{"id":926,"date":"2010-12-15T18:02:27","date_gmt":"2010-12-15T18:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=926"},"modified":"2010-12-15T18:02:27","modified_gmt":"2010-12-15T18:02:27","slug":"david-morley-on-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/david-morley-on-december\/","title":{"rendered":"David Morley on December"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Boy Casting Snow on Winter Barley<\/span>
A variation of Paul Celan<\/span><\/font>
 <\/span>
 <\/span>
The months are hairs combed over each other, or crushed <\/span>
papers in a cellar. December is growing, fur on my lip. <\/span>
 <\/span>
December\u2019s the hair on a monk\u2019s fingers, a book pulled open,<\/span>
a boy throwing snow at the first winter crops. Your hair is twisted up; <\/span>
 <\/span>
it is dark and it makes me imagine shells or cloud-shells, a boat<\/span>
nudging into a rainy lake. A boat, a book pulled open or over,  <\/span>
 <\/span>
fear, a shrew squirming in my fingers\u2026 December\u2019s black hook.<\/span>
December\u2019s lake water.  Can I sing? Can I live through this winter? <\/span>
 <\/span>
 <\/span>
 <\/span>
A small lyric on my palm. I stand on the shore of a lake.<\/span>
As far as a boat may be rowed, the colour of aspens<\/span>
 <\/span>
colourless by night as I grow in shade and my age deepens.<\/span>
I speak of loving you as I speak to you about hands,<\/span>
 <\/span>
shells or clouds. I push the boats with my fingers and they nod<\/span>
in our bloodstreams, lovers crushed together, or clouds<\/span>
 <\/span>
heaped in a downpour. Walking from the forest I find myself<\/span>
necklaced with bared hands. December is gaining on me.<\/span>



*David Morley<\/a> \u2019s new book is Enchantment<\/a>. His poetry has won 14 awards. <\/span><\/font>A Boy Casting Snow on Winter Barley<\/span><\/font> is from his previous collection The Invisible Kings<\/a> (a PBS Recommendation.) His \u2018writing challenges\u2019 podcasts are among the most popular literature downloads on iTunes worldwide. He writes for The Guardian and Poetry Review. <\/span>

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

A Boy Casting Snow on Winter BarleyA variation of Paul Celan  The months are hairs combed over each other, or crushed papers in a cellar. December is growing, fur on my lip.  December\u2019s the hair on a monk\u2019s fingers, a book pulled open,a boy throwing snow at the first winter crops. Your hair is twisted up; […]<\/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-926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926","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=926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}