{"id":3316,"date":"2023-10-21T01:19:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-21T08:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/?p=3316"},"modified":"2023-10-05T08:23:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T15:23:31","slug":"poem-on-itself-by-d-r-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/2023\/10\/21\/poem-on-itself-by-d-r-james\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Poem on Itself&#8221; by D. R. James"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">               <em> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\u2014as told to its author<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">\u201cReluctant, I\u2019m shy<br>the confidence of squirrels,<br>who clatter across laced branches,<br>reckless when the unmapped way<br>lays itself out or<br>doesn\u2019t, the dead end,<br>the spring-and-give<br>more the living<br>than the solid path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI fear this next leap\u2014<br>that a soft spot in leaves<br>or a sure next move<br>won\u2019t rise up like a dream<br>or like reason\u2014<br>that I might have to answer<br>to myself<br>or to some perfect image<br>shouldering its vague weight<br>onto a balance, trying<br>to tip the scales<br>favoring significance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRight now I\u2019m hesitating<br>to inch<br>along this fine line<br>I\u2019m barely feeling<br>between seeing meaning<br>and needing<br>merely being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEven in this<br>I am afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:14px\"><br><em>D. R. James, a year into retirement from nearly 40 years of teaching college writing, literature, and peace studies, lives, writes, bird-watches, vegges, avoids the tourists, and cycles with his psychotherapist wife in the woods near Saugatuck, Michigan, a short ride from the lovely western shores of Lake Michigan.<br>https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/author\/drjamesauthorpage<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\u2014as told to its author \u201cReluctant, I\u2019m shythe confidence of squirrels,who clatter across laced branches,reckless when the unmapped waylays itself out ordoesn\u2019t, the dead end,the spring-and-givemore the livingthan the solid path. \u201cI fear this next leap\u2014that a soft spot in leavesor a sure next movewon\u2019t rise up like a dreamor like reason\u2014that I might have &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/2023\/10\/21\/poem-on-itself-by-d-r-james\/\" class=\"excerpt-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa867U-Ru","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3316"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3321,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3316\/revisions\/3321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}