{"id":1882,"date":"2010-10-07T18:49:03","date_gmt":"2010-10-08T01:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peakepro.com\/?p=1882"},"modified":"2013-01-09T20:36:26","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T20:36:26","slug":"reading-jonah-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robertpeake.com\/archives\/1882-reading-jonah-video.html","title":{"rendered":"Reading &#8220;Jonah&#8221; (Video)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I prepared my set for the <a href=\"\/archives\/1781-poetry-reading-at-the-beatrice-wood-center.html\">Weird Words reading at the Beatrice Wood Center<\/a> knowing two special friends would be in the audience. Although, as I say in the poem, I never knew <a href=\"http:\/\/jonahbenkert.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">their adult son<\/a>, having <a href=\"\/tag\/james-valentine-peake\">lost my own son<\/a> in his infancy, I feel a special connection with them.<\/p>\n<p>One day, this poem came to me. I was nervous at first to share it with them. But they told me that they read it over and over in private. On that night, I read it to them in person for the first time. Needless to say it was difficult to keep reading through strong feelings. Kevin Wallace, director of the Center, videotaped the evening, and captured this moment.<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">\n<iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I1BDFAp-TQ0?list=PLE79190F4D5A8205D\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><noframes><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=I1BDFAp-TQ0&list=PLE79190F4D5A8205D\">Click here to watch<\/a><\/noframes>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\nHere also is the text of the poem:<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Jonah<br \/>\n<em><span style=\"margin-left: 4em\">in memoriam J.B.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>It is large, they say, this life,<br \/>\nand however could a dove alight<br \/>\non the barnacle-armored hull of it<br \/>\nand not fear his own consumption?<\/p>\n<p>You live on through the love<br \/>\nyou left behind, in the eyes<br \/>\nof those who speak of you<br \/>\nat the distant whaling outposts.<\/p>\n<p>Although we never met, your story<br \/>\nis all-too understandable,<br \/>\nsince all of us are stowaways, deep<br \/>\nin the hold, tossed on a storm.<\/p>\n<p>How could you not have wanted more?<br \/>\nThe rafters creaking overhead,<br \/>\nonly a swinging lamp to guide you.<br \/>\nYou went out on deck alone.<\/p>\n<p>And when the world found you,<br \/>\nand rammed against your hull,<br \/>\nthey say you looked it in the eye<br \/>\nbefore it swallowed you whole.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I prepared my set for the Weird Words reading at the Beatrice Wood Center knowing two special friends would be in the audience. Although, as I say in the poem, I never knew their adult son, having lost my own son in his infancy, I feel a special connection with them. One day, this poem &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.robertpeake.com\/archives\/1882-reading-jonah-video.html\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Reading &#8220;Jonah&#8221; (Video)<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,3,1268,5,9,14],"tags":[90,373],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertpeake.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertpeake.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertpeake.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertpeake.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertpeake.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertpeake.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertpeake.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertpeake.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertpeake.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}