{"id":1019,"date":"2017-06-01T10:22:19","date_gmt":"2017-06-01T10:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olioweb.me.uk\/wordpress_marcus\/?p=1019"},"modified":"2019-09-15T17:13:13","modified_gmt":"2019-09-15T17:13:13","slug":"poem-of-the-month-june-2017-ballad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/?p=1019","title":{"rendered":"Poem of the Month, June 2017: Ballad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BALLAD<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Anabel&#8217;s one of those people<br \/>\nI was lucky enough to meet<br \/>\nWho is clever enough to be firm<br \/>\nBut kind enough to be sweet.<\/p>\n<p>The things that make me happy<br \/>\nare those from which I refrain<br \/>\nor practice, like the nembutsu,<br \/>\nagain, again and again.<\/p>\n<p>What are you trying to say?<br \/>\nWhom do you need to impress?<br \/>\nSilence speaks from the heart.<br \/>\nConfession can end in a mess.<\/p>\n<p>She is sitting here beside me<br \/>\nIn our usual meeting place,<br \/>\nWith two or three other women<br \/>\nLike a star in outer space.<\/p>\n<p>We try to forget our ego&#8217;s<br \/>\nAnd focus upon &#8216;the other&#8217;<br \/>\nWith pure and impartial hearts<br \/>\nWhich see each man as a brother.<\/p>\n<p>Attachment is unhealthy.<br \/>\nThe Buddha insisted &#8216;Let go!&#8217;.<br \/>\nYet this undying friendship<br \/>\nCauses poetry to flow.<\/p>\n<p>So many things are bad for us,<br \/>\nWe wonder what can be good.<br \/>\nBreathing? Sleep? Fresh vegetables?<br \/>\nA walk in Lappersfort Wood?<\/p>\n<p>The love of a married woman<br \/>\nIs rather a lot to ask.<br \/>\nBut attempting the impossible<br \/>\nIs part of the poet&#8217;s task.<\/p>\n<p><em>May &#8217;17.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BALLAD Anabel&#8217;s one of those people I was lucky enough to meet Who is clever enough to be firm But [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}