{"id":243,"date":"2012-04-25T23:03:41","date_gmt":"2012-04-26T03:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/?p=243"},"modified":"2013-09-04T22:57:43","modified_gmt":"2013-09-05T02:57:43","slug":"thursday-april-26-2012-is-poem-in-your-pocket-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/?p=243","title":{"rendered":"Thursday April 26, 2012 is “Poem In Your Pocket” Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was e-conversing with a good friend tonight \u2013 someone whom I admire and respect and do not see often enough \u2013 and she mentioned that tomorrow is “Poem In Your Pocket<\/a>” day, something I’d never heard of until tonight. Since the object of our conversation had been the seemingly endless and thankless work “saving the world” of late (more on that in my next post)<\/em>, she also offered this beautiful poem, and suggested I\u00a0 “put this in your pocket and pull it out when you need some strength or to remind yourself that others know and understand what you are bearing for the greater good.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I. Have. Incredible. Friends.<\/p>\n

For that I am extremely thankful.<\/p>\n

To Be of Use<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

The people I love the best<\/em><\/span>
\njump into work head first<\/em><\/span>
\nwithout dallying in the shallows<\/em><\/span>
\nand swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.<\/em><\/span>
\nThey seem to become natives of that element,<\/em><\/span>
\nthe black sleek heads of seals<\/em><\/span>
\nbouncing like half submerged balls.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,<\/em><\/span>
\nwho pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,<\/em><\/span>
\nwho strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,<\/em><\/span>
\nwho do what has to be done, again and again.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I want to be with people who submerge<\/em><\/span>
\nin the task, who go into the fields to harvest<\/em><\/span>
\nand work in a row and pass the bags along,<\/em><\/span>
\nwho stand in the line and haul in their places,<\/em><\/span>
\nwho are not parlor generals and field deserters<\/em><\/span>
\nbut move in a common rhythm<\/em><\/span>
\nwhen the food must come in or the fire be put out.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The work of the world is common as mud.<\/em><\/span>
\nBotched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.<\/em><\/span>
\nBut the thing worth doing well done<\/em><\/span>
\nhas a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.<\/em><\/span>
\nGreek amphoras for wine or oil,<\/em><\/span>
\nHopi vases that held corn, are put in museums<\/em><\/span>
\nbut you know they were made to be used.<\/em><\/span>
\nThe pitcher cries for water to carry<\/em><\/span>
\nand a person for work that is real.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Marge Piercy<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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

I was e-conversing with a good friend tonight \u2013 someone whom I admire and respect and do not see often enough \u2013 and she mentioned that tomorrow is “Poem In Your Pocket” day, something I’d never heard of until tonight. Since the object of our conversation had been the seemingly endless and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[26,185],"tags":[105,86,27,348],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2nL7w-3V","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions\/245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}