{"id":36119,"date":"2017-08-05T16:34:36","date_gmt":"2017-08-05T20:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=36119"},"modified":"2017-08-05T16:34:36","modified_gmt":"2017-08-05T20:34:36","slug":"poem-8-shovel-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/poem-8-shovel-poem\/","title":{"rendered":"poem #8 ~ shovel poem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c<em>I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra\u201d ~<\/em><\/p>\n<p>with apologies to Ishmael Reed<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>My literary lovers aren\u2019t like me. It is not my choice that I<\/p>\n<p>Follow the tracks of black men, gay men, dead veterans. But who I am<\/p>\n<p>Is all of these men I never was and never will be. Somehow, a<\/p>\n<p>Bridge connects each of them to me, each of us to one another. Cowboys<\/p>\n<p>To angry Indians, men betrayed by women to this woman, who in<\/p>\n<p>Her journey out of darkness watches for the light thrown by the<\/p>\n<p>Men who live there, on the margins, floating down the river in a boat<\/p>\n<p>With words for a rudder. Made homeless by other men <em>always white<\/em> men of<\/p>\n<p><em>My own kind<\/em>, my father told me. But the ancient god speaks, and Ra<\/p>\n<p>Who created everything &amp; everyone, even the white sidewinders,<\/p>\n<p>Reminds me: all pools reflect light. Looking at light is looking in<\/p>\n<p>Into the darkness within us. Each of my lovers has mapped the<\/p>\n<p>Alleys, hairpin curves, and switchbacks of roads like old saloons<\/p>\n<p>Set up to carry us away from bridges, away from all of<\/p>\n<p>Light\u2019s illumination. Not to follow is to submit to fools.<\/p>\n<p>Not to follow is to submit.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.poets.org\/poetsorg\/poem\/i-am-cowboy-boat-ra\">https:\/\/www.poets.org\/poetsorg\/poem\/i-am-cowboy-boat-ra<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI am a cowboy in the boat of Ra\u201d ~ with apologies to Ishmael Reed[1] &nbsp; My literary lovers aren\u2019t like me. It is not my choice that I Follow the tracks of black men, gay men, dead veterans. But who I am Is all&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36119","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\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36128,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36119\/revisions\/36128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}