{"id":277,"date":"2010-05-31T17:50:15","date_gmt":"2010-05-31T21:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=277"},"modified":"2010-06-08T10:28:56","modified_gmt":"2010-06-08T14:28:56","slug":"a-poem-for-memorial-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2010\/05\/31\/a-poem-for-memorial-day\/","title":{"rendered":"A Poem for Memorial Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some twenty years ago, I helped organize an arts festival at St. Lawrence University focusing on the work of artists of all genres who had come of age during the Vietnam era&#8211;both those who served in the military and those who didn&#8217;t. It was an extraordinary experience and I met some remarkable (mostly) men. I had the honor to get to know poet W. D. Ehrhart, a Vietnam vet who taught school in the years immediately following his service. This poem has stayed with me through the decades.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Teacher<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>for my students at Sandy Spring Friends School<\/em><br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\nA cold moon hangs<br \/>\ncold fire among the clouds,<br \/>\nand I remember colder nights<br \/>\nin hell when men died<br \/>\nin such pale light as this<br \/>\nof fire<br \/>\nswift<br \/>\nand deadly as a heart of ice.<\/p>\n<p>Hardly older then<br \/>\nthan you are now,<br \/>\nI hunched down shaking<br \/>\nlike an old man<br \/>\nalone in an empty cave<br \/>\namong the rocks of ignorance<br \/>\nand malice honorable men<br \/>\ncall truth.<\/p>\n<p>Out of that cave I carried<br \/>\nanger like a torch<br \/>\nto keep my heart from freezing,<br \/>\nand a strange new thing called<br \/>\nlove<br \/>\nto keep me sane.<\/p>\n<p>A dozen years ago,<br \/>\nbefore I ever knew you,<br \/>\nbeneath a moon not unlike<br \/>\nthis moon tonight,<br \/>\nI swore an oath to teach you<br \/>\nall I know\u2014<br \/>\nand I know things<br \/>\nworth knowing.<\/p>\n<p>It is a desperate future<br \/>\nI cling to,<br \/>\nand it is yours.<br \/>\nAll that I have lived for<br \/>\nsince that cold moon long ago<br \/>\nhangs in the balance\u2014<br \/>\nand I keep fumbling for words,<br \/>\nbut this clip-clapper tongue<br \/>\nwon\u2019t do.<\/p>\n<p>I am afraid;<br \/>\nI do not want to fail:<\/p>\n<p>I need your hands to steady me;<br \/>\nI need your hearts to give me courage,<br \/>\nI need you to walk with me<br \/>\nuntil I find a voice<br \/>\nthat speaks the language<br \/>\nthat you speak.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;W.D. Ehrhart, <em>September 1978<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Reprinted from <strong>Beautiful Wreckage<\/strong>, Adastra Press, 1999, with permission from the author.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some twenty years ago, I helped organize an arts festival at St. Lawrence University focusing [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[14,1245,1244],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions\/281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}