{"id":42294,"date":"2017-10-17T08:00:40","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T14:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=42294"},"modified":"2017-10-17T08:13:56","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T14:13:56","slug":"the-view-from-the-balcony-a-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/the-view-from-the-balcony-a-poem\/","title":{"rendered":"The View From the Balcony: A Poem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Be joyful, but never at another\u2019s expense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such glee turns to dirt in your mouth<\/span><\/p>\n

as your laughter dies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, be joyful at your own expense.<\/span><\/p>\n

The investment will yield great returns.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jest about others and they will despise you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jest about yourself and others will say,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a clever man!<\/span><\/p>\n

He knows the irony of his own ways,<\/span><\/p>\n

yet takes delight in exposing them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t laugh at the drunks on the street;<\/span><\/p>\n

there are drunks aplenty inside the bars.<\/span><\/p>\n

You may be one of them,<\/span><\/p>\n

as sometimes am I.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t laugh at someone\u2019s dress.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t leer at the leerable,<\/span><\/p>\n

lest you one day find yourself unknowingly<\/span><\/p>\n

leering at your own son or daughter.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read books, read magazines, read newspapers,<\/span><\/p>\n

Read this. Always read this<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

But don\u2019t believe everything you read.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Talk.<\/span><\/p>\n

Converse, but do not conversate.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is no such word.<\/span><\/p>\n

In your exchanges, don\u2019t give up your truth<\/span><\/p>\n

just to get along.<\/span><\/p>\n

Put it on pause if you must,<\/span><\/p>\n

but never give it up,<\/span><\/p>\n

for truth can be elusive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once found, hold fast to truth \u2013<\/span><\/p>\n

make it yours \u2013<\/span><\/p>\n

not your mother\u2019s or your father\u2019s,<\/span><\/p>\n

not your sister\u2019s or your brother\u2019s,<\/span><\/p>\n

not your friend\u2019s or your enemy\u2019s,<\/span><\/p>\n

but yours.<\/span><\/p>\n

Truth that is yours cannot be taken from you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why? Because it is<\/em> you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Without your truth you are no longer you,<\/span><\/p>\n

rather, a barren soul in search of the essence<\/span><\/p>\n

that once was you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Embrace your truth like your life depends on it.<\/span><\/p>\n

It does.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do not overdo,<\/span><\/p>\n

but if you must,<\/span><\/p>\n

overdo with kindness, if you can.<\/span><\/p>\n

You will fail, for kindness cannot be overdone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, try.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The wind comes and the wind goes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The wind is neither friend nor foe.<\/span><\/p>\n

It carries our laughter,<\/span><\/p>\n

it carries our tears,<\/span><\/p>\n

it carries our dreams,<\/span><\/p>\n

it carries our fears.<\/span><\/p>\n

it teaches us this:<\/span><\/p>\n

nothing is static<\/span><\/p>\n

(except mistuned radios and charged clothing),<\/span><\/p>\n

but there are constants:<\/span><\/p>\n

the rising and the setting of the sun,<\/span><\/p>\n

the changing of the seasons,<\/span><\/p>\n

joy and pain \u2013 the siblings of love,<\/span><\/p>\n

the Spirit that connects us all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Befriend these \u2013 especially the Spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

They will anchor you when the wind blows,<\/span><\/p>\n

no matter from whence it comes,<\/span><\/p>\n

no matter to where it goes.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I watched a little girl on The Square.<\/span><\/p>\n

She was in a wheelchair,<\/span><\/p>\n

petting a dog who was on a leash.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her leg was broken and in a cast.<\/span><\/p>\n

His leg was raised as he pissed a post.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such is life.<\/span><\/p>\n

Live it.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the view from The Balcony.\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Be joyful, but never at another\u2019s expense. Such glee turns to dirt in your mouth as your laughter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":39753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[307],"tags":[642,4,4782,10286,3,753,10426],"class_list":["post-42294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-people","tag-ms","tag-oxford","tag-poetry","tag-randy-weeks","tag-the-local-voice","tag-tlv","tag-view-from-the-balcony"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2017-5-11-View-from-the-Balcony.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}