{"id":1209,"date":"2015-02-25T00:00:48","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T05:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=1209"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:49:37","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:49:37","slug":"wed-feb-25-to-boston-in-winter-there-will-be-daffodils-in-the-back-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2015\/02\/25\/wed-feb-25-to-boston-in-winter-there-will-be-daffodils-in-the-back-bay\/","title":{"rendered":"Wed Feb 25 – To Boston in winter: “There will be daffodils in the Back Bay.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, February 25 Boston\u2019s Back Bay, April 20, 1983<\/strong><\/p>\n

Boston is my second city, after Motown. I\u2019ve lived there 7 different times, whole years and half years, at MIT and Boston College. The city is dear to me, dear with familiar urban mazeways, (like where to get my car fixed, my hair cut, my teeth tended, when to avoid heavy traffic if you can manage it, how to plan contemplative times beside the sailboat basin of the Charles, whether to walk from my Jesuit house in the Back Bay over the Mass Ave or the Longfellow bridge. All those years have connected me with friends, soul friends who keep these sensual memories from drifting into nostalgia.<\/p>\n

This monstrous hammering patch of winter is more real and sensual because of soul friends whose closeness helps me to imagine the city’s fatigue. Alas it\u2019s nowhere near over, either. When the storms let up all those feet of snow still have to melt and all that water has to go somewhere.<\/p>\n

Yesterday an idea for today\u2019s post snuck up on me. I am posting a playful poem I wrote one April afternoon in 1983 after walking across the Mass Ave Bridge heading home after a work day at MIT. Is the poem whimsy, or a reminder, or a promise, or a blessing? Doesn\u2019t matter. Blessings from Motown where the morning sun is kissing the top of the tall evergreen outside my west-facing window.<\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post \u2014 Meeting at Rush Hour<\/strong><\/p>\n

A gust of wind
\nsent the metal street sign for Charlie’s Tavern
\nskittering fifteen feet up Newbury Street,
\nan unlikely sailboat
\nescaped, perhaps, from the Charles.<\/p>\n

The clatter and improbability
\nset us both free.<\/p>\n

She looked twenty two,
\nblond and lovely,
\ngoing the other way
\nand no doubt equally homeward bound.<\/p>\n

In our sudden bemusement
\nat the sign’s startled venture
\nour eyes touched.<\/p>\n

Then, the wonder.
\nWe grinned.<\/p>\n

Delight at our moment’s kinship
\nfreed us from fear
\nfrom strategy and burden.
\nShe flashed fire at me
\nand I, no doubt, at her.<\/p>\n

A moment’s celebration quickly passed–
\nrare and winsom beauty,
\nbreathed through two human forms
\nfilling us with awe.<\/p>\n

We went our ways with no word spoken,
\nboth journeys blessed.<\/p>\n

April 20, 1983<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, February 25 Boston\u2019s Back Bay, April 20, 1983 Boston is my second city, after Motown. I\u2019ve lived there 7 different times, whole years and half years, at MIT and Boston College. The city is dear to me, dear with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1210,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1209\/revisions\/1210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}