{"id":1751,"date":"2016-02-24T00:00:44","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T05:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=1751"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:47:54","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:47:54","slug":"feb-24-something-there-is-that-doesnt-love-a-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2016\/02\/24\/feb-24-something-there-is-that-doesnt-love-a-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Feb 24 – “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday \u00a0February 24 <\/strong>
\n     “Before I built a wall I\u2019d ask to know
\nWhat I was walling in or walling out,
\n     And to whom I was like to give offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to walk through a full day without hearing angry calls to build and defend walls. Walls are technologies that cannot get far from mistrust, statements in wire and digital stone that privilege fear of little understood human beings other than oneself.Robert Frost\u2019s masterpiece, \u201cMending Wall,\u201d treats his neighbor\u2019s entrenched suspicions playfully.<\/p>\n

          “He only says, \u2018Good fences make good neighbors.\u2019
\n          Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
\n          If I could put a notion in his head:
\n          ‘Why do they make good neighbors?”<\/p>\n

Last week here on campus, we blessed a lovely gate out onto McNichols Road. \u00a0Its digital tools make it easier to get in and get out; the broad oval arch frames Detroit Mercy\u2019s legendary clock tower. \u00a0 I hear the gate say \u201cWelcome,\u201d this fresh new sound at our front door: \u00a0the EZ-pass cards for students and employees, leaving more time for guests who need directions from a live person in the other lane; \u00a0\u201cWelcome\u201d it says to neighbors who come to walk the track and use the library\u2019s internet work stations; \u00a0\u201cWelcome\u201d it says to EZ-pass homies who come to work on mean days, come to work worn down and impatient.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve suffered with a stingy-looking gate for years. \u00a0The new gate makes me smile even on hard days. \u00a0I\u2019ve been looking out our living room window and watching UDM people arrive for another work day. \u00a0Those people, my peers, the new gate makes them look a little more beautiful, brave and noble. \u00a0Perhaps that\u2019s why Robert Frost came to mind. \u00a0 \u201cMending Walls\u201d is a great poem, a source of wisdom and playful humor during crabby times.<\/p>\n

Best to read the poet out loud, with pauses. \u00a0Have a blest day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john st sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post, \u201cMending Walls”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Something there is that doesn\u2019t love a wall,
\nThat sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
\nAnd spills the upper boulders in the sun;
\nAnd makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
\nThe work of hunters is another thing:
\nI have come after them and made repair
\nWhere they have left not one stone on a stone,
\nBut they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
\nTo please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
\nNo one has seen them made or heard them made,
\nBut at spring mending-time we find them there.
\nI let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
\nAnd on a day we meet to walk the line
\nAnd set the wall between us once again.
\nWe keep the wall between us as we go.
\nTo each the boulders that have fallen to each.
\nAnd some are loaves and some so nearly balls
\nWe have to use a spell to make them balance:
\n\u2018Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’
\nWe wear our fingers rough with handling them.
\nOh, just another kind of outdoor game,
\nOne on a side. It comes to little more:
\nThere where it is we do not need the wall:
\nHe is all pine and I am apple orchard.
\nMy apple trees will never get across
\nAnd eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
\nHe only says, \u2018Good fences make good neighbors.’
\nSpring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
\nIf I could put a notion in his head:
\n‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn\u2019t it
\nWhere there are cows? But here there are no cows.
\nBefore I built a wall I\u2019d ask to know
\nWhat I was walling in or walling out,
\nAnd to whom I was like to give offense.
\nSomething there is that doesn\u2019t love a wall,
\nThat wants it down.’ I could say \u2018Elves\u2019 to him,
\nBut it\u2019s not elves exactly, and I\u2019d rather
\nHe said it for himself. I see him there
\nBringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
\nIn each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
\nHe moves in darkness as it seems to me,
\nNot of woods only and the shade of trees.
\nHe will not go behind his father\u2019s saying,
\nAnd he likes having thought of it so well
\nHe says again, \u2018Good fences make good neighbors.’<\/p>\n

          Robert Frost, 1874 – 1963
\n          <\/strong>\"T1520565_05\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday \u00a0February 24      “Before I built a wall I\u2019d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out,      And to whom I was like to give offense.\u201d It\u2019s hard to walk through a full day without hearing angry … 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\/1751"}],"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=1751"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1759,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751\/revisions\/1759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}