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Midnight Illness<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Home is only ever found in glimpses, <\/p>\n Bethany W Pope<\/strong> has published several collections of poetry: A Radiance<\/em> (Cultured Llama, 2012) Crown of Thorns<\/em>, (Oneiros Books, 2013), The Gospel of Flies<\/em> (Writing Knights Press 2014), and Undisturbed Circles<\/em> (Lapwing, 2014). Her first novel, Masque,<\/em> shall be published by Seren in 2016.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Light<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n light has been sinking into me since nineteen fifty nine<\/p>\n my shadow points at where it should have been<\/p>\n and tells me most of it is reflected,<\/p>\n random photons streaming away<\/p>\n but some, some gets inside.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n it pours in through the eyes<\/p>\n and my hair, at least the dark bits,<\/p>\n and the blue-black grating<\/p>\n of my tattoo<\/p>\n or into the dark scab<\/p>\n where i cut my finger<\/p>\n exchanging blood for brightness.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n i think of starlight<\/p>\n it\u2019s travelled all that way<\/p>\n from before we even evolved<\/p>\n into things that know what stars are<\/p>\n or that their light sinks into us,<\/p>\n fills us with bright wonder.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Originally from North Wales, Roddy Williams<\/strong> lives and works in London. His poetry has recently appeared in ‘Popshot; ‘The North’, ‘Magma’, ‘The Frogmore Papers’, ‘Obsessed With Pipework’ and other magazines. He is a keen surrealist photographer and painter.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shackleton<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n From deck, ice binds the span of what he sees distant but distinct.\u00a0 Without the wind, a spell is cast.<\/p>\n Dark against the shining plain each shadow He sees Erebus raised to outer space<\/p>\n and hears the first dog\u2019s howl into the roof of south, relayed through the pack.\u00a0 And then,<\/p>\n no more.\u00a0 He listens for the freezing And the dry air rustles with his lungs\u2019 faint leaves.<\/p>\n Afar, a line of mountains, south, and south of thought. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Jean Atkin<\/strong> is a poet, writer and experienced educator, based in Shropshire. Her collection Not Lost Since Last Time<\/em> is published by Oversteps Books and she has also published five poetry pamphlets and a children\u2019s novel. She has held residencies in libraries, museums, festivals and even a beach and she works as a poet and writer on projects in both Scotland and England. She is Poet in Residence for Wenlock Poetry Festival 2015-16.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 www.jeanatkin.com<\/a><\/p>\n Note:\u00a0Shackleton used to recite from Browning while on watch on the \u2018Discovery\u2019 on Captain Scott\u2019s expedition to Antarctica. \u2018Let me taste the whole of it\u2019 from Prospice by Robert Browning.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Midnight Illness Home is only ever found in glimpses, the night-fragrance of a lover’s shoulder, the warm throb of the pulse beneath the skin of the throat, the green scent of trees captured in the pages of the right kind of book. You feel ‘home’ in a burst of pleasant light that […]<\/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":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9414","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=9414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9415,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9414\/revisions\/9415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nthe night-fragrance of a lover’s shoulder,
\nthe warm throb of the pulse beneath the skin
\nof the throat, the green scent of trees captured
\nin the pages of the right kind of book.
\nYou feel ‘home’ in a burst of pleasant light
\nthat flares in the tissue hidden behind
\nthe string-like nerves of your eyes. It remains
\nunnamed until the golden warmth consumes
\na cavity. Melancholy swarms in
\nand then you learn that, yes, you really had
\nsomething beautiful \u2014 for a little while.<\/p>\n
\nand moonlight etches out volcanoes<\/p>\n
\nof each peak and rock leaps up.<\/p>\n
\nthe note\u2019s decay and then the new plaint<\/p>\n
\nof his exhaled breath instead.<\/p>\n
\nLet me taste the whole of it, he said.<\/p>\n