{"id":481,"date":"2011-12-31T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-31T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=481"},"modified":"2020-12-14T11:15:34","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T11:15:34","slug":"the-seventh-day-of-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/the-seventh-day-of-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"The Seventh Day of Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Goose Moon<\/span>
\u00a0<\/span>
What are we doing above the poor sea?<\/span>
Do we dream this bridge of wind<\/span>
will reach the sour pines of Europe?<\/span>
Why bother pouring such weather<\/span>
under the goose moon.<\/span>
\u00a0<\/span>
Why bring this denying wing down<\/span>
from all the worst clocks of the night<\/span>
to reach no eye, no ear, no lovely wake<\/span>
of punching sea and chance our white flame<\/span>
in the hall-less journey here.<\/span>
\u00a0<\/span>
Why were we with the ghost snows <\/span>
so far in the north, in this empty mind <\/span>
where air peels and pours<\/span>
in the saintless interior.<\/span>
\u00a0<\/span>
And worn out with Jupiter, <\/span>
beneath our night coal, tip to tip, <\/span>
we send those scouring messages<\/span>
for the fat path home, queens of mint air<\/span>
and the world turns its coarse trim with us<\/span>
and we are the Christmas sisters<\/span>
and make the turn and the lit up tide steers us<\/span>
below the goose moon.<\/span>
\u00a0<\/span>
No one is free of the feather dream<\/span>
and the polished waters ride us<\/span>
all wing whisper when the call comes to turn, <\/span>
to break and lead, to return one to another<\/span>
in the European night <\/span>
uncovering the jarring saviours<\/span>
and we imagine human, <\/span>
unmined and working, <\/span>
warm with all the land\u2019s resistance, <\/span>
delivered in houses, in taxes, <\/span>
in the deaf blood of the roads below.<\/span>



*Chris Emery<\/span> was born in Manchester and has published two collections: <\/span>Dr. Mephisto<\/span> and <\/span>Radio Nostalgia<\/span>, both from Arc Publications. A new collection, <\/span>The Departure<\/span><\/a>, is forthcoming from Salt. He lives in Cromer with his wife and three children.<\/span>





\nSearching for Snow<\/span>
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>
Press your nose against the pane,<\/span>
wish for it. Scan the sky. Listen<\/span>
for the silence of every living thing<\/span>
braced against the cold.<\/span>
\u00a0<\/span>
You want snowmen, snowball contests,<\/span>
to be snowed in, kept off school.<\/span>
\u00a0<\/span>
Some hope, except in dreams<\/span>
of dragging caked mittens from tingling fingers,<\/span>
sipping hot chocolate, regressing to \u2018Watch with Mother\u2019.<\/span>
\u00a0<\/span>
Snow remakes the world for however long it lasts<\/span>
until the tension goes out of it. As childish <\/span>
as innocence before grown-up boots stamp it out. <\/span>
\u00a0<\/span>



*Angela Topping<\/a><\/span> is a freelance poet and author based in Cheshire. She writes for both children and adults and has four solo collections. 2011 saw four poetry chapbooks released. She is currently working towards a fifth collection.\u00a0\u00a0 This poem was first published in <\/span>Voices for\u00a0 Kosovo<\/span> (Stride\u00a0 1999)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

The Goose Moon\u00a0What are we doing above the poor sea?Do we dream this bridge of windwill reach the sour pines of Europe?Why bother pouring such weatherunder the goose moon.\u00a0Why bring this denying wing downfrom all the worst clocks of the nightto reach no eye, no ear, no lovely wakeof punching sea and chance our white […]<\/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":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-twelve-days-of-christmas-2011"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481","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=481"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23927,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions\/23927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}