At five, \u201cA shepherdess\u201d I told him<\/p>\n
For the tender lamb of my bedtime poem,<\/p>\n
The freedom of the meadows and valleys,<\/p>\n
The gentle pace and active, hard work.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At fifteen, \u201cAn actress\u201d I replied<\/p>\n
For the thrill of self-discovery and<\/p>\n
My commanding voice carrying to the back wall<\/p>\n
Where I connected with last row\u2019s quietest people.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cA world traveler\u201d at twenty-five<\/p>\n
I had journeyed half a world away<\/p>\n
And fallen in love with the people among castles,<\/p>\n
Fountains, windmills, and castanets.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As my brother grew sick, I again found the beauty of home<\/p>\n
Revisiting our memories in bus rides,<\/p>\n
Childhood swings, and climbed trees<\/p>\n
Before the final goodbye.<\/p>\n
At thirty-five I knew the desire of wanting<\/p>\n
Time to stop.<\/p>\n
Time to grow.<\/p>\n
Time to discover, laugh, dream, bicker, cry, giggle, and share deepest delight<\/p>\n
Just one more time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At forty-five, I asked for \u201cgrace and peace\u201d<\/p>\n
In the moments of quietly sitting, holding hands,<\/p>\n
Humming songs, and thanking my father then my best friend<\/p>\n
For our time together, the blessings they had been.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now at fifty, a shepherdess\u2019 steadfast protection over gentle ones appeals to me.<\/p>\n
Teaching for a lifetime, can my voice carry to that student in the last row?<\/p>\n
Spanish coasts and mountains beckon me to a pilgrimage.<\/p>\n
Beyond any outward journey, though, I most yearn for one moment more with those I love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At five, \u201cA shepherdess\u201d I told him For the tender lamb of my bedtime poem, The freedom of the meadows and valleys, The gentle pace and active, hard work. At fifteen, \u201cAn actress\u201d I replied For the thrill of self-discovery and My commanding voice…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13,1136,441],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem","category-miscellaneous","category-official-marathon-prompts","category-poetry-prompt-responses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32529","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\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32529"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32540,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32529\/revisions\/32540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}