{"id":1887,"date":"2016-05-20T00:00:54","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T04:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=1887"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:47:43","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:47:43","slug":"may-13-your-child-growing-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2016\/05\/20\/may-13-your-child-growing-up\/","title":{"rendered":"May 13 — your child growing up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday, May 13\u00a0“<\/strong>Young as she is, the stuff<\/p>\n

Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Which is more challenging?<\/td>\nto notice beauty, delicate, stirring wonder<\/td>\n. . . \u00a0and then to go to the beauty<\/td>\n. . . and then to stand still in the beauty?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
or it is more challenging?<\/td>\nto notice grief, wrenching,<\/td>\n. . . \u00a0and then to go to the grief<\/td>\n. . . and then to stand still in the grief?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
or more challenging?<\/td>\nto notice fear,<\/td>\n. . . \u00a0and then \u00a0to go to the fear<\/td>\n. . . and then to stand still in the fear?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
or more challenging?<\/td>\nto notice joy, that wants to open me deep down<\/td>\n. . . \u00a0and then to go to the joy<\/td>\n. . . and then to stand still in the joy?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Strong poems raise these kinds of questions, re-open us into our capacity for depth and inner attention.\u00a0 I think that is why we read poems, are happy when we\u2019ve taken time to give a poem access to our inner selves.\u00a0 I think that is why people write poems too. \u00a0 Perhaps like today\u2019s poet, Richard Wilbur, standing as a parent where many hundreds of this list\u2019s readers have stood, standing in a place that a celibate like myself has stood too. \u00a0Is this a poem about parenting or about beauty, grief, fear, and joy? \u00a0 Strong either\/or questions always invite the same answer, \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have a great weekend.<\/p>\n

john st sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s post \u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe writer\u201d Richard Wilbur, 1921<\/strong><\/p>\n

A good friend read Wednesday poem \u201cTo a daughter leaving home\u201d and wrote this to me:<\/p>\n

\u201cI also want to thank you for the marvelous poems and commentary. \u00a0I\u2019m so glad to be a part of your blog. \u00a0Apropos of today\u2019s poem \u2018To A Daughter Leaving Home,\u2019 the most moving poem I know on a similar theme is Richard Wilbur\u2019s,\u00a0The Writer.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Writer\u201d \u00a0Richard Wilbur<\/strong><\/p>\n

In her room at the prow of the house
\nWhere light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,
\nMy daughter is writing a story.<\/p>\n

I pause in the stairwell, hearing
\nFrom her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys
\nLike a chain hauled over a gunwale.<\/p>\n

Young as she is, the stuff
\nOf her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:
\nI wish her a lucky passage.<\/p>\n

But now it is she who pauses,
\nAs if to reject my thought and its easy figure.
\nA stillness greatens, in which<\/p>\n

The whole house seems to be thinking,
\nAnd then she is at it again with a bunched clamor
\nOf strokes, and again is silent.<\/p>\n

I remember the dazed starling
\nWhich was trapped in that very room, two years ago;
\nHow we stole in, lifted a sash<\/p>\n

And retreated, not to affright it;
\nAnd how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the door,
\nWe watched the sleek, wild, dark<\/p>\n

And iridescent creature
\nBatter against the brilliance, drop like a glove
\nTo the hard floor, or the desk-top,<\/p>\n

And wait then, humped and bloody,
\nFor the wits to try it again; and how our spirits
\nRose when, suddenly sure,<\/p>\n

It lifted off from a chair-back,
\nBeating a smooth course for the right window
\nAnd clearing the sill of the world.<\/p>\n

It is always a matter, my darling,
\nOf life or death, as I had forgotten.\u00a0I wish
\nWhat I wished you before, but harder.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0richard wilbur \u00a0March 1, 1921 \u00a0–<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

About Wilbur\u2019s poems, one reviewer for\u00a0The Washington Post\u00a0said, \u201cThroughout his career Wilbur has shown, within the compass of his classicism, enviable variety. His poems describe fountains and fire trucks, grasshoppers and toads, European cities and country pleasures. All of them are easy to read, while being suffused with an astonishing verbal music and a compacted thoughtfulness that invite sustained reflection.\u201d \u00a0{poets.org<\/a>}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday, May 13\u00a0“Young as she is, the stuff Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy” Which is more challenging? to notice beauty, delicate, stirring wonder . . . \u00a0and then to go to the beauty … 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\/1887"}],"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=1887"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1901,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887\/revisions\/1901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}