{"id":222,"date":"2008-04-02T03:09:22","date_gmt":"2008-04-02T07:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.berkshirelinks.com\/berkshires-news\/?p=222"},"modified":"2008-04-02T03:09:22","modified_gmt":"2008-04-02T07:09:22","slug":"in-your-absence-by-judith-harris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/in-your-absence-by-judith-harris\/","title":{"rendered":"In Your Absence, by Judith Harris"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>American Life in Poetry: Column 157<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006<\/p>\n<p>From your school days you may remember <strong>A. E. Housman&#8217;s<\/strong> poem that begins, &#8220;Loveliest of trees, the cherry now\/ Is hung with bloom along the bough.&#8221; Here&#8217;s a look at a blossoming cherry, done 120 years later, on site among the famous cherry trees of <strong>Washington<\/strong>, by D.C. poet <strong>Judith Harris<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In Your Absence<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not yet summer,<br \/>\nbut unseasonable heat<br \/>\npries open the cherry tree.<\/p>\n<p>It stands there stupefied,<br \/>\nin its sham, pink frills,<br \/>\ndense with early blooming.<\/p>\n<p>Then, as afternoon cools<br \/>\ninto more furtive winds,<br \/>\nI look up to see<br \/>\na blizzard of petals<br \/>\nrushing the sky.<\/p>\n<p>It is only April.<br \/>\nI can&#8217;t stop my own life<br \/>\nfrom hurrying by.<br \/>\nThe moon, already pacing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>American Life in Poetry<\/strong> is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/\">www.poetryfoundation.org<\/a>), publisher of <em>Poetr<\/em>y magazine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American Life in Poetry: Column 157 BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006 From your school days you may remember A. E. Housman&#8217;s poem that begins, &#8220;Loveliest of trees, the cherry now\/ Is hung with bloom along the bough.&#8221; Here&#8217;s a look at a blossoming cherry, done 120 years later, on site among the famous [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}