{"id":55357,"date":"2019-06-23T01:23:31","date_gmt":"2019-06-23T05:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=55357"},"modified":"2019-06-23T01:23:31","modified_gmt":"2019-06-23T05:23:31","slug":"prompt-17-remembered-to-the-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2019\/06\/prompt-17-remembered-to-the-land\/","title":{"rendered":"prompt 17: remembered to the land"},"content":{"rendered":"

remembered to the land<\/em><\/p>\n

The day I read:<\/p>\n

“the land remembers you, even when you are lost,”<\/p>\n

I stopped,<\/p>\n

lowered the book,<\/p>\n

and wept for every speck of dirt<\/p>\n

left behind in places where I left my name,<\/p>\n

ragged and bleeding,<\/p>\n

while newly, unfurled leaves of wild strawberries –<\/p>\n

heart berries –<\/p>\n

wrapped themselves around those ragged edges to hold me fast<\/p>\n

so I would not disappear.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The land who remembered me,<\/p>\n

remembered my bare back on thin blankets,<\/p>\n

the delicate summer evening I bargained my virginity<\/p>\n

for “coolness.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It remembered deep February nights –<\/p>\n

beyond frigid –<\/p>\n

when Aurora Borealis crackled my name to Sky Father and all the Star People.<\/p>\n

My dog and I audience to the magnificence of light against dark.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I had lost myself from those days<\/p>\n

when that land daily whispered how deeply I was loved<\/p>\n

I had lost the voice of those ruddy Mountain Ash guarding the house –<\/p>\n

then twigs –<\/p>\n

now sentinels so wide I cannot embrace them<\/p>\n

and touch my fingertips around the other side.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Upon my return,<\/p>\n

to bring my mother home:<\/p>\n

ashes to ashes<\/p>\n

dust to dust;<\/p>\n

those heart berries were the only ones to know me…<\/p>\n

that tamed land now wild again…<\/p>\n

I could hear my name –<\/p>\n

faintly –<\/p>\n

in those grasses,<\/p>\n

as in the days when I was certain no one did.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Blessed be those little leaves<\/p>\n

and the lands who hold us closest.<\/p>\n

(c) r. l. elke<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

remembered to the land The day I read: “the land remembers you, even when you are lost,” I stopped, lowered the book, and wept for every speck of dirt left behind in places where I left my name, ragged and bleeding, while newly, unfurled leaves…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":712,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13,12,2114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-miscellaneous","category-musings","category-official-marathon-announcement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55357","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\/712"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55441,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55357\/revisions\/55441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}