{"id":1717,"date":"2016-02-01T00:00:14","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T05:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=1717"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:48:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:48:00","slug":"monday-feb-1-garrison-keilor-the-writersalmanac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2016\/02\/01\/monday-feb-1-garrison-keilor-the-writersalmanac\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Feb 1 – Garrison Keilor “The Writer’s\tAlmanac”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, February 1 – Raymond Carver \u201cAt Least\u201d<\/p>\n

Detroit Metro Airport, 7:23 am Saturday. I\u2019m heading to Washington DC for the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, an annual ritual right after my university\u2019s January Board of Trustees\u2019 meeting. Lots of attendees, some close friends, some I\u2019ve not met. I stay at the Jesuit community, Leonard Neale House, about a 25 minute walk from the conference\u2019s Ritz Carlton hotel. Gerry Stockhausen lived here; most of the Jesuits in the house work with one or another national Jesuit office. Stock was Executive Secretary of The Jesuit Conference, where he worked with Tim Kesicki, President of the Conference. While I was packing this morning I realized that it will take some grace to take in and be welcomed into Gerry\u2019s absence \u2014 for me and the 10 men with whom he lived.<\/p>\n

Monday will be busy and I had some time in Detroit Metro this morning so I fished around in Garrison Keilor\u2019s \u201cThe Writer\u2019s Almanac\u201d and found a poet new to me. Raymond Carver\u2019s \u201cAt Least\u201d freshens this travel morning. So does the note just below the poem where GK recalls for his readers that today is the birthday of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: three short FDR sayings.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s post will follow \u201cWork Day\/Hard Times\u201d in its ordinary rhythm. Enjoy Raymond Carver and FDR.<\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

Sunday January 31 Raymond Carver “At least”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

At Least<\/strong>
\nby Raymond Carver<\/a><\/p>\n

I want to get up early one more morning,
\nbefore sunrise. Before the birds, even.
\nI want to throw cold water on my face
\nand be at my work table
\nwhen the sky lightens and smoke
\nbegins to rise from the chimneys
\nof the other houses.
\nI want to see the waves break
\non this rocky beach, not just hear them
\nbreak as I did all night in my sleep.
\nI want to see again the ships
\nthat pass through the Strait from every
\nseafaring country in the world\u2014
\nold, dirty freighters just barely moving along,
\nand the swift new cargo vessels
\npainted every color under the sun
\nthat cut the water as they pass.
\nI want to keep an eye out for them.
\nAnd for the little boat that plies
\nthe water between the ships
\nand the pilot station near the lighthouse.
\nI want to see them take a man off the ship
\nand put another up on board.
\nI want to spend the day watching this happen
\nand reach my own conclusions.
\nI hate to seem greedy\u2014have so much
\nto be thankful for already.
\nBut I want to get up early one more morning, at least.
\nAnd go to my place with some coffee and wait.
\nJust wait, to see what\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Least\u201d by Raymond Carver from Where Water Comes Together With Other Water. \u00a9 Vintage Books, 1986. Reprinted with permission. (buy now<\/a>)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the birthday<\/strong> of the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt<\/a>, born in Hyde Park, New York (1882). He said: \u201cHuman kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said, \u201cI think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he said, \u201cRemember you are just an extra in everyone else\u2019s play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, February 1 – Raymond Carver \u201cAt Least\u201d Detroit Metro Airport, 7:23 am Saturday. I\u2019m heading to Washington DC for the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, an annual ritual right after my university\u2019s January Board of Trustees\u2019 meeting. Lots … 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\/1717"}],"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=1717"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1722,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717\/revisions\/1722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}