{"id":2516,"date":"2018-01-03T00:00:25","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T05:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=2516"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:45:46","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:45:46","slug":"jan-3-u-detroit-mercy-in-the-chronicle-ajcu-conversations-and-in-jamaal-mays-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2018\/01\/03\/jan-3-u-detroit-mercy-in-the-chronicle-ajcu-conversations-and-in-jamaal-mays-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Jan 3 U Detroit Mercy in The Chronicle, AJCU Conversations, and in Jamaal May’s poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, \u00a0 January 3<\/p>\n

Yesterday, the Chronicle of Higher Education led its 1st 2018 number with Lee Garner\u2019s feature about our university and Wayne State, our neighbor c. 6 miles to the south. \u00a0A lot of us like \u201cHow to Market a College in a Troubled Locale<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0Lee Gardner features many of our university practices that make me proud, make lots of my university peers proud too. \u00a0Part of what we do here is to treat Detroit as a city in rebirth and doing what universities should do, engaging our city. \u00a0 Turns out, also, that the national Jesuit AJCU Journal, \u201cConversations in Higher Ed\u201d came out yesterday with it\u2019s on-line Spring Edition featuring our campus against the background of the city\u2019s downtown skyline. \u00a0You\u2019ll find it below Jamaal May\u2019s poem.<\/p>\n

Before inviting you to read the Chronicle piece, though, I want to remind you of one of our city\u2019s strong, recent poet voices. \u00a0 Readers will remember this compelling poem, \u201cThere are Birds Here.\u201d\u00a0 Yes for sure; \u00a0best to read his poem out loud with pauses.<\/p>\n

Blessings on this Wednesday, mid-way through the first work week of the new year.<\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By\u00a0Jamaal May<\/a><\/p>\n

For Detroit<\/em><\/p>\n

There are birds here,
\nso many birds here
\nis what I was trying to say
\nwhen they said those birds were metaphors
\nfor what is trapped
\nbetween buildings
\nand buildings. No.
\nThe birds are here
\nto root around for bread
\nthe girl\u2019s hands tear
\nand toss like confetti. No,
\nI don\u2019t mean the bread is torn like cotton,
\nI said confetti, and no
\nnot the confetti
\na tank can make of a building.
\nI mean the confetti
\na boy can\u2019t stop smiling about
\nand no his smile isn\u2019t much
\nlike a skeleton at all. And no
\nhis neighborhood is not like a war zone.
\nI am trying to say
\nhis neighborhood
\nis as tattered and feathered
\nas anything else,
\nas shadow pierced by sun
\nand light parted
\nby shadow-dance as anything else,
\nbut they won\u2019t stop saying
\nhow lovely the ruins,
\nhow ruined the lovely
\nchildren must be in that birdless city.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Jamaal May, \u201cThere Are Birds Here\u201d from\u00a0The Big Book of Exit Strategies<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2016 by Jamaal May. Reprinted by permission of Alice James Books.<\/p>\n

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

Wednesday, \u00a0 January 3 Yesterday, the Chronicle of Higher Education led its 1st 2018 number with Lee Garner\u2019s feature about our university and Wayne State, our neighbor c. 6 miles to the south. \u00a0A lot of us like \u201cHow to … 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\/2516"}],"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=2516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2518,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516\/revisions\/2518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}