{"id":4353,"date":"2020-09-14T10:57:27","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T09:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuartpoetry.art\/?p=4353"},"modified":"2020-09-14T10:57:27","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T09:57:27","slug":"the-ghosts-of-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/2020\/09\/14\/the-ghosts-of-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ghosts of Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"
My mother died in October and since then I have floated alone in a fog so dense that I am unable too see my direction<\/div>\n
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I am in Paris again as I am curating a small exhibition of photographs of the city between the wars<\/div>\n
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In a way I am glad to be away from my home shores as I can hide in this beautiful city without discovery<\/div>\n
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My apartment faces that of a woman who committed suicide many years ago after her lover left her<\/div>\n
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It is said that in certain lights you can see her sad blood on the street below<\/div>\n
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I often see her ghost in the apartment opposite going about its daily business<\/div>\n
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She is aware of me but pays little notice although she does occasionally wave<\/div>\n
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Of late I have not seen her perhaps God has found her at last who am I to guess<\/div>\n
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Strangely this has increased my loneliness and I often stare ay her empty apartment for hours awaiting her return<\/div>\n
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On Saturdays I purchase the English language newspapers so that I may read them in the park<\/div>\n
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This relaxes me and I feel less haunted perhaps it just the coffee or the warm sun in the clouds<\/div>\n
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Today I could only find a copy of the Daily Telegraph which I read with precision before I walked towards the Metro<\/div>\n
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It was one of my sadder days and even the heat of the morning could not lift my mood<\/div>\n
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However although I had left the newspaper on a park bench I had removed a page that had interested me<\/div>\n
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The article was called Poetry in a Bottle and really was about placing short poems in small bottles so others may gain advantage<\/div>\n
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But what really attracted my attention was a photograph of Seamus Heaney taken at one of his many readings<\/div>\n
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I had when I was at college attended one of his readings where he had spoken about Death of a Naturalist and the photograph reminded me of happier times<\/div>\n
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So instead of returning to my apartment I visited a nearby bookshop and found the poetry book which I read from beginning to end<\/div>\n
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The poetry brightened my mood and for the rest of the day I strolled around the streets of Paris oblivious to my unhappiness<\/div>\n
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My personal fogs became thin mists and they too slowly faded in the strong summer sunlight<\/div>\n
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It was nearly dark when I returned home and I soon found myself sitting at the tall window in my apartment<\/div>\n
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Nothing was moving in the street below and the thick leafed trees although still were quietly sharing the music of the night<\/div>\n
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I then noticed that my ghost had returned and was painting her toenails blood red in the low candlelight<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My mother died in October and since then I have floated alone in a fog so dense that I am unable too see my direction I am in Paris again as I am curating a small exhibition of photographs of the city between the wars In a way I am glad to be away from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4353"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4353\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}