{"id":11,"date":"2009-12-19T17:47:31","date_gmt":"2009-12-19T22:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/?p=11"},"modified":"2011-08-18T16:22:41","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T21:22:41","slug":"feast-of-stephen-introspection-poetry-of-john-greenleaf-whittier-and-recognition-of-being-a-writer-for-the-first-life-time-12-19-09","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/feast-of-stephen-introspection-poetry-of-john-greenleaf-whittier-and-recognition-of-being-a-writer-for-the-first-life-time-12-19-09\/","title":{"rendered":"Feast of Stephen, Introspection, Poetry of John Greenleaf Whittier and recognition of being a writer for the first life time.   12-19-09"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fcbk_share\"><div class=\"fcbk_button\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Cal Schwartz\"\ttarget=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img src=\"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/facebook-button-plugin\/images\/standard-facebook-ico.png\" alt=\"Fb-Button\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><div class=\"fcbk_like\"><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/feast-of-stephen-introspection-poetry-of-john-greenleaf-whittier-and-recognition-of-being-a-writer-for-the-first-life-time-12-19-09\/\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\" layout=\"button_count\"  share=\"false\"><\/fb:like><\/div><\/div><p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Firstly, an excerpt from a poem I memorized in fifth grade at Maple Avenue School in Newark. The poet was John Greenleaf Whittier, &#8220;Snowbound&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 &#8220;The sun that brief December day\u00a0rose cheerless over hills of gray, and darkly circled, gave at noon, a sadder light than waning moon. Slow tracing down the thickening sky its mute and ominous prophecy. A portent seeming less than threat, it sank from sight before it set. A chill no coat, however stout, of homespun stuff could quite shut out. A hard, dull bitterness of cold that checked, mid-vein, the circling race. \u00a0Of life-blood in the sharpened face. The coming of the snow-storm told. The wind blew east; we heard the roar of ocean on his wintry shore and felt the strong pulse throbbing there. Beat with low rhythm our inland air.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I just recited one of my favorite poems, memorized fifty years ago (that hurts to say) and which is still floating around my synapses. There&#8217;s worry about the synapse thing. Have I remembered too much inconsequential minutia and is it physically taking up a lot of my free gig space? \u00a0For whatever reasons, I have not been able to remove this poem to trash. But that&#8217;s alright, I love snow, purity, silence, and sometimes, the aftermath of a solid meteorological Northeaster event is getting out of school or work the next day, and laying around with hot chocolate and a copy of <em>Casablanca<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Back to the synapse&#8211; cerebral thing. Since I&#8217;m a real writer; my novel now published and being sold, I realize there is so much more to learn and write about, so I keep shoving things into all sections of my cerebral zone (perhaps a good name for a boutique book store). The zone seems to be expanding, absorbing and retaining. And there&#8217;s new research to help explain intellectual growth. Long telomeres (the tip of chromosomes are called telomeres and they&#8217;re like the tip of a shoelace). The older cells get, telomeres are shorter and offer less protection and cells die. Research suggests massive amounts of exercise keep them long. I do my thinking and proof reading on an exercise bike constantly. Enough said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Snowstorms yield cabin fever time which for me means introspective thinking. I love the song &#8220;Feast of Stephen.&#8221; I&#8217;m back in Newark, fifth grade, Eisenhower was President and I thought remembering Pearl Harbor Day meant thinking a woman named Pearl was brutally attacked. My mother&#8217;s best friend was a Pearl.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This morning I whispered to myself, &#8220;I really am a writer now.&#8221; Last year I went to a lecture at a local University. This amazing political science genius, who writes, commentates and advises lectured, while in the back, copies of his book were being sold. Afterwards, I stood in line with just a program, hoping to get an autograph and ask a powerful question. I was next in line. He looked at my program and realized I did not buy his book so he walked away. I realized what I had to do and ran to the back, bought a book, jumped back in line, and I got my autograph and answer to the question, &#8220;If you advise and commentate, how come you never ran for President?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I got a brusque (nice word for a snowy day) answer. &#8220;Never, not for me.&#8221; \u00a0The fact that this multi-millionaire omnipresent personality wouldn&#8217;t sign an autograph unless I bought his book bothered me for a year until this morning. Now I understand. We&#8217;re both writers now. Although early on in my authorship, it seems there are folks in my world who expect my giving them a novel without payment(for a variety of reasons). I&#8217;ve been writing for ten years, longer than doctors need to be in medical school and residency for a specialty.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So in my mind and heart I&#8217;m comfortable seeking payment and grateful that it snowed today, giving me introspective time, although I just got that sinking intestinal discomforting feeling that someone is going to have to deal with removing two feet of snow in the morning. &#8216;Someone&#8217; has been me since I memorized that poem back in fifth grade.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Happy Merry Healthy Holidays and New Years.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fcbk_share\"><div class=\"fcbk_button\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Cal Schwartz\"\ttarget=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img src=\"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/facebook-button-plugin\/images\/standard-facebook-ico.png\" alt=\"Fb-Button\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><div class=\"fcbk_like\"><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/feast-of-stephen-introspection-poetry-of-john-greenleaf-whittier-and-recognition-of-being-a-writer-for-the-first-life-time-12-19-09\/\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\" layout=\"button_count\"  share=\"false\"><\/fb:like><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Firstly, an excerpt from a poem I memorized in fifth grade at Maple Avenue School in Newark. The poet was John Greenleaf Whittier, &#8220;Snowbound&#8221; \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 &#8220;The sun that brief December day\u00a0rose cheerless over hills of gray, and darkly circled, gave at noon, a sadder light than waning moon. Slow tracing down the thickening sky [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1157,"href":"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions\/1157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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