{"id":3009,"date":"2019-04-29T00:00:17","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T04:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=3009"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:43:30","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:43:30","slug":"april-29-campus-goodbyes-after-exams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2019\/04\/29\/april-29-campus-goodbyes-after-exams\/","title":{"rendered":"April 29 &#8211; campus goodbyes after exams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Monday, April 29, 2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,<br \/>\nyou must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last year in early March, a\u00a0friend emailed me some lines from Naomi Shihab Nye\u2019s poem \u201cKindness.\u201d \u00a0She \u00a0connects kinship and love with other things that wear us down. \u00a0In her poem, deep personal wounds become a context for enduring kindness.<\/p>\n<p>Best to read the poem out loud, with pauses, to allow the poet\u2019s deep and careful language to make a place in\u00a0your imagination and your memory.<\/p>\n<p>john sj<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Today\u2019s Post \u00a0\u201cKindness\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before you know what kindness really is<br \/>\nyou must lose things,<br \/>\nfeel the future dissolve in a moment<br \/>\nlike salt in a weakened broth.<br \/>\nWhat you held in your hand,<br \/>\nwhat you counted and carefully saved,<br \/>\nall this must go so you know<br \/>\nhow desolate the landscape can be<br \/>\nbetween the regions of kindness.<br \/>\nHow you ride and ride<br \/>\nthinking the bus will never stop,<br \/>\nthe passengers eating maize and chicken<br \/>\nwill stare out the window forever.<\/p>\n<p>Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,<br \/>\nyou must travel where the Indian in a white poncho<br \/>\nlies dead by the side of the road.<br \/>\nYou must see how this could be you,<br \/>\nhow he too was someone<br \/>\nwho journeyed through the night with plans<br \/>\nand the simple breath that kept him alive.<\/p>\n<p>Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,<br \/>\nyou must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.<br \/>\nYou must wake up with sorrow.<br \/>\nYou must speak to it till your voice<br \/>\ncatches the thread of all sorrows<br \/>\nand you see the size of the cloth.<\/p>\n<p>Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,<br \/>\nonly kindness that ties your shoes<br \/>\nand sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,<br \/>\nonly kindness that raises its head<br \/>\nfrom the crowd of the world to say<br \/>\nIt is I you have been looking for,<br \/>\nand then goes with you everywhere<br \/>\nlike a shadow or a friend.<\/p>\n<p>Naomi Shihab Nye<\/p>\n<p>(b. March 12, 1952)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2017\/03\/Naomi-Shihab-Nye.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2227\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2017\/03\/Naomi-Shihab-Nye.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"218\" height=\"220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2017\/03\/Naomi-Shihab-Nye.jpg 218w, https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2017\/03\/Naomi-Shihab-Nye-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 218px) 100vw, 218px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Monday, April 29, 2019 \u201cBefore you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.\u201d Last year in early March, a\u00a0friend emailed me some lines from Naomi Shihab Nye\u2019s poem \u201cKindness.\u201d \u00a0She \u00a0connects &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2019\/04\/29\/april-29-campus-goodbyes-after-exams\/\">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\/3009"}],"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=3009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3010,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009\/revisions\/3010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}