{"id":2363,"date":"2025-12-17T19:00:51","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T00:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/?p=2363"},"modified":"2025-12-17T19:00:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T00:00:51","slug":"17-decembrance-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/2025\/12\/17\/17-decembrance-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"#17 decembrance 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Years ago my mom gave me a pin that said, “learn to read poetry.” I, in turn, gave her a postcard that I made saying, “learn to read pottery.” Recently, in the cold weather I have often made tea not because I wanted to drink it but because I wanted to hold the warm cup. The poetry of pottery is what we make of the dirt. The poetry is best communicated through our touch and use and yet I continue to take photographs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I Believe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poetry, I tell my students,
is idiosyncratic. Poetry<\/p>\n\n\n\n

is where we are ourselves
(though Sterling Brown said<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery \u2018I\u2019 is a dramatic \u2018I\u2019\u201d),
digging in the clam flats<\/p>\n\n\n\n

for the shell that snaps,
emptying the proverbial pocketbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poetry is what you find
in the dirt in the corner,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

overhear on the bus, God
in the details, the only way<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to get from here to there.
Poetry (and now my voice is rising)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

is not all love, love, love,
and I\u2019m sorry the dog died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poetry (here I hear myself loudest)
is the human voice,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and are we not of interest to each other?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Elizabeth Alexander, in American Sublime<\/a><\/em>, Graywolf Press, 2005<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Years ago my mom gave me a pin that said, “learn to read poetry.” I, in turn, gave her a postcard that I made saying, “learn to read pottery.” Recently, in the cold weather I have often made tea not because I wanted to drink it but because I wanted to hold the warm cup. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rough-ideas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2365,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363\/revisions\/2365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}