<\/p>\n
The Alchemist<\/strong><\/p>\n The house was strange without one. Contrary under her gaze, he determined And so in speckled overalls, like skins, and saw in hand and hand on trunk, that we might puzzle together Then on the grass he laid our loot and twisting out an edifice, like origami Inside, we propped our patchwork nature, for her to tear it all to pieces. From one angle it was almost a tree. <\/p>\n James Parris<\/strong> writes from East London. He has just begun to turn his mind to poetry<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Alchemist The house was strange without one. Corners where it could be swelled daily in their emptiness and threatened to topple the festivity. Contrary under her gaze, he determined that a squat bought thing just wouldn\u2019t do, and, shedding skeptics, picked me as acolyte for misadventure. And so in speckled overalls, like skins, […]<\/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-9908","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\/9908","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=9908"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23646,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9908\/revisions\/23646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCorners where it could be swelled
\ndaily in their emptiness
\nand threatened to topple the festivity.<\/p>\n
\nthat a squat bought thing just wouldn\u2019t do,
\nand, shedding skeptics,
\npicked me as acolyte for misadventure.<\/p>\n
\ntreading dampness into itself,
\nwe left Crosby-carolling
\nfor the trees who shivered at garden\u2019s end<\/p>\n
\nhe hoisted me into the twiggy innards
\nand spiced stench of sap
\nto amputate a branch or two or three<\/p>\n
\nin counterfeit of Christmas.
\nMetal teeth chattered bark to pulp
\nuntil my knuckles roared.<\/p>\n
\nand crouched and bent and sculpted,
\nrehearsing imperfect forms
\ngloveless, beneath the limbs\u2019 original,<\/p>\n
\npatterned from some secret
\nblueprint, invisible to me,
\nhe stood content over his design.<\/p>\n
\nboughs shot out like a mad star,
\nwhere he hoped it might not
\nshout its own lie loud enough<\/p>\n
\nStill, she came, and stood, and, silent,
\ncircumspected for a hanging second.
\nAnd she smiled.<\/p>\n
\nBut from every side his alchemy
\nnow seemed to warm the house,
\nfuller in its strangeness.<\/p>\n