{"id":1456,"date":"2015-08-31T00:00:27","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T04:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=1456"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:49:20","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:49:20","slug":"aug-31-i-could-not-pass-this-poem-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2015\/08\/31\/aug-31-i-could-not-pass-this-poem-by\/","title":{"rendered":"Aug 31 – I could not pass this poem by"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, August 31 \u00a0– \u00a0\u201c \u00a0. . . \u00a0How big is my heart, I wonder?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d looked at two or three poems before this one ran into me. \u00a0Bam! \u00a0So precise, so demanding. \u00a0 When this poem met me, it was 5:41 on Sunday evening. \u00a0At times, when looking for a Monday poem, some poet I\u2019d never met just flattens me.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Dan Gerber will flatten you too, as you turn into the first teaching week of this new academic year. \u00a0 \u00a0Today, like every day, the university welcomes us into what we do. \u00a0 Perhaps it strikes us more on the McNichols campus when classes begin for another year. \u00a0 \u00a0Like the poet today, the university calls out students to pay attention to horrors and to improbable, graceful beauty. \u00a0Calls out everyone who works here. \u00a0Stretches to send its collective voice out into the city and even into the wide world.<\/p>\n

Dan Gerber is a hard read. \u00a0Best to read “Seventieth Birthday” out loud, with pauses. \u00a0 Or perhaps even better to click on the link below the poem and listen to the poet read it to you. \u00a0 Or both.<\/p>\n

Have a blest week.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s post: \u00a0“ON MY SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY\u201d\u00a0 Dan Gerber<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let everything happen to you:
\nbeauty and terror.
\nOnly press on: no feeling is final.
\n\u2014Rilke<\/em><\/p>\n

\"dog\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I read that tens of thousands of people
\nhave drowned in Bangladesh
\nand that a million more
\nmay die from isolation, hunger, cholera,
\nand its sisters, thirst and loneliness.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

This morning in our lime tree,
\nI noticed a bee
\ndusting a single new bud,
\njust now beginning to bloom,
\nwhile all the other branches were sagging
\nwith heavy green fruit.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

I read that in Moscow
\nevery man, woman, child, and dog
\nis inhaling eight packs of cigarettes a day\u2014
\nor its equivalent in smoke\u2014
\nfrom the fires raging over the steppes.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

I saw the god of storms
\ntake the shape of a tree,
\nbowing to the desert
\nwith her back to the sea.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

I saw on television,
\na woman in Iran buried up to her breasts,
\nthen wrapped in light gauze
\n(to protect the spectators),
\nweeping in terror and pleading for her life
\nwhile someone at the edge of the circle
\nof men dressed in black
\npicked up the first baseball-sized rock
\nfrom the hayrick-sized pile,
\nto hurl at her eyes, nose, mouth,
\nears, throat, breasts, and shoulders.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

How big is my heart, I wonder?
\nHow will it encompass these men dressed in black?<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Now the fog drifts in over the passes,
\nscreening the peaks into half-tones.
\nAnd then into no tones at all.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

These goats with names,
\nwith eyes that make you wonder,
\nthese goats
\nwho will be slaughtered today.
\nWhy\u00a0these\u00a0goats?<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

There are reasons,
\nbut they are human reasons.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

I listened while my friend
\nspoke through his grief for his son,
\nshot to death in a pizza shop he managed
\nin Nashville
\nafter emptying the safe
\nfor a desperate young man with a gun\u2014
\nwho my friend told me he\u2019d forgiven\u2014
\nspoke of consolation through his tears,
\nthe spirit of his son still with him, he said.
\nThe spirit of his son still with him.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Oak tree,
\njoy of my eye
\nthat reaches in so many directions\u2014
\nAre the birds that fly from your branches
\ncloser to heaven?<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

The moon
\nshimmering on the surface of the pond,
\nits rippling reflected in your eyes,
\nof which you are no more aware
\nthan the wind, just passing through this oak,
\nof the acorns still bobbing.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

The mountains, resolute now
\nin fading light.
\nWith her nose deep in the late-summer grass,
\nmy dog calls up a new story.<\/p>\n

\"DanGerber\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“On My Seventieth Birthday” by\u00a0Dan Gerber.<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Text as published in\u00a0Sailing Through Cassiopeia<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(Copper Canyon Press, 2013).<\/p>\n

Hear the poet read his poem\u00a0here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Gerber received a\u00a0Bachelor of Arts<\/a>\u00a0degree in\u00a0English<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Michigan State University<\/a>\u00a0in 1962. He was the co-founder, with\u00a0Jim Harrison<\/a>, of the literary magazine\u00a0Sumac<\/a><\/em>.[2]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0As part of his journalist profession, Gerber made extensive travels, primarily to\u00a0Africa<\/a>. He has served as writer-in-residence at\u00a0Michigan State University<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Grand Valley State University<\/a>.[3]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Gerber currently lives in\u00a0Santa Ynez Valley<\/a>,\u00a0California<\/a>\u00a0with his wife.[4]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Gerber’s literary works have been recognized and highlighted at Michigan State University in their Michigan Writers Series.[5]<\/a><\/sup>His work has appeared in\u00a0Narrative Magazine<\/a><\/em>.[6]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0His most recent book of poetry,\u00a0Sailing through Cassiopeia<\/em>[7]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0was published in 2012 by\u00a0Copper Canyon Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Monday, August 31 \u00a0– \u00a0\u201c \u00a0. . . \u00a0How big is my heart, I wonder?” I\u2019d looked at two or three poems before this one ran into me. \u00a0Bam! \u00a0So precise, so demanding. \u00a0 When this poem met me, it … 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\/1456"}],"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=1456"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1461,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456\/revisions\/1461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}