{"id":76042,"date":"2016-07-04T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2016-07-04T11:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=76042"},"modified":"2016-07-03T17:51:46","modified_gmt":"2016-07-03T16:51:46","slug":"for-what-binds-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/07\/for-what-binds-us\/","title":{"rendered":"For What Binds Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poetic image of growth through sealing and healing.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are names for what binds us:
\nstrong forces, weak forces.
\nLook around, you can see them:
\nthe skin that forms in a half-empty cup,
\nnails rusting into the places they join,
\njoints dovetailed on their own weight.
\nThe way things stay so solidly
\nwherever they\u2019ve been set down \u2014
\nand gravity, scientists say, is weak.<\/p>\n

And see how the flesh grows back
\nacross a wound, with a great vehemence,
\nmore strong
\nthan the simple, untested surface before.
\nThere\u2019s a name for it on horses,
\nwhen it comes back darker and raised: proud flesh,<\/p>\n

as all flesh,
\nis proud of its wounds, wears them
\nas honors given out after battle,
\nsmall triumphs pinned to the chest \u2014<\/p>\n

And when two people have loved each other
\nsee how it is like a
\nscar between their bodies,
\nstronger, darker, and proud;
\nhow the black cord makes of them a single fabric
\nthat nothing can tear or mend.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________<\/p>\n

Jane Hirshfield\u2019s 1988 collection Of Gravity & Angels<\/em><\/a> <\/em>(public library<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poetic image of growth through sealing and healing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76042","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=76042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}