{"id":1572,"date":"2011-03-23T20:58:24","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T04:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ethicsofisl\/?p=1572"},"modified":"2011-03-23T21:02:35","modified_gmt":"2011-03-24T05:02:35","slug":"two-poems-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ethicsofisl\/2011\/03\/23\/two-poems-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Poems, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Call Me by My True Names<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/h4>\n

Thich Nhat Hanh<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow
\nbecause even today I still arrive.<\/p>\n

Look deeply: I arrive in every second
\nto be a bud on a spring branch,
\nto be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile,
\nlearning to sing in my new nest,
\nto be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
\nto be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.<\/p>\n

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
\nin order to fear and to hope.
\nThe rhythm of my heart is the birth and
\ndeath of all that are alive.<\/p>\n

I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river,
\nand I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time
\nto eat the mayfly.<\/p>\n

I am the frog swimming happily in the clear pond,
\nand I am also the grass-snake who, approaching in silence,
\nfeeds itself on the frog.<\/p>\n

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
\nmy legs as thin as bamboo sticks,
\nand I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda.<\/p>\n

I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat,
\nwho throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate,
\nand I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.<\/p>\n

I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my hands,
\nand I am the man who has to pay his “debt of blood” to, my people,
\ndying slowly in a forced labor camp.<\/p>\n

My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom in all walks of life.
\nMy pain if like a river of tears, so full it fills the four oceans.<\/p>\n

Please call me by my true names,
\nso I can hear all my cries and laughs at once,
\nso I can see that my joy and pain are one.<\/p>\n

Please call me by my true names,
\nso I can wake up,
\nand so the door of my heart can be left open,
\nthe door of compassion.<\/p>\n

1989<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

The Average<\/h3>\n

W.H. Auden<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

His peasant parents killed themselves with toil
\nTo let their darling leave a stingy soil
\nFor any of those smart professions which
\nEncourage shallow breathing, and grow rich.<\/p>\n

The pressure of their fond ambition made
\nTheir shy and country-loving child afraid
\nNo sensible career was good enough,
\nOnly a hero could deserve such love.<\/p>\n

So here he was without maps or supplies,
\nA hundred miles from any decent town;
\nThe desert glared into his blood-shot eyes;<\/p>\n

The silence roared displeasure: looking down,
\nHe saw the shadow of an Average Man
\nAttempting the exceptional, and ran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Call Me by My True Names Thich Nhat Hanh Do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow because even today I still arrive. Look deeply: I arrive in every second to be a bud on a spring branch, to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile, learning to sing in my new nest, to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":720,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[640],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ethicsofisl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ethicsofisl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ethicsofisl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ethicsofisl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/720"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ethicsofisl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1572"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ethicsofisl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1577,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ethicsofisl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572\/revisions\/1577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ethicsofisl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ethicsofisl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ethicsofisl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}