{"id":284048,"date":"2025-01-06T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T12:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=284048"},"modified":"2025-01-01T10:56:40","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T10:56:40","slug":"heron-rises-from-the-dark-summer-pond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/01\/heron-rises-from-the-dark-summer-pond\/","title":{"rendered":"Heron Rises from the Dark, Summer Pond"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Great white heron, Holbox Island<\/p><\/div>\n

So heavy
\nis the long-necked, long-bodied heron,
\nalways it is a surprise
\nwhen her smoke-colored wings<\/p>\n

open
\nand she turns
\nfrom the thick water,
\nfrom the black sticks<\/p>\n

of the summer pond,
\nand slowly
\nrises into the air
\nand is gone.<\/p>\n

Then, not for the first or the last time,
\nI take the deep breath
\nof happiness, and I think
\nhow unlikely it is<\/p>\n

that death is a hole in the ground,
\nhow improbable
\nthat ascension is not possible,
\nthough everything seems so inert, so nailed<\/p>\n

back into itself \u2014
\nthe muskrat and his lumpy lodge,
\nthe turtle,
\nthe fallen gate.<\/p>\n

And especially it is wonderful
\nthat the summers are long
\nand the ponds so dark and so many,
\nand therefore it isn\u2019t a miracle<\/p>\n

but the common thing,
\nthis decision,
\nthis trailing of the long legs in the water,
\nthis opening up of the heavy body<\/p>\n

into a new life: see how the sudden
\ngray-blue sheets of her wings
\nstrive toward the wind; see how the clasp of nothing
\ntakes her in.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mary Jane Oliver was a US poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. She found inspiration in nature and had a lifelong habit of solitary walks in the wild. Her poetry is characterized by wonderment at the natural environment, vivid imagery, and unadorned language.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So heavy
\nis the long-necked, long-bodied heron,
\nalways it is a surprise<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":284052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[868],"class_list":["post-284048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284048"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284054,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284048\/revisions\/284054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}