{"id":482,"date":"2012-01-01T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=482"},"modified":"2020-12-14T11:15:34","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T11:15:34","slug":"the-eighth-day-of-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/the-eighth-day-of-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"The Eighth Day of Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Janus<\/span>

It takes real skill to look both ways.<\/span>
Notice how I keep an eye on yesterday<\/span>
whilst deftly skipping over today<\/span>
onto the thin ice of tomorrow.<\/span>

I know thresholds, those small events<\/span>
that happen between here and there.<\/span>
A small movement and things become,<\/span>
or end, or twist on hooks of possibility.<\/span>

Here are their gifts of bread and coal<\/span>
to appease the cold ghosts of winter.<\/span>
The slug trail of party poppers to<\/span>
mark the pathway to a stilled house. <\/span>

I am at the door that opens or closes<\/span>
to keep something in or out. I am<\/span>
the push or pull of air that pistons<\/span>
on the heart of a transformation.<\/span>

An old year, a new year, the midnight<\/span>
when the lock is oiled with promises.<\/span>
I hunker down on the step and listen<\/span>
for the key, the slow turn of time. <\/span>



<\/font>*Andrea Porter<\/a><\/span>\u2019s collection A Season of Small Insanities<\/span> is published by Salt. She is also a member of The Joy of Six Poetry<\/a> group. She has completed one novel and is up to her eyes in the next.<\/font>



campsite poem<\/span>
january first<\/span>

in the drift of another hard summer<\/span>
we camp out in the shelter. from here<\/span>
we can watch the baboons creature<\/span>
around the dry riverbed, scooping <\/span>
up water from the holes we dig<\/span>

in the sand; watch the tortoises<\/span>
smash open on the slope, their surprise <\/span>
at our trap lost in the glitter of carapace. <\/span>

nothing is simple about returning.<\/span>
in the mornings we drink tea matted <\/span>
with sugar; in the afternoons we study <\/span>
field guides. i play with antlions, endlessly. <\/span>
we wash with dust, we make fire,  <\/span>
 <\/span>
and on new year's eve we take stock<\/span>
of the stars and with your smart knife <\/span>
you cut a brush and you repaint them. <\/span>

sandstone is a strange canvas. <\/span>
the ink sighs into the grain  \u2013 <\/span>
i imagine a microscope would show<\/span>
cells grafted together like salt pans, <\/span>
where runny red ochres mount <\/span>

and flood and dry \u2013 and then, one day, all<\/span>
the uncertainties of your pen will flake away, <\/span>
leaving a reading fabricated from stains.<\/span>

<\/font><\/p>\n

*marcelle olivier<\/span>
\n is a South African-born writer and archaeologist living in Cambridge,
\nUK. You can read more of her poetry in, amongst others, Oxford Poetry,
\nNew Contrast,<\/span> and Carapace<\/span>. <\/font>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JanusIt takes real skill to look both ways.Notice how I keep an eye on yesterdaywhilst deftly skipping over todayonto the thin ice of tomorrow.I know thresholds, those small eventsthat happen between here and there.A small movement and things become,or end, or twist on hooks of possibility.Here are their gifts of bread and coalto appease the […]<\/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-482","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\/482","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=482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23926,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions\/23926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}