{"id":3167,"date":"2020-05-26T15:19:53","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T14:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/?p=3167"},"modified":"2020-05-26T15:19:53","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T14:19:53","slug":"a-poem-and-a-challenge-from-inua-ellams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/?p=3167","title":{"rendered":"A poem and a challenge from <h6>Inua Ellams<\/h6>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Other content related to Inua Ellams\" href=\"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/?tag=Inua-Ellams\">Inua Ellams<\/a>\u00a0reads &#8216;Directions&#8217; and tells us a little bit about his Midnight Run project, as well as issuing this week&#8217;s writing challenge!<\/p>\n<p>Find the text of Inua&#8217;s poem below the video.<\/p>\n<p>This video is\u00a0part of the 2020 <a title=\"Other content from Inside Writing\" href=\"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/?tag=inside-writing\">Inside Writing<\/a> showcase.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/420441675\" width=\"470\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00ad<strong>Directions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Inua Ellams<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You know the wild bush at the back of the flat,<\/p>\n<p>the one that scrapes the kitchen window,<\/p>\n<p>the one that struggles for soil and water<\/p>\n<p>and fails where the train tracks scar the ground?<\/p>\n<p>And you know how if you leave the bush<\/p>\n<p>and walk the stunted land, you come<\/p>\n<p>to crossroads, paved just weeks ago:<\/p>\n<p>hot tar over the flattened roots of trees,<\/p>\n<p>and a squad of traffic lights, red-eyed now<\/p>\n<p>stiff against the filth-stained fallen leaves?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And farther on, you know<\/p>\n<p>the bruised allotments with the broken sheds<\/p>\n<p>and if you go beyond that you hit<\/p>\n<p>the first block of Thomas Street Estate?<\/p>\n<p>Well, if you enter and ascend, and you<\/p>\n<p>might need a running jump over<\/p>\n<p>dank puddles into the shaking lift<\/p>\n<p>that goes no further than the fourth floor,<\/p>\n<p>you will eventually come to a rough rise<\/p>\n<p>of stairs that reach without railings<\/p>\n<p>the run-down roof as high as you can go<\/p>\n<p>and a good place to stop.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The best time is late evening<\/p>\n<p>when the moon fights through<\/p>\n<p>drifts of fumes as you are walking,<\/p>\n<p>and when you find an upturned bin<\/p>\n<p>to sit on, you will be able to see<\/p>\n<p>the smog pour across the city<\/p>\n<p>and blur the shapes and tones<\/p>\n<p>of things and you will be attacked<\/p>\n<p>by the symphony of tires, airplanes,<\/p>\n<p>sirens, screams, engines \u2013<\/p>\n<p>and if this is your day you might even<\/p>\n<p>catch a car chase or a hear a horde<\/p>\n<p>of biker boys thunder-cross a bridge.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But it is tough to speak these things<\/p>\n<p>how tufts of smog enter the body<\/p>\n<p>and begin to wind us down,<\/p>\n<p>how the city chokes us painfully against<\/p>\n<p>its chest made of secrets and fire,<\/p>\n<p>how we, built of weaker things, regard<\/p>\n<p>our sculpted landscape, water flowing<\/p>\n<p>through pipes, the clicks of satellites<\/p>\n<p>passing over clouds and the roofs<\/p>\n<p>where we stand in the shudder of progress<\/p>\n<p>giving ourselves to the vast outsides.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Still, text me before you set out.<\/p>\n<p>Knock when you reach my door<\/p>\n<p>and I will walk you as far as the tracks<\/p>\n<p>with water for your travels and a hug.<\/p>\n<p>I will watch after you and not turn back<\/p>\n<p>to the flat till you merge<\/p>\n<p>with the throngs of buses and cyclists \u2013<\/p>\n<p>heading down toward the block,<\/p>\n<p>scuffing the ground with your feet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inua Ellams\u00a0reads &#8216;Directions&#8217; and tells us a little bit about his Midnight Run project, as well as issuing this week&#8217;s writing challenge! Find the text&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[664,683,685,9,10,684],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3167"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3169,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167\/revisions\/3169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}