{"id":11447,"date":"2020-07-17T17:12:50","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T16:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=11447"},"modified":"2020-07-29T11:52:56","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T10:52:56","slug":"a-merlin-in-the-sheeffrys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=11447","title":{"rendered":"A Merlin in the Sheeffrys"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><b>A Merlin in the Sheeffrys<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">There is a feeling that is equal to the land,<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">a sense of self that is the journey\u2019s length.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">It changes, bright to dark, and back again,<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">in moments such as when a hill decides<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">to vanish, prompting the sea to appear,<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">sun-thatched, sun-pregnant, sun-remonstrating,<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">before another bog-dividing mile<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">leads down to a stretch where abundant rock,<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">as if by words, or acts, elicits calm.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">And then, in a mood of three mountains, you drive on,<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">the land\u2019s equal by free and strange degrees,<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">one for whom a merlin sighting proves a way<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">to push the day to absolute kinship.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">The merlin declares: \u2018I have brought you here.\u2019<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">To which madness the Sheeffry winds reply:<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u2018<span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Talk to the dead as you would to the living.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Address the living as if they were the dead.\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; A Merlin in the Sheeffrys There is a feeling that is equal to the land, a sense of self that is the journey\u2019s length. It changes, bright to dark, and back again, in moments such as when a hill decides to vanish, prompting the sea to appear, sun-thatched, sun-pregnant, sun-remonstrating, before another bog-dividing mile [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":343,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[394,395],"tags":[398],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.2.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Merlin in the Sheeffrys - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=11447\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Merlin in the Sheeffrys - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; A Merlin in the Sheeffrys There is a feeling that is equal to the land, a sense of self that is the journey\u2019s length. 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