{"id":2519,"date":"2018-01-05T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2018-01-05T05:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=2519"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:45:45","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:45:45","slug":"jan-5-to-boston-in-winter-there-will-be-daffodils-in-the-back-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2018\/01\/05\/jan-5-to-boston-in-winter-there-will-be-daffodils-in-the-back-bay\/","title":{"rendered":"Jan 5 — to Boston in winter: “There will be daffodils in the Back Bay”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday, January 5, 2018 \u00a0\u201c\u2018Bomb cyclone\u2019 blasts Northeast with triple punch of snow, gusts and flooding\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 {Washington Post late last night}<\/p>\n

view from my Detroit window Dec 2007<\/h5>\n

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

Boston is my second city, after Motown. I\u2019ve lived there 7 different times, whole years and half years, at MIT and Boston College. The city is dear to me, dear with familiar urban mazeways (like where to get my car fixed, my hair cut, my teeth tended, when to avoid heavy traffic if you can manage it, how to plan contemplative times beside the sailboat basin of the Charles, whether to walk from my Jesuit house in the Back Bay over the Mass Ave or the Longfellow bridge. All those years have connected me with friends.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s monstrous hammering patch of winter is more real and sensual because of New England soul friends whose closeness helps me to imagine the city\u2019s fatigue. Alas, it\u2019s nowhere near over, either. \u00a0Yesterday, an idea for today\u2019s post snuck up on me. I am posting a playful poem I wrote one April afternoon in 1983 while walking across the Mass Ave Bridge into Newbury St. heading home after a work day at MIT. \u00a0Is the poem whimsy, or a reminder, or a promise, or a blessing? Doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

Blessings from Motown where the morning sun is kissing the top of the tall evergreen outside my west-facing window.<\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post \u2014 Meeting at Rush Hour<\/p>\n

A gust of wind
\nsent the metal street sign for Charlie\u2019s Tavern
\nskittering fifteen feet up Newbury Street,
\nan unlikely sailboat
\nescaped, perhaps, from the Charles.<\/p>\n

The clatter and improbability
\nset us both free.<\/p>\n

She looked twenty two,
\nblond and lovely,
\ngoing the other way
\nand no doubt equally homeward bound.<\/p>\n

In our sudden bemusement
\nat the sign\u2019s startled venture
\nour eyes touched.<\/p>\n

Then, the wonder.
\nWe grinned.<\/p>\n

Delight at our moment\u2019s kinship
\nfreed us from fear
\nfrom strategy and burden.
\nShe flashed fire at me
\nand I, no doubt, at her.<\/p>\n

A moment\u2019s celebration quickly passed\u2013
\nrare and winsom beauty,
\nbreathed through two human forms
\nfilling us with awe.<\/p>\n

We went our ways with no word spoken,
\nboth journeys blessed.<\/p>\n

April 20, 1983<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

January 5, Memorial:<\/p>\n

Remembering Jim O\u2019Reilly, sj \u00a0{b. 12\/june\/1926} a complete sweetheart who died last night, \u00a0died playfully.<\/p>\n

We sj\u2019s who lived with him will miss him to pieces.<\/p>\n

Dawn outside our front door<\/h5>\n

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

Friday, January 5, 2018 \u00a0\u201c\u2018Bomb cyclone\u2019 blasts Northeast with triple punch of snow, gusts and flooding\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 {Washington Post late last night} view from my Detroit window Dec 2007 Boston is my second city, after Motown. I\u2019ve lived there 7 different … 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\/2519"}],"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=2519"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2524,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519\/revisions\/2524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}