{"id":3328,"date":"2020-01-23T00:00:46","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T05:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/?p=3328"},"modified":"2020-01-23T15:19:26","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T20:19:26","slug":"jan-23-a-soul-friend-sent-me-a-new-poem-blows-my-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2020\/01\/23\/jan-23-a-soul-friend-sent-me-a-new-poem-blows-my-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Jan 23 — a soul friend sent me a new poem – blows my mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday, January 23<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish, though,
\nI had known sooner, to have
\nhelped you go on living\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebecca is surely not the only soul friend who has received, and carried, the violent news that her\/his soul friend has taken a life away from her\/him. \u00a0Soul friends trust soul friends with grinding surprises and slowly live their way into a new fabric of memory, bringing new wounds along with them, risking hope on a bleak landscape of the heart.<\/p>\n

So, Rebecca, \u00a0my soul friend, your grief has its home in my house too, beginning now.<\/p>\n

So too, so many readers of this list have sent surprises, exhaustion, sounds of despair, together with astonishing joy and stunning courage. \u00a0 Do I thank our c. 3,000 readers often enough I sometimes wonder. \u00a0 Never enough, never; but very often.<\/p>\n

Best to read the poet\u2019s words out loud, with pauses.<\/p>\n

Have a blest ending of the week. \u00a0I\u2019ll be traveling home from Denver tomorrow. \u00a0Next post Monday, I\u2019d bet.<\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For John Berryman<\/strong><\/p>\n

You’re dead, what can I do for you?
\nI am not unsympathetic;
\nI thought about you often enough
\nthough we never spoke together
\nbut once when I shied away,
\nfeeling something that I fought
\nin me too-and came out with this
\nmanner of living, by living.
\nIt is depressing to live
\nbut to kill myself in protest
\nis to assume there is something
\nto life withheld from me, yet
\nwho withholds it? Think about it.
\nWhat is the answer?
\nBut suicide is not so wrong
\nfor one who thought and prayed
\nhis way toward it. I wish, though,
\nI had known sooner, to have
\nhelped you go on living,
\nas I do, half a suicide;
\nthe need defended by the other half
\nthat thinks to live in that knowledge
\nis praiseworthy.<\/p>\n

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

https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Berryman<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday, January 23 \u201cI wish, though, I had known sooner, to have helped you go on living\u201d Rebecca is surely not the only soul friend who has received, and carried, the violent news that her\/his soul friend has taken a … 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\/3328"}],"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=3328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3330,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions\/3330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}