{"id":20135,"date":"2014-12-05T09:07:24","date_gmt":"2014-12-05T14:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/?p=20135"},"modified":"2014-12-07T15:32:50","modified_gmt":"2014-12-07T20:32:50","slug":"stranded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/?p=20135","title":{"rendered":"Strand(ed)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I can never finish my Sunday New York Times so I have just gotten used to the fact that I will read it all week. It’s the product of having a young child (and a puppy). So today, Friday, I learned from last Sunday’s Times that Mark Strand<\/a> had passed at 80 years old. And I’m just sitting with that right now. <\/p>\n

Lines for Winter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tell yourself
\nas it gets cold and gray falls from the air
\nthat you will go on
\nwalking, hearing
\nthe same tune no matter where
\nyou find yourself\u2014
\ninside the dome of dark
\nor under the cracking white
\nof the moon\u2019s gaze in a valley of snow.
\nTonight as it gets cold
\ntell yourself
\nwhat you know which is nothing
\nbut the tune your bones play
\nas you keep going. And you will be able
\nfor once to lie down under the small fire
\nof winter stars.
\nAnd if it happens that you cannot
\ngo on or turn back
\nand you find yourself
\nwhere you will be at the end,
\ntell yourself
\nin that final flowing of cold through your limbs
\nthat you love what you are.<\/p>\n

* * * *
\nKeeping Things Whole<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a field
\nI am the absence
\nof field.
\nThis is
\nalways the case.
\nWherever I am
\nI am what is missing.
\nWhen I walk
\nI part the air
\nand always
\nthe air moves in
\nto fill the spaces
\nwhere my body\u2019s been.
\nWe all have reasons
\nfor moving.
\nI move
\nto keep things whole.<\/p>\n

* * * * <\/p>\n

My all time favorite:
\nCourtship<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a girl you like so you tell her
\nyour penis is big, but that you cannot get yourself
\nto use it. Its demands are ridiculous, you say,
\neven self-defeating, but to be honored somehow,
\nbriefly, inconspicuously, in the dark.<\/p>\n

When she closes her eyes in horror,
\nyou take it all back. You tell her you\u2019re almost
\na girl yourself and can understand why she is shocked.
\nWhen she is about to walk away, you tell her
\nyou have no penis, that you don\u2019t<\/p>\n

know what got into you. You get on your knees.
\nShe suddenly bends down to kiss your shoulder and you know
\nyou\u2019re on the right track. You tell her you want
\nto bear children and that is why you seem confused.
\nYou wrinkle your brow and curse the day you were born.<\/p>\n

She tries to calm you, but you lose control.
\nYou reach for her panties and beg forgiveness as you do.<\/p>\n

She squirms and you howl like a wolf. Your craving
\nseems monumental. You know you will have her.
\nTaken by storm, she is the girl you will marry.<\/p>\n

\"th\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can never finish my Sunday New York Times so I have just gotten used to the fact that I will read it all week. It’s the product of having a young child (and a puppy). So today, Friday, I learned from last Sunday’s Times that Mark Strand had passed at 80 years old. And I’m just sitting with that right now. Lines for Winter Tell yourself as it gets cold and gray falls from… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s1kHSD-stranded","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20135"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20138,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20135\/revisions\/20138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}