Gently, old man, gently<\/p>\n
As you row towards dark uncertainty and the expectation<\/p>\n
of many years past.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gently, as the horizon blurs, conspires with the dark sea<\/p>\n
to trammel your progress<\/p>\n
Look not at the furrowed skyline, or the darkening skies<\/p>\n
for the prize is your journey’s worth.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now the Great White shows forth in a streak of silver,<\/p>\n
disappearing in a froth even before you can make ready your line.<\/p>\n
It will come, old man, it will come.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And again it comes, taunting, baring two endless rows of sparkling white teeth and-<\/p>\n
Your line’s taut-<\/p>\n
and you must secure your prize on the stern, head back to the shore.<\/p>\n
Gently, old man, gently,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now the shore is in sight and your joy froths over<\/p>\n
Alas, your prize is gone and in its stead<\/p>\n
the leftover skeleton of the Great White, whose flesh has fed<\/p>\n
many predators along the way.<\/p>\n
Gently, old man, take life as it comes.<\/p>\n
Gently.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gently, old man, gently As you row towards dark uncertainty and the expectation of many years past. Gently, as the horizon blurs, conspires with the dark sea to trammel your progress Look not at the furrowed skyline, or the darkening skies for the prize…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4014,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4014"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121774"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125046,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121774\/revisions\/125046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}