{"id":3486,"date":"2020-05-15T00:00:33","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T04:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/?p=3486"},"modified":"2020-05-15T16:03:25","modified_gmt":"2020-05-15T20:03:25","slug":"may-15-friday-deliberate-practice-terry-breeden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2020\/05\/15\/may-15-friday-deliberate-practice-terry-breeden\/","title":{"rendered":"May 15, Friday – “Deliberate Practice” Terry Breeden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday, May 15 \u00a0– <\/strong>\u00a0A mother contemplates her daughter
\n\u201cI want her to think of this as a connection rather
\nthan a severing . . . \u201c<\/p>\n

Some years ago, I sent several of my niece Terri\u2019s compelling poem-stories about her grandmother (my mother died in October 2005 at 102 years) to a richly gifted\u00a0poet, asking what he thought of Terri\u2019s writing. \u00a0\u00a0He wrote back with the highest praise I can imagine for describing a poet\u2019s language.
\n\u201cShe writes with\u00a0\u2018flint-hard\u2019 word choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terri\u2019s recent poem strikes me the same way; how deep and deftly can a poet\u2019s word choices reach?<\/p>\n

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

Have a blest weekend,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Deliberate Practice<\/strong><\/p>\n

My daughter is practicing.
\nEvery minute of every waking hour
\nshe remains consistent, committed.
\nI can see her improving,
\nday after day of concentrated attention-
\nevery detail accounted for.<\/p>\n

When we walk she slows her steps
\nto let the world know with certainty
\nthat she is not walking with me.
\nThat there is no one else
\nwandering the sage, makes it clear that I
\nam the target of her silent discourse.
\nWhen I pause to show her a centipede
\nswarming the dirt, or an anthill
\ncratering the path, she speeds past until,
\nat the same set distance as before, she walks,
\nbut not with me.<\/p>\n

Back in the house she shifts
\nher shoulder from beneath my hand, and in the evening,
\nwhen I settle on the end of the couch where she\u2019s sprawled,
\nshe moves to a chair.<\/p>\n

The breakfasts I make for her harden
\nuntil, dry and discolored, I scrape what remains
\ninto the trash. And when I ask \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d
\nshe says \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t understand.\u201d
\n<\/em>\u201cI\u2019ll try,\u201d I say.
\nPlease let me try.<\/em><\/p>\n

She doesn\u2019t say, \u201cI won\u2019t\u201d
\nbut that\u2019s what I hear
\nas she shrugs and turns away.<\/p>\n

Until\u00a0<\/em>I realize that she is trying.
\nTrying as hard as she can
\nand improving with each deliberate effort,
\nhoning an expertise in rebuke and hatred.
\nAnd, as when she was six and constantly calling \u201cWatch me, mama!\u201d
\nshe\u2019s working to make sure I notice.<\/p>\n

I want to think of this as a connection rather
\nthan a severing. But as she excels
\nday after practiced day, I worry she will become so skilled
\nat bearing grudges
\nthat she\u2019ll have no room to master anything else.
\nAnd I wonder
\nif I am her first true heartbreak
\nas she is mine.<\/p>\n

Terri Breeden<\/p>\n

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

Friday, May 15 \u00a0– \u00a0A mother contemplates her daughter \u201cI want her to think of this as a connection rather than a severing . . . \u201c Some years ago, I sent several of my niece Terri\u2019s compelling poem-stories about … 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\/3486"}],"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=3486"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3488,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3486\/revisions\/3488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}