{"id":400,"date":"2017-03-09T17:18:59","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T01:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/?p=400"},"modified":"2017-03-09T17:22:46","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T01:22:46","slug":"a-display-of-mackerel-by-mark-doty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/?p=400","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;A Display of Mackerel&#8221; by Mark Doty"},"content":{"rendered":"<pre>They lie in parallel rows, \r\non ice, head to tail, \r\neach a foot of luminosity\r\n\r\nbarred with black bands, \r\nwhich divide the scales\u2019 \r\nradiant sections \r\n\r\nlike seams of lead \r\nin a Tiffany window. \r\nIridescent, watery \r\n\r\nprismatics: think abalone, \r\nthe wildly rainbowed \r\nmirror of a soapbubble sphere, \r\n\r\nthink sun on gasoline. \r\nSplendor, and splendor, \r\nand not a one in any way \r\n\r\ndistinguished from the other \r\n\u2014nothing about them \r\nof individuality. Instead \r\n\r\nthey\u2019re <em>all<\/em> exact expressions \r\nof the one soul, \r\neach a perfect fulfilment \r\n\r\nof heaven\u2019s template, \r\nmackerel essence. As if, \r\nafter a lifetime arriving \r\n\r\nat this enameling, the jeweler\u2019s \r\nmade uncountable examples, \r\neach as intricate \r\n\r\nin its oily fabulation \r\nas the one before \r\nSuppose we could iridesce, \r\n\r\nlike these, and lose ourselves \r\nentirely in the universe \r\nof shimmer\u2014would you want \r\n\r\nto be yourself only, \r\nunduplicatable, doomed \r\nto be lost? They\u2019d prefer, \r\n\r\nplainly, to be flashing participants, \r\nmultitudinous. Even now \r\nthey seem to be bolting \r\n\r\nforward, heedless of stasis. \r\nThey don\u2019t care they\u2019re dead \r\nand nearly frozen, \r\n\r\njust as, presumably, \r\nthey didn\u2019t care that they were living: \r\nall, all for all, \r\n\r\nthe rainbowed school \r\nand its acres of brilliant classrooms, \r\nin which no verb is singular, \r\n\r\nor every one is. How happy they seem, \r\neven on ice, to be together, selfless, \r\nwhich is the price of gleaming.\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #999999;\">From <em>Atlantis<\/em>, published by HarperCollins. Copyright \u00a9 1995 by Mark Doty.<\/span><\/pre>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=83slEB_k_O4\">Hear Mark Doty read this poem<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><em>What images, phrases or sounds stand out to you?\u00a0 What in this poem speaks to you today?<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They lie in parallel rows, on ice, head to tail, each a foot of luminosity barred with black bands, which divide the scales\u2019 radiant sections like seams of lead in a Tiffany window. Iridescent, watery prismatics: think abalone, the wildly rainbowed mirror of a soapbubble sphere, think sun on gasoline. Splendor, and splendor, and not &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/?p=400\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;A Display of Mackerel&#8221; by Mark Doty<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems-for-contemplation","category-prayer","category-spirituality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":408,"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions\/408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprovinceofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}