{"id":6607,"date":"2014-04-11T07:30:13","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T07:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=6607"},"modified":"2014-04-11T07:37:57","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T07:37:57","slug":"fred-pollack-for-national-poetry-month-in-the-us-and-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/fred-pollack-for-national-poetry-month-in-the-us-and-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Fred Pollack for National Poetry Month in the US and Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the Hallway<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A girl pressing her cheek against a door,<\/p>\n

doorjamb, or wall beside a door.<\/p>\n

Crying probably, possibly<\/p>\n

mumbling. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

Her face is turned away,<\/p>\n

you can\u2019t see if she\u2019s pretty.<\/p>\n

Which would make a difference<\/p>\n

in your quotient of empathy<\/p>\n

divided by reluctance<\/p>\n

to get involved plus eventual impatience.<\/p>\n

And if and how quickly<\/p>\n

you escaped the sense<\/p>\n

of not being a plausible<\/p>\n

savior (someone she\u2019d find<\/p>\n

attractive when this is over), or \u2013<\/p>\n

long-cherished, firmly-held \u2013<\/p>\n

of helplessness. A novelist<\/p>\n

cases the hallway, the smells and light,<\/p>\n

social class as revealed<\/p>\n

by her dress. Or should.<\/p>\n

For my part, I (not making this<\/p>\n

about me) check<\/p>\n

the decaying file, the yellowed partial volume<\/p>\n

of memory. Not finding her.<\/p>\n

But she exists now, therefore always did<\/p>\n

and will, and is both punishment and forgiveness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fred Pollack<\/strong> is the author of two book-length narrative poems, The Adventure\u00a0<\/em> and Happiness<\/em>, both published by Story Line Press.\u00a0 Other poems in print and online journals.\u00a0 Adjunct professor creative writing George Washington University.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      In the Hallway   A girl pressing her cheek against a door, doorjamb, or wall beside a door. Crying probably, possibly mumbling. That\u2019s it. Her face is turned away, you can\u2019t see if she\u2019s pretty. Which would make a difference in your quotient of empathy divided by reluctance to get involved plus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6607"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6610,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6607\/revisions\/6610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}