{"id":14058,"date":"2021-08-05T08:02:34","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T07:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/take-the-step\/"},"modified":"2021-08-05T08:02:34","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T07:02:34","slug":"take-the-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/take-the-step\/","title":{"rendered":"Take the Step"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-14055\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2b801622c01bbf79ca1cbb447cc20416.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2b801622c01bbf79ca1cbb447cc20416.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2b801622c01bbf79ca1cbb447cc20416-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2b801622c01bbf79ca1cbb447cc20416-441x221.jpg 441w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2b801622c01bbf79ca1cbb447cc20416-1x1.jpg 1w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2b801622c01bbf79ca1cbb447cc20416-10x5.jpg 10w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Take the Step<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><\/span><em>by Yanis Iqbal<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Tremblingly and caressingly, <br \/>The sun spins a thread of morning <br \/>From the depths and dregs of yesterday\u2019s night, <br \/>Aware that nothing has changed &#8211; <br \/>Wan emptiness of hunger and misery continue to abound<br \/>Millstones of money keep crushing the wheat of humanity into powders of profit <br \/>The fragile bones of workers still swell with sea-like sighs of worry. <br \/>Streaks of sunlight walk on patches of pain, <br \/>Unable to soak themselves in the stream of sounds <br \/>Stitched by song thrushes <br \/>Battling against the dry din of oppression. <br \/>The ends of earth are unraveling <br \/>Twisted topographies of concrete asphalt <br \/>Leave not even a single pore <br \/>For moist memories to percolate<br \/> Into the musty mud of beingness. <br \/>Sun-scalded chunks of smoke <br \/>Sift through the sooty ruins of rusty roofs, <br \/>Chipped marbles of a ramshackle house <br \/>Where once lived haggard humans, <br \/>Willows of longing and broad-leaved tulips of eternal gashes, <br \/>All now knotted together into a basket of bone. <br \/>These days, the silent strings of the lyre of heart <br \/>Have grown restless.<\/p>\n<p>They are panting for springtime<br \/>When charnel houses will sink in the hot tears of anger. <br \/>Our quiet lips are filled with fire, <br \/>On the verge of saying something delightfully new. <br \/>Sandstorms are raging inside our muted eyes, <br \/>Forcing us to look beyond the crimson mist of wretchedness. <br \/>Ahead of us lies a wood-nurtured glade, <br \/>Promising an anchorage <br \/>For the ship of heartache and suffering. <br \/>We only have to step on the pebble pathway leading to it.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Take the Step by Yanis Iqbal Tremblingly and caressingly, The sun spins a thread of morning From the depths and dregs of yesterday\u2019s night, Aware that nothing&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":611,"featured_media":14055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/611"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}