{"id":3187,"date":"2014-11-26T16:12:43","date_gmt":"2014-11-26T16:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=3187"},"modified":"2015-03-27T00:52:05","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T00:52:05","slug":"methuselah-speaks-a-poem-by-joan-mcnerney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/methuselah-speaks-a-poem-by-joan-mcnerney\/","title":{"rendered":"Methuselah Speaks. A Poem by Joan McNerney"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Living in shadows I scarcely stir.<\/p>\n<p>Each motion brings pain with fear<\/p>\n<p>of falling, breaking brittle bones<\/p>\n<p>or bruising my spider web skin. <\/p>\n<p> &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I see so little.  Sunlight blinds my<\/p>\n<p>rheumy eyes.  Night dims my world<\/p>\n<p>leaving just vague outlines.<\/p>\n<p> &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Food is stale, bitter.  Thirst savage. <\/p>\n<p>No liquids quench me.  My bodily<\/p>\n<p>functions often fail befouling me.<\/p>\n<p> &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>All these years weigh down my soul.<\/p>\n<p>Hearing faded,  everything in whispers.<\/p>\n<p>My breath is raspy, without strength.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>My mind dull with defeat.  I count only<\/p>\n<p>my losses and remember nothing<\/p>\n<p>but the dead.  My memory is pain.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>I cannot celebrate births. My great<\/p>\n<p>grandchildren died so long ago. <\/p>\n<p>Why must I  always wait here?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>God, have you forgotten me?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\n <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1389377102302_7002\" class=\"yiv4122010354MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Joan McNerney\u2019s poetry has been included in numerous literary magazines such as Seven Circle Press, Dinner with the Muse, Blueline, Spectrum, three Bright Spring Press Anthologies and several Kind of A Hurricane Publications. She has been nominated three times for Best of the Net. Poet and Geek recognized her work as their best poem of 2013. Four of her books have been published by fine small literary presses and she has three e-book titles.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv4122010354MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Joan-McNerney.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2261\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Joan-McNerney-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Vivitar\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Joan-McNerney-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Joan-McNerney-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Joan-McNerney-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Joan-McNerney.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv4122010354MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/\">robin@artvilla.com<\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PoetryLifeTimes\">www.facebook.com\/PoetryLifeTimes<\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/%20www.artvilla.com\/plt\">www.artvilla.com\/plt<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1389377102302_7001\" class=\"yiv4122010354MsoNormal\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1389377102302_7061\" class=\"yiv4122010354MsoNormal\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\">  <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-socializer wpsr-share-icons\" data-lg-action=\"show\" data-sm-action=\"show\" data-sm-width=\"768\"><h3>Share and Enjoy !<\/h3><div class=\"wpsr-si-inner\"><div class=\"wpsr-counter wpsrc-sz-40px\" style=\"color:#000\"><span class=\"scount\" data-wpsrs=\"\" data-wpsrs-svcs=\"pinterest,print,pdf,twitter\"><i class=\"fa fa-share-alt\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/span><small class=\"stext\">Shares<\/small><\/div><div class=\"socializer sr-popup sr-count-1 sr-40px sr-pad\"><span class=\"sr-pinterest\"><a data-pin-custom=\"true\" data-id=\"pinterest\" style=\"color:#ffffff;\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/button\/?url=&amp;media=&amp;description=\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Submit this to Pinterest\"><i class=\"fab fa-pinterest\"><\/i><span class=\"ctext\" data-wpsrs=\"\" data-wpsrs-svcs=\"pinterest\"><\/span><\/a><\/span>\n<span class=\"sr-print\"><a data-id=\"print\" style=\"color:#ffffff;\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.printfriendly.com\/print?url=\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Print this article \"><i class=\"fa fa-print\"><\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<span class=\"sr-pdf\"><a data-id=\"pdf\" style=\"color:#ffffff;\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.printfriendly.com\/print?url=\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Convert to PDF\"><i class=\"fa fa-file-pdf\"><\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<span class=\"sr-twitter\"><a data-id=\"twitter\" style=\"color:#ffffff;\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=%20-%20%20\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Tweet this !\"><i class=\"fab fa-twitter\"><\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<span class=\"sr-share-menu\"><a href=\"#\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"More share links\" style=\"color:#ffffff;\" data-metadata=\"{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;excerpt&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;image&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;short-url&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;rss-url&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.artvilla.com\\\/plt\\\/feed\\\/&quot;,&quot;comments-section&quot;:&quot;comments&quot;,&quot;raw-url&quot;:null,&quot;twitter-username&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;fb-app-id&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;fb-app-secret&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\"><i class=\"fa fa-plus\"><\/i><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"wp-socializer wpsr-share-icons\" data-lg-action=\"show\" data-sm-action=\"show\" data-sm-width=\"768\"><div class=\"wpsr-si-inner\"><div class=\"socializer sr-popup sr-32px sr-pad\"><span class=\"sr-facebook\"><a data-id=\"facebook\" style=\"background-color:#1e73be;color:#8224e3;\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share.php?u=\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Share this on Facebook\"><i class=\"fab fa-facebook-f\"><\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<span class=\"sr-share-menu\"><a href=\"#\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"More share links\" style=\"background-color:#1e73be;color:#8224e3;\" data-metadata=\"{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;excerpt&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;image&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;short-url&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;rss-url&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.artvilla.com\\\/plt\\\/feed\\\/&quot;,&quot;comments-section&quot;:&quot;comments&quot;,&quot;raw-url&quot;:null,&quot;twitter-username&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;fb-app-id&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;fb-app-secret&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\"><i class=\"fa fa-plus\"><\/i><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Living in shadows I scarcely stir. Each motion brings pain with fear of falling, breaking brittle bones or bruising my spider web skin. &nbsp; I see so little. Sunlight blinds my rheumy eyes. Night dims my world leaving just vague outlines. &nbsp; Food is stale, bitter. Thirst savage. No liquids quench me. My bodily &#8230; <a title=\"Methuselah Speaks. A Poem by Joan McNerney\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/methuselah-speaks-a-poem-by-joan-mcnerney\/\" aria-label=\"More on Methuselah Speaks. A Poem by Joan McNerney\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2261,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[512,43],"tags":[18,136,3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3187"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3789,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3187\/revisions\/3789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}