{"id":6049,"date":"2013-12-12T11:31:41","date_gmt":"2013-12-12T11:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=6049"},"modified":"2013-12-12T11:31:41","modified_gmt":"2013-12-12T11:31:41","slug":"a-selection-of-slanted-temptations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/a-selection-of-slanted-temptations\/","title":{"rendered":"A Selection of ‘Slanted’ Temptations"},"content":{"rendered":"

To mark today’s official launch at The Book Hive in Norwich of IS&T Press’ first publication TWELVE Slanted Poems for Christmas<\/em> we are posting first lines\/excerpts from each of the fine poems featured in it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Factory Spirit by Bobby Parker<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tell your dad you are close to the beautiful<\/p>\n

poem, living in a makeshift moon, running from evil<\/p>\n

pictures.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Masterchristmas by Ira Lightman<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This Christmas, I miss us. On the speaker<\/p>\n

I can hear your voice. In both ears. You are not here<\/p>\n

for me to say in person you\u2019re precious.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Winter\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 by Penelope Shuttle<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

is its own lonely scarab<\/p>\n

no one doubts it<\/p>\n

as cold days<\/p>\n

lengthen<\/p>\n

into winter-april<\/p>\n

sheepfarm hours\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Broken by Julia Webb<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At Christmas Sun Daddy started smashing glass<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

he started in his bedroom,<\/p>\n

then swept tornado-like through the house\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Watch by Luke Wright<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Like my Dad, my Christmas job, it seems,<\/p>\n

is balling wrapping paper into bags.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Angels by Moniza Alvi<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They fold their wings<\/p>\n

over the wings of the house.<\/p>\n

Over the Dementia Wing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Finishing The Mill on the Floss <\/em>on Christmas Eve by Carrie Etter<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Minutes, I suppose, later, I raised my wet face,<\/p>\n

blinked to sharpen the blurry<\/p>\n

kaleidoscope of colour and form.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In The Bleak Midwinter by Bethany W Pope<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At the ragged edge of the old year, when the dead<\/p>\n

Thorn-spiked branches thrashed in the wind, I lived in a tree.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Spent by Andrea Holland<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The days before that late day in December<\/p>\n

are the dreadful tunings of instruments.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Room at the Inn by Tim Turnbull<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Three Boxing Days in a row, scurrying across the Valley Bridge \u2013<\/p>\n

and this long before they put up screens to stop<\/p>\n

the seasonal depressive lemming-fest\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mother Goo by WN Herbert<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

McGueegueg smoothed the lacquered sneer of his quiff<\/p>\n

and slid a harpoon-like forearm along the seatback,<\/p>\n

rippling the russet leather billows of his Ford Peyote.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Norwich Version by George Szirtes<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After the dancing ladies and their ever-leaping lords<\/p>\n

Christmas ran out of music, lost its melodies and chords\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To mark today’s official launch at The Book Hive in Norwich of IS&T Press’ first publication TWELVE Slanted Poems for Christmas we are posting first lines\/excerpts from each of the fine poems featured in it.   Factory Spirit by Bobby Parker   Tell your dad you are close to the beautiful poem, living in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6049","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6049"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6064,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6049\/revisions\/6064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}