{"id":760,"date":"2008-09-05T10:48:59","date_gmt":"2008-09-05T14:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=760"},"modified":"2008-09-05T11:10:40","modified_gmt":"2008-09-05T15:10:40","slug":"flying-not-flying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/flying-not-flying\/","title":{"rendered":"Flying, Not Flying"},"content":{"rendered":"

From whiskey river<\/a>:<\/p>\n

To the Light of September<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you are already here
\nyou appear to be only
\na name that tells of you
\nwhether you are present or not<\/p>\n

and for now it seems as though
\nyou are still summer
\nstill the high familiar
\nendless summer
\nyet with a glint
\nof bronze in the chill mornings
\nand the late yellow petals
\nof the mullein<\/span> fluttering
\non the stalks that lean
\nover their broken
\nshadows across the cracked ground<\/p>\n

but they all know
\nthat you have come
\nthe seed heads of the sage
\nthe whispering birds
\nwith nowhere to hide you
\nto keep you for later<\/p>\n

you
\nwho fly with them<\/p>\n

you who are neither
\nbefore nor after
\nyou who arrive
\nwith blue plums
\nthat have fallen through the night<\/p>\n

perfect in the dew<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(by W. S. Merwin)<\/p>\n

…and, from elsewhere:<\/p>\n

Evolution in Indiana<\/strong><\/p>\n

I thought that species took ten thousand years
\nto gradually evolve new strategies
\nto deal with shifts in climate or environment,
\nbut after two snow-free years in a row
\nthe local robins all at once decided
\nto winter here instead of flying south.
\nI watched them pace my lawn in late November,
\ndebating like small Hamlets with their instincts:
\n“It’s way past time to migrate; why haven’t I?”
\nSince, every fall, a few old feeble ones
\ndecide they’d rather risk starvation here
\nthan drop off dead of fatigue in Alabama,
\nat first I thought it was their kind I glimpsed
\nrummaging discarded Christmas trees
\nfor grubs and squabbling with the greedy squirrels
\nstealing birdseed from my neighbor’s feeder.
\nBut then, one drizzly January walk,
\nI spotted dozens, looking sleek and healthy,
\nplucking worms who’d washed up on my sidewalk.
\nWhy here, where I was forced to grub for money
\nall winter long, when they could fly away,
\nI wondered as they hopped out of my path.
\nDoes flying hurt so much they’d rather shiver
\nand see the sun once every other week
\nthan perch in palms swayed by an ocean breeze?
\nIf I had wings, I’d use them… and on and on
\nI muttered as I trudged around the block
\nin pointless circles, just for exercise,
\nhands thrust into my pockets, arms tight to sides,
\nlike some huge flightless bird, while overhead
\nthe most successful members of my species
\nwinged effortlessly southward in high Boeings
\ninvisible from our side of the clouds —
\nwe well-fed and hard-working flock of Dodos.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(by Richard Cecil)<\/p>\n

…and finally, the following. Downloading the original, alas, isn’t an option. Following right behind, though, at a very close second choice, is this unplugged version by one of the four original performers:<\/p>\n

[audio:blackbird_paulmccartney.mp3|titles=Blackbird|artists=Paul McCartney-Live on MTV Unplugged]<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From whiskey river: To the Light of September When you are already here you appear to be only a name that tells of you whether you are present or not and for now it seems as though you are still summer still the high familiar endless summer yet with a glint of bronze in the […]<\/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":[74,251],"tags":[351,414,415,416,417,418,419,420],"class_list":{"0":"post-760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music","7":"category-poetry-writing_cat","8":"tag-ws-merwin","9":"tag-flying","10":"tag-september","11":"tag-evolution-in-indiana","12":"tag-richard-cecil","13":"tag-beatles","14":"tag-paul-mccartney","15":"tag-blackbird","16":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-cg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760","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=760"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":768,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions\/768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}