{"id":438,"date":"2011-01-18T02:11:53","date_gmt":"2011-01-18T09:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=438"},"modified":"2011-01-18T02:12:30","modified_gmt":"2011-01-18T09:12:30","slug":"poem-a-day-the-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=438","title":{"rendered":"Poem a day? The Return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Probably a forlorn hope but trying to write a poem a day to get back to writing ..here the first try. Will end up a poem every other day or a poem a week if lucky but at least started .<\/p>\n

No preamble to this just wrote it – will consider meaning about five years down the line…then did web search on troop train \/ Didcot and found out the following…wonders of the internet!<\/p>\n

There are some excellent footplate reminicenses by Harold Gasson (Footplate Days, cure<\/a> Firing Days, Steaming Days Pub. Oxford University Press) who was based at Didcot when Skylark was based there during the war and immediately afterwards. He talks about operating Skylark and I particularly remember when Gasson (with his father as driver-contrary to regulations) surprised some US soldiers with engine experience with what an old double framer could do with a troop train on the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton line. Don’t remember any reference to this train but they are a very good read.<\/p>\n

The “Railway Magazine” for August 1951 carries a brief report about this SLS special. The train originated in Birmingham, and the correspondent comments that “Skylark” worked the five-coach train up to speeds of over 60 mph between Didcot and Swindon, and Leamington and Birmingham.<\/em>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Return
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

A rippling of stalks
\nraspberry bushes twirling
\nthe flare of green bean flowers
\nalong a row of canes<\/p>\n

River, mirror, sky
\nas chalk whorls rise and twist
\nup the farm tracks
\nand dust the cornflowers<\/p>\n

Celandines, chrysanths, marigolds
\na garden breathing colour
\nas the sky deepens
\ntoward thunder and showers<\/p>\n

A torrent later, pools of milk
\nas the troop train steams in
\na taxi drags a figure home
\nto an empty hearth, thorns<\/p>\n

A bed of weeds, nettles and briars
\nthe overgrown presence of neglect
\nthat first night she watched him
\nfearful he would fade at daylight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Probably a forlorn hope but trying to write a poem a day to get back to writing ..here the first try. Will end up a poem every other day or a poem a week if lucky but at least started . No preamble to this just wrote it – will consider meaning about five years…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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":""},"categories":[34,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem-a-day","category-poetry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6nhh-74","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438","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=438"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":444,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions\/444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}