{"id":5085,"date":"2025-12-04T21:38:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/?p=5085"},"modified":"2025-12-04T21:38:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:38:01","slug":"a-poem-for-a-thursday-319","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/04\/a-poem-for-a-thursday-319\/","title":{"rendered":"A Poem for a Thursday #319"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"
Photo by Adam Mescher<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Stuart Kestenbaum has written six collections of poetry. He has also written a book of essays on craft and community. He was the poet laureate of Maine from 2016 to 2021. Kestenbaum was the director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, for many years. Ted Kooser said of Kestenbaum’s writing that it contains “heartfelt responses to the privilege of having been given a life.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
It doesn't announce itself or knock
on the door of your heart. Suddenly

it's right behind you,
looking with great pity

at the back of your neck
and your shoulders on which

it spends days placing a burden
and lifting it. Grief arrives

in its own sweet time, sweet<\/em>
because it lets you know that

you are alive, time<\/em> because
what you are holding becomes

the only day there is; the sun stops
moving, the sky grows utterly quiet

and impossibly blue. Behind the blue
are the stars we can't see and beyond

the stars either dark or light,
both of which are endless.

Grief Arrives in its Own Time
Stuart Kestenbaum<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stuart Kestenbaum has written six collections of poetry. He has also written a book of essays on craft and community. He was the poet laureate of Maine from 2016 to 2021. Kestenbaum was the director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, for many years. Ted Kooser said of Kestenbaum’s writing that it contains “heartfelt responses to the privilege of having been given a life.” It doesn’t announce itself or knockon the door of your heart. Suddenlyit’s right behind you,looking with great pityat the back of your neckand your shoulders on whichit spends days placing a burdenand lifting it. Grief arrivesin its own sweet time, sweetbecause it lets you know thatyou are alive, time becausewhat you are holding becomesthe only day there is; the sun stopsmoving, the sky grows utterly quietand impossibly blue. Behind the blueare the stars we can’t see and beyondthe stars either dark or light,both of which are endless.Grief Arrives in its Own TimeStuart Kestenbaum<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5086,"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-5085","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\/5085","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=5085"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5088,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085\/revisions\/5088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}