{"id":891,"date":"2010-11-21T12:35:54","date_gmt":"2010-11-21T12:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=891"},"modified":"2010-11-21T12:35:54","modified_gmt":"2010-11-21T12:35:54","slug":"maureen-weldon-is-passing-by-the-old-ash-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/maureen-weldon-is-passing-by-the-old-ash-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"Maureen Weldon is passing by the old Ash Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Old Ash Tree<\/span>
           Rhydymwyn Valley, North East Wales<\/span><\/span>


I walk this bend of tarmac road.<\/span>
Here the River Alyn<\/span>
flowed past you, old sleeping Ash Tree,<\/span>
feet firmly on the bank.<\/span>

What do you dream <\/span>
in this thin November sun?<\/span>
Do you hear a thousand voices,<\/span>
heavy shovels heaving earth,<\/span>
the whisper of a miner\u2019s prayer?<\/span>

Do you dream of searchlights<\/span>
weaving patterns on the night,<\/span>
droning aircraft, screeching sirens?<\/span>
The Valley\u2019s secret work of World War Two,<\/span>
which they, like you, could not divulge.<\/span>

But you go back so much further,<\/span>
to a time of children\u2019s laughter.<\/span>
Did lovers sit under your cool wide boughs<\/span>
planning their lust for life?<\/span>

Today you do not have a single leaf,<\/span>
the grain of your boughs\u2019 dull green.<\/span>
Yet, the air is blue, and thin white clouds  <\/span>
float like daytime ghosts.      <\/span>

As shadows creep like silent ships,<\/span>
through the tips of your branches, <\/span>
a just discernible sickle moon. <\/span>



* Maureen Weldon<\/span> lives in North Wales and has been widely published UK small press magazines and elsewhere. She was commended for <\/span>The Flintshire Poetry Competition 2010<\/span> and recently gave a poetry & music performance with <\/span>Onya Wick<\/span> at the Chester Literature Festival.<\/span>

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

The Old Ash Tree           Rhydymwyn Valley, North East WalesI walk this bend of tarmac road.Here the River Alynflowed past you, old sleeping Ash Tree,feet firmly on the bank.What do you dream in this thin November sun?Do you hear a thousand voices,heavy shovels heaving earth,the whisper of a miner\u2019s prayer?Do you dream of searchlightsweaving patterns on […]<\/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-891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891","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=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}