{"id":3694,"date":"2020-11-18T09:43:15","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T14:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/?p=3694"},"modified":"2020-11-18T09:43:43","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T14:43:43","slug":"nov-18-in-memory-of-dan-berrigan-s-j-april-30-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2020\/11\/18\/nov-18-in-memory-of-dan-berrigan-s-j-april-30-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Nov 18 — In Memory of Dan Berrigan, s.j. + April 30, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, November 18, 2020 \u00a0\u2014 \u00a0Dan Berrigan sj \u2013 a prophet for his moment in time<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s safe to say that no US Jesuit of my generation or the next ignored Dan Berrigan, sj. \u00a0He died on Saturday, April 30, 2016 at 94, a prophet relentlessly called to name the violent evasions of the 2nd half of the 20th century and the first two decades of our current century: \u00a0at home with prison, a source of fury to some in leadership positions \u2014 government officials and bishops come to mind. \u00a0He wrote, and spoke, and created symbolic acts so vivid that \u2014 love them or hate them \u2014 you could not ignore their presence on the landscape. \u00a0 One of my favorite thinkers of that era, the child psychologist Robert Coles, held extended secret conversations with Berrigan while Dan lived in hiding, hunted by the FBI. \u00a0 Some agents finally caught him.\u00a0 While Dan was in prison, Coles edited the transcripts from their hidden talk and so the two of them co-authored a great and demanding book, The Geography of Faith: conversations\u00a0between Daniel Berrigan, when underground, and Robert Coles<\/u> (1971). \u00a0The book revealed my youth to me, opening depths in my imagination that I was still learning to live with during my early 30ies.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, thinking ahead to this morning\u2019s post, I looked for one of his poems that got it about his fierce presence in the world: flint-hard words. \u00a0Pax Christi\u2019s eulogy offered \u201cSome.\u201d \u00a0Like many poems that have graced this list, it will want you to read it several times, \u00a0out loud with pauses.<\/p>\n

Have a blest week during these days of deep autumn,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post \u00a0\u201cSome\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some stood up once, and sat down.
\nSome walked a mile, and walked away.<\/p>\n

Some stood up twice, then sat down.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s too much,\u201d they cried.
\nSome walked two miles, then walked away.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve had it,\u201d they cried,<\/p>\n

Some stood and stood and stood.
\nThey were taken for fools,
\nthey were taken for being taken in.<\/p>\n

Some walked and walked and walked \u2013
\nthey walked the earth,
\nthey walked the waters,
\nthey walked the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do you stand?\u201d they were asked, and
\n\u201cWhy do you walk?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the children,\u201d they said, and
\n\u201cBecause of the heart, and
\n\u201cBecause of the bread,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the cause is
\nthe heart\u2019s beat, and
\nthe children born, and
\nthe risen bread.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some, by Daniel Berrigan<\/em><\/p>\n

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

May 9, 1921\u00a0\u2013 April 30, 2016<\/p>\n

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

Monday, November 18, 2020 \u00a0\u2014 \u00a0Dan Berrigan sj \u2013 a prophet for his moment in time It\u2019s safe to say that no US Jesuit of my generation or the next ignored Dan Berrigan, sj. \u00a0He died on Saturday, April 30, … 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\/3694"}],"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=3694"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3698,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3694\/revisions\/3698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}