{"id":3213,"date":"2013-08-10T17:52:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-10T17:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/?p=3213"},"modified":"2013-08-10T17:52:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-10T17:52:00","slug":"last-of-the-summer-slime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/?p=3213","title":{"rendered":"Last of the Summer slime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">BLACKBERRY PICKING BY SEAMUS HEANEY<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/H1690003.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3214 aligncenter\" alt=\"H1690003\" src=\"http:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/H1690003.jpg\" width=\"311\" height=\"512\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Late August, given heavy rain and sun<br \/>\nFor a full week, the blackberries would ripen.<br \/>\nAt first, just one, a glossy purple clot<br \/>\nAmong others, red, green, hard as a knot.<br \/>\nYou ate that first one and its flesh was sweet<br \/>\nLike thickened wine: summer&#8217;s blood was in it<br \/>\nLeaving stains upon the tongue and lust for<br \/>\nPicking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger<br \/>\nSent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots<br \/>\nWhere briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.<br \/>\nRound hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills<br \/>\nWe trekked and picked until the cans were full<br \/>\nUntil the tinkling bottom had been covered<br \/>\nWith green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned<br \/>\nLike a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered<br \/>\nWith thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/H1690001.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3215\" alt=\"H1690001\" src=\"http:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/H1690001.jpg\" width=\"582\" height=\"258\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/H1690002.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3216\" alt=\"H1690002\" src=\"http:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/H1690002.jpg\" width=\"595\" height=\"331\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.<br \/>\nBut when the bath was filled we found a fur,<br \/>\nA rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.<br \/>\nThe juice was stinking too. Once off the bush<br \/>\nThe fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.<br \/>\nI always felt like crying. It wasn&#8217;t fair<br \/>\nThat all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.<br \/>\nEach year I hoped they&#8217;d keep, knew they would not.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/H1690007.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3217\" alt=\"H1690007\" src=\"http:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/H1690007.jpg\" width=\"583\" height=\"320\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">I wonder if the metaphor is lost on Rhodia\/Solvay?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8220;Great satisfying chunks of Cheddar cheese&#8230;.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BLACKBERRY PICKING BY SEAMUS HEANEY Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/?p=3213\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3213"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3213"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3220,"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3213\/revisions\/3220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}