<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Here is the Lampshade<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here is the lampshade, spiderweb Eden,<\/p>\n where I read under the unscrewed bulb of<\/p>\n a witches shawl. My sloe evenings spent<\/p>\n reading birth certificates and samples<\/p>\n of wallpaper manuscripts full to the<\/p>\n brim with deflated drunks teetering with<\/p>\n ruin. There’s a bust of grief in those dog<\/p>\n eyed caviar pages, rich but onyx,<\/p>\n wild with heads of captured beasts, suburban<\/p>\n prophets high with dance of the Mad Hatter<\/p>\n and amnesia of days spent foolishly,<\/p>\n read on the luminescent filament<\/p>\n bedding, slavering with morphine\u2019s saffron.<\/p>\n With shovels of hands I dig through the sheets.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Grant Tarbard<\/strong>‘s first chapbook Yellow Wolf<\/em> is out now, published by WK Press, his first full collection published by Lapwing and a collection published by Platypus Press will be both out next year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Out of the Light<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n At a few million degrees centigrade<\/p>\n gasses in a furnace<\/p>\n heat up …\u00a0 ignites<\/p>\n a frenzied disco dance<\/p>\n to Hoyle’s equations.<\/p>\n Quarks, protons, neutrons fuse.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The supernova explodes…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hydrogen becomes helium<\/p>\n becomes oxygen<\/p>\n spreads out in nebulous masses<\/p>\n to make up<\/p>\n a horse’s head<\/p>\n a crab’s claw<\/p>\n a molecule that some day<\/p>\n will form part of a sandwich<\/p>\n Gell-Man eats as he reads Finnegan’s Wake.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The page is full.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I put my pen down,<\/p>\n go to a coffee shop.<\/p>\n F\u00fcr Elise plays from a tape.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n An angel steps<\/p>\n out of the light<\/p>\n from a display of cups.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You smile:<\/p>\n “Hello. How’s the poem doing?”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Graham Mummery<\/strong> worked for many years in investment banking before becoming a psychotherapist. His poems have appeared in many magazines and his first full collection, Meeting My Inners<\/em> (Pindrop Press) has just appeared.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Secretary of God<\/strong><\/p>\n Our Lord has often revealed his secrets to the world through women.\u00a0 \u2013Christine de Pisan<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n These are not my words.<\/p>\n I drank God straight from the well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I move through hours.<\/p>\n Predictions drip and pool.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When they burn the fields,<\/p>\n I taste ash.\u00a0 Tell me<\/p>\n <\/p>\n this isn\u2019t beautiful.\u00a0 I sink<\/p>\n downwards,\u00a0 a red moon<\/p>\n <\/p>\n paling and losing its breath,<\/p>\n words coming from nowhere.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Write it like revelation:<\/p>\n this white, white light.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jennifer A. McGowan<\/strong> has published poetry and prose in many magazines and anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic, including\u00a0Pank<\/em> and The Rialto<\/em>. Her chapbooks are available from Finishing Line Press and her first collection is from Indigo Dreams. Her website can be found at the unimaginatively-but-accurately-titled http:\/\/www.jenniferamcgowan.com<\/a> .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here is the Lampshade Here is the lampshade, spiderweb Eden, where I read under the unscrewed bulb of a witches shawl. My sloe evenings spent reading birth certificates and samples of wallpaper manuscripts full to the brim with deflated drunks teetering with ruin. There’s a bust of grief in those dog […]<\/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-9427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9427","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=9427"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9615,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9427\/revisions\/9615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}