{"id":4357,"date":"2026-01-28T15:48:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T15:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/?p=4357"},"modified":"2026-01-23T06:00:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T06:00:48","slug":"4357","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/?p=4357","title":{"rendered":"A pause in poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the last few years some friends have invited us to Burns Night and to bring a poem. I came across some words of a friend of friend of mime who was speaking to a women\u2019s group and said \u201c<\/span>poetry is not an inspiration we have enough pressure around us without adding to that\u201d. That poetry was more distillation of noise which made me think about pauses.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I thought I\u2019d try something more aligned with that rather than my usual style but aas seems usual hope still creeps in at the end. <\/span><\/p>\n

Exhalation for Burns Night<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tonight we raise the glass, not in grandeur, <\/span><\/p>\n

but in gratitude for breath itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

The poet\u2019s gift is not the torrent of words <\/span><\/p>\n

but the pause after<\/span><\/p>\n

that quiet reckoning <\/span><\/p>\n

when the room shimmers in a moments silence<\/span><\/p>\n

Robert knew it, <\/span><\/p>\n

The yeast of life fermenting knows it, <\/span><\/p>\n

The plough of soil turned to the light knows it<\/span><\/p>\n

The mouse in winters nest knows it<\/span><\/p>\n

Tonight we stand in that same field, <\/span><\/p>\n

For a moment distilled from noise\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

steeped in the grace of a pause. <\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps even a holy pause reflected in the whisky\u2019s surface, <\/span><\/p>\n

a quiet tremor in the chest as the warm Spirit flows into our soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

An inhalation that silences the world\u2019s chatter, <\/span><\/p>\n

And breathes back a quiet hope that things will change for the better. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the last few years some friends have invited us to Burns Night and to bring a poem. I came across some words of a friend of friend of mime who was speaking to a women\u2019s group and said \u201cpoetry … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4357"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4359,"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4357\/revisions\/4359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sundaypapers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}