{"id":203,"date":"2008-08-01T09:55:22","date_gmt":"2008-08-01T13:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=203"},"modified":"2009-08-28T15:47:01","modified_gmt":"2009-08-28T19:47:01","slug":"it-was-like-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/it-was-like-this\/","title":{"rendered":"It Was Like This"},"content":{"rendered":"

My weekly favorite selection<\/a> from the incomparable whiskey river<\/a> (which daily seems as unlike a blog as it’s possible for a blog to be):<\/p>\n

It Was Like This: You Were Happy<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was like this:
\nyou were happy, then you were sad,
\nthen happy again, then not.<\/p>\n

It went on.
\nYou were innocent or you were guilty.
\nActions were taken, or not.<\/p>\n

At times you spoke, at other times you were silent.
\nMostly, it seems you were silent – what could you say?<\/p>\n

Now it is almost over.<\/p>\n

Like a lover, your life bends down and kisses your life.<\/p>\n

It does this not in forgiveness –
\nbetween you, there is nothing to forgive –
\nbut with the simple nod of a baker at the moment
\nhe sees the bread is finished with transformation.<\/p>\n

Eating, too, is now a thing only for others.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter what they will make of you
\nor your days: they will be wrong,
\nthey will miss the wrong woman, miss the wrong man,
\nall the stories they tell will be tales of their own invention.<\/p>\n

Your story was this: you were happy, then you were sad,
\nyou slept, you awakened.
\nSometimes you ate roasted chestnuts, sometimes persimmons.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(by Jane Hirshfield<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My weekly favorite selection from the incomparable whiskey river (which daily seems as unlike a blog as it’s possible for a blog to be): It Was Like This: You Were Happy It was like this: you were happy, then you were sad, then happy again, then not. It went on. You were innocent or you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"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,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,251],"tags":[178,270,271,272],"class_list":{"0":"post-203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-poetry-writing_cat","9":"tag-whiskey-river","10":"tag-jane-hirshfield","11":"tag-happiness","12":"tag-sadness","13":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-3h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5557,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions\/5557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}