![\"alan-shapiro-headshot.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.beatrice.com\/alan-shapiro-headshot.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
and unavoidable, that’s how you have to see it,
\nAnnie said, that’s what it all comes down to,
\nwhat the Buddha teaches: separation,
\nsooner or later, from parents, spouses, children
\nmost of all, no matter what, so what else
\nis there to do except accept it, embrace it,
\ntrying to say as if saying it
\nitself could be protection or escape,<\/p>\nas if the foresight weren’t the perfect foresight
\nbetween the knife cut and the cry, the siren
\nand the blue lights in the rearview; the clarity—
\nsomething that than that never-to-be-
\nprepared-for sudden moment when the friend
\nyou’re running toward and calling to, and now
\nare touching on the shoulder to turn around,
\nhas turned around and is no one you know.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nFrom Old War<\/i><\/a>. This new collection also includes “Skateboarder<\/a>” (published in Blackbird<\/i>) and “Suspension Bridge<\/a>” (published in Slate<\/i>, with a recording of Shapiro’s reading). Last weekend, LA Times Book Review<\/i> editor David Ulin<\/b> called Old War<\/i> “the work of a poet who understands loss and longing<\/a> but also knows enough not to be subsumed by them, to appreciate the small illuminations they allow.”<\/p>\n
And be sure to read two earlier poems by Shapiro, “Sleet<\/a>” and The Haunting<\/a>,” at the Academy of American Poets website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
and unavoidable, that’s how you have to see it, Annie said, that’s what it all comes down to, what the Buddha teaches: separation, sooner or later, from parents, spouses, children most of all, no matter what, so what else is there to do except accept it, embrace it, trying to say as if saying it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beatrice.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}