{"id":700,"date":"2014-08-25T00:00:17","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T00:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=700"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:50:18","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:50:18","slug":"aug-25-fragment-at-the-beginning-of-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2014\/08\/25\/aug-25-fragment-at-the-beginning-of-something\/","title":{"rendered":"Aug 25 “Fragment at the Beginning of Something”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, August 25 – First day of class,<\/p>\n

Writing these posts has got me \u00a0meeting new poets. \u00a0 David Watts is another. \u00a0Here\u2019s the first of his poems I\u2019ve read. \u00a0About a son and his dad and a small stone and beginnings. \u00a0 The university campus begins classes today. \u00a0Lots of confusion, trying to find classrooms, \u00a0forgetting to bring stuff along that you\u2019ll need for teaching and learning, \u00a0pretty massive sticker shocks reading a whole semester\u2019s work all at once, syllabus after syllabus.<\/p>\n

Beginnings. \u00a0I think that\u2019s why I like this poem.<\/p>\n

happy new year<\/p>\n

john st sj<\/p>\n

p.s. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Over the last week or so I\u2019ve been thinking about the pace of five posts each week and I decided to ease up a bit and only post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.<\/p>\n

Right way I\u2019ll break the new rule and, this week, post Monday, Thursday and Friday.<\/p>\n

Wednesday morning I will be up early and driving the c. 4 hours back to Detroit from Guelph, in Canada. \u00a0Once every few months I drive there to talk with Bill Clarke, sj, my Spiritual Director for 30 + years. \u00a0One time at the Blue Water Bridge Customs booth, the man asked me where I was going and what I planned to do: \u00a0\u201cI\u2019m driving to Guelph to see a Jesuit priest about my inner life.\u201d \u00a0\u201cAren\u2019t there priests in Detroit?\u201d \u00a0 \u201cNot this priest.\u201d \u00a0\u201cMust be some priest,\u201d said the guy as he waved me through. \u00a0He\u2019s right about that. \u00a0More on Thursday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post<\/b>
\nMy son brings me a stone and asks
\nwhich star it fell from. He is serious
\nand so I must be careful,
\neven though I know he will place it
\namong those things
\nthat will leave him someday
\nand he will go on, gathering.
\nFor this is one of those moments
\nthat turns suddenly
\ntoward you, opening as it turns,
\nas if for an instant we paused
\non the edge of a heartbeat
\nand then pressed forward, conscious
\nof the fear that runs beside us
\nand how lovely it is to be with each other
\nin the long, resilient mornings.<\/p>\n

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

Posted on the list \u201cBeing There\u201d by<\/p>\n

\"David-Watts\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Fragment at the Beginning of Something…” by\u00a0David Watts,<\/b><\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Bedside Manners: One Doctor’s Reflections on the Oddly Intimate Encounters Between Patient and Healer<\/i>. \u00a9 Random House\/Harmony Books, 2005. Presented here by poet submission.<\/p>\n

Art credit:<\/i>\u00a0“Cloudy stone, rounded by the sea, on a palm of a child,”\u00a0photograph<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>uploaded by\u00a0Profe<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>(originally color).<\/i><\/p>\n

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

Monday, August 25 – First day of class, Writing these posts has got me \u00a0meeting new poets. \u00a0 David Watts is another. \u00a0Here\u2019s the first of his poems I\u2019ve read. \u00a0About a son and his dad and a small stone … 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\/700"}],"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=700"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":705,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions\/705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}