In 1998 my dear fiend Annie Ovenden asked me to write a poem to go with each of twelve paintings of a Beech Tree in Rilla Mill through the months of the year. This was the first:<\/p>\n
\nJanuary<\/p>\n
The atoms in the soil which grew this tree,
\nMight once have been a Brontosaurus’ skin,
\nAn early mammoth, horse, a chimpanzee,
\nOr men who dreamed of mining Cornish tin.
\nSome planets from a Universe must grow –
\nWhose life from stars is seeded in the seas;
\nWhere our existence is the ebb and flow
\nOf trees to people and people to trees.
\nOne day I shall be part of a forest
\nWith Bluebells and moss for my family
\nFor the atoms within me cannot rest
\nAs long as the earth lacks a single tree.<\/p>\n
And though you will not recognise me quite
\nStill, wrap your arms around, and hold me tight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 1998 my dear fiend Annie Ovenden asked me to write a poem to go with each of twelve paintings of a Beech Tree in Rilla Mill through the months of the year. This was the first: January The atoms in the soil which grew this tree, Might once have been a Brontosaurus’ skin, An…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[664],"class_list":["post-736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily","tag-sonnet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}