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Smoking<\/strong><\/p>\n My father\u2019s brand Pall Malls, hands off steering<\/p>\n wheel to light his, then flick off searing<\/p>\n leaves that stuck to his lip, happened each trip<\/p>\n sixty miles per hour, I worried we\u2019d flip<\/p>\n <\/p>\n over, he contentedly pressed the gas,<\/p>\n driving faster somehow made pleasure last.<\/p>\n My sisters took up habit of smoking<\/p>\n no fears for them of early croaking;<\/p>\n <\/p>\n no one they knew had succumbed, room filling<\/p>\n with smoke as if in a bar, the thrilling<\/p>\n lift of nicotine hitting a bulls-eye.<\/p>\n Later my sister couldn\u2019t quit, and tried<\/p>\n <\/p>\n over and over again, echoing<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a filthy habit,\u201d father\u2019s saying–<\/p>\n loud in her ear; she loved it so, delight<\/p>\n to watch smoke curl over porch, a kite,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n and the tiny stopping of time each break,<\/p>\n chores on hold, decisions, too, an intake<\/p>\n of smoke to settle her down for the night,<\/p>\n infusion of well-being, it\u2019s all right.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Laura Rodley \u00a9 2015<\/strong> Laura Rodley<\/strong> received a Pushcart Prize<\/strong> for her poem “Resurrection,”<\/strong><\/a> (originally in The New Verse News <\/em><\/strong>and\u00a0 now in Pushcart Edition XXXVII<\/strong>), and she\u00a0 has had work published in Best Indie Lit New England<\/em>, Massachusetts Review<\/em>, and Hunger Mountain<\/em> among others.\u00a0 She is editor and publisher<\/strong> of As You Write It, A<\/em><\/strong> Franklin County Anthology,<\/em><\/strong> a compilation of memoirs from seniors age 70 through 95.<\/p>\n Former co-curator of the Collected Poets Series<\/strong>, she teaches creative writing.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n More recent poems by Laura Rodley<\/strong> featured on <\/strong>The New Verse News<\/strong><\/em> include\u00a0 \u201cAfter the Bad News,\u201d<\/strong><\/a> which appeared January 23, 2015 and \u201cSnow Before Thanksgiving,<\/strong><\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/a> which appeared on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 2014.<\/p>\n Laura also writes features such as \u201cThe revival of green fields at Hettie Belle Farm,\u201d<\/strong><\/a> and \u201cThe Tucker Technique and the Equine Dentistry School Online,\u201d<\/strong><\/a> for Country Folks<\/em><\/strong>, the Weekly Farm Paper Highlighting Agriculture.<\/p>\n She has two chapbooks from Finishing Line Press<\/strong>: Rappelling Blue Light<\/em><\/strong><\/a> and Your Left Front Wheel Is Coming Loose<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Burning thanks<\/strong> to Laura Rodley<\/strong> for contributing this poem.<\/p>\n Do you have something you’d like to contribute? Send it to weighedwords <\/strong>at gmail.com<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve been trying to write a post on giving up something for Lent, but I am still working on it.\u00a0 Smoking is something I’ve given up a number of times. Here, Laura Rodley captures why it attracts, rather than repels. Smoking My father\u2019s brand Pall Malls, hands off steering wheel to light his, then […]<\/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":[127,12,205,2471,2473,13,2470,7,16,2472,1457,2474,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-7969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-contributors-2","8":"tag-ellen-wade-beals","9":"tag-laura-rodley","10":"tag-lent","11":"tag-new-verse-news","12":"tag-poetry","13":"tag-smoking","14":"tag-solace","15":"tag-solace-in-so-many-words","16":"tag-the-finishing-line-press","17":"tag-the-new-verse-news","18":"tag-tobacco","19":"tag-weighed-words","20":"entry","21":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7969","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=7969"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7987,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7969\/revisions\/7987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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