{"id":2646,"date":"2018-04-18T00:00:41","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T04:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=2646"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:45:32","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:45:32","slug":"april-18-mary-oliver-starling-in-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2018\/04\/18\/april-18-mary-oliver-starling-in-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"April 18 – Mary Oliver “starling in winter”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday \u00a0 April 18<\/strong> –\u00a0a song for very late winter<\/p>\n

My sibs and I gathered at Mary\u2019s house on the edge of northern Wisconsin for a weekend. \u00a0A delicious and shocking visit from two back-to-back 12\u201d blizzards, hurried along with pretty constant wind gusts from 25 mph on up. \u00a0Magical, even though we ate from the freezer for the 3+ days the snow locked us inside the house, now and then peeking out the front door over the 5 ft drifts. \u00a0That\u2019s my other sister, Mary.<\/p>\n

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

A magical time for us. \u00a0 For me, the best blizzards in a long time. \u00a0 This morning, back on campus, I looked for a Mary Oliver poem that was new to me and found one about a very late winter storm. \u00a0 It\u2019s exciting to find a new Mary Oliver poem. \u00a0 Yes, definitely good to read it out loud, with pauses.<\/p>\n

I hope it blesses this mid-day in the work week.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john st<\/p>\n

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

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

The pic on the bottom is a van outside my sister\u2019s garage; \u00a0the woman on the top is my sister Midge.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post – \u00a0\u201cStarling in winter\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chunky and noisy,
\nbut with stars in their black feathers,
\nthey spring from the telephone wire
\nand instantly<\/p>\n

they are acrobats
\nin the freezing wind.
\nAnd now, in the theater of air,
\nthey swing over buildings,<\/p>\n

dipping and rising;
\nthey float like one stippled star
\nthat opens,
\nbecomes for a moment fragmented,<\/p>\n

then closes again;
\nand you watch
\nand you try
\nbut you simply can’t imagine<\/p>\n

how they do it
\nwith no articulated instruction, no pause,
\nonly the silent confirmation
\nthat they are this notable thing,<\/p>\n

this wheel of many parts, that can rise and spin
\nover and over again,
\nfull of gorgeous life.<\/p>\n

Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us,
\neven in the leafless winter,
\neven in the ashy city.
\nI am thinking now
\nof grief, and of getting past it;<\/p>\n

I feel my boots
\ntrying to leave the ground,
\nI feel my heart
\npumping hard. I want<\/p>\n

to think again of dangerous and noble things.
\nI want to be light and frolicsome.
\nI want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
\nas though I had wings.<\/p>\n

From:\u00a0Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9:\u00a0Mary Oliver<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday \u00a0 April 18 –\u00a0a song for very late winter My sibs and I gathered at Mary\u2019s house on the edge of northern Wisconsin for a weekend. \u00a0A delicious and shocking visit from two back-to-back 12\u201d blizzards, hurried along with … 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\/2646"}],"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=2646"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2652,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646\/revisions\/2652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}