{"id":138608,"date":"2023-09-02T23:48:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-03T03:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=138608"},"modified":"2023-09-02T23:48:35","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T03:48:35","slug":"2023-hour-15-empathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2023\/09\/2023-hour-15-empathy\/","title":{"rendered":"2023 Hour 15: Revelation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Write a poem about an experience, but from the perspective of another. For example you could write a poem about your wedding from the experience of your spouse, or you could write a poem about an argument with a stranger from the perspective of the stranger.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>My mother and my aunt gathered up the four of us &#8211;<br \/>\nmy cousins, my sister, and me &#8211;<br \/>\nand drove into town each December<br \/>\nfor the annual Christmas parade.<\/p>\n<p>After Santa waved his goodbyes<br \/>\nAnd the crowds began to thin,<br \/>\nMy mother would hand over a ten-dollar-bill<br \/>\nTo me, and another to my sister,<br \/>\nAnd then handed both of us<br \/>\nOver to our older cousins<br \/>\nFor the outing&#8217;s second act.<\/p>\n<p>Paired off with a teenager<br \/>\nIn one of the town&#8217;s two five and dimes,<br \/>\nWe painstakingly sought out special gifts<br \/>\nFor Mom, for Dad, for sister,<br \/>\nAnd one for the cousin who cheerfully<br \/>\nsupervised the excursion.<\/p>\n<p>Even then, ten dollars could only<br \/>\nStretch so far.<\/p>\n<p>Handkerchiefs or socks for Dad,<br \/>\nA toy for my younger sister.<br \/>\nMaybe some perfume for my cousin,<br \/>\nOr a bouncy new ball<br \/>\nFor when we played jacks together.<\/p>\n<p>But, what to choose for Mom?<br \/>\nMy sister veered toward the outrageous &#8211;<br \/>\nThe more impractical, the better.<br \/>\nBright red nail polish,<br \/>\nAn iridescent purple string of beads<br \/>\nForever enshrined in family memories<br \/>\nAs &#8220;the ball bearing necklace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>My choices, though far more practical,<br \/>\nFailed to attain superior status.<br \/>\nTubes of liquid glue and a<br \/>\nPadded cover for an ironing board<br \/>\nMust have surely been a disappointment<br \/>\nWhen the colorful wrapping paper<br \/>\nParted to reveal its meager contents.<\/p>\n<p>What do the gifts we offer to one another<br \/>\nReveal about the relationship?<br \/>\nHow must I have viewed my mother<br \/>\nAt that tender age,<br \/>\nThat I offered such mundane gifts<br \/>\nTo the woman who offered me<br \/>\nEverything?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Write a poem about an experience, but from the perspective of another. For example you could write a poem about your wedding from the experience of your spouse, or you could write a poem about an argument with a stranger from the perspective of the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":996,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13,1136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem","category-miscellaneous","category-official-marathon-prompts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138608","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\/996"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138608"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138913,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138608\/revisions\/138913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}