{"id":2236,"date":"2017-03-13T00:00:28","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T04:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=2236"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:47:12","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:47:12","slug":"march-13-snow-and-a-poet-new-to-me-dunya-mikhail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2017\/03\/13\/march-13-snow-and-a-poet-new-to-me-dunya-mikhail\/","title":{"rendered":"March 13 &#8211; snow and a poet new to me, Dunya Mikhail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Monday \u00a0March 13<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf anyone stumbles across it,<br \/>\nreturn it to me, please.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last Friday I spent the\u00a0afternoon visiting with, and an evening listening to, Joy Harjo at the University of Michigan\u2019s Michigan League. \u00a0 Joy emailed on Wednesday to explore the possibility that I could drive to Ann Arbor. \u00a0 It worked out because I had a free afternoon and evening, an unanticipated grace. \u00a0She read mostly from her most recent book \u00a0<u>Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings<\/u>. \u00a0Listening took me into stillness for c. 2 hours; \u00a0to the language of her poems and of her flute, and her sax. \u00a0Definitely worth the 45 mile drive from our campus to Ann Arbor.<\/p>\n<p>That night\u00a0Joy introduced me to the Chaldean poet Dunya Mikhail. \u00a0Dunya and I share some of the sprawling space of Metro Detroit and we share the Catholic faith, hers Chaldean, mine 1840\u2019s immigrant European. \u00a0When I got home, I looked for some of her poetry and found \u00a0\u201cI Was in a Hurry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Best to read out loud, \u00a0with pauses. \u00a0It\u2019s snowing here \u00a0 \u00a0Have a blest week.<\/p>\n<p>john sj<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s Post: \u00a0\u201cI Was in a Hurry\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday I lost a country.<\/p>\n<p>I was in a hurry,<\/p>\n<p>and didn&#8217;t notice when it fell from me<\/p>\n<p>like a broken branch from a forgetful tree.<\/p>\n<p>Please, if anyone passes by<\/p>\n<p>and stumbles across it,<\/p>\n<p>perhaps in a suitcase<\/p>\n<p>open to the sky,<\/p>\n<p>or engraved on a rock<\/p>\n<p>like a gaping wound,<\/p>\n<p>or wrapped<\/p>\n<p>in the blankets of emigrants,<\/p>\n<p>or canceled<\/p>\n<p>like a losing lottery ticket,<\/p>\n<p>or helplessly forgotten<\/p>\n<p>in Purgatory,<\/p>\n<p>or rushing forward without a goal<\/p>\n<p>like the questions of children,<\/p>\n<p>or rising with the smoke of war,<\/p>\n<p>or rolling in a helmet on the sand,<\/p>\n<p>or stolen in Ali Baba&#8217;s jar,<\/p>\n<p>or disguised in the uniform of a policeman<\/p>\n<p>who stirred up the prisoners<\/p>\n<p>and fled,<\/p>\n<p>or squatting in the mind of a woman<\/p>\n<p>who tries to smile,<\/p>\n<p>or scattered like the dreams<\/p>\n<p>of new immigrants in America.<\/p>\n<p>If anyone stumbles across it,<\/p>\n<p>return it to me, please.<\/p>\n<p>Please return it, sir.<\/p>\n<p>Please return it, madam.<\/p>\n<p>It is my country&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I was in a hurry<\/p>\n<p>when I lost it yesterday.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2017\/03\/Dunya-Mikhail.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2237\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2017\/03\/Dunya-Mikhail.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"244\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI Was in a Hurry&#8221; by Dunya Mikhail, translated by\u00a0Elizabeth Winslow, from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/books\/titles\/138303385\/the-war-works-hard\">The War Works Hard<\/a>,<\/p>\n<p>copyright 1993, 1997, 2000, 2005 by Dunya Mikhail. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.<\/p>\n<p>(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2013\/03\/21\/174773962\/revisiting-iraq-through-the-eyes-of-an-exiled-poet\">http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2013\/03\/21\/174773962\/revisiting-iraq-through-the-eyes-of-an-exiled-poet<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Monday \u00a0March 13 \u201cIf anyone stumbles across it, return it to me, please.\u201d Last Friday I spent the\u00a0afternoon visiting with, and an evening listening to, Joy Harjo at the University of Michigan\u2019s Michigan League. \u00a0 Joy emailed on Wednesday to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2017\/03\/13\/march-13-snow-and-a-poet-new-to-me-dunya-mikhail\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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\/2236"}],"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=2236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2238,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions\/2238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}