{"id":9874,"date":"2015-12-29T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2015-12-29T09:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=9874"},"modified":"2020-12-14T11:20:24","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T11:20:24","slug":"the-seventh-day-of-christmas-we-bring-you-carole-bromley-and-joanne-key","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/the-seventh-day-of-christmas-we-bring-you-carole-bromley-and-joanne-key\/","title":{"rendered":"The Seventh Day of Christmas, we bring you Carole Bromley and Joanne Key"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rendezvous<\/strong><\/p>\n

after Dennis O\u2019Driscoll<\/em><\/p>\n

I am in Stonegate
\nexpecting to meet you at 4<\/p>\n

You are in The Shambles
\nexpecting to meet me at 4<\/p>\n

I have shopping bags that lengthen my arms
\nyou have Jonathan on your shoulders<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Christmas and I\u2019m Dreaming
\nblasts out from Ye Olde Starre Inn<\/p>\n

In Giovanni\u2019s doorway a busker sings Jingle Bells
\nflat cap at his feet<\/p>\n

It is five past four
\nand no sign of you<\/p>\n

It is five past four
\nand no sign of me<\/p>\n

You may have forgotten your watch
\nI may have bumped into someone<\/p>\n

You may be in A&E
\nI may be under a bus<\/p>\n

A White Christmas
\nis on a loop<\/p>\n

The busker has been moved on
\nflat cap on his head<\/p>\n

You have got the front door key
\nI have got the supper<\/p>\n

We must stop not meeting like this.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Carole Bromley<\/strong> lives in York where she is the stanza rep and runs poetry surgeries. Her second collection, The Stonegate Devil<\/em>, was published in October 2015 by Smith\/Doorstop. Currently judging York Literature Festival\/YorkMix competition. www.carolebromleypoetry.co.uk
\n<\/a>
\n(this poem is published in The Stonegate Devil<\/em>)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Watching Tai Chi in the Park in December<\/strong><\/p>\n

She casts her spells
\nunder weeping trees.<\/p>\n

Look down.
\nYou landed here by chance,<\/p>\n

lured by the festive glow
\nof a ruined bandstand,<\/p>\n

caught up in a honeytrap
\nof peeling paint and decay.<\/p>\n

You both come here
\nto comb the air for ghosts,<\/p>\n

but only her hands
\nhave learnt to say,<\/p>\n

Stop. Don’t leave me. Stay.
\nChristmas creeps in<\/p>\n

and you must be content
\nwith nature’s way<\/p>\n

to balance the books.
\nWatch how she fills<\/p>\n

her pretend envelopes
\nwith love letters<\/p>\n

written in breath,
\nthen slits the air,<\/p>\n

posts them nowhere.
\nHer body knows instinctively<\/p>\n

when to let slide,
\nwhen to side step,<\/p>\n

when to push, let slip,
\nand when to line up<\/p>\n

all the open doors,
\nin order to gently<\/p>\n

kick them shut. She turns
\nthe key, locks you out,<\/p>\n

leaves you behind
\nwith your black dog<\/p>\n

chasing its tail
\nand the crying babies,<\/p>\n

as her own body relaxes
\nback into the glory<\/p>\n

of the fall of summer,
\nthe slowing spin,<\/p>\n

gently moving emptiness
\nfrom one place to another.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Joanne Key<\/strong> lives in Cheshire where she writes poetry and\u00a0short fiction. Her poems have appeared in various places, online and in print. She won 2nd prize in the 2014 National Poetry Competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Rendezvous after Dennis O\u2019Driscoll I am in Stonegate expecting to meet you at 4 You are in The Shambles expecting to meet me at 4 I have shopping bags that lengthen my arms you have Jonathan on your shoulders It\u2019s Christmas and I\u2019m Dreaming blasts out from Ye Olde Starre Inn In Giovanni\u2019s […]<\/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":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-twelve-days-of-christmas-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9874","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=9874"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23847,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9874\/revisions\/23847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}