{"id":1554,"date":"2026-05-04T13:12:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T13:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/?p=1554"},"modified":"2026-05-04T13:19:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T13:19:18","slug":"layers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/?p=1554","title":{"rendered":"Layers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Say-cheese.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"724\" src=\"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Say-cheese-1024x724.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1555\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Say-cheese-1024x724.png 1024w, https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Say-cheese-300x212.png 300w, https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Say-cheese-768x543.png 768w, https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Say-cheese-1536x1086.png 1536w, https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Say-cheese.png 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Poetry is a way to excavate historical truths from within us. That&#8217;s what makes is so powerful and sometimes a bit dangerous. Reading poems, we find our own meanings and make our own connections. The poet doesn&#8217;t have total ownership of their poem: when it&#8217;s out there, it belongs to whoever reads it, especially if they&#8217;re moved by it. And that&#8217;s a very cool thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s a current hot topic for me, for many reasons, this idea of stripping layers away and uncovering what&#8217;s been painted over for a long time. And this little poem relates to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thanks, by the way, to the people at National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) for this very specific format suggestion. I love it &#8211; less is very often more&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\"><strong>Six lines, three sentences, question and answer<\/strong><br><br>The layers are more wallpaper<br>Than onion, maybe more like paint.<br>When they are uncovered, peeled,<br>Scratched and pulled \u2013 will it hurt?<br>Like the winter breath, like the cold water<br>Drink, like a bare and beautiful wall \u2013 yes, it will hurt.<br><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The image to accompany this poem is by Mr Doomits and the featured image is by Rezboy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Poetry is a way to excavate historical truths from within us. That&#8217;s what makes is so powerful and sometimes a bit dangerous. Reading poems, we&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/?p=1554\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Layers<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[310,298,313,311,314,45,306,312],"class_list":["post-1554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beneaththelayers","tag-edinburghpoet","tag-makeyourownconnections","tag-masking","tag-napowrimo","tag-poetry","tag-scottishpoet","tag-shortpoems","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1554"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1558,"href":"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions\/1558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstyventersmarks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}