Dedicate an hour each day to crying.<\/p>\n
Cry as the sky cries, nor for yourself,<\/p>\n
but for those who die hungry<\/p>\n
and alone. Be the hand reaching toward<\/p>\n
the old man who wraps a cardboard sheet<\/p>\n
around himself each night when he settles<\/p>\n
in a shop doorway to sleep.<\/p>\n
He was once young like you.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dedicate an hour each day to prayer.<\/p>\n
Pray like the leaves when wind blows branches bare,<\/p>\n
a scattering on the ground,<\/p>\n
a dying season. Gently press the dahlias\u2019 twisted limbs<\/p>\n
into their sand beds and cover them over with dirt,<\/p>\n
this hope the earth will love them for their bright colours<\/p>\n
as you did and shelter them until spring.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dedicate an hour each day to silence.<\/p>\n
Be the wind when it falls still, the echo<\/p>\n
returning home. Close doors softly behind you<\/p>\n
and walk into the world as if you belong there.<\/p>\n
Place your ear against the jigsaw puzzle trunk<\/p>\n
of the two hundred year old pine in your back yard<\/p>\n
and listen. It was once young like you.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dedicate an hour each day to crying. Cry as the sky cries, nor for yourself, but for those who die hungry and alone. Be the hand reaching toward the old man who wraps a cardboard sheet around himself each night when he settles in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":998,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34463","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\/998"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34478,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34463\/revisions\/34478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}