{"id":298,"date":"2017-03-03T08:44:14","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T13:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/?p=298"},"modified":"2017-03-03T08:59:33","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T13:59:33","slug":"poem-29-occasional-poem-by-jacqueline-woodson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/archives\/298","title":{"rendered":"Poem 29: Occasional Poem by Jacqueline Woodson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ms. Marcus says that an occasional poem is a poem
\nwritten about something
\nimportant
\nor special
\nthat’s gonna happen
\nor already did.
\nThink of a specific occasion<\/em>, she says\u2014and write about it<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Like what?! <\/em>Lamont asks.
\nHe’s all slouched down in his seat.
\nI don’t feel like writing about no occasion<\/em>.<\/p>\n

How about your birthday?<\/em> Ms. Marcus says.
\nWhat about it? Just a birthday. Comes in June and it ain’t<\/em>
\nJune<\/em>, Lamont says. As a matter of fact<\/em>,
\nhe says, it’s January and it’s snowing<\/em>.
\nThen his voice gets real low and he says
\nAnd when it’s January and all cold like this<\/em>
\nfeels like June’s a long, long ways away<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The whole class looks at Ms. Marcus.
\nSome of the kids are nodding.
\nOutside the sky looks like it’s made out of metal
\nand the cold, cold air is rattling the windowpanes
\nand coming underneath them too.<\/p>\n

I seen Lamont’s coat.
\nIt’s gray and the sleeves are too short.
\nIt’s down but it looks like a lot of the feathers fell out
\na long time ago.
\nMs. Marcus got a nice coat.
\nIt’s down too but real puffy so
\nmaybe when she’s inside it
\nshe can’t even tell January from June.<\/p>\n

Then write about January<\/em>, Ms. Marcus says, that’s<\/em>
\nan occasion<\/em>.
\nBut she looks a little bit sad when she says it
\nLike she’s sorry she ever brought the whole
\noccasional poem thing up.<\/p>\n

I was gonna write about Mama’s funeral
\nbut Lamont and Ms. Marcus going back and forth
\nzapped all the ideas from my head.<\/p>\n

I guess them arguing
\non a Tuesday in January’s an occasion
\nSo I guess this is an occasional poem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ms. Marcus says that an occasional poem is a poem written about something important or special that’s gonna happen or already did. Think of a specific occasion, she says\u2014and write about it. Like what?! Lamont asks. He’s all slouched down in his seat. I don’t feel like writing about no occasion. How about your birthday? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":303,"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions\/303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/scottbevill.net\/HVA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}