{"id":3545,"date":"2020-06-17T00:00:07","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T04:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/?p=3545"},"modified":"2020-06-17T08:59:18","modified_gmt":"2020-06-17T12:59:18","slug":"june-12-my-seventieth-birthday-dan-gerber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2020\/06\/17\/june-12-my-seventieth-birthday-dan-gerber\/","title":{"rendered":"June 12 – “My seventieth birthday” Dan Gerber"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, \u00a0June 17 – \u00a0Dan Gerber, the courage we live in<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHow big is my heart, I wonder?
\nHow will it encompass these men dressed in black?\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019d looked at two or three poems before this one ran into me. \u00a0So precise, and so demanding. \u00a0 The poem met me, \u00a0c. 2 hours into this Wednesday morning, radiant sun anointing a long and wearing work week. \u00a0 Dan Gerber had run into me before, with his cacophony of tenderness and terror. \u00a0Now it is two hours into this workday morning of another week of fear and anger and astonishing mercy. \u00a0 Dan Gerber reminds us of the courage we live in as we pay attention to what in the world wants our attention, \u00a0the courage we live from.<\/p>\n

Dan Gerber is a hard read. \u00a0Best to read \u201cSeventieth Birthday\u201d out loud, with pauses. \u00a0 Or perhaps even better to click on the link below the poem and listen to the poet read it to you. \u00a0 Or both.<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s post: \u00a0\u201cON MY SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY\u201d\u00a0 Dan Gerber
\n<\/strong>Sailing Through Cassiopeia<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(Copper Canyon Press, 2013)<\/p>\n

Let everything happen to you:
\nbeauty and terror.
\nOnly press on: no feeling is final.
\n\u2014Rilke<\/em><\/p>\n

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

I read that tens of thousands of people
\nhave drowned in Bangladesh
\nand that a million more
\nmay die from isolation, hunger, cholera,
\nand its sisters, thirst and loneliness.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

This morning in our lime tree,
\nI noticed a bee
\ndusting a single new bud,
\njust now beginning to bloom,
\nwhile all the other branches were sagging
\nwith heavy green fruit.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

I read that in Moscow
\nevery man, woman, child, and dog
\nis inhaling eight packs of cigarettes a day\u2014
\nor its equivalent in smoke\u2014
\nfrom the fires raging over the steppes.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

I saw the god of storms
\ntake the shape of a tree,
\nbowing to the desert
\nwith her back to the sea.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

I saw on television,
\na woman in Iran buried up to her breasts,
\nthen wrapped in light gauze
\n(to protect the spectators),
\nweeping in terror and pleading for her life
\nwhile someone at the edge of the circle
\nof men dressed in black
\npicked up the first baseball-sized rock
\nfrom the hayrick-sized pile,
\nto hurl at her eyes, nose, mouth,
\nears, throat, breasts, and shoulders.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

How big is my heart, I wonder?
\nHow will it encompass these men dressed in black?<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Now the fog drifts in over the passes,
\nscreening the peaks into half-tones.
\nAnd then into no tones at all.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

These goats with names,
\nwith eyes that make you wonder,
\nthese goats
\nwho will be slaughtered today.
\nWhy\u00a0these\u00a0goats?<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

There are reasons,
\nbut they are human reasons.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

I listened while my friend
\nspoke through his grief for his son,
\nshot to death in a pizza shop he managed
\nin Nashville
\nafter emptying the safe
\nfor a desperate young man with a gun\u2014
\nwho my friend told me he\u2019d forgiven\u2014
\nspoke of consolation through his tears,
\nthe spirit of his son still with him, he said.
\nThe spirit of his son still with him.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Oak tree,
\njoy of my eye
\nthat reaches in so many directions\u2014
\nAre the birds that fly from your branches
\ncloser to heaven?<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

The moon
\nshimmering on the surface of the pond,
\nits rippling reflected in your eyes,
\nof which you are no more aware
\nthan the wind, just passing through this oak,
\nof the acorns still bobbing.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

The mountains, resolute now
\nin fading light.
\nWith her nose deep in the late-summer grass,
\nmy dog calls up a new story.<\/p>\n

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

Dan Gerber
\n1940 –
\nHear the poet read his poem here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, \u00a0June 17 – \u00a0Dan Gerber, the courage we live in \u201cHow big is my heart, I wonder? How will it encompass these men dressed in black?\u201d I\u2019d looked at two or three poems before this one ran into me. … 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\/3545"}],"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=3545"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3548,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3545\/revisions\/3548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}