{"id":1916,"date":"2018-05-24T17:49:53","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T16:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=1916"},"modified":"2018-06-06T21:47:18","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T20:47:18","slug":"lost-nottingham-paper-boats-on-private-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=1916","title":{"rendered":"Lost Nottingham: Paper Boats on Private Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

PAPER BOATS ON\u00c2\u00a0PRIVATE\u00c2\u00a0ROAD<\/strong><\/p>\n

A lone slim figure in Sunday best gets off the tram on Woodborough\u00c2\u00a0Road,<\/p>\n

Hesitates then proceeds down\u00c2\u00a0Private\u00c2\u00a0Road\u00c2\u00a0until it dog-legs east at his destination<\/p>\n

As he turns along the high brick wall he hears children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s laughter, a maid calling<\/p>\n

He stands at the gate hidden by trees and calls, the maid comes to the gate<\/p>\n

Later she recalls his patent leather shoes and his smart appearance that day<\/p>\n

Frieda stands at the French Windows, behind the red curtains, eyes sparkling like a hawk<\/p>\n

He is ushered into the sitting room, red velvet curtains caught in the breeze billowing<\/p>\n

Initial stiffness is washed away in a heated conversation about Oedipus and women<\/p>\n

D.H. Lawrence is being bewitched by this most \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcun-English\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and strong-willed of women,<\/p>\n

Her exotic and erotic vibrancy entrances him, already struggling to escape this England<\/p>\n

Her husband delayed by work she leads him past then in to her bedroom,<\/p>\n

An English sparrow in the talons of a German hawk he is taken in hand, finds himself<\/p>\n

Then they are both entwined in secrecy, taking tram and train to secret assignations<\/p>\n

One day with her daughters they play on a local stream with paper boats<\/p>\n

He flicks matches at them saying look it is the Spanish Armada come to sink England<\/p>\n

Two paper boats catching fire in a Nottinghamshire backwater, then phoenix-like rising<\/p>\n

From the crazed machinery of Edwardian England, the conservatism of suburbia<\/p>\n

Sometimes of an evening Frieda would dash up Mapperley Plains just seeking freedom<\/p>\n

In a cottage near Moor Green they continued their first loving act on\u00c2\u00a0Private\u00c2\u00a0Road<\/p>\n

Under Pear-blossom, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dca fountain of foam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, Frieda crawls naked over him, he writes a poem<\/p>\n

To her and to freedom, to his sexual and intellectual fulfilment with a gushing woman<\/p>\n

By May 3rd<\/sup>\u00c2\u00a0they were sat together on a night-boat to Ostend, that old England fading<\/p>\n

A peaceful Anglo-German union as the two empires ramped up production of munitions and cruisers<\/p>\n

The Suffragette movement beginning\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the war to end all wars looming.<\/p>\n

Paper boats burning\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

PAPER BOATS ON\u00c2\u00a0PRIVATE\u00c2\u00a0ROAD A lone slim figure in Sunday best gets off the tram on Woodborough\u00c2\u00a0Road, Hesitates then proceeds down\u00c2\u00a0Private\u00c2\u00a0Road\u00c2\u00a0until it dog-legs east at his destination As he turns along the high brick wall he hears children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s laughter, a maid calling He stands at the gate hidden by trees and calls, the maid comes to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[95,33,81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lost-nottingham","category-poetry","category-poetry-research"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6nhh-uU","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1916"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1924,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916\/revisions\/1924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}