{"id":9828,"date":"2015-12-15T15:19:10","date_gmt":"2015-12-15T15:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=9828"},"modified":"2020-12-09T15:02:10","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T15:02:10","slug":"and-the-pick-of-the-month-for-november-2015-is-groundwater-by-marcelle-olivier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/and-the-pick-of-the-month-for-november-2015-is-groundwater-by-marcelle-olivier\/","title":{"rendered":"And the Pick of the Month for November 2015 is ‘groundwater’ by Marcelle Olivier"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are pleased to be able to announce that November’s Pick of the Month is groundwater<\/em> by Marcelle Olivier. Marcelle is a poet and archaeologist. Her translations of contemporary South African poetry appear in the recent edited collection In a burning sea<\/em> (Protea, 2015), and you can read more of her writing in, amongst others, Oxford Poetry, New Contrast, Carapace, <\/em>and The Mays. <\/em>She receives a \u00a310 National Book Tokens giftcard and, as a special holiday extra, a copy of IS&T’s TWELVE: Slanted Poems for Christmas.<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

groundwater<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

i will never be as innocent
\nas i was then. as ripe
\nas this root, as sound<\/p>\n

as a lock of mistletoe to its tree.
\ni will never be as thirsty.
\ni will never again be as near<\/p>\n

to gods.<\/p>\n

when i walk back into my
\nphantasies, shoes shed,
\nmy palms sweetly pleased<\/p>\n

with the stain of groundwater
\nshorn away from your body;<\/p>\n

when i slip into the fatty
\nmemory of it, the two of me;
\nwhen i count the many<\/p>\n

days i have lost at your ream,
\ncourting the threads
\nlike a wet, blossoming moth,<\/p>\n

my world shrinks. the drought
\nof an obstructive moon<\/p>\n

flourishing in my triad
\nlights at the dividends of bones
\nbetter left behind.<\/p>\n

to gods<\/p>\n

i offered my youth. those unmarked
\nmoments of lust stargazers refuse
\nto divulge, and the chance to lie<\/p>\n

with my arm across your back,
\nthe two of us shackled together
\nby the melancholy of hope.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Voters’ comments included:<\/p>\n

The mixture of sensuousness, wonder and elliptical phrasing, makers this poem both ‘knowable’ and ‘unknowable’ and therefore one to read again. And again. <\/em><\/p>\n

Beautiful images. Strikes me in the core of being. Well structured poem! <\/em><\/p>\n

I lose balance in the phrases, and I like “the dividends of bones” <\/em><\/p>\n

I can feel her poem in my soul… <\/em><\/p>\n

Original both in its structure and its imagery. <\/em><\/p>\n

Every word precisely placed, like a master player of spillikens<\/em><\/p>\n

…..<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Comments on the other shortlisted poets:<\/p>\n

Paul Burns bringing it home<\/em><\/p>\n

[I like it ] because of the rich imagery without any waste of words or floweriness and the contrast – it really does what it says on the tin<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

JD DEHart Secondhand<\/em><\/p>\n

I like the way the poet extends the “Secondhand” metaphor from clothes to thoughts and how the person described cannot escape the cycle\/ Like a second hand going round in a watch.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Martin Figura School Room, Upper Silesia 1933: Freedom and Bread<\/em><\/p>\n

This took my breath away, particularly the line – his face betrays that he already knows the use of words. A beautifully controlled an evocative poem.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Clare Marsh, Sibling<\/em><\/p>\n

Point of view is spot on, references to gooseberries slipped seamlessly into the narrative and at the end we’re left (after we’ve laughed aloud) with a sense of anticipation …….. or trepidation. <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Molly Miltenberger Murray Sanctuary: An Elongated Haiku<\/em><\/p>\n

Sanctuary captures a feeling and illustrates it through nature… love it!<\/em><\/p>\n

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

We are pleased to be able to announce that November’s Pick of the Month is groundwater by Marcelle Olivier. Marcelle is a poet and archaeologist. Her translations of contemporary South African poetry appear in the recent edited collection In a burning sea (Protea, 2015), and you can read more of her writing in, amongst others, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"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":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2015-poetry-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9828","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9828"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9842,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9828\/revisions\/9842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}