist it weepsStone thinksIs this just mistBut it\u2019s weepingStone tries to comfort the ghostBut his arms wrap round nothingThey come back cold […]<\/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-472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472","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=472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}