{"id":10518,"date":"2021-06-18T20:26:18","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T20:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/?p=10518"},"modified":"2021-06-18T21:56:05","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T21:56:05","slug":"happy-fathers-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/2021\/06\/happy-fathers-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Father’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Sunday is Father\u2019s Day. No doubt you\u2019ll read many saccharine accounts of fathers and what it means to be a parent and to be parented. But reality is not usually as sweet. Sometimes the people in our lives cannot be summed up with sentimentality. One of my favorite poems is This Be the Verse<\/strong> by Philip Larkin<\/a> because it views parenting as flawed at best. Of course it is overly cynical. Nevertheless, there is much truth in this jaundiced view of parenting as imperfect and human.\u00a0 I know imperfect and human could apply to my parenting, but I would also add that it is loving too (something Larkin overlooks).<\/p>\n

In the poem \u201cWarnings\u201d<\/strong> Laura Rodley<\/strong> writes about a father who was complicated.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Laura for this contribution. Happy Father\u2019s Day to all.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peace, love, solace<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Warnings<\/strong><\/p>\n

A job worth doing is worth doing well.<\/em>
\nPay attention, or we\u2019ll have to keep you<\/em>
\ntill you\u2019re twenty-one,<\/em> my father threatened,
\nyou don\u2018t pay attention<\/em>, expecting perfection
\nthe first time any new task was attempted.
\nA World War II vet, who served
\nin Korea, he never talked
\nabout it. His hair-trigger temper,
\nhis headaches if he didn\u2019t eat spoke for him.
\nBreakfast, a sandwich for lunch were not enough.
\nHe should have bought snacks but he did not
\nmake anything for himself. He wanted to be
\nserved. By the time dinner was served,
\nit was too late; he had another headache.
\nHe had contracted dengue fever, maybe
\nhe was dehydrated. He had that never-sitting-still,
\nno meditating, jittery energy that some
\nWorld War II vets had, their wives too, loud,
\naggressive, dominant. Their children took up
\nmeditation to counter-balance the tension.
\nIs it retroactive, what work we do on ourselves
\nfor those that helped create us? Prayers can be
\nretroactive. My father was never still, never
\npeaceful, always dynamic, frenetic. He told me,
\nhold onto my thumbs, walk up my back<\/em>
\nto my shoulders, leap off into the deep end<\/em>.
\n\u00a9 Laura Rodley, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Perfect bee \u00a9 Laura Rodley, 2021<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

A frequent contributor to this site, Massachusetts poet Laura Rodley<\/strong>, is also freelance writer for publications such as Country Life<\/strong><\/em>. The two most recent books by Laura are Counter Point<\/strong><\/em> (Prolific Press) and Turn Left at Normal<\/strong><\/em> (Big Table Publishing).<\/p>\n

In 2013, she was awarded a Pushcart Prize for her poem \u201cResurrection\u201d<\/strong><\/a> which appeared in the New Verse News<\/strong><\/em>. In 2020, New Verse News<\/em><\/strong> published her poem (\u201cPower Outage<\/strong><\/a>\u201d) about the pandemic. She also has two poems in The Galway Review<\/strong><\/em> (\u201cFlashpoint\u201d and \u201cBad Mood<\/strong><\/a>\u201d) and her poem \u201cSplicing\u201d<\/strong> appears in the Boston Literary Magazine<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

THANK-YOU<\/strong> to Laura for sharing her work here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Sunday is Father\u2019s Day. No doubt you\u2019ll read many saccharine accounts of fathers and what it means to be a parent and to be parented. But reality is not usually as sweet. Sometimes the people in our lives cannot be summed up with sentimentality. One of my favorite poems is This Be the Verse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3681,12,3678,1638,205,3104,3679,3680,3677,39,13,7,16,3676,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-10518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-complicated-relationship","8":"tag-ellen-wade-beals","9":"tag-family","10":"tag-fathers-day","11":"tag-laura-rodley","12":"tag-massachusetts-poet","13":"tag-parent","14":"tag-parenting","15":"tag-philip-larkin","16":"tag-photography","17":"tag-poetry","18":"tag-solace","19":"tag-solace-in-so-many-words","20":"tag-this-be-the-verse","21":"tag-weighed-words","22":"entry","23":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10518"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10525,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10518\/revisions\/10525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}