{"id":2046,"date":"2006-12-14T12:06:05","date_gmt":"2006-12-14T18:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/poetry\/crusoe-by-george-bilgere\/"},"modified":"2006-12-14T12:06:05","modified_gmt":"2006-12-14T18:06:05","slug":"crusoe-by-george-bilgere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/poetry\/crusoe-by-george-bilgere\/","title":{"rendered":"Crusoe, by George Bilgere"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media<\/a><\/p>\n

Poem: “Crusoe” by George Bilgere, from The Good Kiss. \u00a9 The University of Akron Press. <\/p>\n

Crusoe<\/p>\n

When you’ve been away from it long enough,
\nYou begin to forget the country
\nOf couples, with all its strange customs
\nAnd mysterious ways. Those two
\nOver there, for instance: late thirties,
\nAttractive and well-dressed, reading
\nAt the table, drinking some complicated
\nCoffee drink. They haven’t spoken
\nOr even looked at each other in thirty minutes,<\/p>\n

But the big toe of her right foot, naked
\nIn its sandal, sometimes grazes
\nThe naked ankle bone of his left foot,<\/p>\n

The faintest signal, a line thrown<\/p>\n

Between two vessels as they cruise
\nThrough this hour, this vacation, this life,
\nThrough the thick novels they’re reading,
\nHer toe saying to his ankle,<\/p>\n

Here’s to the whole improbable story
\nOf our meeting, of our life together
\nAnd the oceanic richness
\nOf our mingled narrative
\nWith its complex past, with its hurts
\nAnd secret jokes, its dark closets
\nAnd delightful sexual quirks,
\nIts occasional doldrums, its vast
\nFuture we have already peopled
\nWith children. How safe we are<\/p>\n

Compared to that man sitting across the room,
\nMarooned with his drink
\nAnd yellow notebook, trying to write
\nA way off his little island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media Poem: “Crusoe” by George Bilgere, from The Good Kiss. \u00a9 The University of Akron Press. Crusoe When you’ve been away from it long enough, You begin to forget the country Of couples, with all its strange customs And mysterious ways. Those two Over there, for instance: late thirties, … Continue reading Crusoe, by George Bilgere<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}