{"id":186,"date":"2018-10-18T12:51:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T12:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/18\/a-poem-for-thursday-2\/"},"modified":"2020-10-26T23:03:57","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T23:03:57","slug":"a-poem-for-thursday-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/18\/a-poem-for-thursday-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Poem for a Thursday #2"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n

I know Judith Viorst as the author of children’s books. My kids loved Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. <\/i>I liked it too. It is a children’s book that holds up to repeated reading and that has a lovely rhythm to the language. This is not surprising because Viorst is also known for her poetry. I particularly like The Pleasures of Ordinary Life.\u00a0<\/i>
\n
\nI’ve had my share of necessary losses,<\/i>
\nOf dreams I know no longer can come true.<\/i>
\nI’m done now with the whys and the becauses.<\/i>
\nIt’s time to stop complaining and pursue<\/i>
\nThe pleasures of an ordinary life.<\/i>
\n
\n<\/i>
\nI used to rail against my compromises.<\/i>
\nI yearned for the wild music, the swift race.<\/i>
\nBut happiness arrived in new disguises:<\/i>
\nSun lighting a child’s hair. A friend’s embrace.<\/i>
\nSlow dancing in a safe and quiet place.<\/i>
\nThe pleasures of an ordinary life.<\/i>
\n
\n<\/i>
\nI’ll have no trumpets, triumphs, trails of glory.<\/i>
\nIt seems the woman I’ve turned out to be<\/i>
\nIs not the heroine of some grand story.<\/i>
\nBut I have learned to find the poetry<\/i>
\nIn what my hands can touch, my eyes can see.<\/i>
\nThe pleasures of an ordinary life.<\/i>
\n
\n<\/i>
\nYoung fantasies of magic and of mystery<\/i>
\nAre over. But they really can’t compete<\/i>
\nWith all we’ve built together: A long history.<\/i>
\nConnections that help render us complete.<\/i>
\nTies that hold and heal us. And the sweet,<\/i>
\nSweet pleasures of an ordinary life.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know Judith Viorst as the author of children’s books. My kids loved Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I liked it too. It is a children’s book that holds up to repeated reading and that has a lovely rhythm to the language. This is not surprising because Viorst is also known for her poetry. I particularly like The Pleasures of Ordinary Life.\u00a0 I’ve had my share of necessary losses, Of dreams I know no longer can come true. I’m done now with the whys and the becauses. It’s time to stop complaining and pursue The pleasures of an ordinary life. I used to rail against my compromises. I yearned for the wild music, the swift race. But happiness arrived in new disguises: Sun lighting a child’s hair. A friend’s embrace. Slow dancing in a safe and quiet place. The pleasures of an ordinary life. I’ll have no trumpets, triumphs, trails of glory. It seems the woman I’ve turned out to be Is not the heroine of some grand story. But I have learned to find the poetry In what my hands can touch, my eyes can see. The pleasures of an ordinary life. Young fantasies of magic and of mystery Are over. But they really can’t compete With all we’ve built together: A long history. Connections that help render us complete. Ties that hold and heal us. And the sweet, Sweet pleasures of an ordinary life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poem-for-a-thursday"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2649,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions\/2649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}