{"id":2760,"date":"2017-12-07T10:57:25","date_gmt":"2017-12-07T10:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jameslawless.net\/?p=2760"},"modified":"2017-12-07T10:57:25","modified_gmt":"2017-12-07T10:57:25","slug":"nice-this-time-of-year-to-have-poems-published-in-the-romantic-issue-of-poetry-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/?p=2760","title":{"rendered":"Nice this time of year to have poems published in the Romantic Issue of Poetry Archive"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nThree of them are from my collection Rus in Urbe https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Rus-Urbe-James-Lawless\/dp\/1500770272\/ref=la_B001JOXD96_1_26_twi_pap_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512643748&sr=1-26
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and one previously unpublished, Now and Then<\/em>:
\nhttps:\/\/ourpoetryarchive.blogspot.ie\/2017\/12\/james-lawless.html<\/p>\n

THE OTHER HALF<\/p>\n

I hear you adding
\nin the old language,
\nwearing spectacles now,
\nthe soft light
\ncapturing in their frames
\nthe azure of your eyes.
\nYou are doing the accounts
\nto keep the roof firm,
\nthe path clear;
\nyou are the fire in the hearth;
\nI am water running through;
\nanimus, anima:
\nthe balance achieved.<\/p>\n

NOW AND THEN<\/p>\n

Twenty years is a long time
\nnot to have seen someone
\nyou were beautiful then
\nor maybe my eyes were young
\nthe mini skirt was in
\nto show the shape of desire
\nand long glistening hair
\ncovered a multitude of things
\nand the moon at your hedge shone cold.<\/p>\n

Living around the corner
\nyou became a habit difficult to break
\nI wrote you verse with a golden nib
\nand sang you love songs with a golden voice
\nand through your golden privet hedge
\nthe moon shone silver and cold.<\/p>\n

And then we met
\ntwenty years on
\nyour hair so grey
\nyour skin so wan
\nin a long dark coat
\nyou were an \u2018oul one\u2019.<\/p>\n

It is said that with the years
\none becomes as one\u2019s spouse.
\nYou married an ageing man
\nand skipped the middle years
\nto catch up with him.<\/p>\n

That was now
\nbut even then
\nI should have heeded the moon.<\/p>\n

MONOGAMY
\nAt Gougane Barra<\/p>\n

There was a wedding at the oratory of Saint Finbar,
\nchurch stone shielded the couple from the lake\u2019s spray
\nas they smiled their eternity into camera lenses,
\nthere were no blooms on the rhododendron.<\/p>\n

At the lake\u2019s edge the swans did not draw near when we clapped,
\nthey stretched their necks and turned
\non their timeless journey
\nwith water to keep their heads clear
\nand unseen feet propelling constantly to drive their hearts.<\/p>\n

The Tramp in the Lady<\/p>\n

Crisp cursive curlicues
\ncamouflage your dirty ink;<\/p>\n

your pinny
\ncovers soiled garments;<\/p>\n

the rims of your spectacles
\nstab at the stars;<\/p>\n

your hair in a bun
\nis a birdless nest;<\/p>\n

such neatness
\nhearts froze,
\nyou are the prim
\nwithout the rose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three of them are from my collection Rus in Urbe https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Rus-Urbe-James-Lawless\/dp\/1500770272\/ref=la_B001JOXD96_1_26_twi_pap_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512643748&sr=1-26 and one previously unpublished, Now and Then: https:\/\/ourpoetryarchive.blogspot.ie\/2017\/12\/james-lawless.html THE OTHER HALF I hear you adding in the old language, wearing spectacles now, the soft light capturing in their frames…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"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":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2760"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2769,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions\/2769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameslawless.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}