{"id":564,"date":"2010-02-25T10:48:16","date_gmt":"2010-02-25T10:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=564"},"modified":"2010-02-25T10:48:16","modified_gmt":"2010-02-25T10:48:16","slug":"john-swain-has-an-atlas-of-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/john-swain-has-an-atlas-of-signs\/","title":{"rendered":"John Swain has an atlas of signs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlas of Signs<\/span>

From the valley<\/span>
people traveled,<\/span>
the bones of cattle staked like a gate.<\/span>
I sought the acerbic shade<\/span>
of the manchineel tree<\/span>
where sand cliffs dissolve into tides<\/span>
like bronze idols or collapsing horses.<\/span>
The shadow of a frigatebird armors<\/span>
my already guarded face,<\/span>
cinders of fresh fruit cloud the paths.<\/span>
I have studied the maps<\/span>
and discern vaster coordinates.<\/span>
Take my hand,<\/span>
light on water provides an atlas of signs<\/span>
we shall interpret<\/span>
before evening settles on the backs<\/span>
of green dragonflies.<\/span>

~ ~ ~ ~ ~<\/span>

Hide and Seek Beach<\/span>

Under cloud cover softness<\/span>
we listen to water<\/span>
leaving jade traces<\/span>
over volcanic stone.<\/span>
A French girl in a straw hat<\/span>
remained on the shore<\/span>
searching for blue gems<\/span>
and shrieking at lizards.<\/span>
Daniel leapt from the edge<\/span>
and I leapt after<\/span>
into the rolling pool<\/span>
where sailors catch turtles.<\/span>


* John Swain<\/span> lives in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He has previously contributed to <\/span>IS&T<\/span> and his first chapbook \u2013 <\/span>Prominences<\/span> \u2013  has recently appeared from Flutter Press.<\/span>
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atlas of SignsFrom the valleypeople traveled,the bones of cattle staked like a gate.I sought the acerbic shadeof the manchineel treewhere sand cliffs dissolve into tideslike bronze idols or collapsing horses.The shadow of a frigatebird armorsmy already guarded face,cinders of fresh fruit cloud the paths.I have studied the mapsand discern vaster coordinates.Take my hand,light on water […]<\/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-564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564","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=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}