{"id":6078,"date":"2013-12-25T09:00:19","date_gmt":"2013-12-25T09:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=6078"},"modified":"2020-12-14T11:17:33","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T11:17:33","slug":"on-the-first-day-of-christmas-john-greening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/on-the-first-day-of-christmas-john-greening\/","title":{"rendered":"On the first day of Christmas…John Greening"},"content":{"rendered":"

Magi<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2013 I was a charming and respected teacher,<\/p>\n

an influential man with everything<\/p>\n

to lose by speaking out. I spoke. Now, who\u2019s<\/p>\n

for Astro-Psychics class, Messiah Theory,<\/p>\n

or Further Myth? This crock of frankincense<\/p>\n

was my sardonic way (I\u2019m famous for<\/p>\n

those wry asides) of saying: well, yes, frankly<\/p>\n

it\u2019s all nonsense.<\/p>\n

\u2013 In dreams…<\/p>\n

\u2013 And may I add<\/p>\n

(as world authority on processes<\/p>\n

of mummification from the earliest<\/p>\n

Dynastic to the Ptolemies) it\u2019s good<\/p>\n

to have escaped the lab, to sleep beneath<\/p>\n

the stars \u2013 one hangs there so seductively<\/p>\n

impelling us as if she\u2019s telling us<\/p>\n

through wink and hint and dark suggestiveness<\/p>\n

our necessary route \u2013 and see a way<\/p>\n

that promises to bypass bodily<\/p>\n

decay without the need for what I\u2019ve brought<\/p>\n

the child (wrapped here): embalming oils, the best<\/p>\n

and purest treatment for mortality<\/p>\n

humanity has yet \u2013<\/p>\n

\u2013 For miles and miles<\/p>\n

my only podium has been this hump.<\/p>\n

And in it \u2013 all a beast requires. My friends,<\/p>\n

we wanted more. Yet, far from your arcane<\/p>\n

retorts and flasks, your glazed fork lightning, minds<\/p>\n

made fit by study to confront the cosmos,<\/p>\n

like me, do you begin to feel that you<\/p>\n

have found some secret in this gentler sway,<\/p>\n

that cloud-free sky, a sandscape of repeating<\/p>\n

nursery dunes?<\/p>\n

\u2013 Let\u2019s rest.<\/p>\n

\u2013 In dreams, I reach<\/p>\n

a shining building where the gold\u2019s not stacked<\/p>\n

but scattered, so much of it that it\u2019s left<\/p>\n

for goats or stuffed in scarecrows, valueless,<\/p>\n

and all that\u2019s rare and longed for in that place<\/p>\n

is wood, rough cross-beams, all their dreaming hung<\/p>\n

with iron nails.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Can you feel this too, friends?<\/p>\n

A wholeness, wholly blinding you to all<\/p>\n

but one star, one clear scent out of the west?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s growing dark. The desert ends beyond<\/p>\n

that ridge, I\u2019m sure of it. And if these moths<\/p>\n

are not archangels, I\u2019m… But I\u2019m afraid<\/p>\n

I have no dazzle left. An early class<\/p>\n

tomorrow then, you magi, so good night.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John Greening<\/strong> has won the Bridport and TLS Prizes and received a Cholmondeley Award. He is a judge for the Eric Gregory Awards.\u00a0\u00a0 His 2013 collections are To the War Poets<\/em> (www.carcanet.co.uk<\/a>) and Knot<\/em> (www.worplepress.com<\/a>). Poetry Masterclass<\/em> (2011) is published by www.greenex.co.uk. <\/a><\/p>\n

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

Magi \u00a0 \u2013 I was a charming and respected teacher, an influential man with everything to lose by speaking out. I spoke. Now, who\u2019s for Astro-Psychics class, Messiah Theory, or Further Myth? This crock of frankincense was my sardonic way (I\u2019m famous for those wry asides) of saying: well, yes, frankly it\u2019s all nonsense. \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"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":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-twelve-days-of-christmas-2013"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6078","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6078"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23955,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6078\/revisions\/23955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}