{"id":20286,"date":"2024-11-16T06:10:48","date_gmt":"2024-11-16T06:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/?post_type=product&#038;p=20286"},"modified":"2024-11-16T06:35:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-16T06:35:00","slug":"sapling-wood","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/product\/sapling-wood\/","title":{"rendered":"Sapling &#038; Wood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Another Proverb of Hell<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>After William Blake; for Murdo Richie<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The experience of defeat is bitter.<br \/>\nToo often borne, it can make us quite forget<br \/>\nwhat sweet is; conversely, it can educate.<br \/>\nIt can be a school for victory.<\/p>\n<p>Marx knew this.<br \/>\nDown the long battlegrounds<br \/>\nand graveyards of our forebears\u2019 history,<br \/>\nhe saw the People felled each time we rose,<br \/>\nour status reaffirmed as soon as we contested it.<br \/>\nBack we went to being slave or serf<br \/>\nor proletarian; but each time we learned,<br \/>\nand sometimes made some lesser gain,<br \/>\nsome lesser good than gaining power.<\/p>\n<p>Never must we forget it:<br \/>\nboth gains and goal are our sweet heritage,<br \/>\nequally with the gall that is defeat.<\/p>\n<p>For Marx, student of ancient history,<br \/>\nAntaeus stood as the best example<br \/>\nof this ancient truth: Antaeus,<br \/>\nthat Titan wrestler, no sooner downed<br \/>\nthan springing up, renewed,<br \/>\nlike a Green Man, with fresh vigour<br \/>\nand keen cunning, ready for ever<br \/>\nto fight back.<\/p>\n<p><em>Green Man image by Tom Malone<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Sapling &amp; Wood,<\/strong>\u00a0ISBN: 9781912710737<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Red in tooth and claw: that is one way of characterising nature, but by no means the only way. Dog eat dog: that is one way of characterising the culture of our conflicted species, but again not the only way.<\/p>\n<p>The poems in<strong> Sapling &amp; Wood<\/strong> explore aspects of nature and culture from the standpoint of the poet\u2019s own experience, aided by relatives and friends, and by other authors, notably William Blake and Walt Whitman.<\/p>\n<p>Illustrations from a variety of sources, including friends\u2019 artwork, enliven the text, and a prose commentary by the poet preambles each of the four sections into which the book is divided, namely \u201cKith\u201d, \u201cKin\u201d, \u201cEnmities &amp; Reconciling\u201d, and \u201cWord Over All\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a sample poem from the collection:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"etheme_brands":[],"product_cat":[3275],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-20286","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-books","first","instock","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/20286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"brand","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/etheme_brands?post=20286"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=20286"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=20286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}