{"id":8193,"date":"2023-01-14T19:39:48","date_gmt":"2023-01-14T19:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=8193"},"modified":"2023-01-14T20:03:47","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T20:03:47","slug":"temporal-forest-paths-the-fringe-3-poems-by-jd-dehart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/temporal-forest-paths-the-fringe-3-poems-by-jd-dehart\/","title":{"rendered":"Temporal, Forest Paths & The Fringe. 3 Poems by JD DeHart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\r\nTemporal<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\u00a0\r\nEveryone I talk to lately\r\nseems to be mediating on the passage of time.\r\n\r\n\u00a0It goes so fast, they say. Almost in chorus.\r\n\r\n It\u2019s the greying in all of our hair, or\r\nthe effect of being holed up for two years,\r\ntwenty-four months that have felt like\r\na decade of worry and anticipatory grief.\r\n\r\n\u00a0Of course, we are creatures\r\nthat have an inevitable terminus. There\r\nare a variety of words for this truth.\r\n\r\n\u00a0Crapshoot and shitshow both come to mind.\r\nFunny how scatological such terms are,\r\nindicating how we truly feel about the ultimate\r\n\r\n\u00a0away and, in some cases, our lodging here.\r\n\r\n\u00a0I munch another bite of the remnants\r\nof a creature that met its demise to\r\nsustain me for a few more hours.\r\n\r\n\u00a0I contemplate how the past is not real\r\nanymore, and neither are my speculations\r\nof the future. The body bears the mark of all\r\n\r\n\u00a0but everything eventually becomes\r\nmemory or a vague sense that someone,\r\neven someone much like us,\r\n\r\n\u00a0used to be here.\r\n\r\n\r\nForest Paths<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\u00a0\r\nI can still trace\r\nthe way our feet fell\r\nwhere few other feet stood,\r\n\r\n\u00a0I would walk further\r\nahead, always drafting in my mind.\r\n\r\n\u00a0The comic books and adventure\r\nstories I built with each step,\r\nwhile you, my father, walked\r\n\r\n\u00a0just behind me, the sound\r\nof our family hunting dog\r\nlapping and sniffing.\r\n\r\n\u00a0That time when I was younger,\r\nwhen you threatened to cut\r\nour walk short. I must have\r\ndeserved it, but said:\r\n\r\n\u201cIf I come back without you,\r\nno big deal, but if you come back\r\nwithout me, you\u2019re in trouble,\r\nmister.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u00a0What was I thinking to speak\r\nto you in such a way, but you\r\nand Mom laughed about that\r\nfor years, probably still telling\r\nthat story whenever you can.\r\n\r\n\u00a0Did you know I still go back\r\nwhen life is full to those quiet places,\r\nwhere I can hear wind\r\nmoving through the trees of memory?\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s true.\r\n\r\n\u00a0My brain still finds that place\r\nwhere the forest grows denser,\r\npast the well-trod path,\r\n\r\n\u00a0rounding curves and bends,\r\nbeing careful of stray dogs\r\nand spiderwebs, to go to places\r\n\r\n\u00a0few others go.\r\n\r\n\u00a0I will always be\r\na creature of the woods.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Fringe<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\u00a0\r\nSo, here I am.\r\nAlways on the edges.\r\n\r\n\u00a0Wondering what word\r\ncaptures me. Belonging and never\r\nbelonging.\r\n\r\n\u00a0Maybe I\u2019ve always fit in somewhere\r\nand just haven\u2019t seen it yet.\r\n\r\n\u00a0A figure from the fringes, do I\r\nlove? Of course I do, trying my best to\r\n\r\n\u00a0hold the affection for neighbors\r\nthat I ought to hold for myself (that I work\r\non holding for myself).\r\n\r\n\u00a0Yet, always at the edge, somehow,\r\nat the corner of the room, looking in.\r\n\r\n\u00a0A describer\u2019s heart, an ethnographer\u2019s\r\nmind. <\/pre>\n
 
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
 
\nJD DeHart <\/strong>is a writer and teacher. His latest poetry collection, A Five-Year Journey<\/em>, is available from Dreaming Big Publications.<\/p>\n
Share and Enjoy !<\/h3>
<\/i><\/span>Shares<\/small><\/div>
<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span>\n<\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<\/i><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<\/i><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Temporal \u00a0 Everyone I talk to lately seems to be mediating on the passage of time. \u00a0It goes so fast, they say. Almost in chorus. It\u2019s the greying in all of our hair, or the effect of being holed up for two years, twenty-four months that have felt like a decade of worry and anticipatory … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[650,808,796,366,401,43],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8193"}],"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=8193"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8197,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8193\/revisions\/8197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}