{"id":523,"date":"2007-02-16T00:01:55","date_gmt":"2007-02-16T06:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=523"},"modified":"2007-02-14T13:43:12","modified_gmt":"2007-02-14T19:43:12","slug":"poetry-friday-im-glad-its-not-otherwise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=523","title":{"rendered":"Poetry Friday: I’m Glad It’s Not Otherwise"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we end Valentine’s week, in which we take the time to make a bit more demonstrative our love for our dearest ones (particularly those with whom we eat “dinner together at a table with silver candlesticks” — see poem below), I’m going to share something that a friend shared with me this week (madly mad props and thanks to Shannon). The poem, you see, is a lovely valentine to life itself. This is a new poem to me and a new poet, too — Jane Kenyon, who as you will read here<\/a><\/strong>, published four books of poetry in her lifetime and was married to Donald Hall<\/a><\/strong>, our current poet laureate. Kenyon died of leukemia in 1995, making this poem even more compelling. <\/p>\n

I got out of bed
\non two strong legs.
\nIt might have been
\notherwise. I ate
\ncereal, sweet
\nmilk, ripe, flawless
\npeach. It might
\nhave been otherwise.
\nI took the dog uphill
\nto the birch wood.
\nAll morning I did
\nthe work I love.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Read the rest of the poem here<\/a><\/strong> at Poetry 180: A Poem a Day for American High Schools<\/a><\/strong>, which is a wonderful thing, no matter what you think of Billy Collins<\/a><\/strong> and his poem, “Introduction to Poetry”<\/a><\/strong> . . . oh my do I remember the long, heated discussion (always a good thing, though) at the Child_Lit<\/a><\/strong> listserv over that poem and what it has to say about the analysis of poetry. <\/p>\n

Their image\/logo here links straight to the Poetry 180 site itself. And here’s a list<\/a><\/strong> of all the poems and poets, if you’re inclined to go find your<\/em>self a new poet today, too. <\/p>\n

Happy Poetry Friday to all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we end Valentine’s week, in which we take the time to make a bit more demonstrative our love for our dearest ones (particularly those with whom we eat “dinner together at a table with silver candlesticks” — see poem below), I’m going to share something that a friend shared with me this week (madly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-friday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}